On a bucolic Friday night along the Jersey Shore, Umphrey’s McGee brought their unique brand of “improg” to The Stone Pony’s Summerstage. While the indoor stage is famous for launching the career of Bruce Springsteen, the outdoor venue provided an open canvas for the band and their lighting director, Jefferson Waful to fill in.
After an inspired 75 minute set from Lettuce that saw the return of founding member and guitarist Eric Krasno-who is performing with them on the entire run-the band played a number of classic songs mixed with plenty of their newer material while getting the rapidly filling-in crowd moving.
Just after eight p.m., with the sun still up, the band strode on to the stage to their introduction “Le Blitz” before launching into a standard version of “Educated Guess,” one of the most complex tunes in the bands’ repertoire. From there, they moved into the infrequently-played “Deeper” off their 2011 release, Death By Stereo.
After something of a sluggish start, a creative, Joel Cummins-led segue took the band into their first real jam of the night on “Miss Tinkles Overture.” The song off Anchor Drops saw guitarist Jake Cinninger take a conducting role as the key switched from major to minor and back again as the band picked up on the industrial groove and ran with it.
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“Tinkles” would be a sign of things to come, but the band chose to slow things down a bit, moving into “Final Word,” which was a part of their 2013 UMBowl and is often found in the middle of “Der Bluten Kat.” However, on Friday, the band took the opportunity to showcase the song on its own, allowing guitarist Brendan Bayliss’ soaring vocals and Cinninger’s guitar runs to carry the tune.
From that point on, the band took every opportunity to move in a heavier direction, starting with the segue into “Push the Pig.” The song saw Cinninger move to Cummins’ keyboard rig to create layered keyboard sounds before segueing into arguably the highlight of the night.
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With the familiar intro riff ringing out, the bad played the first minute or so of “Eat,” off their latest record, The London Sessions. Quickly, the band moved beyond the simple structure of the song, taking an opportunity to lay down one of the heaviest riffs of the night. After taking an extended run at a song that usually features little-to-no improvisation, the band toyed with heavy themes before concluding the more than 30-minute stretch of music.
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The band then kicked off the opening riff of the title track of their 2014 release, Similar Skin. After a standard run-through that didn’t see much in the way of improvisation, the group dove into Ween’s “The Grobe,” which saw plenty of befuddled looks from the crowd during the quick romp through the cover.
The band then launched into the Death By Stereo set list stalwart, “Conduit.” While “Conduit” often features solid jams, Friday night saw the group toy around with the theme from Rage Against the Machine’s “Bulls On Parade” before drummer Kris Myers took the microphone to scream out the song’s refrain before closing out “Conduit” and transitioning into “Dump City.”
“Dump City” has seen the band take plenty of exploratory directions after the composed section and tonight was no different, continuing the industrial and heavy direction that prevailed throughout the night.
Continuing the heavy theme, the band closed their set with “Mulche’s Odyssey,” which didn’t feature much of a jam but still saw a brief, heavy period of improvisation before concluding their main set.
After a brief encore break, the band came out with Led Zeppelin’s “Song Remains the Same,” which saw Bayliss belt out the vocals before the band wrapped up the cover.
The band then continued their lengthy encore with the jam vehicle “Ocean Billy,” which before they could really open up the improvisation, moved into the dance-y “The Triple Wide.”
The industrial theme of the night carried over a bit into the encore as the typically dance-rock vibes of “The Triple Wide” took on a harder edge before moving back into the end of “Ocean Billy.”
After more than two-hours of heavy jamming, Umphrey’s McGee gave the Jersey Shore crowd something to pump their fists to before sending them off into the crisp, ocean breezed night. The band continues their tour Saturday night in Philadelphia, with an official Break Science afterparty to follow.
-Words by Brian Weidy, Photos by Scott Harris (full gallery below)
