Last night, Umphrey’s McGee kicked off a two-night run at The Fillmore in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with an absolute heater of a show. During the performance, the group invited Nicole Atkins out for the group’s debut of The Pretenders’ “Brass In The Pocket” and performed a number of special tunes, including busting out of the “Peter Gunn/Every Breath You Take” mash-up originally from The Sopranos.

Starting things off, the group opened the show with the one-two hit of “Miami Virtue” into a new tune, “Half Delayed”, off their recently released album, it’s not us. One of the major highlights of the night came early during a standalone “Der Bluten Kat” that rang in at close to thirty minutes. Not only was the song itself dialed in, but Umphrey’s used the well-loved tune as a vehicle for the “Peter Gunn Theme” (Henri Mancini) / “Every Step You Take” (The Police) mash-up jam originally from The Sopranos—a number the group hadn’t performed since February 9th, 2013, marking a gap of 490 shows.

After a take on “Example 1”, the band invited out Nicole Atkins for Umphrey’s debut of The Pretenders’ “Brass In The Pocket”. To close out the fiery first set, the band made an unusual decision to close out the first frame with another new song off it’s not us, “Maybe Someday”, marking the third time the song has been played live by the group.

Picking up right where they left off, Umphrey’s McGee returned for set two with an opening “Plunger”, which was jammed through nicely into “Den”. After a brief pause, the group hit “Make It Right”, which was dedicated to the band’s lighting director Jefferson Waful, given that he calls Philadelphia his hometown. From there, the band played “FF”, which saw Jake Cinninger take over on keys and Ryan Stasik shredding down on his knees, making for a climactic moment of set two.

Coming out of “FF” into “Rocker”, the band performed “Part 2” before landing in the set’s massive closer “Ocean Billy”. Umphrey’s take on “Ocean Billy” was particularly exceptional, with the group teasing “YYZ” by Rush and “Señor Mouse” by Chick Corea at points. Ending things on a high, the group returned with an encore of “Frankie Zombie”, yet another mash-up, which mixes White Zombie’s “Thunder Kiss ’65”  with Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Relax” [Frankie Goes to Hollywood] and Pink Floyd’s “Have A Cigar”.

You can check out the setlist from last night below, plus listen to full audio from the performance, courtesy of opsopcopolis.

Setlist: Umphrey’s McGee | The Fillmore | Philadelphia, PA | 1/26/2018

Set 1: Miami Virtue > Half Delayed, Der Bluten Kat > Peter Gunn / Every Breath You Take > Der Bluten Kat, Example 1, Brass In the Pocket[1], Maybe Someday

Set 2: Plunger > Den, Make It Right, FF[2] > Rocker Part 2, Ocean Billy[3]

Set 3: Frankie Zombie

[1] debut, The Pretenders; with Nicole Atkins on vocals
[2] with Jake on keys
[3] with YYZ (Rush) and Senor Mouse (Al Di Meola) teases

 

 

 

[Audio: opsopcopolis]

[Photo: Andrew Blackstein]