Umphreys McGee Welcomes Guests Galore On Jam Cruise

While weather put a stop to Umphrey’s McGee’s scheduled Pool Deck Stage set aboard Jam Cruise on Friday night, the band and event organizers made it up to cruisers by adding a second set in the theater on Saturday’s last day of the cruise. The band welcomed a slew of special guests for a performance those in attendance won’t soon forget.

[Photo by Chad Smith via Umphrey’s Facebook]

Umphrey’s kicked off the first of two sets with a “Puppet String” > “The Linear” -> “Puppet String” segment and continued with the title track of 2014’s Similar Skin. The “Ringo” that followed saw the first guest spot of the evening as The String Cheese Incident percussionist Jason Hann and fellow percussionist Guarav Malhotra helped out. After “No Diablo,” guitarist Brendan Bayliss called Jennifer Hartswick his favorite person on the boat and welcomed her out to sing “Ain’t No Sunshine,” a song she first sang with the band nearly a decade ago. Snarky Puppy keyboardist Cory Henry also helped out on the Bill Withers’ cover as well as the “Bad Friday” that closed out the set.

After a set break, Umphrey’s came out with a blazing “Educated Guess” to start Set Two before a parade of guests that included Skerik on “40’s Theme,” Ivan Neville on a jam out of “Plunger” and Snarky Puppy percussionist Nate Werth on “Ocean Billy.” The collaborations continued with Snarky’s drummer Robert ‘Sput’ Searight replaced Kris Myers for “Tribute To The Spinal Shaft” and Disco Biscuits bassist Marc Brownstein subbed in for Ryan Stasik on a phenomenal “In The Kitchen.” UM finished off Set Two with a cover of Paul McCartney’s “Live And Let Die.” For the encore, the Chicagoans offered a dance party in the form of “Wappy Sprayberry” > “1348,” before bringing out Mike Dillon, Hann, Malhotra, Robert Walter and Carly Meyers for an insane “It’s About That Time.”

A crispy audience recording of Umphrey’s show has already been posted on Archive.org by taper Joel of Jamlive.org:

An official soundboard recording is available via UMLive.

Setlist

Set One: Puppet String > The Linear -> Puppet String, Similar Skin, Ringo[1] > No Diablo, Ain’t No Sunshine[2], Bad Friday[3]

Set Two: Educated Guess, 40’s Theme[4], Plunger[5] > Ocean Billy[6], Tribute to the Spinal Shaft[7] > In The Kitchen[8], Live and Let Die

Encore: Wappy Sprayberry > 1348
2nd Encore: It’s About That Time[9]

[1] with Jason Hann and Guarav Malhotra on percussion
[2] with Jen Hartswick on vocals and Cory Henry on keys
[3] with Cory Henry on keys
[4] with Skerik on saxophone; with California Love (2Pac) jam
[5] with Ivan Neville on keys
[6] with Nate Werth on percussion
[7] with Robert ‘Sput’ Searight replacing Kris on drums; with Regulate (Warren G) jam
[8] with Marc Brownstein replacing Ryan on bass
[9] with Mike Dillon, Jason Hann, and Guarav Malhotra on percussion; Robert Walter on keys; and Carly Meyers on trombone

[Setlist via All Things Umphreys]