On Thursday night, Umphrey’s McGee continued their ongoing Wax On, Wax Off tour with their first of three performances at Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, NY.

The sextet kicked off the three-night stand with their first “Crucial Taunt” since October 2018. Next, they eased into an extended rendition of Local Band Does OK track “Blue Echo”, another 2019 live debut. The 2019 debuts continued with the “Morning Song” that followed before the band segued into go-to jam vehicle “Bridgeless”, which just made a big showing in the band’s last show in Portland. The band took this rendition out into the ether, exploring a variety of sonic spaces over the course of 15+ minutes before skipping the second half of its lyrics and flowing into “Seasons”, another song last played last weekend in Portland.

Umphrey’s McGee – “Crucial Taunt” [Pro-Shot]

[Video: TourGigs]

“Rocker Part 2” got the call next, building to a number of hair-raising peaks. As “Rocker Part 2” faded out, Brendan Bayliss stepped to the microphone to note, “So it’s Valentine’s Day, and we were trying to find…some love songs. And we realized we don’t have a lot of love songs. We have a lot of ‘fuck you, bitch’ songs. So we’re gonna play a cover. It’s a love song.” With that said, the band pulled out their best falsettos for Prince‘s “I Wanna Be Your Lover” to close out set one.

After a setbreak, the band returned and laid into an impressive “Ringo” to begin set two, complete with teases of Rush‘s “YYZ”. As the 17-minute jam began to fizzle out, Umphrey’s moved into a funky “Day Nurse”, which in turn gave way to another extended jam on “1348”.

“The Linear” was up next, kicking off a non-stop segment that would last for the remainder of the set. A quick and rocking cover of Blue Öyster Cult‘s “E.T.I.” came next, marking Umphrey’s McGee’s first performance of the song since 2/4/16, a gap of 281 shows. From there, the band detoured through rarely-played metal vamp “Sludge & Death” before landing on “Booth Love”. After taking their time to rock the fan-favorite, the band found their way back into “Bridgless” to finish the musical thought they’d started during set one. Finally, after a brief encore break, the band returned to the stage to rip a lengthy rendition of “Divisions” with some added notes of The Who‘s “Baba O’Reilly”.

Below, you can listen to a full audience audio recording of Umphrey’s McGee’s opening night at Brooklyn Steel and check out a gallery of photos from the performance courtesy of photographer Chris Capaci.

Umphrey’s McGee – 2/14/19 – Full Audio

[Taped by opsopcopolis]

Umphrey’s McGee will be back at it at Brooklyn Steel tonight, Friday, February 15th for their second of three Brooklyn shows this weekend. For a full list of Umphrey’s McGee’s upcoming tour dates, head to their website here.

Setlist: Umphrey’s McGee | Brooklyn Steel | Brooklyn, NY | 2/14/19

Set 1: Crucial Taunt, Blue Echo, Morning Song, Bridgeless -> Seasons, Rocker Part 2, I Wanna Be Your Lover

Set 2: Ringo[1] > Day Nurse > 1348, The Linear > E.T.I. > Sludge & Death > Booth Love > Bridgeless

Encore: Divisions[2]

[1] with YYZ (Rush) teases
[2] with Baba O’Riley (The Who) teases