It was an epic voyage through wind, sleet, snow, and other miscellaneous precipitation, but what seemed like a doomed journey turned into a great success.
As soon as Umphrey’s McGee announced their Spring East Coast tour, I saw that they’d hit Boston and Northhampton, Mass., but they wouldn’t voyage up to Burlington. This stung a little bit, but they played a three-night show in Burlington in November. Each of those shows was solid, but the final night was easily one of the best shows of the year . . . so I suppose Burlington had her fair share of Umphrey’s this year.
But I made up my mind that I would see one, if not both, of the Massachusetts shows. I had to scape together some cash, scrape together a crew, scrape together transportation, and finally lodging.
This is Canadian Cow, Andy's co-piliot. I was hoping Umphrey's would play "Got Your Milk (Right Here)" in his honor.
The week before the concert I had no cash, no crew, a broken car, and no place to stay. I had planned on going with Umphrey’s superfan Andy (of Kuztunes.com fame) and Joe, my new roommate who is our resident Phish maven. But then my car broke down, and Andy announced that he had to bail out of the excursion due to his senior capstone project.
It didn’t take much sweet-talking to change his mind. We loaded into his car, bought snacks, and powered down the I-89>I-93 corridor. We still didn’t have a place to sleep, and none of us knew how to navigate Kenmore Square, but a cell phone call to our Bostonian friend Dan saved the day. We parked on-site for a song and grabbed our first-ever meal at Popeye’s Chicken . . . the only fried chicken food restaurant to run out of napkins. Gross.
I had never been in the Old Avalon, so I had nothing to compare the new House of Blues against. The venue was clean and the staff was courteous. The entire floor was wrapped around by bars selling $6 PBR tallboys! and $11 Long Island Iced Teas! but by the second set, I had no choice but to capitulate to my thirst. There were two upper levels, but we didn’t get a chance to scope it out. Since HoB didn’t use haze machines (!) I think the groundlings got the same effect as the people on the balconies.
We saw this SUV three times on our way to Boston. He either had a rear lift kit or was a really heavy dude. I bet the Thule rack didn't help his mpg either.
Eric Krasno and Chapter 2 opened the night, and I was absolutely delighted by the performance. Featuring Eric Krasno, Adam Deitch on skins (John Scofield’s drummer), Nigel Hall on keys and vocals, and bass by Loius Cato. Cato is a freelance session bassist, but I was delighted by his performance: he had great flair and tonal presence— a Victor Wooten Lite. Chapter 2 delivered rock funk straight up, and I would have gladly paid for a soundboard of their set, just to rock/funk out.
The first set wasn’t anything to scoff at: The Bottom Half>Higgins>The Bottom Half, 1348, Uncle Wally, In the Kitchen>”Jimmy Stewart”>In the Kitchen, Prowler>Push the Pig>”Jimmy Stewart”>Push the Pig.
This was a particularly strong set for Joe, who had never been to an Umphrey’s show before. The song choices were well-thought out, even if nothing got particularly huge. Joe really likes Higgins, so THB>Higgins>TBH was a great move. Prowler is always fun, and helped get some traction under the first set.
Set Two: Preamble>Mantis>Ocean Billy>2nd Self>Ocean Billy, Der Bluten Kat>The Song Remains the Same>Der Bluten Kat>Jazz Odyssey>Der Bluten Kat, The Triple Wide.
Encore: Plunger, Mantis
I had never heard Mantis split, and part of me wondered if they were going to leave it unfinished. However, they did no such thing, and the second set got absolutely huge. DBK is always going to be a pleaser for me. Triple Wide was great at the time, but it got very dancetrance, so I might not play it that much now that I have the tape. But Plunger set the night right back into some great rock. Towards the end of Plunger they teased the transition to Mantis. The actual transition wasn’t that smooth, but it was still a huge hit when they came down to it.
We managed to get out of Boston without incident, but the weather was absolutely awful. Andy was the hero of the night for making the 4 hour trek back up to Vermont. With all the snow and freezing rain in Southern New Hampshire, it turned into a six hour voyage. It was a wonderful roadtrip all in all, especially since I won’t get a chance to see Umphrey’s again in my college career.
