September 2009 - Posts
We are pleased to announce the first date of our Stew Art Series (S2), to be held at the Eagles Ballroom at the Rave in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Saturday October 3rd. This will be a special one-hour event of entirely improvised music with the cues that direct the improv coming from YOU. As a member of the Board of Fan Trustees (BOFT), you will participate in the concert and a Q&A session, enjoy an assortment of tasty snacks (of debatable nutritional value), and take home as a souvenir a lovingly mixed CD of the (S2) experience, tweaked to perfection by Sound Caresser Kevin Browning and autographed by all of us. Lights will be provided by Jeff Waful, and the rest of our crew will be on hand to join in the fun as well.
It is our intent to roll out more of these in the weeks to come. Bear in mind that each (S2) event will be totally unique -- we are likely to experiment with different ways of communicating your thoughts to us, different signals and verbal cues to one another, and perhaps even further experiments involving lights, sound effects, and instrumentation. Furthermore, time of day, event capacity, and ticket price will vary from event to event -- we are trying to balance the intimacy and uniqueness of each event with the realities of load-in times, rules of the venue and any additional staffing/vending/security requirements or other factors that impact the costs of bringing these experiments to life.
Here are the details of the (S2) debut.
When: Saturday October 3, 2009
Where: Eagles Ballroom at the Rave, 2401 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53233
Doors: 3:30 pm
Event: 4:00--5:00 Pm
Price per ticket (limit 2 per customer): $99.00
Event capacity: 50
Please bear in mind that the capacity is 50 slots TOTAL for this event and some of those slots will be given away to local music schools, some will go to charity auction, and the rest will be sold on a FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED basis.
Tickets will be on sale NOON (12:00 pm) CT Saturday, September 26th through Umphrey's Ticketing.
As a reminder, a ticket to (S2) DOES NOT admit you to the show that night. A separate ticket is needed for the evening concert which can be purchased via Ticketmaster.com. After the conclusion of the (S2) event, you will be asked to exit the building so that we can finish preparations for that nights’ concert (Doors are at 7:00, with the support act to start promptly at 8:00 pm).
One final note: as this is the first of an ongoing series, we will have video cameras rolling to capture the event for the purposes of making a short behind-the-scenes/how-it-works video.
We look forward to seeing you on tour!
Have you ever wanted to "conduct" an Umphrey's McGee jam? Ever wished you could broadcast your thoughts to the band to help influence the direction of a Jimmy Stewart? Are you curious about the band's improvisational thought process during a jam and want to gain greater insight while participating directly? Well, here is your chance as we are pleased to announce the Stew Art Series (S2).
An (S2) event is an experiment in crowd-sourced improvisation. One hundred percent of the music performed at a (S2) event will be improvised, and you are the ones who will serve as directors. Using several communication mediums - which could range from text messaging to prewritten cue cards to chalk boards - you will kick out ideas, descriptive words, phrases, pop culture references . . . pretty much whatever comes to mind. These will be presented to the band who will compose jams on the fly based around those ideas, and ideas will be added to, changed, and deleted as the event progresses. For instance, a fan might toss out the phrase "frightened rabbit," causing the band the play a frantic, nimble jam and after a period of time, the word "rabbit" might get changed to "brontosaurus" which would take the jam in a heavy, slower direction (though the word "frightened" is still in play). Then perhaps the word "skydiving" morphs the "frightened brontosaurus" jam into a soaring, powerful piece of music that evokes the feeling of being airborne . . . until the phrase "without a parachute" gets tacked on which changes the jam into something else entirely. And so on. No one will have any idea where the music is headed, well, and that's all part of the fun. The event will also include a Q&A session to provide an opportunity to ask about what you're witnessing (or ask anything else for that matter). Fans will become a part of the music like never before.
To be clear, each Stew Art show is a TOTALLY separate event than the scheduled concert date and will be sold as a separate ticket - getting a ticket to (S2)
does not get you into the show later that night (and vice versa). The (S2)
experiment is just that, an experiment. We view this as an opportunity to explore methods of band and fan interaction and collectively discover what works best. The details of each event (cost, size, length, method of interplay) will vary depending on venue size, our costs, and the goal for each experience. But space will be extremely limited as intimacy is paramount. Some of those details will be made public before each show while others will remain a mystery until the show unfolds. We want you to help us determine how the events can best evolve and grow to their potential.
