Umphrey’s McGee Unveils New Mash-Ups In Milwaukee

Chicago’s Umphrey’s McGee continued a tradition started in 2008 of mashing up originals and covers on Halloween last night at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee, WI. The sextet debuted a total of three mash-ups mixed in among two sets and an encore on Thursday night.

UM delivered a number of “Big Guns” in last night’s first set including “Nothing Too Fancy,” “Utopian Fir” and “Ocean Billy.” The evening’s initial mash-up was “Don’t Fear The Doves, Snucka,” which combined Prince’s “When Doves Cry” and Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear The Reaper” with UM original “Pay The Snucka” to end the first set.

After working the instrumental “Glory” within “Puppet String” to kick off set two, Umphrey’s delivered a take on “Hurt Bird Bath” that included a jam on John Carpenter’s Halloween theme as well as teases of “Day Nurse” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Later in the set, UM unveiled “Papa Can Change a Blurred Stone” containing elements of Robin Thicke’s summer hit “Blurred Lines” along with The Temptations’ “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” “Got To Give It Up” by Marvin Gaye and LCD Soundsystem’s “I Can Change.” Finally, as the encore, Umphrey’s debuted “Electric Avenue to Hell” -a mash-up of their own “The Triple Wide,” AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell” and the Eddy Grant one-hit wonder “Electric Avenue.”

The music wasn’t the only thing UM mashed up last night as the band wore mash-up costumes. Guitarist Brendan Bayliss was Heisenbert Reynolds, Jake Cinninger was Silent Bob Seger, Joel Cummins was Uncle Jesse Pinkman, Andy Farag was Paul Ryan Braun, Kris Myers was Dr. Phil Spector and Ryan Stasik was Batman & Robin Thicke.

Set 1: The Floor, Nothing Too Fancy -> The Linear > Utopian Fir > Nothing Too Fancy, Ocean Billy, Don’t Fear the Doves, Snucka[1]

Set 2: Puppet String -> Glory > Puppet String, Hurt Bird Bath[2], 2×2, Get In The Van, Papa Can Change a Blurred Stone[3], Wizard Burial Ground

Encore: Electric Avenue to Hell[4]

[1] debut; When Doves Cry (Prince) + Pay the Snucka + (Don’t Fear) The Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult) mash-up
[2] with Halloween theme (John Carpenter) jam, and Thriller (Michael Jackson) and Day Nurse teases
[3] debut; Papa Was a Rolling Stone (The Temptations) + Blurred Lines (Robin Thicke) + Got to Give It Up (Marvin Gaye) + I Can Change (LCD Soundsystem) mash-up
[4] debut; The Triple Wide + Highway to Hell (AC/DC) + Electric Avenue (Eddy Grant) mash-up

Notes:
Band costumes: Brendan was Heisenbert Reynolds, Jake was Silent Bob Seger, Joel was Uncle Jesse Pinkman, Andy was Paul Ryan Braun, Kris was Dr. Phil Spector, and Ryan was Batman & Robin Thicke

[Setlist via All Things Umphrey’s]