Umphrey’s McGee to Make moe.down Return

Written by on 04.05.2012 | Festivals, moe., News, Umphrey's McGee

The first round of artists set to perform at moe.down 13 at Snow Ridge Ski Area in Turin, New York on August 10 – 12 have been announced and there’s a familiar name involved as Umphrey’s McGee will make their fourth appearance at moe.’s annual festival. Ever since the first one in 2000, moe. has done a good job of varying the moe.down lineup each year. It’s rare that bands get asked a second time, let alone a third but Umphrey’s McGee is a special circumstance.

Rebubula, a classic moe. song, was one of the first covers Umphrey’s ever played back in 1998. In 2002, UM guitarist Brendan Bayliss lived out a dream when he performed Rebubula with moe. at the first Bonnaroo. Since then, the two jam scene staple, have gone on to co-headline the Summer Camp Music Festival each Memorial Day weekend. Bayliss had high praise when asked about the moe. for a Relix Magazine feature, “I really can’t stress enough how instrumental moe. has been in my career. I’ve met a lot of musicians and there’s nobody like those guys when it comes to being down-to-earth people not caught up in the rock star bullshit. They’re content with what they’ve created and how they’ve done it, and they should be.”

Umphrey’s last appeared at moe.down in 2009, which followed previous sets at moe.down 7 in 2006 and moe.down 4 in 2003. Buffalo prog-rockers Aqueous, who cite both moe. and Umphrey’s as influences, fellow Upstaters Timbre Coup and reggae act SOJA round out the short list of acts that made up the first round of moe.down 13 artists. Tickets are on sale now for $120.

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Bear Creek Festival 2012 Initial Lineup: Umphrey’s McGee, Budos Band, Soulive, Lettuce, PGroove, Lotus, Break Science

Written by on 03.22.2012 | Bear Creek, Festivals, News

Bear Creek is one of those festivals where everyone who attends comes back raving about what a great time they had and what a spiritual experience they had musically. Not only do attendees come back, but each November more bands enter the “Bear Creek Family” and win invites year after year. The 2012 edition of the Bear Creek Music & Arts Festival will take place on November 8 – 11 at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida and this afternoon the initial lineup has been revealed.

All in all, 28 acts have been announced today and eight of those acts will play two sets – Umphrey’s McGee, Lettuce, Perpetual Groove, MarchForth Marching Band, The Heavy Pets, Headtronics, Bright Lights Social Hour, Moon Taxi and Jonathan Scales & Fourthestra. While Bear Creek is a festival known for bring back core artists year after year, surprisingly only ten of the acts confirmed today are repeat performers. Considering event promoters add bands throughout the year, you can expect plenty of Bear Creek Family bands at Live Oak once the lineup is finalized.

Here’s the list of confirmed acts…

Umphrey’s McGee (x2), Soulive, Lotus, Budos Band, Lettuce (x2), Perpetual Groove (x2), Bobby Rush, MarchFourth Marching Band (x2), Break Science, Digital Tape Machine, The Heavy Pets (x2), Zoogma, Headtronics (DJ Logic, Steve Molitz, Freekbass) (x2), Bright Lights Social Hour (x2), Charles Walker & The Dynamites, Ike Stubblefield & Friends, Grant Green Jr. & Friends, Khris Royal & Dark Matter, Moon Taxi (x2), Jonathan Scales & Fourthestra (x2), The Mantras, The Werks, String Arrangement, Flannel Church, Beeb’s & Her Moneymakers, Thomas Wynn & The Believers, Scholar’s Word, Kaleigh Baker

Early-bird tickets are currently on sale through the festival’s website.

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9/14: Umphrey’s McGee & Railroad Earth @ Red Rocks

Written by on 03.11.2012 | News, Railroad Earth, Umphrey's McGee

HT faves Umphrey’s McGee and Railroad Earth will team up to play the gorgeous Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado on September 14. The show was announced from stage by keyboardist Joel Cummins during Umphrey’s sold-out performance at Denver’s Fillmore Auditorium this past Friday night. Cummins also mentioned that Umphrey’s will play two sets at Red Rocks.