As part of your ticket (which will actually be a custom laminate that will be different for each (S2) event), every attendee will receive an autographed CD of the Stew Art Series they attend minutes after the event has concluded. The Q&A will also be included on the disc as we will be recording your questions for posterity (we are not sure if that's for your posterity or for ours). You will get to see some classic venues as you have never seen them, empty and in the day time. And on top of that you will get treated an entirely improvised light show by lighting designer Jefferson Waful. We will make sure you stay hydrated and even have some munchies to replace the calories you'll burn while pushing the band to explore new ground.
Expect an announcement about our first Stew Art Series event soon!
It's hard to believe that after almost 12 years of touring we have never managed to get ourselves to the Grand Canyon. Until yesterday. We were fortunate enough to get the bus fixed in time (yes, we had more travel difficulties) to make it to the giant hole with a few hours of day light to spare. The team headed to the Kaibab trail head and descended into the canyon for a few hours of hiking. Here is a little slideshow so you can join us on our glorious day off in the desert.
A few weeks back I emailed Brendan this very classic picture from the UM archives to get his thoughts on memory lane. I hadn't quite got around to posting his comments but today seemed appropriate as this image popped into my mind when I rolled out of my bunk and reflected on this morning 8 years ago.
This photo was taken during our first band visit
to NYC. We had been together for over a year and 1/2, but had only
recently begun to try to promulgate the faith. We were not seasoned travelers
by any means, and within five minutes of being in the city a local in a car
began cursing our very existence for being in his way. We had arrived.
A friend of ours from ND had a boat and we went
for a sail right after this picture. After stopping to marvel at the Statue of
Liberty we noticed that the anchor was wrapped around the hull of the boat, and
we were rapidly approaching liberty island as the tide and wind were pushing us
toward certain death. Kevin Browning stripped down to his speedo (he always is
wearing a speedo no matter where we are in the country, cause you never know)
and dove into the Husdson with a steak knife to cut us free. Who knows
what would've happened to the band had he not been so brave. The Boston
Celtics hat that I'm holding was from 1983, and she was a casualty of that
voyage, but we survived.
We actually slept on the boat that night, as we
had no $ for hotels. The next day we played the basement of the Wetlands.
Fifteen people were paying attention, but they had to because the bathrooms
were next to the lounge where we were set up. We thought we had made
it. Notice the baggy pants and other outdated fashion trends we were
sporting. I think Farag is exhaling from a cigarette....(last week he ran a
triathalon....how the times have changed us).
Thank you NYC.....
xoxo
bb
Finally, I wanted to share one other audio clip
from the archives as you all know my tendencies to document life as it unfolds.
On the night of September 10th, 2001 we pulled into the Band &
Breakfast in Ithaca, NY to rest our heads before our gig at The Haunt on
9/11/01. We spent that night hanging on the porch, listening to the
sounds of wilderness and strumming on acoustic guitars. I had the DAT
recorder going for most of the evening and kept it out the next day to capture
some of the history as it unfolded. This is from that same porch as we
sat around reflecting on what had happened and tried to decide if we could still play.
Kevin
Tour began on an eventful note after our short lived attempt to pull a trailer behind the bus
Afternoon rehearsals backstage at the Mishawaka Amphitheater in Bellvue, CO
This rural nook is one of Colorado's many top notch live music venues
I decided to mic up the river for some additional ambience during the show (Warning: listening to this umlive recording may result in a sudden urge to relieve yourself)
Poudre Canyon after soundcheck
Sunset
Out of Order
"I can't stand to be away from you"
Saturday morning at Jazz Aspen from Jake's perspective
Jumbo Kris
Sunday: Aspen > Bus to Denver > Flight to Syracuse via Cincinnati > Vans to Turin NY for moe down
moe LD Jason Huffer lighting it up
Jake, Brendan & Andy sit in with moe during "She"
Rawk
Fist Bump
