Mississippi Nights St. Louis MO: December 14, 2002
Notable
They start the show with a 7-minute improv jam, as is usual for these days. This is Mikey’s last show while on tour with the band. In two weeks, he’ll play the New Years run for two nights at the Vic in Chicago, his last two shows with the band.
2nd Self comes in with very piano-forward sound in the intro measures. Joel told me that Brendan actually wrote those piano parts for the song.
Brendan: “Thanks to Psychedelic Breakfast for playing tonight.”
Mikey: “This event is brought to you by our proud sponsor, Budweiser. The king of beers.”
The Haunt, relatively new, is coming out strong and confident, a great version. There’s a short jam with dueling guitars and some improv work by the band, for the last three minutes of the song.
They break it down into the start of Miss Tinkles Overture. Of course, as usual these days, they jam a little bit on the Tinkles riff, whom to transition the rhythm from the sixteenth notes of 4/4 time to the triplets and 3/4 time that characterize Muche’s Odyssey.
The slow down the song to end and gradually drift into the Peter Gunn theme made famous by spy movies, and previously mashed up with Every Breath You Take by a the Police. They do go into the mashup again, which was inspired by an episode soundtrack of The Sopranos. (Season 3, Episode 1) this is the 4th performance of the mashup, out of a total of 23.
The guitarists start teasing Der Bluten Kat, of which they play only the final sections, finishing the version from the night before.
A short pause and they start into a wonderful Hajimemashite. Another tease from Jake and Ryan to slide into White Man’s Moccasins.
Then Joel starts what you probably know as the ending of Thin Air: In the Hall of the Mountain King originally by Edvard Grieg, a classical classic.
Tribute to the Spinal Shaft. Mmmm. They jam a little bit and immediately start teasing The Fuzz, and go into it directly.
Example 1 starts the second set, with a nice improv jam to finish, including some weird synth sounds from Joel.
Joel announces “Steve from Particle” but it’s really Michael Schlafman on keys coming to sit in with the band.
The play the ending Part III of Pay the Snucka, and then drift into a brief Raymond, the jazzy Umphrey’s number only played 50 times, mostly during 1999-2002.
Then it’s a 10-minute drums segment, with Mikey on drums and Jake on percussion, and ending with Mike solo.
Home Sweet Home, by Motley Crue, led by Joel on piano and vocals, only played 8 times. Joel’s vocals are the usual awesome raw power sounds, and you can also hear Mikey contributing to the vocals.
The go right into Mamu, another Umphrey’s classic instrumental jazz number, played 93 times in total, mostly in the 1999-2002 era. This is the last performance until 2008, and the 4th to last performance ever.
Joel says “thanks for being here with us; this is the first time we’ve been here on a weekend…we’ve played here like 12 Mondays.”
Hurt Bird Bath, comin in hot. This is the last performance with Mike on drums; on New Year’s Eve he’ll be playing steel drums and new drummer Kris Meyers will be on drums.
They break down HBB slowly and quiet it down enough to go into Uncommon.
Brendan again asks the crowd if they have “any reasonable requests. If you guys wanted to hear Front Porch then you’re really going to like this song.”
Anchor Drops. A short standalone version.
Then In Violation of Yes. Bass solo. Is that Jake? Likely.
Joel: “This is Mike Mirro’s last show on tour, before New Years Eve. If you wanna see Mike’s last two shows with us, come see us at the Vic in Chicago.”
Encore: A Fifth of Beethoven, only played 32 times, mostly in the early 2000s era. And then the last Last Call with Mikey and the second-to-last time played at all.
Mikey: “Thank you for coming out!”
Setlist from allthings.umphreys.com
Set 1:
Intro > 2nd Self, The Haunt > Miss Tinkle’s Overture > Mulche’s Odyssey > Peter Gunn / Every Breath You Take > Der Bluten Kat[1], Hajimemashite > White Man’s Moccasins > In the Hall of the Mountain King > Tribute to the Spinal Shaft > The Fuzz
Set 2:
Example 1[2] > Pay the Snucka[3] > Raymond > Drums[4], Home Sweet Home > Mamu, Hurt Bird Bath > Uncommon, Anchor Drops, In Violation of Yes
Encore:
A Fifth of Beethoven, Last Call
Footnotes:
[1] ending only, completing the previous night’s version
[2] with Michael Schlafman impersonating Steve Molitz (Particle) on keys
[3] part III only, unfinished
[4] with Jake on percussion; ended with Mike solo
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.
