Umphrey's McGee

Review by Pookells, posted 04 December 2012 5:44 am EST

First off, I have to say that I think this is the best show from 2011, and those who attended this show were truly blessed to have seen this.

Set 1 kicks off with Example 1. The Example 1 is pretty standard until they get to the jam section of the song. The jam in this is a mid tempo rocking jam with tons of solos going all over the place, and it is this jam that pretty much sets the mood for the remainder of the show. They get into a high-energy version of Got Your Milk that, again, has a hard rocking stew with plenty of guitar fireworks from Jake and Brendan. It's probably the best Milk I've heard these guys do. Milk segues quite nicely into #5. #5 rocks pretty hard as well and has a sweet heavy stew in it as well. Milk -> #5 clocks in at over 25 minutes in length. They do a nice cover of Fool In The Rain, and although Brendan is no Robert Plant vocally, his vocals are adequate in this version. While this version isn't bad at all, it is probably the weakest link in this show (I use the term "weakest" in the loosest sense of the word). Search 4 comes out just as hard rocking as the Death By Stereo studio version and fits in perfectly with the rest of the hard rock in this set. The set finishes off with Last Man Swerving > Believe The Lie. Last Man Swerving is an 18+ minute treat, and has a nice long jam that can only be best described as 70's prog-disco. Not funky and not hard rock either. Imagine Animals-era Pink Floyd with some disco elements and you get the picture. Believe The Lie rocks harder than what you normally hear in this song live and has some nice 70's prog that seems to be somewhat inspired by Kansas, but is done in UM's unique way. Check out the guitar solos that kick in at the 7:12 point of the song - Jake and Brendan do some serious (but short) shredding!

Set 2 kicks off with a nearly 31 minute long DBK. Again, keeping in the hard rock/prog theme of the show, this is one of the hardest rocking DBKs they've done. If you don't catch yourself playing air guitar during the first 8 minutes of DBK, then you need to check your pulse. At around the 8:05 mark, the band throws down some of the same style of 70's prog-disco that was done on Last Man Swerving without repeating what was done during Last Man Swerving (I hope that sentence made sense). Between 8:05 and the 21 minute mark, there's a lot going on with this jam as this jam conjures up Animals-era Pink Floyd, jazzy interludes and even some Metallica-like shredding at around the 20:30 mark. The jam changes into a jazzy section at the 21 minute mark that lasts until the 26:40 mark. At 26:40, the jam gets heavy with seriously fast rhythm guitar that puts Metallica to shame and then goes back to the jazzy section. The last minute is the outro riff of DBK. Next comes a hard rocking I Am The Walrus that is quite stellar with some kick-ass Jake solos throughout. Even The Bottom Half rocks harder than usual and UM takes the song into a slightly different direction than usual with the Simple Gifts jam, and contains a hard rock ending. Slacker, like every other song here, is a harder version with a bluesy section at about 2:40 that sounds like ZZ Top experimenting with jazz styles. And then if you hadn't had enough, they bring down the house with an insane Wizard Burial Ground that will just leave your jaw on the ground.

Even Bright Lights as the encore is a hard rocking version as well.

Overall, this show is completely worth the purchase! As I stated in the beginning, this is the best show of 2011. Unfortunately, it's also overlooked as this show was sandwiched in between the 10/29 Hauntlanta and 11/5 Milwaukee shows. This is a 13 song show, which is very reminiscient of the 2006-2008 era, plus the 5 song 2nd set is a throwback to that era as well. It displays the harder side of UM and is a consistent theme throughout the show.

You can check out this show on youtube. Just type in umphrey's mcgee clifton park and watch the videos of this show that were put up by axanodus.

Enjoy this show! Well worth the $$.

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