Umphrey's McGee

Review by Pookells, posted 02 November 2012 5:24 am EDT

When you look at the amount of songs on the setlists, you can tell that this is not an improv-heavy show by any means. That is not to say that this is a bad show. In fact, this show is just pure fire, in my opinion.

Set 1 kicks off with Catshot that segues nicely into Mantis. Taking no break in-between, UM adds a little funk into the mix and goes directly into Space Funk Booty. Slacker pops up next and has some nice dance-rock improv in it. Then, UM gets laid back a bit with Anchor Drops before turning up the heaviness on Go to Hell. UM then goes into chill mode with Great American > Susanah > Great American. UM then rocks again with Turn & Run with Mantis as the set closer.

Set 2 opens with a nice DBK sandwich with Floyd filling. Great improv in DBK, by the way. FF, as always, is solid, seguing into Wappy, which again, has a great slab of improv. Plunger > Synco > Plunger, while looking weird on paper, is actually really cool. They close out set 2 with Dutchman.

Come Closer is my favorite UM mashup song, so it was really cool to hear this as an encore.

In a nutshell, outside of Slacker, DBK and Wappy, you will not find much in the way of improv, but what UM lacks in improv, they more than make up with a high energy performance. While I did not attend this show, I was told by those who attended that it was a pretty wild crowd and that UM fed off of that energy.

If you're not hung up on the amount of improv, this is a great show to pick up!

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