Since forming in the late '90s, the musically muscular and inventive Umphrey’s McGee has cultivated an impressive presence both live and in the studio. Now they arrive for their first Australian performances at Byron’s Bluesfest.
The band has regularly performed at U.S. festivals such as Bonnaroo, Rothbury, and Lollapalooza, have toured Europe multiple times and performed Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival. Recently in their annual run of New Years Eve shows, they played three nights at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago and hosted special guests that included the legendary Buddy Guy and ‘Queen Of The Blues’ Koko Taylor (one of Koko’s last performances before she passed away). They have also been joined on stage numerous times by other musicians such as Huey Lewis, Jeff Coffin, Les Claypool, and Phil Lesh to name a few.
Umphrey’s McGee will be playing two dates at this year’s Bluesfest, Saturday April 3rd and Monday April 5th.
Known for their innovative approach to distributing music and building community, the band makes their live shows available online through many of their website bases. They have sold over 1 million tracks on their live archive site www.umlive.net. While the free podcast program hosted through Itunes has 20,000 subscribers, with over 2 millions downloads. They have even created an interactive fan experience where audience members “conduct” the band’s improvisations live in concert, through mobile phone technology.
Umphrey’s McGee offers a FREE 2010 CD sampler including live recordings and tracks from their recent release Mantis. So if you want to hear some of what this band has to offer before catching one of their mind blowing live sets at Bluesfest, hit up: http://bit.ly/UM2010samplermp3
Umphrey’s McGee will play Byron Bay Bluesfest
Saturday 3rd and Monday 5th of April
www.umphreys.com