Briefly: The Return of Stew Art

Umhprey’s McGee’s innovative Stew Art Series, aka S2, returns after taking the summer off at Minglewood Hall in Memphis on Friday, September 24th. Over the course of the fall the band will perform three additional S2 events on dates and at locations that will be announced in the coming weeks. As a refresher, here’s some background on what Stew Art is all about from DaveO’s fabulous review of one of the first S2 events…

S2 is an hour-long session – this one was closer to 75 minutes – with 50 fans who buy tickets and the members of UM and their crew. There is a giant projection screen visible to both the band and those in the audience and the attendees are encouraged to use their cell phones to text in themed suggestions. The texts arrive on UM sound caresser Kevin Browning’s laptop and he decides what gets put up on the screen for the next section of music. There were four sections of improv – containing between 9-12 themes – with short Q&As between featuring questions from the audience.

Tickets, which run $99, go on sale this Friday via the band’s website at 12PM EDT. If past events are any indication, tix will sell out quickly.