Monster Bash Chicago IL: October 27, 2002
Highlights: The encore, a stellar Visions of Parin > Ringo. The Visions jam builds into a seamless transition into Ringo. Nothing too Fancy with a 12 minute jam and a band-switch onstage with Particle, where they play their song “Launchpad” and then UM gradually comes back to finish NTF.
Notable:
Great Resolution to start the show, it has an intro jam that warms up into the riff that starts the song. They seem to be working out some vocals issues, which are fixed pretty quickly. The jam forms itself into a place that slides into Uncommon.
It’s a flawless Uncommon and then Brendan announces that “It’s Mikey’s Birthday.”
A classic Miss Tinkles Overture into Mulche’s Odyssey, a common pairing ever since the debut of both songs in the last few weeks. Mulche’s has an improv jam that transitions slowly into JaJunk.
It’s a really killer JaJunk that really showcases what that song can do and what Jake can do in the solo portion. Then it transitions right into a nice long jam where they get creative, signaling what’s to come for this new song.
They are really playing the smooth, seamless transitions in this show, the JaJunk jam building up into the intro rhythms of Nothing too Fancy.
NTF has a nice long 12 minute exploration called “jam” as a separate track in the recording.
Then it gets interesting here as members of Particle come on stage one by one, eventually replacing Umphrey’s and playing the Particle song “Launchpad.”
Then members of Umphrey’s gradually come back on stage, replacing Particle at about 12 minutes in. They continue to jam and Mike and Andy perform a short drum solo to get themselves back into Nothing too Fancy.
Brendan welcomes everyone and talks about how they are all happy to be in Chicago, since they all live here and haven’t slept in their own beds in three weeks.
Joel announces they’ll be doing a show with The New Deal at a Park West coming up.
Miss Gradenko by The Police is a fairly rare cover having been performed 39 times total. They end the tune and start Syncopated Strangers right away with no banter.
13 days is coming along nicely, and Jake has a wicked-good jazzy guitar solo.
The Fussy Dutchman, as usual, a jolly journey with precision guitar and piano harmonies.
It’s a really nice Haji into Glory, with no pause or hesitation, to end the set.
Encore Visions of Parin > Ringo, excellent. The Vision ends with a nice little 3-minute jam that builds up and morphs into Ringo.
Ringo itself has a nice long exploratory jam that gets quiet at one point and builds back up.
Setlist from allthings.umphreys.com
Set 1:
Resolution > Uncommon, Miss Tinkle’s Overture > Mulche’s Odyssey[1] > JaJunk[2] > Nothing Too Fancy[3], Miss Gradenko, Syncopated Strangers, 13 Days > The Fussy Dutchman, Hajimemashite > Glory
Encore:
Visions > Ringo
Footnotes:
[1] with Smell the Mitten tease
[2] ended with Roulette and The Crooked One teases
[3] Particle joined the jam, replaced all members of Umphrey’s McGee on stage. Particle played Launchpad (a Particle original), before Umphrey’s came back on stage, eventually replacing Particle
Links to Audio and Apps
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.