[via NickMo]

Umphrey’s history with Red Rocks goes back to 2005, when they played the venue twice as part of The Big Summer Classic. The sextet returned the next summer for a co-bill with moe. on June 3, 2006 and again on August 31, 2008 for a lengthy set in support of Gov’t Mule. For the past two summers Umphrey’s has headlined Red Rocks during the Fourth of July Weekend for concerts billed as Red Rocks and Blue. On July 3, 2010 The Wailers and Galactic opened for UM, while The New Mastersounds and Easy Star All-Stars were on as support for the Chicago-based band’s only two-set performance at Red Rocks to date. Railroad Earth made their Red Rocks debut on September 5, 2009 as openers for the Allman Brothers Band and returned on August 20, 2011 with Infamous Stringdusters and Yonder Mountain String Band. Ticketing information has not been revealed as of press time.

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Umphrey’s Debuts Two Classic Rock Covers in Midwest

Written by on 02.19.2012 | News, Umphrey's McGee

Prog-jammers Umphrey’s McGee’s first tour of 2012 reached the Midwest this weekend for performances at the LC Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio on Friday and at The Fillmore in Detroit last night. At each show the band unveiled a new classic rock cover that they had never played before – the Blue Oyster Cult 1981 hit Burnin’ For You in Columbus and the fitting Detroit Rock City by KISS in Motown.

[via Justin Wendt of Oh Kee Pah Blog]

Friday night’s performance also featured the first UM version of Red by King Crimson since October 8, 2009. Umphrey’s first started playing the Robert Fripp-penned instrumental at a Vegoose Late Night show in Las Vegas in 2005 and Red was performed along with King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew at three out of the four gigs at which he guested in March 2007. Red was inserted in the middle of Nemo to form Friday’s encore.

Last night at The Fillmore, Umphrey’s welcomed Nicholas Gerlach of opening band Twin Cats on sax for their second-ever cover of Maneater by Hall & Oates. UM first performed Maneater on Dec. 30, 2011 with Jeff Coffin. Earlier this year, guitarist Brendan Bayliss and bassist Ryan Stasik tackled a more swampy version of Maneater with John Oates as part of The Omega Moos’ set on Jam Cruise 10. Detroit Rock City (crappy video here) was debuted to start the encore and led into the finish of a Nothing Too Fancy that was started during the first set. The Midwest Run and the first full tour of 2012 ends tonight for Umphrey’s at The Canopy Club in Urbana, Ill. While the show is sold out, you can watch a webcast live (or the archived version any time for the next six month) for $9.99 through iClips.

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Review: Jake and Brendan Acoustic Christmas Show

Written by on 12.14.2011 | Reviews, Umphrey's McGee

Jake Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss @ Park West, December 10

Words and Images: Charles Izenstark

In the season of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, one day that many Chicago music fans always look forward to is the day of Brendan Bayliss and Jake Cinninger’s annual acoustic holiday show. Year after year, the Umphrey’s McGee guitarists always manage to assemble a number of special guests to help them celebrate the holiday season and raise money for a charitable cause. This year’s effort (as well as the pre-show Umphrey’s McGee “garage sale”) benefited the People’s Music School, a Chicago institution that provides music education to Chicago area children.Fittingly, the evening began with their children’s chorus singing the Beatles’ chestnut Octopus’s Garden and the holiday classic Christmas Time is Here before the stage was surrendered to Jake and Brendan.

Seated on a couch in front of a Christmas tree (and a menorah), Brendan set the tone for the evening by announcing that this was his second favorite night of the year, second only to the night before when he and Jake get to commune and figure out what songs to work up. The duo then quickly launched into a trio of original tunes (Sweetness, Water and August) that served to loosen them up before they were joined on stage by Steve Krojniewski (drummer from Umphrey’s precursor/Cinninger side project Ali Baba’s Tahini) and Mike Rackey (pedal steel player from Chicago based band Davenport Ed), for three tunes including the Bob Seger classic Travelin’ Man.

