Photo by Jeremy Smith
UMPHREY'S McGEE - Brooklyn Bowl, Sept. 8, 2011
by Jim Testa
Better than: Listening to your uncle's old Grateful Dead
records while nibbling KFC
Let me be perfectly upfront about this: When the press
invite came to check out Umphrey's McGee at Brooklyn Bowl,
it proved to be a perfect storm of serendipitous circumstances:
I felt like going out, I had nothing else to do that night,
and the event included complimentary fried chicken and sides.
It turned out that Brooklyn Bowl's famous Blue Ribbon fried
chicken is way too salty; but the music turned out to be
a real treat.
I had always been vaguely aware of Umphrey's McGee as a
jam band that had successfully copied the Grateful Dead's
template for success: Tour all the time, change set lists
every show, build a loyal fan base, let your fans bootleg
and trade your shows, and enjoy a long, successful career
without bothering much about record sales, radio play, or
good reviews.
But I didn't realize that the Chicago-based sextet has
been around over 13 years, released a dozen full lengths,
or had the kind of fan base that would allow it to sell
out four consecutive nights at a huge venue like Brooklyn
Bowl in the heart of hipster Williamsburg. Nor did I expect
a "jam band" to blow me away. Ask anybody; I hate
jam bands. Always have.
Umphrey's McGee I liked.
Umphrey's McGee has at its core an improvisational element
- the band calls its jammy excursions "Jimmy Stewarts"
- but these aren't burnt out folkies; the band mixes funky
grooves and sinewy solos with full-blown synthesizer-fueled
progressive-rock in the style of Yes or Pink Floyd. And
they travel with their own light show that perfectly accentuates
their psychedelic leanings. Crazy guitar solos, sci-fi synth
parts, and funky percussion combine in an unlikely but hugely
captivating fusion, and the band's huge repertoire makes
each show an event. I suspect that quite a few audience
members at the show I saw attended all
Brooklyn Bowl crowds tend to be pretty predictable: Lots
of hipster dudes in fedoras and ironic haircuts (or beards
and flannel) and their girlfriends, everybody in the room
between the ages of 19 and 29. But Umphrey's McGee's crowd
was both surprisingly diverse (a complete mix of ages, from
teens to gray-haired seniors, and all varieties of dress)
and yet almost laughably predictable. You could scan the
packed audience area in front of the stage for ten minutes
before finding a single female face. Young, old, and in-between,
it was; but it was also at least 90% male. I mention that
sociologically, not pejoratively, by the way; it just seemed
a curious phenomenon. Both jam bands and prog-rock have
historically appealed to more guys than girls, but Umphrey's
McGee even more so.
Many of those dudes, I suspect, bought tickets for all
four nights; like Phish or the Dead, Umphrey's McGee audiences
seem unable to get enough of their heroes. The band played
two lengthy sets on each of its four night residency and
probably didn't repeat more than a handful of songs; at
the show I attended, they introduced one young woman in
the crowd who was seeing her 100th show. I suspect she wasn't
alone.
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