Have you ever wanted to hear the upbeat, head-bobbing aspects of electronic music combined with brain-melting guitar leads? How about jazzy rock tinged with heavy metal breakdowns, or extremely technical prog that fuses with the jam-heavy tendencies of Phish? This Friday, Umphrey’s McGee will bring all of that to the Calvin Theatre in Northampton.
Umphrey’s McGee is a Chicago jam band formed in 1997 at the University of Notre Dame by Brendan Bayliss (guitar/vocals), Ryan Stasik (bass), Joel Cummins (keyboards) and Mike Mirro (drums). The band started by playing Phish and Grateful Dead covers, and soon after began crafting their own experimental jam rock, releasing their debut album “Greatest Hits Vol. !!!” in 1998.
With the addition of guitarist Jake Cinninger and Kris Myers to replace Mirro on the drums in the early 2000s, Umphrey’s 2004 “Anchor Drops” earned the band a late-night slot at that year’s Bonnaroo music festival, one of the largest music festivals in the U.S.
As most fans of the band (and the jam genre in general) will tell you, the only real way to hear Umphrey’s is to see them live. The group has been on the road since its inception and only ever stops for a few weeks to rest before taking on another long set of tour dates.
From the set lists to the jams, no live show is the same, so recordings of their live shows have become highly valued items for fans. Much like the taping scene that is so inherent to the communities surrounding the Grateful Dead and Phish, Umphrey’s fans swap audience recordings in the Live Music Archive at archive.org. In addition, the band offers soundboard-quality recordings of all of their shows for purchase on their website.
The summer music festival scene has been very generous to Umphrey’s. For the past six years, the band has headlined the Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe, IL, and has played at almost every major U.S. music festival, from Bonnaroo and Hangout to Mountain Jam, Wakarusa and Gathering of the Vibes. They are known for blowing right past their scheduled set time and raging into the wee hours of the morning, culminating in epic three to four-hour performances.
New York City rock trio The London Souls will be opening for Umphrey’s McGee this Friday, Oct. 18. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m.. Tickets are still available for $23.50.
Ryan Kaplan can be reached at [email protected].
