Mike Schramm

Listening to Umphrey's McGee's June release, "Anchor Drops," you get the feeling that it's onto something big. The combination of frenetic improv riffs with prog-rock romps garnered enthusiastic praise from critics in all corners of the country, everyone from Pulse Weekly to the Washington Post.

But if listening to their album makes you suspect greatness, watch them on stage and you'll know it. And so when they bill their New Year's Eve show at the Riviera as "The Best Show on Earth," you have to pause a second to wonder if they might be telling the truth. "It's definitely our biggest production that we've ever put on for a show," percussionist Andy Farag says in between rushed Christmas shopping and practice. "There's a whole 'Big Show' circus theme, so there'll be stuff that goes along with that. Performers doing stuff on stage."

Coming from a group that's known for its big shows, that means something. Since 1997, the sextet has gone through a few incarnations, the last major change being the addition of drummer Kris Myers, but they seem to have landed in a pretty good place, somewhere between the "noodling" variations of jam-band-dom and the professionalism of progressive rock. Though most outlets are proclaiming "The Umph" as the next best thing to a now-departed Phish (who was the next best thing to a then-departed Grateful Dead), Farag hopes they can cut their own wake. "I think that the term jam band sometimes gets miscommunicated as just a band that's out there... sloppily jamming, but we try and make it seem like it's an actual song. We said, 'What if we were to actually write a song on stage?' and figured out ways to do that. If someone says 'Was that a song or was that something you guys made?' it's good, because you know you've done your job."

To that end, the band has almost formalized the search for the perfect groove. Every show, they'll have a few "Jimmy Stewart" songs in the mix. "We'll write that into the set list and we'll just start from scratch," Farag explains. "It's just an open improv, see what happens. We always listen back to our shows after the shows, and if something sounds really good, sometimes we'll make complete songs out of them." Every "Jimmy Stewart" is different, although the band will end up adding riffs from anywhere they want to--audiences have heard Led Zep, Beatles, or even Super Mario Brothers at an Umphrey's show. The other way they keep it together is through a series of onstage signals. "One cue is a thumb up and point to somebody, and that basically means everyone else stops except that person you point to." Or to go back to the last phrase they played, one of the members will lean backwards, so the band knows to revert.

After the show, Umphrey's plans what promises to be its biggest year yet. "In the middle of January, we're going to head into the studio and work on some new material." But, Farag promises, it won't be just a recording of them improvising. "We're just trying to keep the live show a live show and the studio album a studio album."

(2004-12-21)

Also by Mike Schramm

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