Go See Mo Lowda & The Humble, They’ll Rock, Then Sleep Over

Edited by Jeff Marsala

After filling rooms in Asbury Park and Boston, and a sell out at Mercury Lounge in New York City this weekend with Stop Light Observations, Philly rock band Mo Lowda & The Humble set the stage for a rollicking 40+ day US tour. To get a little background on the group, and what concert-lovers can look forward to at their shows, I chatted with lead vocalist and guitarist Jordan Caiola on a recent day off.

Alternative rock with some surf and soul going on.

Listening to Mo Lowda, you get passionate vocals on top of a contemporary foundation, fast licks lead into uplifting harmonies into soulful grooves. Their eclectic, mobile soundscape rubs shoulders with sounds reminiscent of Dr. Dog, J Roddy Walson, Kings of Leon, Cold War Kids and Modest Mouse.

Caiola told us that some of his earliest influences include Van Morrison and Motown, while drummer Shane Woods digs Black Sabbath and John Bonham, and bassist Jeff Lucci is into avant garde music and bands like Radiohead. Summing it all up, Caiola said, “We’re alternative rock with some surf and soul going on.”

Mo Lowda & The Humble’s Biggest Tour To Date

“I think the longest we’ve been out before this, was about two weeks all at a time,” Caiola said without concern. The band has a go-with-the-flow attitude, traveling the three of them in a van named The Slug, crashing with friends and fans wherever they go.

“As far as going to these towns we’ve never been to, we’ll say from stage that we need some place to stay tonight. We’ve done that so many times, where we just kind of wing it and people are so nice and welcoming,” Caiola said when we asked him about the band’s lodging plans.

This will be their greatest couch-hopping test to date, looking at shows almost every night for the next month, with scattered gigs after running through July. They’ll hit a number of tried-and-true venues along the way including DC9(Washington DC), Cat’s Cradle (Carrboro NC), and Mercury Lounge (New York). Caiola is particularly excited about Nashville and Atlanta, two places the band has had a lot of fun in the past. Mo Lowda & The Humble also have a couple music festivals on the docket, including Burning Can in Longmont, Colorado on June 3rd.

Why You Should Get Down

These guys started off playing graduation parties in high school, then stayed together throughout college at Temple, playing campus open mics and any venue in town they could. After hustling gigs for two years, they were finally able to cut a record and haven’t stopped since.

Knowing that these are three guys totally committed to playing great shows is part of it, but it’s also how they do it. Caiola told us, “We like to try out the new stuff on live audiences, but also I know when I go to a show to see a band I like, I like to see the classics.” In Mo Lowda’s case, that would be a song like “Curse The Weather,” which has 1.5 million hits on Spotify.
So, you can hear what’s gotten them popular, and some new jams that could land on the next big album. If you’re in any of the cities on this route, you can step into what’ll likely be a festive and intimate world of original jams played by some friendly dudes who may ask to crash on your couch.