Well, I've finished tallying all the votes for this years "Best of moe. 1998" poll. Just so you all know how the votes were tallied for the "favorite shows" categories I will explain. You were all asked to pick your top five shows either attended or heard on tape and to rank them in the order of your favorite.

The Scoring
If a show received a first place ranking it received five points, a second place ranking received four points, a third place ranking received three points, a fourth place ranking received two points, and a fifth place ranking received one point. After everyone cast all their votes these points were totaled up and then that number was multiplied by the total number of votes cast for that show. I did this so that a show like 07.18.98 (Carbondale) or the Nantucket run, for example, that didn't have many in attendance but did receive numerous first and second place votes, wouldn't necessarily get a higher fan rating then a show that got lots of votes in the number four and five slot because a lot of people attended it. It sort of evened things out a little. The total points for each show is listed in parenthesis next to the show date. In the case of a tie between two shows I would first go back and look at the total number of votes that a show got, if one was higher it would get a higher rating. If it remained tied it had to go down as a tie. This didn't happen too often.

For what it's worth, I would put more value on the "Top 10 (and Honorable Mentions) favorite moe. shows heard on tape by MOE-Ler's" then the top shows attended. The shows on tape are an encompassing look at the year because anyone could have checked them out. For the attended shows it really mattered what area you were from and some shows were just more popular. One other case was the Carbondale show from 07.18.98, it appears as #5 on the favorite shows attended list but there were very few people there and not many listers, the reason it still appears on this list is because nearly everyone that was there ranked it number one. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is take that sort of stuff into consideration when viewing. Here's the final tallies...

**Top 10 favorite moe. shows attended by MOE-Lers**

#1 06.20.98 (200) - Gathering Of The Vibes Festival, Plattsburgh, NY
#2 04.16.98 (144) - Wetlands Preserve, New York, NY
#3 10.31.98 (140) - Stanley Theater, Utica, NY
#4 11.13.98 (126) - The Vic Theater, Chicago, IL
#5 07.18.98 (120) - Copper Dragon, Carbondale, IL
#6 05.08.98 (72) - Captain Trips Rainforest Preserve, Utica, NY
#7 11.06.98 (68) - Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY
#8 06.13.98 (60) - Rec Room, Towson, MD
o 07.19.98 (60) - Mississippi Nights, St. Louis, MO
#10 11.05.98 (56) - Somerville Theater, Somerville, MA

**Top 5 Honorable Mentions favorite moe. shows attended by MOE-Lers**

#1 09.18.98 (52) - Warfield Theater, San Francisco, CA
#2 10.24.98 (45) - Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA
#3 06.21.98 (40) - Gathering Of The Vibes Festival, Plattsburgh, NY
#4 10.01.98 (39) - The Blue Note, Columbia, MO
#5 09.16.98 (36) - Palookaville, Santa Cruz, CA

**Top 10 favorite moe. shows heard on tape by MOE-Lers**

#1 07.18.98 (702) - Copper Dragon, Carbondale, IL
#2 07.10.98 (480) - Ludlow's, Columbus, OH
#3 04.16.98 (240) - Wetlands Preserve, New York, NY
#4 07.11.98 (147) - 7th House, Pontiac, MI
#5 10.09.98 (144) - 9:30 Club, Washington, DC
#6 05.08.98 (126) - Captain Trips Rainforest Preserve, Utica, NY
#7 10.24.98 (115) - Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA
#8 10.01.98 (112) - The Blue Note, Columbia, MO
#9 06.09.98 (90) - The Muse, Nantucket, MA
#10 11.05.98 (70) - Somerville Theater, Somerville, MA

**Top 5 Honorable Mentions favorite moe. shows heard on tape by MOE-Lers**

#1 10.29.98 (64) - Metropol, Pittsburgh, PA
#2 10.31.98 (60) - Stanley Theater, Utica, NY
#3 07.19.98 (52) - Mississippi Nights, St. Louis, MO
#4 09.15.98 (45) - Bojangles, Sacramento, CA
#5 07.14.98 (27) - Bogart's Cincinnati, OH

Just a quick note about the rest of these categories. I didn't use the same method of tabulation as above with the shows. There weren't as many votes for the same version of a specific song so it would have been pointless. These are all the individual songs that received more then one vote. I think it's really cool how many different versions of songs got votes, it really proves that everyone has different highlights from the whole year. Pretty neat. Same thing with the rest of the categories below...

**Top Version of a moe. song in 1998**

#1 Meat - 09.15.98 (5) - Bojangles, Sacramento, CA
#2 Rebubula - 07.18.98 (2) - Copper Dragon, Carbondale, IL
o Rebubula - 11.04.98 (2) - Portsmouth Music Hall, Portsmouth, NH
o Sensory Deprivation Bank - 10.31.98 (2) - Stanley Theater, Utica, NY

**Top segue performed by moe. in 1998**

#1 Meat > Buster - 04.16.98 (9) - Wetlands Preserve, New York, NY
#2 Yodelittle > Rebubula > I Know You Rider - 07.18.98 (4) - Copper Dragon, Carbondale, IL
#3 Moth > Big World > Brent Black > Drums > Bass Solo > Brent Black - 06.12.98 (3) - Electric Factory, Philadelphia, PA
#4 Meat > Head - 07.16.98 (2) - The Rave, Eagle Auditorium, Milwaukee, WI
o Mexico > Seat Of My Pants > Sensory Deprivation Bank > Four > Rebubula - 06.09.98 (2) - The Muse, Nantucket, MA
o Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment > Seat Of My Pants - 05.08.98 (2) - Captain Trips Rainforest Preserve, Utica, NY

**Best new moe. song debuted in 1998**

The Faker

**Best Guest in 1998**

#1 Smokin' Joe: Sensory Deprivation Bank - 10.31.98 (7) - Stanley Theater, Utica, NY
#2 Gibb Droll Band: Bring You Down > moe./Gibb Droll Band Jam > Bring You Down - 10.24.98 (5) - Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA
#3 Ted Marotta & Max Verna (of OSP): Bring You Down - 10.01.98 (4) - The Blue Note, Columbia, MO
o Strangefolk: The entire moe.ther Folkers set - 06.13.98 (4) - Rec Room, Towson, MD
#4 Jeff Petit, Andrew Belevia, & Dave Fitzhugh (of Yolk): Spaz Medicine - 04.16.98 (3) - Wetlands Preserve, New York, NY

**Most Improved band or crew member in 1998**

Ragan

**Top moe. songs wanted back for 1999**

#1 Awesome Gary
#2 Ghost Of A Child
#3 Guitar
#4 Long Island Girls Rule
#5 Ugly American

Others that received votes in this category: Defrost, Funky Reuben, The Internet Tune, Don't Fuck With Flo, Four, Inca Roads, Me And Pat And Bill And You, Messina, Po' Sadie, Roll, That Coffee Tune, and That Country Tune.