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Summer Camp 2012: Umphrey’s, moe., Primus, Weir / Robinson / Greene Trio, Gogol Bordello, Cornmeal, Victor Wooten

Written by on 12.09.2011 | Festivals, News, Summer Camp

One of the first initial artist announcements for the 2012 Summer Music Festival Season came out today from the Summer Camp Music Festival organizers. Over the past few days they’ve given their Facebook and Twitter followers a sneak peek at what to expect courtesy of a series of “leaks.” The Summer Camp Music Festival is set to return to Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, Illinois on May 25 – 27.

As always, Umphrey’s McGee and moe. will co-headline the festivities, with each band set to perform each of the event’s three days. Les Claypool will return to Summer Camp in 2012, this time with Primus in tow. Last August saw the debut of a new trio from Grateful Dead/Furthur’s Bob Weir, Jackie Greene and Black Crowes lead singer Chris Robinson. The trio has yet to play a second gig, but unless they play before May that second show for the trio will take place at Summer Camp according to a post on Robinson’s Facebook page.

World music greats Ozomatli, Summer Camp vets Family Groove Company, local faves Brainchild, dubsteppers Positive Vibr8ions, bluegrass-rockers Cornmeal, Irish descendant band Flogging Molly, gypsy punk act Gogol Bordello, bass player extraordinaire Victor Wooten, HT faves Greensky Bluegrass, Americana/bluegrass group Infamous Stringdusters, roots act Hot Buttered Rum, DJ Solo, Spankalicious, The Giving Tree Band and singer-songwriter Chicago Farmer are also set to perform in Chillicothe over Memorial Day Weekend. “Not So Early Bird” tickets are on sale now for $160.

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Cover Wars: You Can’t Always Get What You Want (The Rolling Stones)

Written by on 11.30.2011 | Cover Wars, Editor's Choice, Features, Rolling Stones

Originally published in July of 2009, we revisit the You Can’t Always Get What You Want Cover Wars with recent renditions from Umphrey’s McGee and the cast of Glee.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want is the closing track on the 1969 Rolling Stones album Let It Bleed. There are some very interesting quotes regarding the drumming on this track included in the book According to the Rolling Stones, you can see the page in question over at Google Books.

Cover Wars

The Contestants:

Artist: Aretha Franklin
Album: Love All The Hurt Away
The Skinny:

This cover comes off a 1981 Aretha Franklin album that universally gets bad to lukewarm reviews. The arrangement is very 80′s. Still, it’s worth a couple minutes to hear the Queen Of Soul sing lead on this tune.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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Umphrey’s Releases New Video & DVD

Written by on 11.22.2011 | News, Umphrey's McGee, Videos

In 1987 the Grateful Dead unveiled a clever video for Touch of Grey that helped propel the song to into the Top 10 of the Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and won the band an influx of fans. Five years later the Spin Doctors catapulted into the mainstream thanks in part to videos for Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong and Two Princes. Since that time the format hasn’t exactly been embraced by improv-based rock bands. For instance, HT faves Umphrey’s McGee will celebrate their 14th anniversary in January and they’ve never put out an “official” music video…until today.

The Chicago-based rockers teamed up with director Travis Rime Brooks to create a visual look at the Death By Stereo track Booth Love. Guitarist Brendan Bayliss told Thomas Conner of the Chicago Sun-Times, who debuted the video on his Via Chicago blog, “In the past, we never had the right concept to go with any of the songs we had considered. We didn’t want it to be cheesy or lame, and we wanted a video to really compliment the composition. Finally, we have the right song and the right visual to go along with it. ‘Booth Love’ is a sexy tune, and I think the video is pretty sexy, too.”

Let’s see if you agree…

Umphrey’s McGee – Booth Love

In other UM news, the group has also announced details of their first DVD release since 2007.

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Halloween Video Assortment – Widespread Panic, Wilco, Ween, Motet, MMW w/ Antibalas, Umphrey’s, 7 Walkers w/ Weir & Hart

Once again we’ve got an all-video edition of Intermezzo as we highlight some of the memorable moments that took place both on Halloween and over this past weekend.

