Last night on October 29th, 2015, the first night of a three-night Halloween stand in Milwaukee, WI’s Riverside Theater, Umphrey’s McGee delivered a menacing and in your face rock show from the very beginning of the night.

There was fervor among fans early on. Using his twitter account, keyboard wizard Joel Cummins sparked many fans’ imaginations when he announced that they were dropping the infamous mash-up theme of the past few years and again yesterday morning as he mysteriously posted “As far as tonight’s setlist goes, you’re all welcome.”

On behalf of everyone, thank you, Joel. It was clear from early on that Cummins and guitarist Jake Cinninger were channeling each other, taking turns leading each other and the rest of the band through a wild melodic tour de force.

Starting at 9:17, the band walked onstage and loosened up the space early with an straightforward rocking “Le Blitz > Cut The Cable” segment. A very piercing guitar tone peppered the auditorium that could have gone any number of directions wound up being the top half of a fat “Nothing Too Fancy” sandwich.

Fleshed out and jammed for over 15 minutes, Cinninger took the lead once again with well-placed manipulations of feedback frequencies and soulful bends before he employed a pick scratch rhythm jam to transition into the recent fan favorite “Make It Right” from UMBOWL VI earlier this year.

The dancing melody of “Make It Right” lended itself into a subtley perfect segue section and an anything but standard 10 minute version of Mantis’ “Made To Measure” featuring a fleshed out reggae-swing and airy jam that got weird very fast at the end as it segued beautifully once again.

Local Band Does OK opening track “Andy’s Last Beer” shook the room up, and the band, especially the rhythm section of drummer Kris Myers, percussionist Andy Farag and bassist Ryan Stasik, was having fun trying and mostly failing to lead the crowd in clapping along to the waltz timing of the song. They took their longest break of the night thus far to thank the crowd and gather themselves before launching into the next song.

When they finally did fire a monster 10 minute “Search 4”, off of Death By Stereo, the room went wild. A white whale of a song for many that only gets played a handful of times per year, “Search 4” got some serious wear on stage before transitioning into another new song, “Piranhas”.

The highlight of the first set is hard to pin down, but there is no question that the “Search 4” was a portion of the setlist Cummins mentioned earlier in the day was it for many. The set ended with the bottom half of the N2F sandwich, and the boys let the crowd exhale.

To open the five song second set, a 22-minute “JaJunk” which featured teases from both the theme from the “Underground” level of Super Mario Bros. as well as the Tears For Fears classic “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”. A fan placed a rose onstage, and lead vocalist Brendan Bayliss picked it up and presented it to Cummins mid song, an indication of the true love for one another fostered within this band.

For the second song of the set, Bayliss introduced “Roulette” as an older song that doesn’t get played often, again only making two or three set list appearances per year.

“Partyin’ Peeps” got a unique and previously unseen treatment as the band extended it upwards of 12 minutes. Cut from the encore the final night of the band’s two night run in Athens, GA, many in the crowd were excited to receive it in Milwaukee.

The next half hour gave way to another potential highlight of the evening: a serious display of chops and endurance from each member as they furiously tried to outplay each other at every break in the epic “Der Bluten Kat”. Fifteen minutes into the hellfire, Cummins and Myers slowed things down and got funky as another four-five song per year track “Night Nurse” filled out the meat of the DBK sandwich nicely, which ended the set.

Only spending a few short minutes backstage, they returned for the encore. A heavy “Gents > Booth Love” perfectly rounded out an otherwise hard-rock focused show with a solid dance party jam.

Kicking the show off proper was LCD Soundsystem cover band North American Scum who played a vibrant and inspired 50 minute set before the main event took the stage.

Tonight Umphrey’s McGee returns to The Riverside for night two of three, with Colorado funk superstars The Motet to open. Check out the setlist below, as well as a full gallery of photos from Kristine Condon Photography!

Setlist: Umphrey’s McGee at The Riverside Theatre, Milwaukee, WI – 10/29/15

Set 1: Le Blitz > Cut the Cable, Nothing Too Fancy > Make It Right, Made to Measure > Andy’s Last Beer, Search 4, Piranhas -> Nothing Too Fancy

Set 2: JaJunk[1], Roulette > Partyin’ Peeps, Der Bluten Kat > Night Nurse > Der Bluten Kat

Encore: Gents > Booth Love

[1] with Super Mario Brothers “Underground” theme (Kondo) and Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears for Fears) teases

[Setlist via All Things Umphrey’s]

Full gallery of photos below: