Following a memorable first day that included two collaborative sets featuring members of TAUK and The String Cheese Incident, Umphrey’s McGee continued the SweetWater 420 Fest-ivities on Friday with a rousing offsite late-night performance at Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse.
Umphrey’s McGee announced on Wednesday (4/27) that guitarist Jake Cinninger would be absent for the band’s three SweetWater 420 Fest performances, and that the group would perform “mainly” as a quintet with some surprise guests. They made good on that promise Thursday, kicking off the festival with not one, but two special sit-in-heavy sets.
The first set was a collaboration with TAUK dubbed TAUKing McGee, and the second was an “All Night Wrong” cover set that featured sit-ins by The String Cheese Incident’s Michael Kang on mandolin and Kyle Hollingsworth on keyboards alongside UM’s Joel Cummins. Notable covers included Jimi Hendrix‘s “The Power of Soul”, The Beatles‘ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, Grateful Dead‘s “Althea”, and Talking Heads‘ “Making Flippy Floppy”. The band’s covers of Beck‘s “Debra” and Wang Chung‘s “Dance Hall Days” also featured members of Empire Strikes Brass, namely Alex Bradley on trumpet, Pauly Juhl on saxophone, and Kyle Snuffer on trombone.
Umphrey’s McGee reconvened on Friday night for a late-night performance at Variety Playhouse—the band’s first set of the weekend without a particular theme. The show included mostly UM originals, with a playful cover of Hall & Oates‘s “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” sandwiched in the middle of “2×2”. The band played mainly as a five-piece but welcomed Doom Flamingo‘s Ross Bogan to play keytar on “Cemetery Walk II” and TAUK‘s Issac Teel on drums for “Made to Measure”. The band closed the show with an encore that consisted of “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds, which led into “Division”, and the band wrapped up with “40’s Theme” with Brendan Bayliss on vocals.
Umphrey’s McGee will play one more set at SweetWater 420 Fest today, Saturday, April 30th at 3:45 p.m. ET. Tune into Nugs.net for free live streams from the festival all weekend.
