Halloween Treats Around The Neighborhood

Umphrey’s McGee – Mash-Ups, The Pageant, St. Louis, MO, 10/31/2010

Umphrey’s McGee orchestrated another year of their cleverly themed Halloween, whereby they treat fans with a variety of mash-ups musically as well as via their costume selections. Andy dressed as G.I. Joakim Noah, Brendan was Yoko Bono, Jake tackled the Paul Stanley Cup, Joel did Pope John Paul Shaffer, Kris was Larry David Letterman, and Ryan attempted Dr. Evel Knievel.

In terms of the musical mash-ups, my personal favorite of the evening was the Don’t Stop Believin’ mixed up with Rush’s Spirit of the Radio. Check out this fan-shot video of this fantastic mash-up…

Another highlight, came with the combination of Phoenix’s big hit 1901 with arguably the greatest song of all time, Van Halen’s Jump, and Cee Lo’s Fuck You mixed in for good measure. Here’s 1901 Jump Fuck You from the iClips webcast of Umphrey’s Halloween performance…

Gov’t Mule – Baba O’Riley,  Fox Theatre, Oakland, CA, 10/30/10

The Mule of course took it deep for their Halloween show, tackling the classic album by The Who, Who’s Next, in their first set. They also sprinkled lots of gems in the second set like  a St. Stephen jam that flowed into a When Doves Cry sandwich. Check out this video of the first set opener of Baba O’Riley off Who’s Next?

Widespread Panic – Lola, Lakefront Arena, New Orleans, LA, 10/31/2010

Nolaween with Widespread Panic saw the band chose some very interesting and off the beaten path material for their cover-heavy sets. The band did songs by Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson (best known by Led Zeppelin), the Black Keys and the Kinks, not to mention plenty of teases like the James Bond theme song and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Being a pretty big Kinks fan, it’s good to hear Lola get some jamband love, so check out this crack at it.

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Ween – Let’s Dance, 1st Bank Center, Broomfield, CO, 10/31 /2010

Ween hit the First Bank Center in Broomfield for a marathon 36-song performance that traveled all over the map and seemingly covered just about everything in the catalog. In the covers department, they didn’t take it too deep, but this version of Bowie’s Last Dance is a keeper. We came across some really good recordings of these shows if anyone is interested in giving this a full listen: part I, part II.

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The Disco Biscuits – One of These Days, Charlottesville Pavilion, Charlottesville, VA, 10/31/10

The Disco Biscuits kept their Halloween party pretty close to home in terms of material, focusing largely on their own songs, but they did open the show with a first-time played version of the haunting Pink Floyd tune One of these Days.

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String Cheese Incident – Mothership Connection, Hampton Colliseum, Hampton, VA, 10/31/2010

Last but not least, SCI treated their Hulaween attendees at the mothership to a special themed Halloween set that emphasized space and time travel. The absolute highlight, and most fitting of all of the material, came from the title track of Parliament’s best album Mothership Connection. Interestingly, the album was the first to feature Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley after leaving James Brown’s band, and SCI cracks some James Brown “star time” references throughout their rendition of the tune.

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