Salmonfest Festival – Lesterville MO: August 31 & September 1, 2002
Salmonfest twenty years ago was a festival by the Boulder-based Leftover Salmon. Umphrey’s was invited to play one set on a secondary stage on Saturday, and then a set to close the festival on Sunday.
Leftover Salmon is known for being the first bluegrass band to add drums and tour as a rock band. They played full two-set shows on Saturday and Sunday.
Other artists who played the festival’s three days were Keller Williams, Galactic and Eckobase on the first day (Friday), with second day artists Theresa Andersson, Mofro, John Butler Trio, Jorma Kaukonen & Blue Country and Robert Earl Keen. The third day featured Spookie Daly Pride, Bockman’s Euphio, and David Grisman Quintet.
Notable:
Saturday August 1, 2002 – River Stage
It’s a very Umph set, making no concessions to bluegrass. The whole set was a prog-rock exploration, making for a high-energy contribution to the weekend. In the Jambase review, it’s noted that Umphrey’s attracted the largest crowd to the River Stage (secondary stage) of the weekend.
Andy’s Last Beer to start brings the crowd their rhythm test, and White Man’s Moccasins is a very prog-rock Joel composition that’s very precise and tight, which is common for the song in this era.
Before the new song Uncommon, Brendan says, “we’re going to play a relatively new song, it’s only about a week old…if you’ve heard us before, you might not have heard this, so we hope you like it.” They don’t announce the title but Mikey jokes “it’s called Putrid.” Joel responds “it’s called F minus, Mike, F minus, that’s for Mike.”
Utopian Fir has a cool vocal skat from Joel, Jake and others, and a jazzy interlude in the free form section.
To finish the set, it’s a killer 2×2, which still doesn’t have an improvisational exploration section like in the modern versions, but is a powerhouse of a song as usual.
The sound on these is excellent, it doesn’t credit sound caresser Kevin Browning, but it’s a soundboard/audience matrix submitted to the archive by James Mullins.
Sunday September 1, 2002 – Main Stage to close the festival
There’s an amateur video recording on YouTube of the festival-closing set! Thanks to Umphrey’s McGoo.
Resolution > Crooked One to start the set brings fans some strong and powerful rock, with fun improv jams sprinkled in.
Then it’s a bluegrass/country nod with Mullet (over) with the Leftover Salmon members and festival organizers Vince Herman (MC of the fest, playing a rubber chicken and washboard with vocals) and Drew Emmit (mandolin) during the “chicken jam” in Mullet. At one point Vince held a chicken to the mic while making chicken noises and singing with Drew some kind of chicken jam.
Again mainly a classic Umphrey’s set with Get in the Van, Roulette, Nothing too Fancy and All in Time.
A Highway to Hell tease before the encore, and then a great version of The Song Remains the Same for an encore, and the closing announcements are on the recording too.
Both sets are a strong showing at an early festival for Umphrey’s, and the recordings sound great.
Setlists from allthings.umphreys.com
Aug 31 – One Set:
Intro > Andy’s Last Beer, White Man’s Moccasins, Uncommon, Syncopated Strangers, Dump City, Utopian Fir[1], 2×2
Footnotes:
[1] with The Star-Spangled Banner (Francis Scott Key) tease
Show Notes:
River Stage
Sept 1 – Set 1:
Resolution > The Crooked One, Mullet (Over)[1], Hurt Bird Bath, Trenchtown Rock > Get In The Van, Roulette, Nothing Too Fancy[2]-> All In Time
Encore:
The Song Remains the Same
Footnotes:
[1] with Vince Herman on washboard and Drew Emmitt on mandolin. At one point, Vince held a fake chicken into the mic while making chicken noises while rest of band played behind him
[2] with All In Time teases
Show Notes:
Main Stage
with Highway To Hell (AC/DC) tease before The Song Remains the Same
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.
