Cat’s Cradle Carrboro NC: October 10, 2002
Happy debut day to Mulche’s Odyssey! In the first few versions, it comes as a continuation of the other new song from the day before, Miss Tinkles Overture. In this show they introduce it as Miss Tinkles Rock Opera.
Notable:
Example 1 to start is a classic straight up version, but then they go into a 5-minute improv jam with Joel going into a Dr. Dre “Still D.R.E.” tease and transitioning into JaJunk.
A Stellar JaJunk goes right into a mellow improv jam, and they end it like Thin Air: with the increasing-tempo In the Hall of the Mountain King segment.
Joel announces they’ll be playing some new stuff, and introduces the next song, Uncommon.
Right into another killer All Things Ninja. It’s a 10-minute version.
Walking on the Moon (Police) is a great version, and it slides into what’s called a Pooh Doggie jam in the archive track, but is really a hip-hop song. (?)
From there it transitions butter smooth into Push the Pig. Joel once told me that one of the inspirations for Push the Pig was Snoop Dogg’s G’z and Hustlaz, which they teased in the Phil’s Farm jam from Belly Up Aspen in 2018.
Joel announces that they’re going to play the intro to their new Rock Opera, called Miss Tinkles Rock Opera. It’s the second time they’ve played miss Tinkles Overture and it’s only about 4 minutes, and they do a small jam.
Then it’s morphing into the debut of Muche’s Odyssey, which is an Ali Baba’s Tahini composition, coming to the band from Jake. The song proper doesn’t really start until 3:20 into the track.
Sausage instead of Bacon in the second verse of Mulche’s.
Awesome slamming transition into Kimble to finish the set.
40’s Theme to start out the second set, and they go into a jam that moves gently into Sweetness. The Sweetness 10-minute jam builds slowly and they go into a Miss Tinkle’s Overture jam before transitioning into a drum /percussion section, and go right into Ringo.
Ringo > Roulette > Ringo sandwich: It’s a typical awesome Ringo, and when they go back into the “bunch of greasy animals” lyrics at the end of the first jam, it amazingly segues directly into Roulette.
The end of Roulette is sudden also, and without missing a beat, they go right into “bunch of greasy animals” to get back to Ringo, where they finish the verses and explore improvisational jam 2 for 8 more minutes. They finish Ringo with a mellow entry into the finishing vocals, where you can really hear Mike Mirro.
Mike says “hello Carrboro,” asks the audience if they go to school around here or what, talks about getting on the mailing list at the merch table with Don, and says “…Ryan’s gonna be in a g-string after the show, you can sign (autographs?) on him if you want.”
Prowler: high energy, and goes right into Glory.
Standard no-jam Anchor Drops, and then Brendan dedicates In Violation of Yes to a NC band, Octaghandi. They had opened for Umphrey’s the year before at Mishawaka Brewing Company on 8-11-01, notable for the debut of Roulette and Get in the Van, and the new intro segment of The Fuzz.
Joel: “Jake Cinninger on the bass guitar, Ryan Stasik on the Rhodes.”
Brendan: “We’re gonna play a relatively new song here.”
13 days comes in with a little less emphasis on the synth in the beginning segment, and a little more polish over all. It’s the 11th performance.
The Triple Wide to finish the set.
Professor Wormbog encore, and this one includes the Boyz 2 Men “zoom zoom zoom zaya” vocal segment.
Setlist from allthings.umphreys.com
Set 1:
Example 1[1] > JaJunk > In the Hall of the Mountain King, Uncommon, All Things Ninja, Walking On The Moon[2] > Push the Pig, Miss Tinkle’s Overture > Mulche’s Odyssey[3] > Kimble
Set 2:
40’s Theme > Sweetness[4] > Ringo > Roulette > Ringo, Prowler > Glory, Anchor Drops, In Violation of Yes, 13 Days > The Triple Wide
Encore:
Professor Wormbog
Footnotes:
[1] with Still (Dr. Dre) tease
[2] with Pooh Doggie tease
[3] debut, original (Ali Baba’s Tahini composition)
[4] with Miss Tinkle’s Overture jam
Show Notes:
the show was simulcast on the Digital Club Network
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.