-1.0 Tashi Station and Stomper Bob era
-0.5 Fat Tony, other names era
1.0 OG UM
1.5 OG UM plus Farag
2.0 Jake addition
2.5 Chubby Bayliss era
2.75 The awkward “Mirro is leaving” era
3.0 Kris addition
3.5 Depressed Bayliss era
3.75 Waful addition
4.0 Mantis, S2, UMBowl, other creative ideas era
5.0 Chris addition
6.0 Cock rock, no jams era
7.0 KB Must Go/VfJ obsession era
Where do we go next?
Ha this is great I’ll give my 2 cents.
1.0 Band Inception to Jake joining
2.0 Jake joins to Mirro leaves
3.0 Kris joins to Budney leaving
3.5 Waful joins to KB leaving soundboard
4.0 Chris Mitchell joins to Present day
I think Mitchell taking over the sound has had a bigger influence then when Waful took over on lights.
Thanks for your contribution. Real go getters like you are what we need !
Agreed, but it still wasn’t a “new era”. The Dead went through many sound engineers but the only time you hear about any of those eras is when The Wall of Sound gets brought up. I don’t think any of the crew member changes is enough to call it a new “.0”
Having people join or leave the band doesn’t necessitate a new major era. Phish lost Jeff Holdsworth and gained Page, it’s all considered 1.0. I would say if you’re going to look at a point to define a new era for the band it would be June 2004, with the release of Anchor Drops and the Bonnaroo late night set. So I would say we are still in 2.0, or more realistically 2.8.1.
Youre definitely right, but in UM’s case the difference between Mirro and Kris was quite drastic. Anchor Drops was recorded the same year Kris joined the band so the combination of that album and Kris joining the band was defiantly enough to usher in a new era.
They’ve never taken a hiatus. The gap between Aspen and Chicago was the longest gap in their career although not by choice (I suppose if you include Boondocks it’s a shorter gap). We’re still in 1.0 in my mind
Meh. The Grateful Dead took a break in 1975 but no one ever calls 1976 the start of a new era. That came 3 years prior when Pigpen left the band. 73-79 is 2.0 for tGD. I don’t think a hiatus = a new .0 for anyone except phish (and maybe SCI).
A better question is what version of the Bort are we on?
OG Bort 1.0
Bort 1.1 (ninjabort)
Bort 2.0 (post bort 1.0 crash, can’t remember when this one started, sometime around 2010ish?)
Bort 3.0 (Summer > Fall 2019, pre-Discourse)
Bort 3.1 (Discourse > present)
I’ve never thought about this, but I think there’s a lot of truth here. In my mind, to a casual UM fan who’s seen some shows, listened to some albums, doesn’t know all the songs, etc. There’s really only 2: Mirro and Myers. I don’t think they would consider the period before Jake joined, rightly or not. I think many of these people would create an arbitrary distinction between 2000s UM and 2010-present, which more accurately could be described as Myers era pre-Mantis and post-Mantis (yes Mantis was '09 but it’s close enough). I hesitate to speak for other people but this seems to be the consensus from casual Um fans I know.
Can you elaborate? I don’t agree with this at all. Waful coming in was a huge change and impossible not to notice, it immediately elevated the most noticeable live element of the band for casual fans. (Most) people weren’t saying “Dude, it sounds so much better!” they were saying “Dude, THOSE LIGHTS!!!”
Agreed. I actually sorta blame (maybe that’s a strong word) Waful’s lights for their transition into shorter peaking jams
I agree Waful coming in changed things from a fans perspective and I can certainly entertain and understand the argument that crazier lights led to the evolution of quicker peaks that don’t build as much. That being said maybe I’m in the minority but I remember a clear difference in the sound when Mitchell took the reins and it was even more apparent listening back to soundboards. KB might have been polishing a turd but Chris turned that shit into gold.
It’s possible. The flashing lights during a big peak can probably get very dizzying if you are trying to play through that.
Overall though I think the shorter peaking jams is probably coming more from the band and that adding the flashy Waful lights and heavier sound production from CM was in line with the band wanting to take a more arena rock direction and carve out that space for themselves.
I mean that’s why Jake wears a hat now 
I think it’s less because it’s distracting for the band and more because the crowds respond more to peaks when they’re accompanied by tons of strobes and shit.
My gut has a big switch occurring when Jake joined of course, with the second shift occurring four years later with Kris.
Kind of an interesting debate as to which had a greater impact on the band – the addition of Jake (and his songs), or the switch from Mirro to Kris.
Jake no doubt had a much greater impact