Umphrey's McGee Confirms New Year's Eve Plans

Umphreaks rejoice. Chicago's favourite jamband will be returning to their home city for a 3 night run at the Riviera Theatre. Umphrey's will play December 29 and finish on the 31. The band, who typically plays Chicago during the New Year had this to say. “We’ve played nearly every room in Chicago over the course of our career, to continue keeping things interesting, we’ve chosen one of our favorite venues in the city this year, the Riviera Theatre, with a perfect combination of lots of open floor for dancing and seats in the balcony with great sight lines,” keyboardist Joel Cummins said in a statement. “We can’t wait to feel the energy in this legendary Chicago haunt explode!”.

Watch Umphrey's cover the Beatles' classic "With A Little Help From My Friends" with some Joe Cocker flare on NYE 2009.

Phish NYE Run Night #4

Set 1: AC/DC Bag[1], 46 Days, Water in the Sky, Bathtub Gin, Punch You In the Eye, The Moma Dance, Guyute, Swept Away > Steep, Demand > Seven Below, Lawn Boy, Julius

Set 2: Rock and Roll > Piper, Simple > Theme From the Bottom, Shine a Light, Ghost[1] -> NO2, Suzy Greenberg

Set 3: Party Time > Auld Lang Syne > Down with Disease, Fluffhead, Joy, The Squirming Coil, You Enjoy Myself

Encore: Blue Moon[2], Loving Cup

[1] Auld Lang Syne tease
[2] Phish debut

Bag and Ghost contained Auld Lang Syne teases. Swept Away and Steep were played for the first time since July 1, 2000 (145 shows). Demand was played for the first time since November 14, 1996 (392 shows). N02 was played for the first time since July 13, 1999 (219 shows). Blue Moon was a Phish debut and was played while Trey thanked the entire crew. From the staff at phish.net, a very happy 10th anniversary to the Big Cypress celebration and a Happy New Year to all!

This should put a smile on your faces

Phish - New Year's Eve 12/31/09 - Miami, FL from Phish on Vimeo.

Phish NYE Run Night #3

Gone was a debut, and Dixie Cannonball was a Phish debut. Back on the Train featured an extended jam including hints of Limb by Limb. During Love You, Fishman mentioned Trey's announcement on December 28, 2009 that it was Fishman's last vacuum solo "of the aughts," so he announced that he needed "someone dressed like me" to do it, brought audience member Rich onstage to do the solo, then gave him the vac! Antelope included numerous Boogie On teases. Frankenstein featured Page on keytar. Corrina was played for the first time since February 24, 2003 (100 shows) and Tela was played for the first time since November 24, 1998 (235 shows). This gig featured ten songs not previously performed in 2009 inclusive of two debuts; 2009 features more unique songs (242) than any other year in Phish's history, beating out 1998 by 2... so far!

Set 1: Soul Shakedown Party, Runaway Jim, Jesus Just Left Chicago, Dixie Cannonball[1], Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan, Corrina, What's the Use?, Tela, Gone[2], Rocky Top, Chalk Dust Torture, David Bowie

Set 2: Sand, The Curtain With, Lifeboy, Back on the Train[3] > Wading in the Velvet Sea, Hold Your Head Up > Love You[4] > Hold Your Head Up, Free, Boogie On Reggae Woman, Run Like an Antelope

Here's a video of "What's The Use"

Phish NYE Run Night #2

The ball continued to roll last night as Phish played their second night in Miami, Florida. The boys dipped into their album Undermind a little more heavily than usual, busting out tunes like the poppy "The Connection" and "Access Me" while surprising the crowd with a nice Manteca jam in the midst of a heavy "Tweezer". A rare "Sleeping Monkey" and "Tweezer Reprise" mainstay made sure the encore wasn't a snooze fest. The boys keep the heat going tonight for the second to last performance.

Set 1: Golgi Apparatus, Maze, Driver, The Connection, Wolfman's Brother, Ocelot, Reba, Access Me, The Divided Sky, Cavern

Set 2: Kill Devil Falls, Tweezer[1] -> Prince Caspian, Gotta Jibboo > Wilson -> Gotta Jibboo -> Heavy Things > Also Sprach Zarathustra, Slave to the Traffic Light

Encore: Sleeping Monkey, Tweezer Reprise

[1] With Manteca jam.

