by Brian Weidy
To celebrate their 14th anniversary, Umphrey's McGee came to the Best Buy Theater last night to play the first of two shows this weekend. The band, originally formed at the University of Notre Dame in 1997, has made a variety of small lineup tweaks over the years to create the modern day juggernaut that it's become.
The band opened with the heavy "Jimmy Stewart" before segueing into the funky "Booth Love," off of their new album, Death by Stereo. "Jimmy Stewart" showed off Umphrey's self-designed method of conducting their jams, communicating using hand signals and other visual cues to change keys, tempos, etc. "Conduit" broke into a massive jam in the middle, stretching past the 10-minute mark before going back into the song. The hour and twenty minute first set was capped off with a lengthy version of "Tribute to the Spinal Shaft," followed by "Passing," and finally closing with a raucous dance-party version of one of their older songs, "Utopian Fir."
After a quick setbreak, Umphrey's came out firing on all cylinders in an extraordinarily well played, 5 song set. The band opened with a fan-favorite, "40s Theme" which featured a great guitar solo by lead guitarist Brendan Bayliss. Joel Cummins, the keys player, kicked off "Der Bluten Kat," saying it was one of their oldest songs. Jake Cinninger, the band's second lead guitarist, walked over to the percussion set-up, triggering a dual solo between Andy Farag on percussion and Kris Myers on drums. After the solo, Cinninger stayed over by the percussion rig while the rest of the band joined back in for a dancey-take on Lionel Richie's "All Night Long," the second half of which featured incredible interplay as Cummins layed down a Middle-Eastern-sounding groove while Cinninger added slide fills to take the jam in a whole other direction. When all was said and done, nearly half-an-hour had passed.
The band closed their main set with "The Linear" and "Ringo," both songs featuring funkier than usual grooves. After a quick break, the band came out for a nearly twenty-minute encore featuring their magnum opus, "Divisions."
The London Souls opened the night with an solid, hour-long set highlighted by AC/DC's "It's A Long Way To The Top If You Want To Rock and Roll" and a set-closing take on Frank Zappa's "Apostrophe."