New Year's Eve with Umphrey's

What a night.

To start my day off, I had to work in Macomb, IL, which is about 4 hours southwest of Chicago, until 2pm then had to book it to Gary, IN to meet up with Goerg. Got there in 3 1/2 hours. Goerg was in a movie, so I waited. I wanted to leave as soon as possible because I didn't know how bad traffic was going to be. Luckily, it wasn't too bad. Even when I missed my exit (in downtown Chicago) when I had to get over 4 lanes, I was still able to make it. Go me! We got to the hotel at around 7. Had to use to hotel's valet service (for 50 fucking dollars)! Check-in was a breeze and the room was probably the best room I've ever stayed in.

So we changed and left for the show. Well, I tried to GPS it on my phone. That didn't work too well. So we walked around for 5 minutes before asking someone for directions. That person told us to get a cab. Fine, that got us there in like 5 minutes. Easy pleasy lemon squeezy.

We were sort of high up, but it wasn't so bad ("I've never been so high for an Umphrey's show"...talk about double entendre). We were able to see the whole stage perfectly, along with the crazy-amazing light show. The guy next to us, Nate (who has seen 45 shows), told us that the light guy was the former guy from moe. It was unbelievable! There were a couple of times when they just flashed a bunch of colors at once and my eyeball/brain connection definitely couldn't comprehend the sheer awesomeness of that effect. They played an awesome cover of "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" with a horn section and a disco themed light show. Again, unbelievable.

I don't know how accurate they were at counting down the new year, but I don't care, because they way they did it was fucking intense. Wappy Sprayberry into Auld Lang Syne back into Wappy Sprayberry with balloons and confetti and lights and oh my god super-awesomeness. They also played a bunch more songs with horns, Koko Taylor, and the Chicago Mass Choir. If I can fanagle it, I'm going again next year. Totally worth it.

I'm sorry for those who couldn't come. I wish you were there, you would have loved it.

After it was over, we met up with Jessy, I picked up the show, we lost Jessy, and took a long, cold, but ultimately entertaining walk back to the hotel. I do wish we found an afterparty, but I still had fun anyways.

My favorites of the night: The techno-y intro into the funky awesomeness of "Nothing Too Fancy," "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough," "With a Little Help from My Friends (w/the Chicago Mass Choir)," and "Much Obliged (with the Closer tease)"