Umphrey’s McGee Heats Up Soundcheck Studios To Close JamBase’s 25th Anniversary Celebration

Last night Umphrey’s McGee took the stage for their debut performance at Soundcheck Studios, a 500 capacity music venue in Pembroke, Massachusetts that has seen its fair share of jambands make their way through its doors over the past four years since it opened in 2019. The band’s Sunday show capped off four nights of music in the Northeast as UM continues to perform around the country in celebration of 25 years as a band and also served as the finale to JamBase’s 25th Anniversary Quadranscentennial Silver Jubilee festivities that had seen three prior nights of music in the Boston area with the likes of BT ALC Big Band, Club d’Elf, Holly Bowling, Ron Artis and the Jennifer Hartswick Band.

Umphrey’s McGee and JamBase have deep ties extending back decades and the pairing on Sunday was far from a random occurrence. JamBase co-founder Andy Gadiel expanded on this, saying “JamBase and Umphrey’s McGee have had a symbiotic relationship from the start where they were as much a supporter of us as we were of them. Their manager, Vince Iwinski, hired us for every show.” Umphrey’s McGee would promote JamBase and JamBase would do the same for the band with Gadiel adding that Umphrey’s “was pretty fundamental in terms of early JamBase relationships in the music business and just helping us get started as much as we helped them. So it’s been that way from sleeping on floors together to rocking out at the biggest festivals together.”

The shows this weekend and for the next few weeks for Umphrey’s McGee have been atypical to say the least, with drummer Kris Myers not able to play due to recovering from rotator cuff surgery. In typical “The Show Must Go On” fashion, various drummers were tapped to fill in for Kris with Widespread Panic‘s Duane Trucks joining for the opening weekend of the band’s late-summer run of shows. Jason Bonham, Goose’s Ben Atkind, and Big Gigantic’s Jeremy Salken will help fill in for the remainder of 2023. In addition to the guest drummers, Umphrey’s guitarist Jake Cinninger and percussionist Andy Farag have sat in on drums early in each first set, transforming the usual six member act into a special quintet.

“Slacker” kicked off the first set on Sunday with Jake taking a turn on drums. The song’s improvisation gave Ryan Stasik an immediate opportunity in the spotlight on bass before Brendan Bayliss took over on guitar and the jam picked up speed before returning home to the core song structure. “Tribute to the Spinal Shaft” picked up the pace with Jake staying on drums and ending with just Joel Cummins on keys leading to a smooth transition into “Orfeo.” At the end of “Spinal Shaft” into the beginning of “Orfeo,” Brendan experienced some equipment issues (his pedal wasn’t working) until stage manager Robbie Williams came to the rescue, replacing Brendan’s gear and allowing him to resume playing guitar normally. In a bit of unintentional foreshadowing for what would transpire later in the evening, Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” was teased after “Orfeo” concluded.

“Much Obliged” followed with Jake switching from drums to guitar and Andy moving from percussion over to drums. The first four songs of the night gave the crowd a classic start to the show with the “newest” song being “Spinal Shaft,” clocking in at 22 years and “Orfeo” being as old as possible in regards to the Umphrey’s McGee repertoire having debuted at the band’s first show on January 21, 1998 at Bridget McGuire’s Filling Station in South Bend, Indiana — an appropriate song choice for a night with an added focus on the band’s 25 years. Andy filled in on drums for “Push and Pull” and “Push the Pig” before Duane finally joined the band for the remainder of the show with the rest of the musicians on stage all back with their normal instruments.

An added bonus for fans in attendance during the opening four shows of this young tour has been bustouts: the opening show of the weekend at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey on Thursday featured only the eighth rendition of “Ophelia” — and first in 485 shows — in remembrance of the recent passing of The Band guitarist Robbie Robertson. The first cover of Pink Floyd’s “Young Lust” in four years would show up on Friday at Pier Six Pavilion in Baltimore and Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” returned the night before the Soundcheck Studios show for the first time since 2013 and a nearly 800 show absence. Sunday night would continue the trend with the penultimate song of the first set: ZZ Top’s “Cheap Sunglasses” — an infrequently played cover that showed no signs of rust from having been on the shelf for over two years. The first set would conclude with “Small Strides” off Umphrey’s McGee’s most recent album Asking For A Friend. Released in 2022, “Strides” served as a perfect upbeat coda to the set, giving a full view of the band’s catalog from 1998 to present day.

Umphrey’s McGee dug deep back into the repertoire well to open the second set with “All In Time,” which was also debuted in 1998. This was the band’s first chance to really stretch out improvisationally for the evening. There were a few directions in the jamming with Jake immediately taking control leading to an excellent build before quieting down and segueing into “Wife Soup.” “Draconian” would follow with the band dipping into some past “Raw Stewage” for a song selection. Premiered at UMBowl VI at Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas in 2015, “Draconian” was a result of fans voting for some past improvisational highlights and the band then building new tunes like this that continue to be played in the song rotation years later. A fire alarm going off prompted the band to stop the song 10 minutes in and Soundcheck was evacuated until the alarm was stopped.

After a 16-minute pause in the action, the band came back out with Duane launching into the drumbeat for the fitting Talking Heads classic “Burning Down the House” before the six musicians picked up “Draconian” right where they left off. Additionally, Stasik teased Rush’s “YYZ” right before the third set. “Remind Me” — another result of a past “Raw Stewage” — would follow. The local crowd was then in for a treat with “1000 Places To See Before You Die” which featured Spafford’s Cory Schechtman sitting in on saxophone. Having played with Massachusetts-based The New Motif prior to Spafford, this was a sort of hometown guest appearance for Cory and a nice touch for a portion of the audience that had seen Schechtman perform multiple times over the last few years at Soundcheck on keys and saxophone. After “1000 Places” finished, Brendan gave a thank you to JamBase acknowledging the band’s long friendship with the company and noted that they had slept on JamBase’s floor during their first West Coast tour. A 15-minute “Bridgeless” would go on to close the set.

Umphrey’s McGee’s first show at Soundcheck would end up with Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” appearing after a two-year absence before “All In Time” returned where it had left off in the second set to close out the night. It’s a rarity to see Umphrey’s playing in venues this small when much bigger theaters or clubs are their forte and this show was a special end to the JamBase festivities.

Official Audio (via nugs.net)

Setlist (via All Things Umphreys)

Set One: Slacker[1], Tribute to the Spinal Shaft[1] > Orfeo[1], Much Obliged[2], Push & Pull[2] > Push the Pig[2], Cheap Sunglasses[3], Small Strides[3]

Set Two: All In Time[3], Wife Soup[3], Draconian[4]

Set Three: Draconian[3] > Remind Me[3], 1000 Places to See Before You Die[3] [5], Bridgeless[3]

Encore: Comfortably Numb[3] > Bridgeless[3]

Footnotes:

• [1] with Jake on drums
• [2] with Andy on drums
• [3] with Duane Trucks on drums
• [4] with Duane Trucks on drums; song and set were ended due to fire alarm
• [5] with Cory Schechtman on saxophone

Show Notes:

The JamBase 25th Anniversary Quadranscentennial Silver Jubilee
entire show without Kris
with YYZ (Rush) and Burning Down the House (Talking Heads) teases before third set