Let’s start with Z-Man’s video of Widespread Panic covering Outta Mind (Outta Sight) from the encore of the jam titan’s Halloween show along with Postcard, Porch Song and a fun version of Werewolves of London featuring the entire crew…

Widespread Panic – Outta Mind (Outta Sight), Postcard, Porch Song, Werewolves of London

LazyLightning55 gives us our fill of HalloWeen with this Goin’ Gets Tough From The Getgo from Ween’s show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City…

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Hauntlanta: Umphrey’s Delivers at Marathon Mash-up Fest

Written by on 10.30.2011 | News, Reviews, Umphrey's McGee

Four hours after kicking off the second of two Halloween-themed performances at The Tabernacle in Atlanta with one of their signature Jazz Odyssey jams, improg rockers Umphrey’s McGee left the stage having just completed two momentous sets and encores to a booming roar from an appreciative crowd that was so loud it was even noticeable through the webcast. Granted the 72 hour rule is still in effect, but last night’s show should rank among the best of the year (and possibly of their career) thanks to a relentless setlist, flawless execution and the best batch of mash-ups the Chicago-based sextet has come up with since starting the tradition in 2008.

[via @UmphreysMcGee]

The first set saw the band offer treats from nearly every period of their career, with a focus on material Jake brought to Umphrey’s from Ali Baba’s Tahini (40′s Theme, Mulche’s Odyssey and Padgett’s Profile). An extended version of one of their newest songs, the Death By Stereo opener Miami Virtue was the improvisational highlight of the set until Umphrey’s delivered a beautiful, soaring jam out of The Haunt. And about that Haunt, UM finally gave the fans what they wanted by playing the “OG” version of the tune instead of the “rock” version they’ve been performing for the past four years. Addicted to Kiss, a spot-on mash-up of Kiss by Prince, Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love and Genesis’s I Can’t Dance closed the set, complete with the band’s wives, girlfriends and friends dancing on stage dressed up as the ladies from Palmer’s iconic music videos.

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Umphrey’s McGee – Hajimemashite: Fuji Rock Festival

Each day this week we’ve been presenting a different version of the Umphrey’s McGee classic Hajimemashite to show the evolution of the tune over the years. We started with a studio take recorded by Brendan Bayliss and Ryan Stasik’s pre-UM band Tashi Station on Monday and continued yesterday with a version from Umphrey’s first live album Songs For Older Women. Today, we present our first of two Haj videos, with this one coming from the group’s only performance in Japan at the 2006 Fuji Rock Festival.

[Photo from stage during Hajimemashite]

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Umphrey’s McGee – Hajimemashite: Songs For Older Women

We’re showing the evolution of Umphrey’s McGee’s Hajimemashite by sharing one version from throughout the last 14 years each day this week.

Yesterday, we presented an early version of Hajimemashite from 1997 that was recorded by Brendan Bayliss and Ryan Stasik’s pre-Umphrey’s band Tashi Station. When Umphrey’s was formed in 1998, Haji was one of the first tunes to make the repertoire. “It was the first song we wrote together, so we we’re probably playing it within the first few months of the band,” said Bayliss. When Umphrey’s got their hands on Haji they changed it in a big way. “The original was 15 minutes of garbage that wrapped around this little vocal section in the middle. What you hear now is what we kept…we had to throw the rest of it away…trust me,” Bayliss continued.

By the Fall of ’98 Umphrey’s was ready to put together their first live album. Songs For Older Women was recorded live at the Madison Street Oyster Bar over two nights. Umphrey’s crew member Kevin Browning fondly remembers those performances, “The Oyster Bar was our home away from home back then, playing for $3 a head at the door and all the Amber Bock we could drink. This was truly our first live album, well before the days of affordable CD burners and nightly UMLives. The band usually just set up on the floor but for this red carpet occasion, we rented a stage that was a whopping 18″ high & I used a bar riser to elevate the sound board. Fancy stuff.”

