The Vic Theatre Chicago IL: December 30, 2002
Notable:
A nice 5-minute jam to start, and then a smooth transition into Roulette.
Tribute to the Spinal Shaft comes in right away with Jake on point for the guitar intro. The end of Tribute has the band jamming a bit on the theme, taking short improv solo contributions, and gradually slowing and softening the sound until it morphs directly into 13 Days.
It sounds like a real jumping off point into the future saline and career arc of Umphrey’s McGee, this song having had enough time to develop into beautiful rehearsed parts but at the same time leaving room for individual expression and improvisation by the various band members.
In their upcoming transition, we’ll surely see more experimentation and nervous energy forming songs like Plunger. “Lately now we stand in indecision.” And Wife Soup, speaking to Kris: “…it’s all your circus now.”
Utopian Fir is another example of beautiful song writing leaving room for expression. It starts after a short pause following 13 Days.
The improv section is still not exploring cover song segments, but goes into the jazzy round-robin section which they often play these days. They eventually break it down into a full rhythm-less improv section, even including the drums, and then Mikey signals the opening of the next section with the familiar drum beat and they launch towards the reggae section.
They spend some time improvising, and eventually get to a unified band-wide improv segment that builds up towards some kind of crescendo…Front Porch!
Of course it includes Resolution…appropriate for New Years. And there’s an extensive jam that moves with a quick Push the Pig tease into an Another Brick in the Wall jam. The improv exploration is long, lasts for almost 12 minutes, and goes into a high-energy segment near the end, before stopping and Joel announces “a couple of guys named Moe. (The jam had Al Schnier on guitar and Jim Loughlin on percussion.)
Set 1 ends with the debut of Cherub Rock by Smashing Pumpkins, with only Jake, Brendan, Ryan and Mike.
Set 2 starts with a quick warm up with Joel on the synth, and they launch into Syncopated Strangers. Jake’s solo is really good during the “summers day” section.
The start of In the Kitchen keeps with the experimentation and changing approaches. This time Ryan plays the riff on bass that’s usually played by Jake on guitar these days.
There’s a cool 5-minute jam after In the Kitchen, with band members playing between silence and sound, and Mike leading the rhythm charge. It also has a Stranglehold (Ted Nugent) tease.
They go right into a Mike-led YYZ by Rush, including an awesome drum solo segment, complete with exuberant cheering from the crowd.
Uncommon continues to become more of a classic standalone Umphrey’s tune. It’s one of those rare 3-minute songs in the repertoire.
Kabump has a cool jam labeled “Jimmy stewart” after the song in the track list, with a sweet bass line from Ryan that the band keeps returning to, between a few Eminem “Lose Yourself” teases, which was part of the movie 8 Mile and released as an audio track in October 2002.
2×2 comes in as it’s usual powerhouse song. It ends without a jam, but a beautiful, short piano interlude, and then goes into In Violation of Yes.
It’s a purposeful and patient version of IVOY.
All In Time has a great big drum solo with percussion as well, presumably with Mike and Andy.
Encore: Pay the Snucka (last one with Vegas Mirro paying the snucka?) into Andy’s Last Beer. Mikey gives a speech after, as labeled in the track list. Just a short thabknyou comment my Mirro, worth a listen.
Setlist from allthings.umphreys.com
Set 1:
Intro > Roulette > Tribute to the Spinal Shaft-> 13 Days > Utopian Fir[1] > Front Porch-> Resolution-> Front Porch[2], Cherub Rock[3]
Set 2:
Syncopated Strangers, In The Kitchen[4] > YYZ, Uncommon, Kabump-> 2×2 > In Violation of Yes, All In Time
Encore:
Pay the Snucka > Andy’s Last Beer[5]
Footnotes:
[1] with Auld Lang Syne (Robert Burns) and Big Heart teases
[2] with Al Schnier on guitar and Jim Loughlin on percussion; with Push the Pig tease; ended with Another Brick in the Wall (Pink Floyd) jam
[3] debut, The Smashing Pumpkins; only Jake, Brendan, Ryan, and Mike
[4] with Stranglehold (Ted Nugent) tease
[5] with Sweet Child o’ Mine (Guns N’ Roses) tease
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.
