10/30/15 Umphrey's McGee @ Riverside Theatre - Milwaukee, WI

It's been 45 days since my buddy Frank and I went up to see another longtime friend of ours who lives in Milwaukee, Sand.  The drive up to New Berlin was uneventful.  We took 80 to 39 to avoid the construction on 88.  Frank and I started seeing shows in 1999.  I'm glad we still see music together.  The GD50 show we saw together over the summer really made me reflect on the 15 years of traveling and seeing live music.  It's been a long strange trip.  That being said it's not over.  As much as I occasionally want to reinvent myself I'm always drawn back to how much I love what I've been doing.  Seeing music makes me feel alive. 


It was nice seeing Sand's apartment and meeting his girlfriend Laura.  I liked their two cats.  Admittedly it was unusual seeing Sand in such a domestic setting but I was happy for him.  This fall there was a huge amount of music at the Riverside Theatre.  I was unable to get tickets for SCI and WSP since those shows sold out so quickly and I was tapped out from Phish tour.  The Halloween UM show sold out.  Thursday UM didn't make sense because we all had to work.  By default this Friday UM show became the choice.  We felt a little old in this contemporary UM crowd.  It's really turned over from my hey day of seeing UM which was 04-07.  I think the improvisation has dulled a bit from Umphrey's since they've all gotten married, had kids, and moved apart.  However, they still bring consistent energy.  IC and Educated Guess both were highlights in the first set.  They brought out a saxophone player during Wappy.  There was an awkward transition into Comma Later but they did their best with it.  Even the August encore was energetic.  My friends were impressed with the show and they aren't Umphreaks by any means.  This was my 155th Umphrey's McGee show.  They are still fun to see but admittedly I get bored with it at times these days.  While waiting for our Uber I saw Pony, Kevin Browning, and some of their old buddies walk off into the night.  Later Sand drove us to Taco Bell and was obnoxiously honking his horn on his truck.  I'm surprised they didn't spit in our food.  I'm glad we went up to Wisconsin.  It was a rainy Halloween for the drive back.