Minneapolis, MN venue First Avenue has become a staple on Umphrey’s spring tour. Over the past ten years, Umphrey’s has played five multi-night runs there, and each have become legendary. Last night, April 29th, Umphrey’s McGee continued this tradition, amazing fans for their second straight night of rocking music. It never ceases to amaze how consistently this band brings an amazing rock-n-roll concert experience night in and night out. Any UM show at First Avenue can demonstrate that.

The band opened the show with a standard “Room to Breathe” before hitting “Spires.” “Smell the Mitten” was the night’s first foray into improvisational territory, led by guitarist Jake Cinninger with some tight reggae-esque chords and a “Controversy” jam, continuing to honor Prince’s demise, the First Avenue location, and the previous night’s debut.

One of the highlights of the first set was the rare(r) instrumental “All Things Ninja.” It definitely got the crowd moving, and Brendan Bayliss nailed his soaring solo. Drummer Kris Myers had his usual drum solo in the song, while Jake Cinninger and Ryan Stasik watched in awe and respect. “Full Frontal” was the newest song they played all night, and that jammed into a “Bad Friday” to close out the set. It was a fairly straight-forward first set that had some great moments.

The second set, as per custom, was longer and more improvisational. Without a doubt, this second set was top-notch Umphrey’s McGee. Fan favorite “All in Time” started the set, and quickly went into jamming mode. They teased the “Super Mario Brothers” underground theme to the delight of video game nerds, and then Cinninger took the song in different directions with some very clever guitar licks. The jam slowly shifted towards the keyboards, and eventually keyboardist Joel Cummins was the only one playing. Unsurprisingly, with the lights all shining on him, he began to play his beautiful opus, “Kimble.” A beautiful and delicate song, the juxtaposition of that with “Tribute to the Spinal Shaft” following was interesting. “Tribute” had some good jams, and they made it other-wordly with a great Middle Eastern jam that sounded similar to the 2×2 from Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre show in 2008. It was definitely a very cool part of the show.

Not staying too long in any direction, they then slowed down the music and began to play The Police’s “Walking on the Moon.” It was definitely a fun moment of the show as the whole crowd sang along. At the end of the song, Bayliss incited the crowd to sing the coda of “oooooooooooooooo, woooooohhhh woooooohhhh woooooohhhh.” He did a good job; the crowd was sang loudly in unison. In fact, he motioned to Cummins to stop playing the keys, so it was just the crowd singing without music for a couple measures. Bayliss had a huge smile on his face.

The show continued at a blistering pace, with “Much Obliged” segueing into “Mrs. Robinson’s Strut” segueing into “Wappy Sprayberry,” all of which had great jamming. The latter tune went unfinished, and even that eventually led to the ending of “All in Time.” “All in Time” started meandering for a while, with Cinninger teasing “Baba O’Riley” before ending the set with the most beloved dueling guitar part of the UM repertoire. The whole thing was the righteous way to do a second set.

The encore put an exclamation on the night. Anytime that “Front Porch” is played, one can be happy, but the encore slot highlights how much fun the band is, especially when it wasn’t on the set list to begin with. Great audible by the UM. But it wasn’t just that it was magnificently played, but they inserted a great “Waterfalls” jam in there. Everyone was singing the R&B hit by TLC! It was quite stunning how, despite probably not hearing the song since 1996, the lyrics just came instantly back. It was an awesome encore, one that exemplified how the band can treat an audience if they are really feeling the vibe.

Tonight is the last night of the Spring Tour before heading out West to do their annual UMBowl for the Umphreaks. Check out the full setlist and a gallery of more images below:

Setlist: Umphrey’s McGee at First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN – 4/29/16

Set One: Room to Breathe, Spires > Smell the Mitten$, Morning Song, All Things Ninja, Full Frontal > Bad Friday

Set Two: All In Time > Kimble, Tribute to the Spinal Shaft > Walking on the Moon, Much Obliged > Mrs. Robinson’s Strut > Wappy Sprayberry > All In Time

Encore: Front Porch%

Notes:

$ Controversy tease/jam
% Waterfalls jam

All photos appear via Ojeda Photography; check out the full gallery below.