Umphrey’s McGee-Red Hat Amphitheater—Mike Dillon Band-The Pour House Music Hall, Raleigh, NC, 8/25/13

As the late-summer co-headlining tour of Umphrey’s McGee and STS9 progressed, the Umphrey’s setlists seemed to grow ever more appealing each night. By the time the band rolled into Raleigh’s Red Hat Amphitheater on a superbly mild Sunday, the six-piece rock juggernaut had hit their stride. With masterful song selection from their gigantic catalogue of originals, they doled out a hammering hundred-minute set that was only constrained by time. When the show abruptly ended at 10:30, the crowd was actually begging for more.

Earlier in the evening, STS9 embarked on a gliding, mostly monotonous ride through their signature dance and trance-influenced sound. Throughout their set, lengthy lines radiated from the box office and attendees casually made their way inside – a clear indication that Umphrey’s was the main draw. Just after sunset, Umphrey’s made their way to the haze-shrouded stage, offered a foreboding new instrumental intro, dove into the jubilant “Bright Lights Big City,” and wasted little time in stretching out. Though the average “Bright Lights” jam was hardly the best this band has to offer, it was a fearless start to a show that featured several large improvisational sections. “Prowler” followed “Bright Lights” and dropped niftily into “The Bottom Half,” a song the band plays frequently but of which fans never seem to tire. The Raleigh version’s glorious Jake Cinninger-led jam aside, it’s easy to see why it’s a favorite – the song does have a propensity to appear at big transitional moments (such as the end of “Prowler”) and to envelop other tunes, as it did with “Final Word” on this night.

um2Along with the juxtaposition of newer songs (“You Got The Wrong Guy”, “Final Word”, “Crucial Taunt”) and career-defining classics (“40’s Theme”, “The Bottom Half”, “Hurt Bird Bath”), the band varied their instrumental indulgences. The always unpredictable “Hurt Bird Bath” opened up into a 16-minute exploration of dub, dance, metal, and more, while the show’s best segment featured a rapid-fire song progression. Vocals were prevalent through “Mantis,” the frantic “Crucial Taunt,” “40’s Theme,” and a monstrous “Miami Virtue” that led back into the emotive final section of “Mantis”. The pummeling, invigorating, completely over-the-top encore of “Wizard Burial Ground” made this set feel even more like a full show. Still, many late-night options were available to the dispersing crowd, the most intriguing of which was another envelope-pushing, genre-twisting band.

For a few of Raleigh’s most devoted music lovers, Mike Dillon Band is a can’t-miss show, and this set at The Pour House Music Hall turned out to be particularly memorable. To try and describe the band is a laughable endeavor, unless logjams of words and genres are your thing. Dillon himself uses the phrase “electronic vibraphonic gogo punk funk rock jazz,” but even that doesn’t convey the humor, creativity, and musicianship the quartet displays. A standard set involves dueling vibraphones, lightning punk riffs, hilarious and disturbing lyrics, effected trombone, multiple percussion breakdowns, and tabla solos – and that’s just the first hour.

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Just before midnight, Umphrey’s McGee drummer Kris Myers appeared and enjoyed a front-row spot for the aforementioned tabla solo, then sprung onto the stage for a couple of tunes. Some Umphrey’s fans may not realize that Myers was a jazz beast well before he began to rock nationwide. He easily found a groove with Dillon, bassist Patrick McDevitt, and multi-instrumentalist Carly Meyers, and a palate-cleansing jazz number from Dillon’s repertoire inspired multiple instances of improvisation. Dillon and Myers did some face-to-face percussion thrashing that eventually led to the rest of the players banging on things as well. When the song wound to a close, Myers got up as if to leave, but Dillon put him on the spot and talked him into doing one more. The rhythmic masters grinned their way through more exhilarating sounds, treating a few dozen lucky night owls to an unforgettable Monday morning. 8 straight hours of music and multiple options made for a fine mini-festival atmosphere in downtown Raleigh.

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