Brendan Bayliss looked a little confused, then genuinely grateful when the crowd at Brooklyn Bowl on Sunday greeted Umphrey’s McGee after set break with a “Happy Birthday” serenade. It wasn’t any of the band members’ birthday, but the performance—an underplay to wrap up a three-night stint in town following two nights at the larger Brooklyn Steel down the road—did happen to fall on the 26th anniversary of the first-ever Umphrey’s show.
“Thank you all very much for the birthday wishes,” he told the crowd later in the set. “I completely forgot about it. Thank you for making me feel old. But not as old as Joel [Cummins].”
It’s not hard to believe that this band forgot its own birthday this year. The second half of 2023 was an unusual yet invigorating time for the prog-jam outfit, which welcomed a slew of notable pinch hitters on drums while Kris Myers recovered from shoulder surgery. The band has hit the ground running since Myers made his return to the stage after midnight on New Year’s Eve, getting reacquainted and realigned for the future throughout the first week of its winter tour. With Myers sounding as strong as ever, the band locked in after months of revolving lineups, and a busy schedule ahead, Umphrey’s McGee’s gaze is locked on the road ahead, not the miles already traversed.
That doesn’t mean the thread’s not there to follow all the way to the start. By the time the crowd reminded them of the date’s significance on Sunday, Umphrey’s had already performed two of the originals debuted on that fateful South Bend, IN night in 1998, “Phil’s Farm” and “Kimble”, and both had landed with as much vitality as ever (bassist Jake Cinninger‘s technical mastery remains explosive on the former, while Joel’s piano lead on the latter still feels like a warm fireplace on a frigid winter night more than a quarter-century later). Even bassist Ryan Stasik‘s “Boobies and Doobies” shirt felt like a testament to the band’s continuity—to the way they’ve managed to sustain both the unusual sound and the carefree, humorously crass attitude of their college years into their late 40s, long after that youthful energy tends to fade into reluctant maturity for most alumni.
Those day-one tunes, and other early-years numbers like “Example 1” and “August”, fit into the Sunday setlist like fingers in a glove, meshing with a number of 2022 Asking For A Friend songs (“Small Strides”, “Fenced In”, “Hiccup”, and “I Don’t Know What I Want”) and forming a fist to clobber Brooklyn with a third straight night of knockout (rockout?) punches. A late-second-set sit-in by vocalist Kanika Moore only magnified the satisfying Umphrey’s contrast between novel and historical: With help from a relatively recent associate (by way of her work with Stasik in Doom Flamingo over the last few years), the band added a new cover of a classic song (Tina Turner‘s “The Best”) to its 26-year-old repertoire, seemingly reveling in the fact that the track’s overt ’80s synth sound doesn’t quite fit in with the group’s heavy rock style.
Then again, maybe “not quite fitting in” is the band’s style: For 26 years, Umphrey’s McGee has been carving a unique niche at the intersection of impeccable prog rock dexterity, jam band creative fluidity, and “whatever we feel like sounding like right now” boldness. They might forget an anniversary every now and then, but only because they’re still busy expanding and refining that singular space with as much talent and focus as they had in ’98. Here’s to the birthday boys…
Umphrey’s McGee recently added ten new shows to its upcoming tour schedule. For a complete list of upcoming shows and ticketing details, head here.
Scroll down to view the Brooklyn Bowl setlist, watch a selection of videos, and view a gallery of photos from Sunday’s show below via Andrew Blackstein.
Umphrey’s McGee w/ Kanika Moore – “The Best” (Tina Turner) – 1/21/24
[Video: Chad Sclove]
Setlist [via All Things Umphrey’s]: Umphrey’s McGee | Brooklyn Bowl | Brooklyn, NY | 1/21/24
Set One: Nipple Trix > Phil’s Farm, Example 1 > Little Gift > Upward, Hiccup > Kimble > I Don’t Know What I Want
Set Two: Wappy Sprayberry > Crucial Taunt, Fenced In, Small Strides, August, The Best[1], Hangover-> Kula
Encore: The Triple Wide[2]
Footnotes:
[1] debut, Tina Turner; with Kanika Moore on vocals
[2] with A New Hope (Williams) and Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin) teases
