Bear with me, for I’m a simple man that’s done a lot of unkind things to my memory banks throughout the years, and this is all opinion.
2024 was not a bad year at all for UM. Minus COVID years, this year did seem to have less shows and smaller audiences, but the band’s distinct cohesiveness showed once they got past a little rough spot early in the year. There was some good standouts jam wise, however the consensus here was there wasn’t much in the way of a complete show while Kris was still getting in the groove. Here’s a couple of shows from the early part of the year.
Bonus show from author- after a rough Belly Up appearance, complete with a visible show of tension between Stasik and other members, presumably due to Stasik showing up late on his own flight, the boys powered through the PNW leg. I got a kick out of 3/16 with a pretty fire 2nd set. Resolution has a nice but short 1st jam slot, followed by an oldie being used during the 2nd slot.
The spring run honestly doesn’t stand out for me, regarding anything monumental. However, I had things going on and was distracted around then.
For a 2nd year in a row, the weather gods or the weed gods denied a full show on 4/20, but hot dang the UM Bowl delivered the goods. 5 of the 6 sets were fun with one having 2 JOTY contenders, and the S2 set utilized a request from the one and only @bluish which may or may not set the tone for a future run in Morocco. UM borrowed a concept from tDB when they impoved to a series of clips from movies, and it was not bad at all. The tone was set a couple days before at Higher Ground. The end of the run was a wildly good 1 set show(this turns into a thing for the summer) at Solshine Reverie, but kind of marred with a late cancelation of Moe. leading to an UM and friends set closing out their spring.
Note- Jump Around might have been an inside joke this year for they used it on a new mashup and teased it many times this year.
Extra-2nd jam slot in Ringo contains a Jump Around sample, and it’s cheeky, and i love it lol
Summer started with banger in Vail>1 show at Red Rocks. There’s chatter that this might be the last major summer slot UM will have at RRX for a while, and the 2 shows in the area were hot with energy. Vail is highly regarded. IIRC weather played around with the Midwest leg of this run, but Bort Fam partied hard in Chataqua and a delayed Summerfest 1 set that was way better than it could’ve been. 4th of July was a good time, but 5th of July was a party. Seem to remember a pretty good WBG there. The 7/4-7/7 shows were a big plus for the year. WC had another run, complete with a co-billing Blue’s Travelers.
Extra-JOTY favorite in 7/4 Pure Saturation
End of the summer was all about extended 1 set shows. At first, I was highly skeptical, but my expectations were outdone by my annual concert attendance at Salt Shed on 8/23. Unfortunately, we lost a member of the Bort family around this time, and it was fairly emotionally jarring. @UMFree I miss you bud, and I’m including the Crooked One that was coincidentally played the day after he moved on to his next story. Other than RRX, UM played another last run at AvL’s Salvage Station. Both shows were fire and high energy, with 8/30 being a SOTY candidate. The rest of the fall was a couple of fests, but there was more pressing issues being dealt with. Several of our NC fam was, and somewhat still, dealing with the damage of Helene. It was a rough time of year emotionally for a lot of people here, and music kind of seemed unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
Surprise surprise, the boys decide to let the fans in on a 3 day run inside the studio of where they’re most likely putting an album together of old stews. In a warm up for the NYE, a hat-filled 3 days of decent tunes commenced. Following that, UM put on a phenomenal NYE run, complete with IMO the best NYE show I’ve listened to. I never thought I’d GOAT a show with 6 covers and horns.
Bonus-UM decided to do a theme for NYE, in which they wore blue and red during their 1st and 2nd set, while playing songs that directly and indirectly fit into the theme. The bonus is, their Brothers in Drug Band Arms, tDB was also doing something similar with a Fire and Ice theme. This is pandering to @StoneJackBaller and other B4L identifiers.
Hope you enjoy my little labor of love here, and furthermore I hope you enjoy the music. My big takes on the year is, the 1 set stuff worked and they really enjoyed the microjams this year. 2024 was a big success even with Chris Mitchell leaving, and I hope this continues beginning tonight. Love you all.