Just as soon as I drifted off to sleep, I was woken up by the pitter patter of tiny animal feet around my head. Sam and Uncle Wally have three cats and a dog (her dog is best friends with my dog), so I had a very furry greeting waiting for me when I woke. I opened my eyes and saw Sam also waiting for me to wake up. I of course sprang off the couch and Sam and I started to discuss plans for the day. Soon after he heard our voices, Wally rose out of bed and joined us. Umphrey’s day part three was under way and the three of us were thrilled to get moving.
Sam and Wally are two of my best friends in the whole world. They love UM as much as I do. We have our own umph family that includes us and our other friend Jared, who lives in South Carolina and couldn’t join in on our Baltimore adventure. The three of us, being very sad that Jared couldn’t join us, ate a good meal, packed up the cars and took off. Our first stop was to pick up our other friend, Stephen. He was also very eager to join us and almost skipped out of his front door when we arrived to scoop him up. Now that we had everyone together, we plugged the hotel in Baltimore in our GPS and set sail to go see our favorite band.
Baltimore was about three hours away from Richmond. I had to drive my car separate from theirs because I live more north than they do. The thought of ending the weekend right and doing the last show at the Capitol had been lingering in my mind throughout the entire trip. I hadn’t yet decided to go because they were doing a free live stream and I would’ve driven further away from my home to get there. But when we hit a traffic jam right as we got out of Fredericksburg, I had time to reflect on the past two nights. The music was astonishing and the people that I met were even better. They all kept telling me “never miss a Capitol show.” Which is true, Umphrey’s does love the Cap. And it was a Sunday show (never miss a Sunday show). I picked up my phone and The Capitol theater had followed me on Instagram and when I opened my phone, the first thing I saw was Umphrey’s post about their show at the Cap. I took these happenings as signs and immediately started searching for hotels. After a few minutes of scrolling I found the perfect place, booked it, then bought my ticket. I was going to the Capitol!
Having made this decision made me more excited for tonight’s show with my best partyin’ peeps! We arrived in Baltimore, threw our bags into the room and quickly skidded out the door to go meet some other friends and grab a drink. After a couple rum and cokes and a seriously delicious caprese sandwich, we started our trek to MECU pavilion. I hadn’t been to the venue since it was Pier Six Pavilion. I had seen Lettuce and Umphrey’s here back in 2015. The outdoor venue sits right on the inner harbor in downtown Baltimore. They’ve since renovated the venue, thus giving it it’s new name. The only thing that I remembered about this venue was that the beer was overpriced, and that fact still holds truth after the renovation.
We got to the venue and found our way to the lawn where we would sit and view the show for the night. The lawn was a little far away from the stage, so we were trying to scope out other potential arrangements. After Southern Avenue finished up their set, we found some near-by seats under the tent that nobody had claimed yet and swiftly jumped in. I had heard that the sound from under the tent isn’t the best, but I was hopeful that the renovation would have changed that. We patiently waited for the boys to come onstage. One of us would look at the other and say “it would be so awesome if they played …” We were all so excited that all we could do was sit there in silence and think about what they could possibly play so our wish lists kept growing bigger. Wally and I always like to guess whether they’d come on to an intro song or not that night. Talking about these things made me think ‘I wonder what normal people talk about at shows.’
They finally walked onto stage and I grabbed Sam’s hand, gripping it with full on excitement. They came on to an intro song then went straight into “Attachments.” You know, there is something to be said about how Umprhey’s listens to their fans and does what they want or what they ask. “Attachments” is one of those five-minute songs that a lot of people looked down on. Nobody wanted to get this song live. Umphrey’s listened. Umphrey’s transposed it into being a jam segue. After the “Attachments” in St. Augustine this year, they all have been getting fifteen+ minute jams. Now all you cynical wooks want that “Attachments on the setlist. This “Attachments” jam started out sounding like a salsa, and then turned into a groovy Indian ballad. There were so many different sections of improve that I felt like I was being taken to different parts of the world. Which was ironic because I was traveling to different cities to see them. The build up to the peak of the jam was superb and held my attention the entire time. And while the ease off from the big part of the song can be a bit scattered sometimes, this one was just as in line as the jam itself.
They got a little eerie during the “Cemetery Walk” that came after “Attachments.” This was a perfect vibe since Halloween was just around the corner and they weren’t doing a Halloween show this year. “Cemetery Walk” is a good song to catch live, not only because it’s an amazing song, but because if by chance the play “Cemetery Walk II” along with it, you will catch Bayliss sitting in on the keys with Joel. My first “Whistle Kids” followed cemetery. I’m slowly crossing off all the new songs from the new albums that I’ve seen live this year. I’m trying to complete at least one of them! The boys kept the ball rolling into my first “Intentions Clear.” This song is on my favorite Umphrey”s album “Safety in Numbers.” This has been on my wish list for quite some time because they love to jam it out. There were also various sections of improve in this jam, just like in “Attachments,” and they were all so different from each other. I mostly got down with the country riffs that Jake moseyed into the jam. Country Jake is my favorite Jake. “Bad Poker” is now at the top of my wish list (along with “Q-bert” but it’s too soon to talk about that.) This home-roots, country vibe dominated the tone of most of the jam. I almost thought they were going to go into “Mullet Over.” The show was blowing my mind after only four songs into the set. I could tell that it was going to be a good show.