Here's a video of the encore. Enjoy!

Phish NYE Run Night #1

Phish kicked off their 4 night NYE run in Florida in style last night. First set had some nice bust-outs including the first "My Soul" and "Roggae" since 2004, while the second set saw "Light" being mixed into the classic Mike's Groove segment for the first time. I'm definitely looking forward to hearing the next couple of shows as I'm sure the boys will only continue to improve. Here's a link to download a soundboard of the show : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=78IYXN3G

Set One

Sample in a Jar
NICU
My Soul
Roggae
Undermind
Bouncing Around The Room
Poor Heart
Stash
I Didn't Know
Beauty Of A Broken Heart
Possum

Set Two

Mike's Song >
Light >
I Am Hydrogen >
Weekapaug Groove
Alaska
Backwards Down the Number Line
Makisupa Policeman >
Harry Hood >
Contact
Character Zero

encore
First Tube

Check this video of "Alaska", my favourite of the new tunes

My Morning Jacket: New Year's Eve at Madison Square Garden

The last time I saw My Morning Jacket was at the Kool Haus (2,000 person capacity) in my hometown of Toronto Ontario. I knew this would be the last time seeing MMJ at such an intimate venue. Oh yah, did I mention that this was in June of 2008? Only 6months later I would be in New York City seeing them at would appeared to be an almost sold out Garden. Many a fan came dressed in their New Year's finest and so did the band. Rumours of guest artists were circulating the internet and this proved true. They opened with Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up", the first song to feature the New Year's Eve horn section that included Jeff Coffin (Bela Fleck & The Flecktones and now Dave Matthews Band) as well as Steve Bernstein (Sex Mob and Levon Helm). For most bands the Mayfield classic would be an ambitious choice, but it was sung to perfection by Jim James. This set the tone for the rest of the evening's sets which were sprinkled with classic funk and soul covers. MMJ leaned heavily on tunes from 2008's Evil Urges as well as songs from , but the band did treat us to a few older gems such as the rarely played "Cobra". The band brought out Nicole Atkin's for Marvin Gaye's classic "You're All I Need" which was a crowd favourite. After a 30 minute intermission which featured a video clip from Charlie Chaplin's anti-Nazi film The Great Dictator, the band ripped into Kool & The Gang's "Celebration" while thousands of white balloons were dumped from the ceiling of MSG. The 3.5 hour show ended with the classic "One Big Holiday" and a poorly practiced version "Auld Lang Syne". Maybe James had one too many drinks. Although the show itself was perfectly played, with the exception of the cover tunes, the setlist barely varied from the show I saw earlier in the year. The Garden also lacked the intimacy of the Kool Haus which was obviously expected but a drag none the less. 2008 proved to be a huge year for the Jacket, and this is one band that truly deserves the success that they have found.

Set List:
"Move On Up" (Curtis Mayfield) *
"Evil Urges" *
"Off the Record"
"Gideon"
"The Way that He Sings"
"Thank You Too"
"I'm Amazed"
"Golden" (w/ Will Johnson)
"Librarian"
"All I Need" (w/ Nicole Adkins / Marvin Gaye cover) *
"Express Yourself" * (Charles Wright)
"What a Wonderful Man" "Low Down"
"Phone Went West"
"Look at You"
"Dondante"
"Smokin' From Shootin'"
"Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Part 2"
"Run Thru"
"I'm a Wanderer" (Dion cover) *
"Dancefloors" *
"Mahgeetah"

New Year's Intermission

"Celebration" (Kool and the Gang) *
"Get Down On It" (Kool and the Gang) *
"Wordless Chorus"
"Highly Suspicious"
"Cobra"
"Islands in the Stream" (w/ Nicole Atkins / Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers)
"Bring it On Home to Me" (Sam Cooke) *
"Cold Sweat (James Brown) * "Anytime"
"One Big Holiday"
(* w/ New Year's Eve Horn Section)