Last Friday Umphrey’s McGee shook the Calvin Theatre for over three hours with their signature brand of jammy, progressive rock. Surprisingly, the venue was almost empty at 8 p.m., when the show began. Opener The London Souls took the stage regardless of the vacant theater and blasted through an intense, 45 minute set. Their bluesy, riff-heavy, energized take on the classic rock power trio was impressive, and a small but appreciative crowd gathered around the stage with their heads bobbing and hips shaking.
The band was able to maintain a looseness and infectiousness within their highly technical songs. During the instrumental breaks the rhythm section held down tight, funky grooves while the guitarist let loose some fiery guitar solos. The London Souls certainly live up to their name, rocking their hearts out and giving an emotional, passionate performance.
When Umphrey’s McGee took the stage just after 9 p.m., the finally-full Calvin Theatre erupted. Umphrey’s brought the heat, screaming through an eclectic, fast-paced first set. As promised, there was insane variety; heavy metal breakdowns, spacey, Pink Floyd-inspired sequences, jungle drum grooves, reggae and white-boy funk, all combined to flow seamlessly into each other. The jazzy shuffle of “Example 1” highlighted just how tightly Umphrey’s can set a groove, while the broad, atmospheric “Great American” showcased the experimental capabilities of the band.
The second set only got weirder; the guitar riffs solos branched deeper out into space, the grooves got deeper and darker and the overall mood was much more intense than the light-hearted first set. This was most noticeable on the 20 minute long song “Ringo,” a cerebral journey through catapulting guitar licks, wild synths and powerful drumming.
The set was highlighted by two covers, The Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ In the Years.” Thunderous applause brought them back on for an encore, which featured the slow-building, electro-peppered “Den” and a reprise of “Nothing Too Fancy.”
The only aspects of the show which were slightly disappointing were the jam sections. Sometimes the group really rocked, showcased unpredictability and traveled to interesting places musically. Other times they fell flat into simple noodling and trading solos on different instruments. Umphrey’s McGee’s more technical, thought-out instrumental sections were vastly more interesting and offered more variety than their improvisations.
The heroes of the night were the guitarists, Jake Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss. Cinniger and Bayliss were in fine shredding form, energizing Umphrey’s performance whenever they took a solo. Both guitarists combined their powers for some fantastic harmonized guitar licks that kept the band afloat whenever they started to wander off.
Umphrey’s highly coordinated light show is a large part of their live experience. Spastic, swiftly-changing and wildly colorful, the lights are half the fun of seeing the band live. They would turn mellow greens and blues when the band entered a slower, more methodic section of music and would shoot all over the place with bright reds, yellows and pinks when the band was at a highly-involved section.
Regardless of what happened on stage, the crowd always went nuts. Everyone was shoved up to the front of the house, dancing and grooving to the music and tossing balloons in the air. It was an extremely happy, ecstatic atmosphere that any fan of the genre could appreciate. Exhilarating music and great fans combine for a unique musical experience that can’t be found anywhere else.
Ryan Kaplan can be reached at [email protected].
