Umphrey’s McGee on Thursday kicked off its run of late-August tour dates with support from Eggy and Stolen Gin with a performance at St. Louis, MO’s The Pageant. During UM’s second of two headlining sets, the band welcomed three-quarters of Eggy—guitarist Jake Brownstein, keyboardist Dani Battat, and drummer Alex Bailey—to join in on a nearly 18-minute rendition of Talking Heads favorite “Girlfriend Is Better”.
“How you guys doing this evening?” Umphrey’s guitarist/vocalist Brendan Bayliss asked the Missouri crowd following the sprawling “Attachments” > “Fenced In” combo that began set two. “We’d like to invite our good friends from Eggy to come up and help us f— some s— up.”
With Battat settled in on organ next to Joel Cummins, Bailey positioned alongside Andy Farag on his auxiliary percussion kit, and Brownstein standing between Bayliss at Jake Cinninger at center stage, the nine-piece combo band dug into a patient, enveloping jam on the Speaking in Tongues track that built to a series of guitar-harmony crescendos and broke down into a three-man percussion jam (featuring Bailey, Farag, and Kris Myers) before coming to a conclusion with a searing Jake (UM)-on-Jake (Eggy) showdown.
Watch a fan-shot video of the collaboration and view the full Umphrey’s McGee and Eggy setlists from Thursday’s tour opener below.
Umphrey’s McGee w/ Jake Brownstein (Eggy), Dani Battat (Eggy), Alex Bailey (Eggy) – “Girlfriend Is Better” (Talking Heads) – 8/22/24
[Video: shinepigeon]
While Eggy has opened for Umphrey’s McGee on various occasions and drummer/vocalist Alex Bailey sat in with the band during Solshine Reverie 2024, this marked both Brownstein and Battat’s first times playing with UM. With six more Umphrey’s support slots on the docket for Eggy in August, we wouldn’t be surprised to see this Umphrey’s McEggy narrative continue to develop. Get more background on the still-growing Umphrey’s/Eggy connection in our recent feature, On Tour With Eggy: Waiting Game.
Umphrey’s McGee tour continues on Friday night at The Salt Shed in Chicago, IL with Eggy and Stolen Gin. For a full list of upcoming Umphrey’s tour dates, head here. For a full list of upcoming Eggy tour dates, head here. For a list of upcoming Stolen Gin tour dates, head here.
Fans can listen to a full-show recordings from the tour and access exclusive livestreams of upcoming Umphrey’s shows featuring support from Eggy by subscribing to nugs.net. [Editor’s Note: Live For Live Music is a nugs affiliate. Ordering your nugs subscription or purchasing a download via the links on this page helps support our coverage of the world of live music. Thank you for reading!]
Setlist [via allthings.umphreys]: Umphrey’s McGee | The Pageant | St. Louis, MO | 8/22/24
Set One: Get In The Van, Walletsworth, Always October > Ringo > Stanton [1] > Ringo, Night Nurse
Set Two: Attachments > Fenced In, Girlfriend is Better [2], Higgins, Slacker
Encore: The Floor
Notes: [1] first time played since 10/22/16 (593 shows); [2] Talking Heads cover, with Eggy’s Alex Bailey on drums, Jake Brownstein on guitar, and Dani Battat on keys.
Setlist [via thecarton.net]: Eggy | The Pageant | St. Louis, MO | 8/22/24
Set: Here and Now, Lost and Found > A Moments Notice, Coming Up [1], Watercolor Days, Fly Frederick Fly
Notes: [1] Paul McCartney cover; This was an opening set for Umphrey’s McGee.