Umphreys Honors Cocker & Mirro On New Years In Atlanta

Umphrey’s McGee continued a five-night New Year’s Run at The Tabernacle in Atlanta on Wednesday night with a three-set New Year’s Eve show filled with bust outs, debuts and guest appearances.

[Photo via @UmphreysMcGee]

The sextet came out strong with a “Nothing Too Fancy” > “All In Time” > “Cut The Cable” sequence leading into “Mad Love” and “In The Kitchen.” Umphrey’s continued a tradition of being joined by the Mad Dog and His Filthy Little Secret horn section for an original debut on New Year’s Eve by unveiling “Piranhas.” The horns stayed out for the evening’s first cover debut -“Feelin’ Alright” dedicated to Joe Cocker. Mike “Mad Dog” Mavridoglou and his horn section emerged with Umphrey’s to start the second set with “Puppet String” into the debut cover of Herbie Hancock’s “Hang Up Your Hang Ups.” Later in the set, UM busted out their cover of The Kinks’ “Black Messiah” for the first time since New Year’s 07 -a span of 779 shows. The horns helped out on “Black Messiah” as they did on the even bigger bust out that followed -“Last Call.” The band dedicated “Last Call,” which had been shelved since drummer Mike Mirro left Umphrey’s in 2002, to their former drummer (who passed away in January). “Bright Lights, Big City” ended the second set.

Umphrey’s and the horns opened the third and final set with “Bad Friday,” which they had debuted exactly one year prior. A New Year’s countdown and balloon drop was followed by the traditional “Auld Lang Syne.” Mad Dog and the horns stayed out for a cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman” as well as the original “Ringo.” The end of the final set included the endings of both “Puppet String” and “All In Time” as well as “Plunger,” “No Diablo” and “The Linear.” The horns came back out for an encore of “Similar Skin” and the James Brown classic “Living In America.”

Stream an audience recording by taper NSL below or download via Archive.org:

Set One: Nothing Too Fancy > All In Time > Cut the Cable, Mad Love, In The Kitchen, Piranhas[1], Feelin’ Alright[2]

Set Two: Puppet String[3] -> Hang Up Your Hang Ups[4], August, 1348[5] > Day Nurse > Nothing Too Fancy, Black Messiah[3], Last Call[3], Bright Lights, Big City

Set Three: Bad Friday[6] > Auld Lang Syne[3], Honky Tonk Women[3], Ringo[3], Plunger > Puppet String, No Diablo, The Linear > All In Time

Encore: Similar Skin[3], Living In America[7]

[1] debut, original; with Mad Dog and His Filthy Little Secret horns
[2] debut, Traffic/Joe Cocker; with Mad Dog and His Filthy Little Secret horns
[3] with Mad Dog and His Filthy Little Secret horns
[4] debut, Herbie Hancock; with Mad Dog and His Filthy Little Secret horns
[5] unfinished
[6] with Mad Dog and His Filthy Little Secret horns; unfinished
[7] debut, James Brown; with Mad Dog and His Filthy Little Secret horns

Notes:
Feelin’ Alright played for Joe Cocker
Last Call played for Mike Mirro
with (Don’t Fear) The Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult) tease before Plunger
last Black Messiah 12.31.2007 (779 shows)
last Last Call 12.14.2002 (1,471 shows)

[Setlist via All Things Umphreys]