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Cinninger & Stasik :: 11.19 :: NYC |
Is that more "Rocky?" Cheeky bastards. One could've had the feeling they might play "Final Countdown," but fortunately the telltale stick clicks opened Set Two with "All in Time." Upbeat, high-energy, rockin', and fun, the tune is one of Umphrey's oldest and best. Kicking off the first few verses followed by a trademark Cinninger/Bayliss guitar-layering sent the antsy crowd ballistic. Lately, Farag struts more steel drum work in the drum break before the vocal return. This time, he traded brutal sections of eight and four bars with Myers. Cinninger ripped some nasty licks during the peaceful bridge, sounding like two sets of hands playing his axe, one on the high register and the other set on the low. Jumping right back into the powerful fray, Bayliss and Cinninger took off with some wah-wah drenched chords back and forth to each other. The trade-off grew and grew into the signature descent that usually marks the end of the song, but rather than end it, the guitarists traded bars as the band raised and lowered the energy like waves. The band quieted, and the guitars sounded like wailing dolphins. While Cummins and Stasik pounded their notes, Myers and Farag built their drum parts, and Cinninger and Bayliss lashed out a severe chord layer, the band climaxed again. This time it had the Spinal Tap joke ending.
Kris Myers :: 11.19 :: NYC |
A return to the evil was due with the pounding of "Robot World," the opening of which has more grind with Cummins's Moog. As the band cycled in and out of the theme, Myers pulled a swath of mechanized garbage can sounds out of his digital pads, beckoning Cummins to answer with growls from the Moog. The mix was made more devilish with hard, dirty riffs from Cinninger and echo background from Bayliss. The drums went into a thrashing machine gun pattern, with howls and shrieks coming from every instruments, all held down by delicate bell-hits by Farag and crafty slapping by Stasik. With the potential for random changes, the band can still let something evil develop without rushing. Quarter-notes on the bass drum and a swift change to a friendlier tone introduced the "Norwegian Wood Jam." This bit has the tribal folk feeling of earlier Santana but with more of a rock sense. Myers has been all about the dance beats recently and added just that to the jam. Fancy fingers by Cummins soon preceded a breakdown to a half-tempo, which Stasik swiftly filled with the opening riff to "Walletsworth," another fine example of soul from the White Suburban Midwest Guy. It's tough to know the heartfelt chorus is coming in this song, with the beefy bass and drums filling up the verse, warming it all for the guitar to rip once the words are done. The thick parts of their songs seem to get thicker with every show. Ahh, but then nearly all other instruments faded to just the piano for Bayliss to sing the sweet ending. With a set and a half down, it was time to make fun of Bayliss's new haircut.
"I want to give Brendan a little acknowledgement," said Cummins. "The first guy in the band with enough balls to grow a mullet. Give him a big hand."
Cinninger actually had the first mullet back as a motocross nut in Niles, MI, and had some thoughts.
"It's not a mullet," said Cinninger. "It's like hair horns."
"Did you hear?" asked Cummins. "Brendan's going to be joining Paul McCartney's band next year. Wings is getting back together."
"Ha, that was actually pretty good," quipped Cinninger.
Joel Cummins :: 11.19 :: NYC |
A couple of crowd-aided "Fuck You's" back and forth, and it was high time for something I have personally waited for since New Orleans Jazz Fest. After Umphrey's late night set at Tipitina's, at a sunny 7:30 a.m., Myers assured me the band would finally be playing one or two King Crimson covers. It takes nothing short of sheer titanium and platinum alloy balls to play a Crimson song, which is why few others besides Les Claypool and his cohorts even attempt to pull it off. With a surging rip of every instrument, the band began "Red." At last! Glorious! The tune was played near note for note, but it didn't sound like some cheap Fripp knockoff. It was still Umphrey's McGee. The calm afterward was broken slightly by a funky bass and keys-laden "In the Kitchen." Cummins and Stasik, two players in the band on the laid-back side, have stepped forward in a big way over the past year, and this tune was a prime example. Stasik led the way during the jam section with fat low-end slaps and plucks on the bass. The jam grew into a tight groove that hit hard on the downbeats to return to the head. "Believe the Lie" would close the set with a pace that felt like we were hit with a wall of static electricity. The notes on all the instruments were quick, with little ring, and hit hard. Despite the tempo, the song has lightness to it and gets to be intense as hell. The band seemed real comfortable with this workout of a tune. The song's second half is really a long, speedy workout showing Umphrey's ability to raise and sustain intensity over a long stretch, while leaving room to add. The fury rose and maintained until Bayliss and Cinninger's honest singing came in to shut it all down.
Cinninger & Lewis :: 11.19 :: NYC |
"He's kind of like an honorary band member," said Bayliss of Huey Lewis, as he came out with his harmonica for the encore. Sure enough, the delicate folk melody was "The Weight." It sounds crazy as hell, but Lewis's voice, with the harmonies from Bayliss, Cinninger, and Cummins, sounded rich and full and real on this tune, played by a band and a singer who have all been criticized for having no soul. Lewis ran through a simple harmonica solo layered over the tune. After the swaying subsided, Lewis grabbed the string players and ran them through a blues progression in a huddle. The circle broke, and a slinky shuffle-blues jam began with Lewis singing away. Solos were tossed around as the infectious groove got the crowd moving. Cool as it was to hear Umphrey's do something very unlike their usual shtick, the blues strut left a little something to be desired. I had a brief moment of, "Nah, that can't be it!" The Notre Dame fight song pumped through the PA, and many people headed for the doors. But something seemed strange, so your humble narrator and cohorts held our ground, and sure enough they returned.
Cinninger, Lewis, Stasik :: 11.19 :: NYC |
Myers sat and played along to the marching band music. Off-beat piano strikes, cymbal crashes, steal drum hits, and guitar-shredding morphed into "Hurt Bird Bath," one of the epic compositions with many connected parts and little in the way of transitions. This is the essence of Umphrey's McGee. Fierce energy, total disregard for the boundaries put up by jam-scene expectations (yes, they exist) to simply make things danceable and easy to hear, and all done with mad fun. At the Columbia, MO show, the band went into a "Stewart" that had a hard drumming feel of Santana songs like "Jingo." The similar theme came back before the layered guitar duel over keyboard washes, frantic bass work and pounding drums that mark the midsection of the song. The evil ascended with grating guitar riffs over Moog undulations keeping that Santana rhythm, and the drums and bass kept things steady for the shredding to ensue. Bayliss and Cinninger took off into devil land. The whole band pulled back together and rose like an electrical storm through the last section of the tune. With a Happy Thanksgiving wish, the band vamped out the end of a long tour, not just for them but for your narrator and friends who followed the band from Grand Rapids all the way to New York City, only to head back to the Midwest shortly thereafter. This tour showed the full range of what Umphrey's McGee could do as a psychotic, original band, and as a bunch of sneaky pranksters. The key will be maintaining both sides of that balance. Bayliss said as he walked off, "If you're driving home, drive safely." Only eleven hundred miles or so to go.
JamBase | NYC
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