Umphrey’s McGee, photo by Dino Perrucci
Umphrey’s McGee took their fearless fusion abroad over the weekend with the inaugural presentation of their Deep Dive destination festival. At the Moon Palace Cancún Resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico – home to other signature events from Phish and Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds – the progressive sextet led a four-day musical retreat, packed with performances from noted peers and intimate artist-led experiences offstage. Beyond the wealth of side programming, the band offered up nightly headline shows, which met the moment with sit-ins and unexpected setlist upsets.
After welcoming their community on Thursday with an acoustic sing-along opening set, packed with covers and featuring a debut take on 4 Non Blondes’ ‘What’s Up?,” Umphrey’s McGee returned to the stage on Friday night and commenced their first full show of the weekend with “Cut the Cable.” While an approach to “The Triple Wide” slipped in a subtle tease of Orleans’ “Dance with Me” and the frame-closing “In The Kitchen” included a more overt quote of Nelly’s “Ride Wit Me,” the action picked up in the second set, when the band followed a medley of “August,” “1348” and “Half Delayed” with a live debut of Heart’s “Alone,” featuring Andee Avila and Jennifer Hartswick on vocals. This power ballad set up a notable retro fixation in the show’s last lap, manifested in teases of the Top Gun theme and Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street.”
With Deep Dive in full swing on Saturday, Umphrey’s McGee made good use of their talented caravan by welcoming six special guests. The sit-ins began with support from a horn section of saxophonist Nick Gerlach, trombonist Jennifer Hartswick and trumpeter Natalie Cressman, the festival’s rotating Artists in Residence, on “Hourglass” and “Wife Soup.” Gerlach and Cressman peeled off for the first frame finale, but Hartswick remained in the spotlight ot bring co-lead vocals to Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure.”
Umphrey’s worked through the bulk of their second set before bolstering their sound with another sit-in from Gerlach on “1000 Places to See Before You Die” and the full horn trio on “Day Nurse” and “Bright Lights, Big City.” To set up their encore, the band called on Andy Frasco & The U.N.’s guitarist Mike Gantzer on “JaJunk,” then added Gerlach and the U.N.’s bassist Floyd Kellogg for Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.” After an exhilarating evening, the group moved for one last anthem with their thoroughly honed and highly improvisatory version of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” featuring Gerlach and fiddler Allie Kral.
Umphrey’s McGee finished off their destination event with a special three-set show, and though the latter two were unornamented, the first was a seven-track sequence of only improvised covers determined by the audience. The true blue fans in attendance ordered up an opener of Jimi Hendrix’s “Power of Soul,” followed by other reliable covers like Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me), The Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind,” and the situationally appropriate exotic dream of Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Piña Colada Song).” Within their fourth take on Johnny Blue Skies’ recent country-funk floor-filler “Make America Fuk Again,” the ensemble pivoted to a debut cover of Electric Light Orchestra’s “Don’t Bring Me Down.” For a finale of The Rolling Stones’ “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,” the group once again called on Gerlach.
Umphrey’s McGee will return ot the stage at the end of the month to embark on their next live sprint with a show at Black Mountain, N.C.’s Pisgah Brewing Company on May 22. Find their full tour itinerary at umphreys.com.
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