On Saturday, March 2nd, Umphrey’s McGee, the hard rockin’ prog outfit from the Chicago-land area brought their “Wax on, Wax Off Tour” to the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles, CA. You can almost set your calendar by UM’s visits to the LA area as they always coincide with St. Paddy’s Day…however, this year they were two weeks early. The other thing you can usually expect from them in LA is a really heavy version of their usual material. The “hard rock/heavy metal” version of the usually psychedelic prog jam that most of the rest of the world gets from the UM boys. NOT THIS YEAR!
You just gotta poke around!
As if my prayers to St. Patrick were answered and delivered back to Brendan Bayliss and company, or perhaps it was the conversation I had with UM keyboard player, Joel Cummins, many moons ago about this very subject but whatever it was, the UM brought a truly delightful musical journey between their jammy prog-rock tunes and some brief dips into the hard driving, distortion heavy, metal version of themselves. A nice balance that I don’t think LA has ever seen from the 6 piece band before. It was so obvious that veterans and newcomers alike all made reference to the offering that night being more “mellow” than usual. Mellow is certainly not the word I would use to ever describe the hard driving guitar licks, deep rhythmic drumming and heavy handed bass lines that is UM but I guess compared to their usual LA show…sure, this year was mellow.
First set highlights for me: No Diablo. Have liked it since I head it and watching the kid in the front row head bang to the song so hard that even Bayliss noticed. “I’ve never seen anyone head bang to that song. You sir, are my spirit animal,” -Brendan Bayliss to fan after No Diablo.
Second set highlights: Hard to really nail one down. The whole set was heavy into the long jam, which I enjoy. Drummer, Chris Myers on vocals for the band’s version of the Jamiroquai song, Virtual Insanity, was a nice treat.
I’ve seen this band quite a few time and this time I got a few never heard songs…for me. That was certainly a nice treat as well.
Due to poor weather related traffic, I was unable to catch Ghost Note who opened the evening but I heard they were very good.
S
Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles, CA 3/2/2019
Set 1: Plunger>Wallets, Half Delayed, Night Nurse, Mocca, Echo/Techo, No Diablo, Wizard
Set 2: Mantis, Looks, Virtual Insanity (Jamiroquai Cover), 1348, OOO, Ringo, Mash Up
Encore: Triangle, End of 1348
