UM’s most rabid fans crave improvisation and they got a healthy dose of it by way of an exploratory, seemingly free-form jam in Ocean Billy, the 1348 > Hajimemashite > 1348 sandwich, and a huge version of fan favorite Wappy Sprayberry. As soon as lead singer Brendan Bayliss finished the first vocal section in Wappy, guitarist Jake Cinninger put down his axe and joined keyboard Joel Cummins for a major-key jam that had tinges of Latin Rock during which I couldn’t help but think, “this sounds a lot like Phish.”
For the encore, UM played a brief but strong rendition of dance-jam The Triple Wide before welcoming Galactic, who along with The Wailers, opened the show, for the event’s finale. Fans were asked to vote on what cover the two bands should collaborate on and the result was selecting two of the covers and creating an original mashup of Michael Jackson’s Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough and Jimi Hendrix’s Crosstown Traffic. It was a crowd-pleaser though UM has done such an incredible job with their straight cover of Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough, it felt like they were messing with perfection.
From all angles I would call UM’s first top-billed show at Red Rocks a rollicking success. The first 50 rows were mostly filled and the official word on attendance is 6,200 rumored to be just higher than the most recent Bisco Inferno featuring the Disco Biscuits with Booka Shade, The Crystal Method, and many others.
The following night’s two-set show at the sweaty Gothic Theater in Englewood, CO was a different type of show all together. The evening started an hour later than advertised, which wasn’t ideal considering I think I can speak for the majority of the folks in attendance that we all had a pretty late night the previous evening, and the street in front of The Gothic isn’t exactly Red Rocks, but all is always forgiven after another stellar performance.
Predictably the band came out with their a capella arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner, complete with multiple lighting cues by Jefferson Waful, quite possible the only Lighting Designer in the world who would carefully script a sequence for such an opener. UM has a few Fourth of July staples including Ringo (which lyrics mention the date) and Glory a triumphant instrumental that fits the spirit of the holiday. Both were played and there were numerous other references to what day it was by both Bayliss (a lyric change in Much Obliged to “Celebrate Independence Day”) and Cinninger just seemed to mention The 4th and Colorado as much as humanly possible.
While Red Rocks seemed to be UM putting their best-foot forward, The Gothic show seemed to rely far more on nostalgia, which made sense as the band first played The Gothic in 2001, one of their first shows in Colorado. It wasn’t all old school – the band played a few of their newest tunes including Conduit and an extended version on their work-in-progress The Linear. But the show was built around old-school sing-along anthems and the crowd responded in Much Obliged shouting, “Where does all this point to what will I find out?” and in FF “I want to runaway, to get up get out this town I think, I say we make no plans”. Rare older instrumentals were featured in the first set by way of the keyboard feature Kimble and Space Funk Booty – a tune Cinninger brought over from his previous band Ali Baba’s Tahini.
It was cover city in the second set starting with the opener of Lionel Richie’s All Night Long which featured Cinninger on additional percussion with drummer Kris Myers and percussionist Andy Farag. Bassist Ryan Stasik performed a brief ode to the holiday by way of God Bless America before dropping into the bass intro for August, yet another 1998 classic to make the setlist. The set closed with Farag stepping to the microphone in a rare moment of lead vocals for the bands first performance of Frank Zappa’s Dirty Love in almost three years. When Farag takes over lead vocals it is not a gimmick, he’s got a great voice and is always fully prepared for his rare moments in the spotlight.
The encore featured an energetic Bright Lights, Big City which dissolved into Cinninger screaming Marshall Tucker Band’s Can’t You See, one of the newest covers in the UM repertoire.
The two shows were a well-constructed showcase of both where the band is now and where they came from. UM 2010 is a well-oiled professional touring machine complete with a state-of-the-art light show and one of the best front-of-house sound engineers in the business. The band continues to churn out quality material and their musical improvisation continues to evolve – credit to the drummer Myers for continuing to lay back and allow just a little bit more space in the sextet’s sound. If back in 1998 you told the band that this is where they would be now, they might not believe you but be damn glad to find out it’s true.
Check out our full gallery of Mike Sherry’s photos from the weekend…
One Response
Too kind good sir, too kind.