The Bluebird Bloomington IL: August 16, 2002
This is the second in a three-night run in the midwest that Umphrey’s played in August of 2002. The soundboard recordings are available at the Live Music Archive and on the Live Music app, links below. (The archive track listing is off as some from this era are – just ignore the song titles and follow the setlist in the meta-data on the site or app, or check it out at allthings.umphreys.com.
Notable:
Professor Wormbog doesn’t contain the “zoom zoom zoom zaya” vocal harmony tease from Motown Philly by Boyz 2 Men, but goes into a Jake-led jam. Do you know when the first Motown Philly Professor Wormbog tease was played? Comment if you do, I haven’t been able to find that information yet. Lately it’s been abandoned in Professor in favor of other interesting improvisation in recent years, but it has shown up in a few modern versions.
Joel says “good to be back in Bloomington, what’s it been, 2 weeks?”
Example 1 has Jake on keys with Joel at some point, not at the beginning though, it’s in the jam, while Brendan is soloing, then Jake comes back on with his own solo before kicking it back into the Example 1 riff and then into a bass-drums led 2nd jam.
Resolution goes right into a fast Glory – no slow build from Jake like modern versions.
During Space Funk Booty there’s a 13 days riff, pre-debut. 13 days will debut on 8-29-02 in two weeks.
There’s also a Hanging Chads bassline from Ryan to start the improv jam after Space Funk Booty. This is an early version of the bassline associated with the very rare Ryan-vocal song that debuted at The Canopy Club on 10-18-18. The song was recorded for the album It’s You, released on 5-18-18, and it’s only been played 3 times live, the last one at Red Rocks on 6-19-21 when Ryan plays it solo with an acoustic guitar, and Brandan comes out to interrupt him and they both smash their acoustics on the stage.
Space Funk Booty ends and Brendan says “we’re going to take a very short break so have a drink for us if you will.” This comment and the one that ends the first set the following night, leads me to believe they are in their 13-day break from alcohol that led to the naming of the song “13 days.”
An excellent Syncopated Strangers starts the second set.
This version of The Tripe Wide could be the first time they played an improvisational jam to finish instead of just ending the song. The original recording track listing labels it a Jazz Odyssey but allthings.umphreys.com shows it as part of The Tripe Wide. It’s the 46th performance of the song, and I haven’t listened to them all, so there may be others that transitioned into a jam.
Hangover has a short Garbage Man verse sung by Mike.
To end the second set, Brendan raps his rare Weed Rap, with Elliott Peck on vocals. Weed Rap has only been played 9 times, from 2001-2003.
Then they go into the ending portion of Gesture Under a Mitten, a sign that they are moving away from the first part of that song, and changing it into its modern version titled Smell the Mitten, which will debut in only a month, on 9-17-02. Smell the Mitten removes the opening vocal verses and music, as well as the country-feel segment, in favor of the instrumental segments that we know and love today.
This is a great show with a high-quality recording available, right in the middle of a classic midwest run. The next day they play Joe’s in Chicago to end the run before heading out to the east coast.
Setlist from allthings.umphreys.com
Set 1:
Intro-> Professor Wormbog, Example 1[1] > Roulette, 2×2-> Resolution-> Glory-> Dr. Feelgood[2] > Space Funk Booty
Set 2:
Syncopated Strangers > The Triple Wide-> The Haunt[3] > In Violation of Yes > Hangover > Garbage Man > Hangover[4] > White Man’s Moccasins, 2nd Self, Get In The Van, Push the Pig > Weed Rap[5]-> Gesture Under a Mitten[6]
Encore:
Ringo[7]
Footnotes:
[1] Jake on keys with Joel
[2] with The Safety Dance (Men Without Hats) teases
[3] with Much Obliged and Front Porch teases, and a Jose jam
[4] with Who Knows (Jimi Hendrix) jam
[5] with Elliott Peck on vocals
[6] second half only
[7] with Hot for Teacher (Van Halen), Eminence Front (The Who), and Get Down (War) teases
Show Notes:
with Mother (Danzig) tease and quote before Ringo
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.
