As the sun dropped behind the thick timberland's of the northwestern mitten, Umphrey’s McGee came out as cool as the air.  Kris Myers and Joel Cummins were facing a double-header of music that evening, as they had just wrapped up another amazing set with their other project, Digital Tape Machine, just moments before they were due onstage with Umphrey’s.  However, this did not slow down their persistent musical performance.  Another stellar intro to set the show as they broke into “The Floor” began a feeling of suspense for the audience, meaning they had a great set to look forward to.  Also appealing to the crowd as a possible tribute to the area of Michigan as they busted out a “Smell the Mitten”; needless to say the Mitten smelled and felt delightful that evening.

This was a great venue for Umphrey’s McGee to take hold of many new fans, for there was a large amount of families attending the festival that seemed to be new to much of the music being performed by all artists.  With their new studio album, “Death by Stereo”, dropping on September 13th, their headlining set seemed to be a great place to try out some of the new tracks appearing on the album.  “Puppet String” and “Room to Breathe” have already grown on longtime fans, but UM provided the more traditional progressive performance when they delivered “Ringo > Hajimemashite > Ringo” to close the amazing set.

As all Umphreaks know, the boys of Umphrey’s McGee can often provide a more ecstatic cover of a song as many of the artists they pay tribute to.  A fan favorite, “Girlfriend is Better” was sure to knock the audience dead, but their encore was enough to bring them back to life.  With an eerie, dank atmosphere lingering throughout Hoxeyville Music Festival, it only seemed right to enhance the mood of the masses with the right noise.  UM began their encore with “In the Flesh” by Pink Floyd, sang by Joel Cummins.  As they began to transition into “Another Brick in the Wall”, Jake Cinninger happily added the dialogue of the album as faint background vocals, asking “How can you have your pudding if you don’t eat you meat?!”  Needless to say, this was yet another full meal of music provided by Umphrey’s McGee, and fans of Hoxeyville Music Festival will be asking for more next year.