Umphrey's McGee

[progdirjim(Admin)]

Saw Umphrey's McGee tonight at the local House Of Blues - I like being able to walk there, which is easy in my current living situation.

Very talented band. Six musicians - drums, percussion, bass, 2 guitars and keys. Primarily a jam band, kind of sound like Phish but better and higher music/vox ratio (my opinion)

Interesting thing to me: all six are excellent musicians. But I noticed pretty quickly, and confirmed throughout the show that the two primary guys are guitarist 1 and drummer. I should say that both guitarists are quite talented; the one I'm calling guitarist 2 just didn't have quite the range and leadership the other did. I found on the band's web site that the drummer joined the band in 2003; but he was impressive. Perhaps the most impressive drummer I've ever seen who did 90% of his work on bass drum, snare, hi-hat and cymbals. He just added so much definition, punch, dynamics, and rhythmic feel to the music. Guitarist 1 seemed to cue the leads and changes while they were jamming, and just consisted of so much of the band's sound. Guitarist 2 - I've seen good bands with one guitarist worse than him. Lots of arpeggios and leads, and primary vocalist. Bass player laid down a fluid sounding groove (at first listen I thought he played fretless, but he didn't- but it was a 5 string bass). Keyboard player had nice fills and leads, but almost seemed a session player (though a great one). Percussionist was good, and an excellent conga player for a white boy (being a bad conga player, I think I know about which I speak), and he added a fair amount to the music, but wasn't as critical to the sound as the drummer. None of this shoud be interpreted as slams on bass, keys, guitar 2 or percussionist - as I said earlier, all are quite talented.

Strange crowd- lots of hippies searching for the next Grateful Dead. Please stop doing acid and that stupid hand dancing crap.

Sound was excellent, and they played a 90 minute set, took a 15 minute break, and started another set. I left at about the halfway point of the second set (assuming it would be 90 minutes) due to work tomorrow, and since I had a few beers, wanted to get them out of my system before I went to bed.

I bought their latest album, and based on listening to it now, will be adding it to the moon soon...

cheers

[moses]

I introduced a friend of mine to Phish a while back and he said, "sounds like what the Grateful Dead would do if they stopped touring long enough to practice." Umphrey's McGee is a step beyond Phish at their best, IMHO. The arrangements in the songs are much more complex than most of what Phish accomplished.

That said, there's some stuff on Phish's Junta and Rift that are just great in a "how'd they pull that off?" sort of way.

[Rick and Roll]

Originally Posted by progdirjim

Saw Umphrey's McGee tonight at the local House Of Blues - I like being able to walk there, which is easy in my current living situation.

Very talented band. Six musicians - drums, percussion, bass, 2 guitars and keys. Primarily a jam band, kind of sound like Phish but better and higher music/vox ratio (my opinion)

Interesting thing to me: all six are excellent musicians. But I noticed pretty quickly, and confirmed throughout the show that the two primary guys are guitarist 1 and drummer. I should say that both guitarists are quite talented; the one I'm calling guitarist 2 just didn't have quite the range and leadership the other did. I found on the band's web site that the drummer joined the band in 2003; but he was impressive. Perhaps the most impressive drummer I've ever seen who did 90% of his work on bass drum, snare, hi-hat and cymbals. He just added so much definition, punch, dynamics, and rhythmic feel to the music. Guitarist 1 seemed to cue the leads and changes while they were jamming, and just consisted of so much of the band's sound. Guitarist 2 - I've seen good bands with one guitarist worse than him. Lots of arpeggios and leads, and primary vocalist. Bass player laid down a fluid sounding groove (at first listen I thought he played fretless, but he didn't- but it was a 5 string bass). Keyboard player had nice fills and leads, but almost seemed a session player (though a great one). Percussionist was good, and an excellent conga player for a white boy (being a bad conga player, I think I know about which I speak), and he added a fair amount to the music, but wasn't as critical to the sound as the drummer. None of this shoud be interpreted as slams on bass, keys, guitar 2 or percussionist - as I said earlier, all are quite talented.

Strange crowd- lots of hippies searching for the next Grateful Dead. Please stop doing acid and that stupid hand dancing crap.

Sound was excellent, and they played a 90 minute set, took a 15 minute break, and started another set. I left at about the halfway point of the second set (assuming it would be 90 minutes) due to work tomorrow, and since I had a few beers, wanted to get them out of my system before I went to bed.

I bought their latest album, and based on listening to it now, will be adding it to the moon soon...

cheers

I got to see them for the first time on February 20. Almost the same as Jim, I stayed midway through the second set. I agree totally with the assessment of the drummer and guitarists...it's easy to miss what the vocalist/guitarist is doing, since the other guitarist handles the big leads.

The keyboardist was awesome. Two things in my opinion made him less of a vibrant presence live. First, he plays facing the band, and it was hard to see what he was doing, with his fortification of keyboards. Second, he did a lot of piano, and in a live setting that gets missed. Fortunately, he played the first lead of the night so he wasn't forgotten.

My assessment of the crowd was much different. The place was packed, but was predominately well-heeled hippies, and couples. Nowadays, it's a bit easier for a person outside the norm to hold a regular job and make money. Almost yuppified, I'd say. Most were drinking National Bohemian (Natty Boh) which is really boring local ale popular once in the 50's and 60's (but consumed now by the youth bent on being "retro"). Very easygoing crowd.

Moses turned me on to them..their studio output isn't representative of their live sound, but I'm beginning to think it's not because of a lack of ability studio, but because they're so f'ing good live.

Don't be fooled that they're a jam band in sound...they are truly outstanding musicians that have a fun time and I have to say it was in the top 10% of live acts I've seen. I'm not a Phish fan, so I kind of resist that label. These guys are different. Check out the website..they post their sets almost immediately and have tons of songs to download.

Thanks for doing the review, Jim, it made me take the time to do mine.