20th Century Theatre Cinncinati OH: August 29, 2002
Here we have the debut of 13 Days – Joel’s idea for a name was “Dolls, Coke, and Elvis,” and it’s the first time Uncommon has a name, 5th performance. Why is it now called 13 Days? Read on…
Notable:
Solid Roulette start to the show, no Jazz Odyssey jam to warm up into the show like they’ve been doing.
Cool jam in Soul Food I, labeled JO as a separate track in the archive.
Utopian has the improv section with some jazz…they haven’t yet implemented a cover section like modern versions.
They don’t play Bob Marley songs much anymore, so it’s fun to listen to them play Rastaman Chant.
Then it’s the debut of 13 Days. This presumably comes during or after their 13-day break from alcohol that’s been cited as the inspiration behind the song title.
In archive.org, the 13 days debut is labeled “new song” after Last Man Swerving – Brendan says they don’t have a name for it yet, and then says that Joel has an idea for a name, something about his crack habit or something – Joel responds that he should tell everyone his idea – he was driving through the Black Hills in SD, things are weird there, and he saw a billboard sign that said “Dolls, Coke, and Elvis” which he thought was a good name for a song.
All Things Ninja is great with the “round-robin” solos section having Jake going crazy with licks, Joel on the Fender Rhodes, and a high energy Mike/Andy drum solo.
Joel announces their new album Local Band does OK.
Triangle from Andy in the beginning of Prowler is right there in the front of the sound.
Dr Feelgood jam to start the set, it’s not the complete song, but labeled as such on allthings. Morphs into a Syncopated Strangers jam.
Space Funk Booty has a cool improv jam that gets quiet and keeps the background riff. Joel makes a Spinal Tap reference to say in a UK accent, “that last bit was a free-form jazz odyssey.” Brendan: “in the key that was saddest of all keys.” And Jake chimes in to say “and Pony, he wrote that one.”
BB also says “we’re going to play a new that we’ve played two or three times; it’s called Uncommon.” It was actually the 5th performance, possibly the first time since they decided on a title.
Another Family Feud Theme like they’ve been playing with lately, to start Kabump.
In Kabump jam, a bass solo by Brad Meyers of Ray’s Music Exchange on Ryan’s bass and Nick Blasky taking the place of Brendan on guitar. Same for In a Silent Way and It’s About That Time.
Near the end of set 2 the band explores In a Silent Way, the side 1 of Miles Davis’ album that includes the rock-riffed It’s About That Time that’s been a staple pf Umphrey’s improv jams for years. In a Silent Way is an ambient, thoughtful exploration in this case, that lasts 16 minutes and shows Mike’s skill on drums and the band’s patience. All followed by a 7-minute It’s About That Time to end the show.
Interesting fact: according to Joel before the encore they recorded their new album Local Band does OK, “right here in Cincinnati.”
Push the Pig as an encore, at this point it’s a new song, just debuted earlier in the year, originally called Fences. The archive.org track just calls it “Encore.”
Setlist from allthings.umphreys.com
Set 1:
Roulette > Soul Food I > Utopian Fir > Rastaman Chant-> Last Man Swerving, 13 Days[1] > All Things Ninja, Prowler, White Man’s Moccasins
Set 2:
Dr. Feelgood[2]-> August[3] > The Crooked One > FF[4]-> Space Funk Booty, Uncommon, Family Feud theme > Kabump[5] > In a Silent Way[6] > It’s About That Time[7]
Encore:
Push the Pig
Footnotes:
[1] debut, original; “Dolls Coke Elvis”
[2] with Syncopated Strangers tease
[3] ended with One (Metallica) jam
[4] with Main Theme (Godfather Waltz) (Nino Rota) tease
[5] ended with Brad Myers and Nick Blasky taking the place of Brendan and Ryan for part of the song; with Tangerine (Led Zeppelin) tease
[6] with Brad Myers and Nick Blasky taking the place of Brendan and Ryan
[7] with Brad Myers and Nick Blasky taking the place of Brendan and Ryan for part of the song
Links to Audio
The Live Music Archive app (iOS) and the Taper’s Section app (Android) is a great way to find and listen to these shows. You can stream, download for offline listening, save favorites, and mark shows as already listened to. The app pulls all data directly from the public repository of live music recordings posted at archive.org.
