As owners to keys of the city, frequent visiting neighbors from the south, and masterminds behind several epic and historic concerts played in Madison, Wisconsin, Umphrey’s McGee did something that few bands get the privilege of doing when playing in Madison—they christened a brand-spankin’-new venue. The newly constructed Sylvee, barely a week old, can now be added to the list of 40-plus concerts Umphrey’s McGee has played in Madison over their twenty-year career.

Colorado jamtronica act Sunsquabi opened the show. Although the crowd slowly trickled in over the course of their set, they made sure to put on a good show for those who were in attendance. By the time Umphrey’s took the stage to open the show with “Tango Mike”, the audience has filled up. Interestingly enough, the show featured a lot more instrumentals like “Miss Tinkle’s Overture”, “Blue Echo,” “Tribute to the Spinal Shaft”, “Triple Wide”, and “Wizard Burial Ground” than songs than lead vocalist Brendan Bayliss actually sings. His voice shined on “Words” and “Much Obliged,” but apart from those he wasn’t featured heavily in the mix.

“Tango Mike”

The copious amount of instrumentals allowed for the band to do plenty of jamming. “Blue Echo”, a song that is always stretched out, featured some of the tastiest improvisation of the night. The second set had a pretty neat “Much Obliged” that went in a couple distinct directions but eventually segued into the speed metal of “Wizard Burial Ground.” It was a fun transistion, especially considering how different the two songs are. The band capped the night off with a fun but straight-forward cover of the Pink Floyd classic “Breathe”, which had both the dub portion and the regular portion. Next up, Umphrey’s moves onto Chicago for the third and final night of the Big Weekend event, which spans multiple venues throughout the city.

You can check out a gallery of photos from Umphrey’s McGee’s show last night at Madison, Wisconsin’s newly opened Sylvee below, courtesy of Daniel Ojeda.

Setlist: Umphrey’s McGee | The Sylvee | Madison, WI | 10/5/2018

Set I (8:16): Tango Mike > Miss Tinkle’s Overture, Words -> Blue Echo > What We Could Get, Tribute to the Spinal Shaft > Push and Pull, JaJunk (9:30)

Set II (10:02): Looks, The Triple Wide > Daffodils, It Doesn’t Matter [1] > Much Obliged [2] > Wizard Burial Ground (11:10)

E (11:15): Breathe [3] (11:24)

[1] Proverbial jam
[2] unfinished
[3] Dub Version