08/11/12 Umphrey’s McGee

Umphrey’s McGee is best known as one of the most accessible top-tier jam bands on the road today. What this means for them is, they rock harder and longer than any band that’s not the Grateful Dead or Phish and they pick up new die-hard fans at every show. What this means for you is, they will shatter your idea of what it means to be a jam band. When you catch these guys live once, you will buy tickets to their next show.

The first thing you’ll notice is how there is virtually no end or beginning to any of their songs — everything is intricately orchestrated to fit nicely together. In other words, their first set might combine the band’s funkiest, folkiest, and hardest rock tunes into one long performance that may literally leave you standing, staring in awe of the skill and energy of the six or more men on stage.

Songs turn into other songs at the drop of a calculated look between the bass player and the drummer. Soon everyone on stage has shifted key, tempo and tone and nobody has said a word to each other. Just casual looks. And the crowd goes berserk.

This college-touring, festival-loving Chicago-based band mixes their combined passion for prog rock, jazzy funk, classical music and wild improvisation to create a singular live experience that all music lovers are born to love. To prepare, turn to the web for fan-taped live shows (which they encourage) or the albums Live at the Murat, Mantis or Anchor Drops and turn it up real loud. If you listen to the Meters, the Talking Heads, Frank Zappa, the Disco Biscuits, Yes, or Bela Fleck, you are already a pre-fan, in need of just one live Umphrey’s McGee show to do the rest.

Brendan Bayliss, the band’s founding singer-guitarist explains: “Catching us live. That’s when people go, ‘Oh, that’s what they are. I get it.”

So, remember: whenever you feel the need for a little McGee, why not try Umphrey’s McGee. They’ve got the finest McGee in the business, and they’re more than willing to share it with you.

“Umphrey’s McGee ended their two-hour non-stop set at Central Park’s Summerstage in New York last week with an explosive cover of the Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” in which guitarist Jake Cinninger played Pete Townshend’s percolating synthesizer riff — on a Telecaster, in real-time staccato, saturated in echo. It was a hip trick, and typical of this Chicago-based band’s enthusiastic attention to detail. In fact, Umphrey’s McGee may be the most accomplished jam band in America — able to spin out at length between and inside their songs, but never at the expense of the invention and melodies in the songs themselves.” – Rolling Stone

“Presented by Fairfield Theatre Company”