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Picture Show: Umphrey’s @ Brooklyn Bowl

Written by on 09.13.2011 | Reviews, Umphrey's McGee

Last week, Chicago-based improv-rockers Umphrey’s McGee threw down eight memorable sets at the Brooklyn Bowl and also made the most of their time in the Big Apple by performing at a number of promotional shows as well. While we’ve told you about Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 of Umphrey’s Big Adventure, we wanted to give a brief recap of Friday’s finale and share a set of amazing photos taken by HT’s Jeremy Smith.

[All photos by Jeremy Smith]

Friday started for Umphrey’s with an hour-long set at the Apple Store in Soho. While you’d expect this promotional appearance to be chock full of songs from a band’s new album, UM did a great job of mixing in classic material and even a tune from Brendan Bayliss’s 30db side project. For the final song of Umphrey’s set, Booth Love, guitarist Brendan Bayliss directed his band mates using Apple’s Face Time product. Check out this cool jam…

Umphrey’s McGee – Booth Love

After the Apple Store gig, it was back to Brooklyn Bowl for the band, who littered their last two sets with high-octane jams and some of their most beloved songs such as a 20+ minute Divisions and an All In Time that explored multiple jam spaces. There were also covers of Hot For Teacher by Van Halen, The Who’s Eminence Front and a solo bass version of America The Beautiful. For the first encore, Umphrey’s snuck the chorus of TLC’s ’90s smash Waterfalls into Front Porch for the first time in over a decade.

Set I (8:52) UmBowl II Intro> Prowler> Words, All In Time> Push The Pig^, Nemo, Pay The Snucka> Hot For Teacher, Wizard Burial Ground(10:03)

Set II (10:38) Divisions> “Jimmy Stewart”> Divisions, Bridgeless^^, Eminence Front, Hurt Bird Bath, America The Beautiful*, Soul Food I-> 1348(11:47)

Encore (11:50) Front Porch> Waterfalls^^^> Front Porch (12:00)
Encore II (12:03) All In Time (12:08)

^ So What Teases
^^ Crazy Train Teases
* Stasik Only
^^^ Chorus Only

[via The Bort]

Photographer Jeremy Smith was on hand to capture the action on the 8th and the 9th and he turned in a stunning batch of photos, including many featuring Thursday’s guests Biz Markie and Steve Molitz.

READ ON for more of Jeremy’s outstanding photos…

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The Biz and the McGee: Umphrey’s @ Brooklyn Bowl – Night Three

Written by on 09.09.2011 | Umphrey's McGee, Videos

Last week, we posted a B List of 10 Oddball Musical Pairings that included the likes of Phish and Jay-Z as well as Bing Crosby and David Bowie. If we ever do a second list, we’ll have to put Umphrey’s McGee and Biz Markie on it, since the Yo Gabba Gabba star/Just A Friend rapper thrilled the crowd at Brooklyn Bowl by covering The Joker by the Steve Miller Band with the Chicago prog-jammers as his backing band.

YouTube Preview Image

Umphrey’s McGee w/ Biz & Steve Molitz – The Joker, Hangover

Biz’s appearance capped off another busy day for the sextet as their four-show Brooklyn Bowl run rolled on. The action started in the afternoon for the first NYC Stew Art event, which took place on the tenth anniversary of “Jimmy Stewart.” Then, Umphrey’s played two rocking sets for a sold-out crowd that included blistering jams in Tribute to the Spinal Shaft and Red Tape as well as covers of Live and Let Die by Wings and Pink Floyd’s Shine On You Crazy Diamond. One of the highlights of the night was a “Jimmy Stewart” complete with ad-libbed lyrics by Brendan Bayliss in the middle of The Bottom Half.

