Umphrey’s McGee returns to First Avenue in Minneapolis

Umphrey’s McGee returned to Minneapolis and rocked the iconic First Avenue club on a make up date from 2020. After Covid-19 cancelled so many tours in 2020, this was the first time many music fans were back in the First Avenue mainroom in over a year. A week earlier, First Avenue announced that all concert attendees need to provide proof of vaccination for entry at their venues. Walk-through metal detectors at the doors have also been installed and overall the process of getting in to the venue went quick and smooth.

First Avenue was near capacity with fans thirsty for a rock show and Umphrey’s McGee delivered. I have seen the band over thirty times and some nights the shows get dancey with more electro-driven rock, and other nights the band gets dark and heavy playing towards their more progressive side. But on this Saturday night it was straight up classic Umphrey’s. “Cemetary Walk” from their 2009 album Mantis was a big first set highlight, as was The Beatles “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” cover that ended the set and had the crowd singing along.

Umphrey’s McGee just released the album You Walked Up Shaking In Your Boots But You Stood Tall and Left a Raging Bull but surprisingly did not play a song from it at First Avenue. Instead they fell back on their hits and the second set started with a banger of “Higgins” into “Miss Tinkle’s Overture“. “Bright Lights, Big City” was also a gem from the show, but arguably the most rocking song all night was the band’s cover of “Outshined” by Soundgarden. Drummer, Kris Myers, took the vocals and did a incredible job hitting Chris Cornell’s range. The entire mainroom was rocking hard and a guy behind me tapped me on the shoulder and asked, “Are they really playing Soundgarden right now?” I said “Yes they are!” and proceeded to headbang.

Returning to the stage after the encore break, singer and guitarist Brendan Bayliss commented about how many bad hangovers he had from playing multi-show runs at First Avenue in the past. But on this night the band was very sober and I didn’t even see any alcohol on the stage while up front taking photos. The result was a show that was steady and good, without any major peaks or valleys.

The band finished the night with a solid version of “Slacker”, and when the lights came on afterwards, so many people left with a smile. After all that has gone in the world the last couple years, it was great to be back at a rock show and feel some sort of normalcy. Umphrey’s McGee at First Avenue was just what I needed.