October 30, 2007

Dr. Neeko is back for Round II — before we begin, let’s point out that he loves his mother, his aunt, all his old lovers and Rue McClanahan…

When I was a kid, before I became a doctor of course, Halloween was all about the mad rush to stuff as much tooth-rotting, brain-zipping sugar as you could fit into an old pillowcase before the sun went down and you missed curfew. We usually made out pretty well. We knew which houses gave the full-sized candy bars, which houses turned off the porch light and pretended not to be home, and which houses you could get away with visiting multiple times.

Of course you got the occasional old lady who’d give out four pennies wrapped in Scotch Tape, or the big buzz-kill-do-gooder handing out pieces of fruit. Fruit? Handing out fruit on Halloween is like giving out cap-guns in a war zone. Handing out fruit on Halloween is like dispensing condoms at an Indigo Girls/Ani DiFranco double-bill. Handing out fruit on Halloween is like giving out handjobs at an orgy. But all in all, it was a good racket we had going back then…

Look, ma: These girls show up on Google Images under “Halloween sluts”

Then, sometime around college, Halloween took on a new meaning. It was still about candy, but a different kind of candy, an even sweeter candy, a candy for the eyes. In the same way that St. Patrick’s Day is a ‘free pass’ to start drinking at 9 am, Halloween is a ‘free pass’ for many women to dress slightly more revealing than a Mexican hooker in August. And I, for one, think that’s just great.

Now, you can’t appreciate this fine aspect of the holiday if you’re at the wrong location. Chances are, you’ll wait till the last minute to make plans, and you’ll end up sitting at home watching Heroes on the DVR, handing out your hard-earned candy to a bunch of ungrateful neighborhood brats. Not cool, man. So, in an effort to spare some of you hornball HT readers from that awful fate, I’ve decided to compile an in-depth review of the eye-candy potential for a handful of Halloween concerts around the country. Let me guide you in the right direction…let me help you realize the full potential this holiday has to offer. So read on for a full list of concerts and what you may expect in terms of post-show spank material…

Construction (In the Name of U2): “They plan to build Ireland’s tallest tower in Dublin and revamp their city centre hotel – to ensure their legacy lives on long after the music stops. Bono and The Edge have unveiled plans to redevelop the Clarence Hotel on the city’s historic quays, which they bought in 1992.”

Umphrey’s McGee was one of the first bands to sell official recordings of nearly every show they played when they introduced the UmLive program in 2003.

At first the Chicago-based sextet only sold discs at their merch table, but soon thereafter they started peddling downloads of most shows through disclogic.com. Disclogic went bust in 2006, so Umphrey’s partnered with LiveDownloads.com to sell their official recordings through a new website called Umlive.net. That history lesson-cum-introduction leads us to Umphrey’s McGee’s terrific show at the Nokia Theater from October 20th, which is our Live Downloads show of the week.

Photo by Adam Kaufman

During recent tours Umphrey’s has perfected the time-tested formula of sprinkling special guests, random covers and heady improvisations throughout two sets of well-written songs. The first set of Umphrey’s Saturday night show at the Nokia Theater in New York City featured the boys nailing some of their hardest compositions while also dropping two inventive song sequences that had never been played before. Andy’s Last Beer started with an intense buildup and ended with the band giving the young crowd a lesson on odd time signatures.

Bridgeless followed and quickly segued into a danceable jam that slyly slithered towards a rare cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Power To Love. Guitarist Brendan Bayliss’s voice sounded great throughout the evening, and he absolutely nailed Power to Love. Of course covering Hendrix is all about guitar tone, and UM’s other guitar player Jake Cinninger put on quite a clinic during his solo. Keyboardist Joel Cummins took control shortly after Cinninger’s solo and deftly led the band back through the end of Bridgeless. Read on after the jump for much more…