Umphrey’s Unveil Innovative Stew Art Series

Prog-jammers Umphrey’s McGee have always been an extremely fan-friendly act, but with the announcement of a new fan-driven experience called Stew Art – or S2 – the Chicago-based sextet is taking interacting with their fans to a whole new level. During S2 shows – which will be a completely different ticketed event than the regular Umphrey’s shows happening at the same venue – the band will improvise based on ideas the fans at this intimate event present to them using a variety of different communication mediums including text messaging and pre-written cue cards.

stew-art

Here’s the description of the Stew Art series from UM.com

you will kick out ideas, descriptive words, phrases, pop culture references . . . pretty much whatever comes to mind. These will be presented to the band who will compose jams on the fly based around those ideas, and ideas will be added to, changed, and deleted as the event progresses. For instance, a fan might toss out the phrase “frightened rabbit,” causing the band the play a frantic, nimble jam and after a period of time, the word “rabbit” might get changed to “brontosaurus” which would take the jam in a heavy, slower direction (though the word “frightened” is still in play). Then perhaps the word “skydiving” morphs the “frightened brontosaurus” jam into a soaring, powerful piece of music that evokes the feeling of being airborne . . . until the phrase “without a parachute” gets tacked on which changes the jam into something else entirely. And so on. No one will have any idea where the music is headed, well, and that’s all part of the fun.

The band hasn’t announced any S2 events just yet, but have revealed that all attendees will receive a custom laminate, an autographed CD of the Stew Art Series they attend minutes after the event has concluded, be given food & drinks and will be able to ask the band members questions as part of a Q&A session. We’ll be interested to see how much UM charges for what seems to be an epic opportunity for their fans. Umphrey’s join longtime friend Keller Williams tonight for a co-bill at The Depot in Salt Lake City.

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