Recap, Photos & Setlist: Umphrey’s McGee Plays UMBowl VII In Las Vegas

Check out a full gallery of Paul Citone’s UMBowl photos towards the bottom of this post.

On Friday night Umphrey’s McGee held UMBowl VII returning once again to Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas for the annual event that features four themed quarters of outside-the-norm interactive music. Special guests, bust outs, song debuts, instrument swapping, solo performances, extensive improvisation, fan-driven song selection and on-demand audience influence was on display on a lucky evening in Sin City.

Before each quarter UM presented a clip from their Reel To Real self-produced documentary with VH-1 Pop Up Video-style annotations overlaying the footage. The first quarter kicked off with Raw Stewage – a set composed of re-creations of past improvisations as voted on by attendees ahead of the show. Both guitarist Brendan Bayliss and Jake Cinninger contributed lyrics from past “Jimmy Stewart” improvisations, while the quarter was made up of “legos” originally performed in 2005, 2007, 2011, 2014 and 2015.

Cinninger began the All Request fan-voted second quarter alone on stage with his acoustic guitar for a rendition of the typically heavy “Nopener.” After, Bayliss joined – also toting an acoustic – for a take on “Gulf Stream.” The rest of the band then came out while the guitarists stayed acoustic for “Great American.” At that point Jennifer Hartswick made her first appearance to help sing “Bullhead City.” Hartswick, the acoustics and UM drummer Kris Myers then exited (Myers went backstage to take a quick nap) and Andy Farag slid over from his percussion rig to Kris’ kit for the Umphrey’s classic “FF.”

Farag continued on drums for the debut of the band’s trilogy making original “Soul Food III.” Myers kept resting while Cinninger took over the kit from Farag for just the band’s third performance of “1000 Places to See Before You Die” which was last played in 2014 and included Hartswick on trumpet and Natalie Cressman on trombone. Jake stayed on drums and the horn players also added vocals to the subsequent “Alex’s House.” Another bust out, “Forks,” which had been shelved since February 1, 2013 (336 shows), featured the return of Myers and the further assistance of Jen and Natalie.

The typical genre-crossing elements of rock, prog, funk, reggae, jazz, metal and more were touched upon at various times during the All Improv third set. The only new UMBowl theme to debut this year came after the successful similarly designed set played earlier this year with Joshua Redman. Instruments were again interchanged as Jake jumped on organ next to keyboardist Joel Cummins fairly early into the third quarter while bassist Ryan Stasik was also playing Jake’s new small keyboard as the pair of horn players re-joined the ensemble. Hartswick and Cressman also improvised harmony vocals at various times and Bayliss added his own set of on-the-spot lyrics during the climactic close of the quarter.

Dictated by realtime multiple choice voting on options projected on a screen behind the band, the Choose Your Own Adventure fourth quarter got underway with fans choosing between “August,” “40’s Theme” or “Slacker.” The text message polling resulted in “Slacker” taking the opening slot of the final quarter. Soon the audience voted via text to have UM delve into “Atmosfarag” which led to a lengthy jam. The horns came back for the selected “Ringo” that gave space for some group interaction before the audience was offered the choice between “Miles,” “Zappa” and “Tortoise.” The result was a multifaceted, shapeshifting Zappa-esque segment of improvisation directed by Cinninger and capped with a brief Stairway To Heaven tease. Out of three cover options, “Sledgehammer” with horns beat out ‘Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” and “Ophelia” as Bayliss led the octet through Peter Gabriel’s hit. The choice to end the quarter came down to the endings of “Wizard Burial Ground,” “1348” or “All In Time” and the closing of “WBG” was given the ball for the final play of the quarter.

The overtime encore featured a horn-augmented cover of Hall & Oates’ “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do I)” which was being played by UM for just the second time and first in over 500 shows since its lone other performance in 2011. The guests left the stage to UM to close out UMBowl with the ending of “All In Time,” wrapping yet another action packed long night of satisfying live music. UM and their guests will appear back at Brooklyn Bowl for another concert tonight, Saturday May 7 and TourGigs is again offering a webcast.

Photos (by Paul Citone)

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”257″ gal_title=”20160506 Umphreys McGee UMBowl VII Paul Citone”]

Setlist (via All Things Umphrey’s)

Quarter 1: Breaker[1], Roctopus[1], Fly Like a Beagle[1], Downtrodden[1], Until We Meet Again[1]

Quarter 2: Nopener[2], Gulf Stream[3], Great American[4], Bullhead City[5], FF[6] > Soul Food III[7], 1000 Places to See Before You Die[8], Alex’s House[9], Forks[10]

Quarter 3: Improvisation[11]

Quarter 4: Slacker, Atmosfarag > Ringo[12] > “Zappa (Jake conducts) improv”[12], Sledgehammer[13], Wizard Burial Ground[14]

Overtime: I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)[13], All In Time[14]

• [1] debut, original
• [2] Jake solo acoustic
• [3] just Brendan and Jake on acoustics
• [4] Brendan and Jake on acoustics
• [5] Brendan and Jake on acoustics and Jen Hartswick on vocals
• [6] with Andy on drums replacing Kris
• [7] debut, original; with Andy on drums replacing Kris
• [8] with Jake on drums replacing Kris, and with Natalie Cressman on trombone and Jen Hartswick on trumpet
• [9] with Jake on drums replacing Kris, and with Natalie Cressman on trombone/vocals and Jen Hartswick on trumpet/vocals
• [10] with Natalie Cressman and Jen Hartswick on vocals
• [11] with Jake on keys along with Natalie Cressman on trombone/vocals and Jen Hartswick on trumpet/vocals; “Jimmy Stewart” with lyrics
• [12] with Natalie Cressman on trombone and Jen Hartswick on trumpet
• [13] with Natalie Cressman on trombone/vocals and Jen Hartswick on trumpet/vocals
• [14] ending

Notes:

First quarter was Raw Stewage, comprised of attendees’ votes for past “Jimmy Stewarts”: Breaker (01.28.2015 All In Time), Roctopus (04.14.2005 Pay the Snucka + 04.01.2014 In the Kitchen), Downtrodden (03.23.2007 Intentions Clear + 09.22.2011 Nothing Too Fancy), Until We Meet Again (04.19.2014 August)

Second quarter was comprised of attendees’ votes, “All Request”; with Over the Hills and Far Away (Led Zeppelin) tease before Gulf Stream

Third quarter was completely improvised

Fourth quarter was in “choose your own adventure” style, with attendees voting for the next “adventure” live: August, 40’s Theme, or Slacker; Soul Food II, Kabump, or Atmosfarag; Mad Love, Go to Hell, or Ringo with horns; Bitches Brew (Miles Davis) improv, Zappa (Jake conducts) improv, or Tortoise improv; Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough, Ophelia, or Sledgehammer; end Wizard Burial Ground, end 1348, or end All In Time

last Forks 02.01.2013 (336 shows)

last I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do) 06.04.2011 (524 shows)