Set One:
(8:27) Nipple Trix > Booth Love* > Miss Tinkle’s Overture, Morning Song, Room to Breathe, Tribute to the Spinal Shaft, Mantis Ghetts > Live and Let Die (9:31)

Set Two:
(10:03) Red Tape > “Jimmy Stewart” > Puppet String, Ocean Billy > Gulf Stream, The Bottom Half > “Jimmy Stewart”** > The Bottom Half, Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Encore: The Joker^, Hangover^^

Notes:
* with One Nation Under a Groove jam; and bras and panties
** with lyrics
^ first time played, Steve Miller; with Biz Markie on vocals and Steve Molitz on keys
^^ with Steve Molitz on keys

[via Jeremy Welsh on The Bort]

Markie, who was set to DJ after Umphrey’s left the stage, joined the band for their debut of The Joker along with Particle keyboardist Steve Molitz. Biz clearly was comfortable with the Steve Miller Band cover (the idea of which came to Brooklyn Bowl owner Pete Shapiro in a dream) and you would’ve thought UM had been performing the classic rock nugget for years. Molitz stayed out for the celebratory Hangover which put a stamp on the festivities.

Next up for Umphrey’s McGee is an hour-long set at the Apple Store in Soho at 5PM this evening followed the Brooklyn Bowl finale, which will be simulcast live on Sirius/XM’s Jam_ON radio.

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Umphrey’s in NYC: A Busy Day Two

Written by on 09.08.2011 | Umphrey's McGee

In one of the most active days in Umphrey’s McGee history, the HT faves performed at three different venues over the course of about 12 hours yesterday. The action started in midtown Manhattan, where the sextet taped a short set for CBS Radio’s Street Date that will appear on the site soon. Next up was a special “stripped-down” performance and Q&A over at Livestream’s studios, which you can see right here…

Finally, Umphrey’s returned to Brooklyn Bowl for their second of four shows this week. As part of the promotion for UM’s new album, Death By Stereo, the group has given fans the chance to name one of their repeated “Jimmy Stewart” segments and night two kicked off with one of those fan-named instrumentals, Catshot. Whereas Tuesday night’s show focused on rock, last night’s first set was dance-centric, with groovy jams in both Sociable Jimmy and Wappy Sprayberry. Umphrey’s worked in a cover of the rarely played (20th ever and only the sixth in the past five years) I’ve Got A Feeling towards the end of the set and delivered a near note-for-note rendition of The Beatles’ Let It Be track.

Set I (8:49) CatShot#> Wife Soup, Sociable Jimmy> Forks, Go To Hell, Wappy Sprayberry> I’ve got a Feeling, Cemetery Walk I (9:55)

Set II (10:28) Cemetery Walk II, Resolution*> Hajimemashite, Miami Virtue**, JaJunk, Andys Last Beer, Plunger> I’m on Fire> Plunger(11:43)

Encore (11:46) The Fussy Dutchman> Waiting Room(11:57)
Encore II (12:00) The Song Remains The Same (12:07)

#Fan Named Jazz Odyssey, Similar to Atlanta 02/19/2009
* Roundabout Teases
** First Time Played

[via The Bort]

Creatively, set one ended with Cemetery Walk I and set two started with Cemetery Walk II. One of the jams in CWII was based on The Police’s Demolition Man and found guitarist Jake Cinninger ripping into one fiery run of notes after another. The venue’s owner, Pete Shapiro, was celebrating his birthday, so the band dedicated the second set to him and filled the closing stanza with prog-heavy material including JaJunk, Andy’s Last Beer and Plunger. The best jams of the night were found in Resolution and the sextet faked out the crowd by working the song’s end jam into Roundabout before starting the anthemic Hajimemashite. Death By Stereo’s first single, Miami Virtue, saw its debut last night and while the polarizing tune stuck close to the album version, there’s all sorts of room for the band to blow this song out eventually.

Following a first encore of the instrumental Fussy Dutchman into a cover of Fugazi’s Waiting Room, Umphrey’s welcomed Shapiro to the stage. Pete requested Zeppelin and the band obliged by throwing down a Song Remains The Same second encore. There’s still two nights left for Umphrey’s McGee at Brooklyn Bowl. Today’s action starts with a Stew Art event in the afternoon and …

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