The table was set for night two — Saturday night — to be the cherry on top of an already fantastic weekend. Umphrey’s delivered a top shelf show the first night of Milwaukee’s Beast without even breaking out a mashup. There was a palpable buzz in the air of Riverside Theatre, a collective sense of wonder about what in the hell they would come up with this time. After another great opening set from This Must Be The Band it Umphrey’s stage to dominate, and dominate they did.
Jake Cinninger aka Johnny Cash-ious Clay
While this night didn’t have the one monumental set like the first night, it had flashes of extreme brilliance studded throughout a very scientific setlist. The two sets on Friday were composed very differently, but if you look at the way the songs were arranged on the second night, you see a very deliberate construction. Both sets were anchored at the front and back with classic, heavy hitting songs: “Wappy Sprayberry” & “JaJunk” in the first set and “The Triple Wide” and (the end of) “All In Time” in the second. Each set featured a bustout (“Smell The Mitten” and “KaBump”), a well-placed texture gradient (“Loose Ends” and “Prowler”), an explosive jam (“Slacker” and “Mulche’s Odyssey”), and of course a mashup (“Life During Exodus” [Talking Heads/Bob Marley/Frank Zappa] and “Ace of Long Nights” [Motorhead/Ween]). The only major way that the sets differed was that the second set was longer thanks to two brutish rock songs (“Rocker pt II” and “Andy’s Last Beer”). It’s safe to say they covered all their bases and executed a very thoughtful & precise playlist.
Ryan Stasik aka Salvador Dali Parton
Jefferson Waful with the Most High Rastafari lighting scheme during “Life During Exodus”
Clearly there was a number of highlights throughout the whole thing. But the unquestioned bellcows of the show were the three mashups. The second set’s mashup of Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” and Ween’s “It’s Gonna Be A Long Night” was the most straightforward & rawk of the three and was a direct nod to the recent comments of Ween’s Aaron Freeman’s misguided (and misspelled) mention of ‘Umphries Mcgee bullshit.’ But the real magic resided in the two three-way mashups. These were no ordinary mashups, they were a two-way mashups with the third song masterfully weaved into the middle. “Life During Exodus” featuring Charlie Otto from TMBTB was a mash of Talking Heads “Life During Wartime” and Bob Marley’s “Exodus,” which was a brilliant combination of songs with bright energy. But somewhere along they way they slid into Frank Zappa’s “City of Tiny Lites” with uncanny grace. Wait, what? Uh huh… It’s kind of not even fair.
Kris Myers aka Elton John McEnroe
Then they came out in the encore with “Frankie Zombie,” arguably the best but definitely the weirdest of the three mashups. It began as Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Relax” but quickly fused with Rob Zombie’s “Thunder Kiss 65,” an unlikely combination if there ever was one. But, once again, they somehow transformed this mutant into yet another song when they veered into Pink Floyd’s “Have A Cigar,” which is the exact moment when a surprised/mind blown gasp washed over the crowd. There was that moment of hearing the impossible, of feeling something that has never happened before, experiencing live music as unique as it gets. No one — let me emphasize this: NO ONE — can do this the way that Umphrey’s does. Their mashups are in a league of their own and make EDM mashups seem like some kind of cheap impression of the true potential of this craft.
Andy Farag aka Luda-christ
All that and this show still wasn’t all about the mashups. Far from it. Each set ended with a monumental classic song that might wind up on the Hall of Fame 2012 album next year. The first set’s “JaJunk” featured an absolutely furious jam section, which may or may not have been a true Jimmy Stewart. At least it felt like one. This thing went far off the usual “JaJunk” trail and blazed a violent path straight up Shred Mountain. It climbed to ridiculous heights leading up to a peak that was downright seismic. This was the longest song of the whole weekend (surprisingly at just under 15 minutes) and was neck & neck with the “Bridgeless” jam from night one for jam of the weekend. Both were just absolutely en fuego.
Joel Cummins aka Nacho Liberace
But at the end of the day, the one thing that I will remember the most vividly from the Milwaukee’s Beast weekend was the second set closing reprise of “All In Time.” What they did with this song, a song they’ve played since the very beginning (well, it first appeared in their fourth show according to All Things Umphrey’s), was mind-boggling. They took a song we’ve all heard a million times and delivered it in a brand new way. Imagine that, playing a song 417 times over 14 years, and on the 418th time they say, “You know, how about we jam out that little part at the end that we’ve never touched before?” No one but Umphrey’s… It was the section right in between the second vocal part and the final ‘graduation’ composition. You know, that section you’ve always heard but never really heard. Well, this time, they took that section and let it grow, absorbing time & space like a sponge, elongating past any previous version. It was like there were these recognizable cells of sound that were the same, but the cytoplasm around each cell was thicker, making the whole organism seem to swell up. The recorded version of this doesn’t even fully do it justice. When this was happening live I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing. I stood there dropjawed and making weird/confused faces because I just didn’t know what else to do with myself. “AIT” has always been one of my favorite songs, so to hear them do this to it was absolutely remarkable. No. One. But. Umphrey’s.
Brendan Bayliss aka Jay ZZ Top
Well that’s it friends. That’s the whole story. And what an amazing weekend it was. The Riverside Theatre was the ideal place for a two-night Umphrey’s run (fantastic sound & sight lines, plenty of room for Waful to create a massive lightshow, a great beer selection, and relaxed security) and the band came through in every way. It’s really an awesome thing to be witnessing a band as powerful as this in such a well-oiled groove. If they were in the Major Leagues, 2012 would be like a 45-game hitting streak with a batting average right near .400 They have been locked in all year and this pair of shows was an undeniable cornerstone of Umphrey’s McGee’s game in 2012.