Umphrey's Weekend

A little over 2 months ago I purchased ticket to Umphrey's McGee for this past weekend. Man O Man was that a well spent $40. Really can't beat seeing one of the best bands out there for $20 a night.

Woke up on Saturday and was pretty lazy. Stacy decided to bake some Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes and they turned out pretty delicious. We drank a few beers and watched some College Football, then decided we would hit up Schlafly's. We went on a tour of the brewery and got 4 or 5 free samples at the end, then hit up the bar and grabbed a beer at the bar before we left. Very cool little place and some great beer that I had never had before.

We headed over to Blueberry Hill to grab some dinner. Highly recommend getting the Hickory Burger. Can't go wrong at this place really. Very inexpensive, and very delicious. We had a couple of pitchers of the Shlafly's Octoberfest and had some Cheddar Cheese Balls after the burger was gone. Those things were flat yummy. Basically fired cheese balls. It was then time to head to the show at The Pageant.

We sat off the the left side of the stage and enjoy the wonderful sounds of The Woods Brothers. Never really listened to them before, but I was pretty impressed and may have to get some of their music. Umphrey's came on stage a little after 8pm and played until around midnight.

10.30.2010 - The Pageant, St. Louis, MO
Set One
All In Time > The Linear, Red Tape, Tribute to the Spinal Shaft, Bulls On the Bus > Front Porch > Cemetery Walk II

Set Two
In Bloom > Booth Love, Rocker (part II) > In the Kitchen, Miss Tinkle's Overture > Andy's Last Beer, Higgins > Miss Tinkle's Overture

Encore
Push the Pig > All In Time

Highlights of the nights we easily The Linear and Front Porch> Cemetery Walk II. I was really hoping for In The Kitchen because I hadn't heard it before, so I was excited to see it and it did not disappoint. Higgin > Tinkle's were out of this world to end the second set. After the show was over, it was time for bed. This was my 5th time seeing these guys and was probably my favorite.

Sunday was another relaxing day. Watched some NFL, played some Madden 11, drank a coup le of beers, and ate some great food that Matty grilled up. Chicken and Brats. You can't really go wrong there. We headed over the The Pageant a little earlier to get a better spot than the night before.
I really can't describe the scene on Sunday. So many random costumes. The theme of the nights was Mash-Ups so a lot of people were dressed as two things. ie...Tony The Tiger Woods, Sponge Bob Marley. The band came on a little after 8pm and man they looked great. Jake was Paul Stanley Cup, Bayless was Yoko Bono, Joel was Pope John Paul Shaffer, Kris was Larry David Lettermen, and Andy was GI Joe Kim Noah. Stasik was probably my favorite as Dr. Evil Knievel. When they brought out mini Dr. Evil Knievel I lost it. So funny and so appropriate for this night. We had a great spot right in front of the sound board and rocked out with 2,000 people.

10.31.2010 - The Pageant, St. Louis, MO

Set One
Ocean Billy > Conduit, Nothing Too Fancy > Hangover, November Walk$, Women Wine and Song > Ocean Billy, 1348 > The Way You Rule the World$$ > 1348

Set Two
The Triple Wide^ > Bitter Sweet Haji*, Bridgeless > Walletsworth, "Top Ten" list^^, Prowler > Bridgeless, Sociable Jimmy > Nothing Too Fancy, 1901 Jump**, Bright Lights Big City

EncoreJaJunk > Don't Stop the Spirit of the Radio%% > JaJunk

$ November Rain (Guns N' Roses) + Cemetery Walk mash-up
$ Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears for Fears) + The Way You Make Me Feel (Michael Jackson) mash-up
* Hajimemashite + Bitter Sweet Symphony (The Verve) mash-up
** 1901 (Phoenix) + Jump (Van Halen) + Fuck You (Cee Lo) mash-up
%% Don't Stop Believin' (Journey) + Spirit of the Radio (Rush) mash-up

The mash-ups were absolutely awesome. My favorites of the night were probably November Walk or Bitter Sweet Haji. It was amazing how seamless these guys made the transitions from song to song. I'm a big 1348 fan so whey busted that out I was very please. JaJunk is a go to song for me, so to hear that in the encore left me with a very satisfied taste in my mouth.

Overall the weekend was absolutely perfect. Great company, great beer, and amazing shows. If you ever get the change to see Umphrey's DO IT. It is totally worth it.

"THE WALL"

So I hopped in the car on Friday around 11am EST and made my way West towards St. Louis. I was meeting up with some great friends and heading to see Roger Waters that evening. I made it to Effingham, IL when something was going wrong with my car. I pulled into a Chevy Dealership and described this sound my car was making. Of course the dude gets in and drives it, and the sound it gone. I ended up having a diagnostics ran on it (here is $50) and it turned out to be all good. Finally diagnosis: Somehow a rock got up into the wheel, but the rock was gone now.

I finally got into St. Louis around 5pm and we headed out to grab dinner and drinks. We ended up at a joint called Sybergs on Market. I got the Famous Chicken Strip Sandwich there and wow was is delicious. Everyone made fun of my because I got the fruit as the side, but it was nice with the sandwich. Polished it off with a nice 32oz Budweiser!! Once dinner was done we headed over to Scottrade Arena to see Mr. Waters.

Roger Waters performing The Wall was probably one of the highlights of my life. It was happy, sad, angry, scary, mind blowing, and flat weird all wrapped into one. As the first set progressed The Wall just kept getting bigger and bigger. I'm talking the entire width of the hockey arena (including the seats) and around 40-50 feet tall. The Wall then began to act as a large projection screen in which some of the coolest things of the night began to happen. The bricks appeared to move, there were pictures placed on there, there was even a fight between two very long stemmed flowers. There would be random "monsters", we will call them, that would appear out of nowhere. The teacher for Another Brick In The Wall was at least 50 feet tall and scary looking at hell.

A highlight of the show for me was "Mother". They had dug up footage from Roger singing it back in 1980 and and video of him singing it. They flashed that up on the "Wall" and he sang the song with himself from 1980. This, along with the crowd singing gave me some great goosebumps. The set ended with one single brick left to be put into place and Roger looking through it singing "Goodbye Cruel World". As the last note hit the final brick was in place.

The second set started off with a great rendition of "Hey You". The great part about the first couple of songs in the second set was that you couldn't see anything but The Wall. The band was all behind it and rocking out. Then comes "Comfortably Numb". One of my favorite Pink Floyd songs, EVER, and it was amazing to see it live. They hoisted a singer basically on top of The Wall to sing Gilmour's part and had another great guitar player at the opposite end of The Wall. This was probably the most rocked out song of the night and the crowd went insane.

Before you know it, the entire band in in front of The Wall and there is a giant pig looking thing floating around over the top of the audience. This was probably when the most intense images where being flashed on The Wall. Very dark cartoons during "The Trial", which ended with the destruction of The Wall. The band then gathered in front of a pile of rubble and belted out one last tune "Outside The Wall"

All in all it was an amazing experience that I know I probably won't be about to have again and the memories of that night will last a lifetime!

Stay tuned for the review of the Umphrey's McGee shows over Halloween weekend at the Pageant in St. Louis!