Umphrey’s McGee Inspires Overused Terms “Heater” & “Epic” In Charlotte (SHOW REVIEW/PHOTOS)

Umphrey’s McGee roared into Charlotte on a roll, having just completed a watershed July 4th weekend at Red Rocks. The band seemed to be driven by the momentum of those spectacular shows, and they rode that energy into a short southern run through Alabama and South Carolina before winding up in Charlotte on a steamy Saturday night. By the time they left the stage of the Fillmore, the buzz among their devoted fans was nearly equal to the post-Red Rocks glow. Indeed, Charlotte was the kind of show that inspires use of often overused terms like “heater” and “epic”.

There were no bathroom songs during the two-set, two and a half hour affair, though one could be forgiven for picking a strategic mid-set moment to avoid the positively nightmarish setbreak bottleneck that is the Fillmore’s bathroom and smoking area. The first set went by in a blink and featured several breathtaking transitions between songs, along with a couple of noteworthy jams. “1348” opened up into a driving, gnarly rock segment before wafting off into “White Man’s Moccasins”. “Loose Ends” bled easily into “Resolution,” which birthed two separate and distinct explorations before dissolving into the drummed intro of “Similar Skin”. The always ghetto-tastic “Dump City” was a delight from the minute it began, quickly erupting with colorful, convoluted instrumental interplay and dramatic shifts in tempo and style. It never relented for over ten minutes before disintegrating into the song’s structured ending.

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“Spires” morphed into a particularly snarling jam before resolving in the majestic tones of “The Floor”, which closed the first set in gloriously brutal fashion. The band seemed in high spirits throughout. Jake Cinninger took the stage with a scream during the debut of a new intro, “Lord Bail Ship”, and there was a particularly playful band introduction after “Similar Skin”. The second set even began with some old school cricket calls from Cinninger. Musically, this was a sweaty, unhinged throwdown in the vein of UM shows of old. The crowd seemed divided between Umphrey’s diehards, music nerds hanging on every note, wobbling, chatty intoxicated people, and chatty people not old enough to drink. What the hell these people are talking about during lengthy, mind-bending “Jajunk” second set openers, we’ll never know.

How much of an Umphrey’s night was this? Brendan Bayliss acknowledged a couple who had just relocated to Charlotte, then, intentionally or not, sang the decidedly un-marital “The Bottom Half” – and the delicious transitions continued in earnest during set two. “The Bottom Half” enveloped both “Sweetness” and one of the night’s true benchmarks, a vivid rendering of “Cut The Cable” in its original form, languid and spidery, that eventually hooked back up with the thundering finale of “The Bottom Half”. “Red Tape” was divided by a rare performance of Radiohead’s “A Meeting In The Aisle”, and “Phil’s Farm” brought the room’s energy to a boiling point with a pulsating jam full of improbable guitar and bass solos before crashing back into the monstrous “1348” riff, forming a setlist sandwich around the entire show. After a timely encore of Pink Floyd’s “Time”, the still, sweaty southern night was filled with high fives and raves all around.

Umphrey’s McGee Setlist The Fillmore, Charlotte, NC, USA 2016, 2016 Summer Tour

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