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Umphrey’s McGee returned to San Francisco’s Fillmore on March 12 and 13 for a pair of performances that saw Colorado upstarts Big Gigantic open.

[All photos by Dave Vann]

Saturday night’s show featured a jam-heavy first set including extended takes on one of the newer songs in the UM repertoire Conduit, as well as Red Tape, a song from 2009’s Mantis that the band frequently showcases a middle section of improvisation. Before closing the first set with a mashup of Everybody Wants To Rule The World and The Way You Make Me Feel, guitarist Brendan Bayliss had the honor of helping a fan propose to his girlfriend from the stage, and she of course said “yes.”

Sunday’s show was easier to move around in compared to the sellout the previous night and the band paid tribute to the late Owsley ”Bear” Stanley by performing a partial instrumental rendition of Steely Dan’s Kid Charlemagne, a song written about Owsley’s influence on the 1960’s Bay Area LSD scene. Night two also saw Dominic Lalli of Big Gigantic lend his saxophone skills to The Rollin Stones’ vamp Can’t You Hear Me Knockin.’

The next show for UM is UMBowl II at Park West in Chicago on April 2. Previously sold out, the band is releasing a limited number of general admission tickets tomorrow, March 22, at 12PM Central Daylight Time.

READ ON for more of Dave Vann’s shots from UM in SF…