Seeing as I'm way behind on reviews (work was nuts for a few months, no time for extracurricular writing), this will be short. However, there are some necessary points I gotta make about Umphrey's in general.
I've heard friends describe Umphrey's McGee as a band with "no soul", "no balls", and like "trying to eat an entire peanut butter sandwich without any milk to drink." I really couldn't disagree more. I see (and hear) Umphrey's as a band with meticulously crafted jams and solos that show off their technical flare. In fact, the more I hear them, the more I realize they would not exist without bands like God Street Wine, moe., and Ominous Seapods before them. There is a lot of Chuck Garvey in their sound. Umphrey's represent a generation of guys who grew up listening to Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Yngwie Malmsteen- but these dudes happened to form a jam band*. I don't think their music is "cold" or "soulless" at all, quite the opposite actually- rabidly serious musicians who always put on a solid and/or impressive show and have fun doing it. And the kids seem to love 'em.
This Nokia show was no exception. I met up with Hern, Lisa, Brittany, her roommie, & eventually Gullo, and Umphrey's rocked our faces off. The sound was solid, the guitars were screaming, the lights were killer (always are), and they blew the lid off of the Nokia.
In total- 9 HUZZAHS! Fucking great show. I heart Umphrey's McGee and will continue to see them despite the haters!
DL the show, betches: http://www.archive.org/details/um2009-04-11
* In fact, I guarantee you at least one of them owns the Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure soundtrack.
1 comment:
My first Umphrey's show and it was a lot of fun -- nice post!
Here are some of my pix:
www.flickr.com/photos/jgullo/tags/umphreys/
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