This feeling held up when they transitioned beautifully into “Dear Lord.” “Dear Lord” is a song that Wally and I had been wanting for a while so when we heard Ryan play the first couple of chords, we both looked at each other with the same look on our faces. Jaw dropped, eyes wide open and a smile starting to form on our mouths. A little tear came into my eye as I witnessed this tune being beautifully executed. After a weird (good weird) “Speak up,” they ended the first set with “Cemetery Walk II.” And of course, Bayliss sat in for a quirky piano duo with Joel. Jake added a chilling, rhythmic guitar line along with the synth and made the jam go from eerie to funky, all the while maintaining a dark aura. The first set made it clear to me that tonight was a Bayliss show. This made sense because he was born about Forty minutes away from Baltimore in Annapolis, Maryland. So, this was like a home town show for him.
A great song to start any set or to encore with is “All in time.” This song is the ultimate “doesn’t get old” song because it is the epitome of Umphrey’s McGee. This is one of their oldest songs. It was debuted on 2/7/98, they’re fourth show ever played as a band. This is also the song that they’ve played the most live, clocking in at 527 times being played. Any die-hard UM fan knows and loves this song. I felt that I was due a thick and juicy “All in Time” because I hadn’t gotten one since Chucktown ball in 2016. And this one quenched my thirst because it was dark, just how I like it. It was more structured than the other jams in the show, but it created the tone for the second set. For a while Sam couldn’t decide what her favorite UM song was. She liked “Deeper,” “Anchor Drops,” and “Loose Ends.” During this mysterious “All in Time” she looked at me and said, “you know, I think that this is my favorite Umphrey’s song.” To which is said “it should be!”
They were able to jump perfectly into “Hangover” (which was on my jamble list for the night). The improve in this song was laid back which reflected the song itself, but also held a cryptic vibe to it. Joel took an intricate yet effortless sounding solo. This is one of those songs that impresses me by the time signatures that they use. Umphrey’s likes to play with their audiences’ ears while challenging themselves by switching up the time signatures in their songs. They ended “Hangover” on a high note and wasted no time on starting the next song. Bayliss pulled one of his fake outs by telling the crowd that even though they played “Black Friday” the night before, they were going to play it again tonight but then actually played “Hurt Bird Bath.” This song is Wally’s favorite Umprhey’s song. Jake and Bayliss played a little call and answer in the beginning of the jam that kept up the dark, eerie effect like what the rest of the show displayed. This song itself already has an ominous tone due to Joel’s piano line throughout the second part of the song. Then Jake came in with some dark over tones to top the jam off. One of my favorite guitar sounds that Jake makes is when he plays low notes and it sounds like he’s riding a bow against his guitar strings like a standing bass.
Next came “In the black.” This song used to be a rarity before it came out on “It’s You.” I’m a big fan of the song. Bayliss usually sounds satisfactory on his vocals on this song. It fits perfectly in his range. I’d say that he’s on the cusp of a tenor and a baritone. This added to the darker vibe of the show. A perfect follow up was “The Linear.” My favorite song! It fit perfectly in the setlist and it came at the perfect time. This also fits Bayliss’ range providing a milky entrance into the song leading to a righteous jam. He’s good at dictating what he says, for the most part, which adds to the agility of his voice on the songs that fit him so well. “The Linear” jam was far out. I felt like I was jumping into space watching Jake glide his hands up and down the neck of his G&L. He was making so many different sounds with so many different notes. Ryan’s steady basslines were what kept me grounded. The layering of Jake’s and Bayliss’ guitars worked out incredibly for this jam. Kris and Ryan helped make a steady but convoluted beat for the undertone of the jam while the guitars took over.
I was completely thrown off by the Zeppelin cover because I had gotten one on the first night of the weekend and I had also gotten a “Good Times bad Times” at Lockn’. But it’s no secret that Bayliss loves to cover them. Andy and Kris had a moment to shine during the “Miami Virtue” jam. The drum solo turned into a vamping transition back into “All in Time.” The ending is the best part, in my opinion. It slows down and then leads into some serious, face-melting shredding. They boys get to show off their skills because I think this song means the most to them, so they play their hardest.
Usually at the break between the end of set two and the encore my friends and I like to get as close as we can for the end of the show but since we were in seats we decided to stay back. Bayliss chose to end his show with “The Silent Type.” The jam contrasted “The Linear’s” jam with Jake’s dark guitar sound, that when mixed with Bayliss’ looping, added an almost ghostly factor to the end of the show. The jam was short and sweet. I’m sure the boys were ready to get off the stage and into some place warm after playing outdoor venues two nights in a row. I bet the outdoor venues in October sucked for their fingers. There was a lot of times when I saw the boys trying to warm up their hands. When my fingers are cold, they can’t move fast at all, but that’s not saying anything because I could never move my fingers as fast as Jake.
There is a certain high that you feel after a good show. Sam and I grabbed each other and skipped out of the gates ready to go gorge ourselves in our traditional after show nachos. After a couple of hours of hopping around to different bars in Baltimore, we practically fell into our beds at the hotel. Barely keeping our eyes open, we discussed our highlights of the show. All three of us got our favorite songs during the show! Stephen had a lot of fun too, he said that his favorite part was watching the faces that Wallace and I gave to each other when they would start playing a song. We all agreed that the sound was not as terrible as everybody told us it would be and that our highlight was the honky-tonk “Intentions Clear.” The next morning, we went to have brunch at this place called Dooby’s (if you’re ever in Baltimore, I suggest going here and grabbing yourself a vanilla lavender latte). We hugged and said our goodbyes and then I leaped into my car to start my trip to the final destination of the tour. I was about to experience my first show at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York.
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