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SCMF 2012
Settling back into the day-to-day shenanigans after leaving a festival is difficult to wrap your head around. After caravaning to the woods to nestle into a tent city with hundreds of like-minded, music-loving gypsies and letting your guard down to kick it old school in the woods for a few days– life back at the local Wa-Ho or the mind- numbing 9-5 just doesn’t feel so gratifying. Your heart is singing with the clamor and glee of a five-year-old who just got back from a romp around the playground in his shiny, new Fisher Price-mobile. Your mind is reeling with vivid images and memories of the glorious, utopian underworld you just emerged from– a world where men aren’t afraid to saunter around sans boxer briefs in a kilt and women don feathered boas and tiny mermaid tops all day. So, what do you do to ease the mind back into the earthly world while maintaining the glorious you that dreams of a realm where people only wear rainbow-colored leg-warmers and magnificent dinosaur suits and dance and laugh until the sun comes up? Here are my Top 5 Sure-Fire ways to keep your Mind Elevated and your Heart Skipping Sweet Bass-Rift Beats:
- If your house is not already an oasis, where Bob Dylan posters, colorful tapestries and Christmas lights don every corridor, then make it happen. Your home is your own getaway island so if it doesn’t make you want to mix up a margarita, close your eyes and rock out in your under-roos then it may be time to update yo’ living quarters my friend.
- Rawk out! Seriously. This may sound like a no-brainer but I know a lot of people who go days without really jammin’ on some funky tunes. Throw your favorite record on and let it fly!
- Wear whatever you want to! Again, this may seem like a childish suggestion and one that we all may think we live by, but that’s simply not true. Even if you have to wear a uniform to work, make that bitch yours. Bedazzle it, tag it with your favorite flair. Believe it or not, you will feel a little more like you and less like a walking puppet.
- Buy a baby pool and throw a party. This is an order. Summer simply is not here until you have a source of water to make you feel like you’re five again- sprinklers are nice too!
- Throw a costume party. Keep the spirit of music, art, passion and creativity coursing through your veins by throwing a silly party with friends and strangers. The reason that home-away-from-home felt so good is because you let your wild side out, discovered uncharted islands in your soul and met people from around the world who did it all with you. Do it again! Throw one in your back yard, rocking that sweet dinosaur outfit, chillin’ in the baby pool with Umphreys McGee (or whoever gets your rocks off) blasting! Party over here my friend til’ Summer Camp 2013!
Umphrey’s McGee, as you all very well know, is the one band that truly pulls my heart strings. Nothing compares to the musical poetry of their jam-funk-rock ballads. Each song dips and wanes from a sweet, solid groove into a glorious guitar shredding metal rock ballad, leaving you yearning for just one more wild ride. At Summer Camp 2012, the boys played their usual 3 sets, along with an additional private jam-session in a the little white chapel on the hill for 100 of their die-hard UM fans.
Friday night’s set kicked off with the upbeat funk teaser ‘Gurgle’ before melding into a light and bouncy jam-off of ’2nd Self.’ Stasik kicked in a little more bass and the boys got gangsta’ with a rare ‘Pay the Snucka‘ jam before settling into a little poppy spin-off in Miami Virtue. The crowd grooved together in the sweet, ever-changing melodies as the sun set in a glorious soft orange haze behind the stage.
They jumped into a heart-felt jam of ‘Glory,’ a song so epic that it should be our National Anthem, which faded perfectly into a 
floaty spin-off of ’2×2′ before kicking a little funk back into the mix with a lingering performance of ‘Ringo.’ They finished up the first set dancing and tickling their fast-paced guitar and bass licks in and out of ‘Loose Ends’ which ran nicely into a face-melting ‘Puppet String.’
They killed it second set, getting back on stage with the juicy, hard-core guitar rifts of ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ to deviate from the floaty, ethereal wave they left out on first set. They merged that into a nice, drawn out jam of ‘Ocean’s Billy’ before grooving into a hard, nasty version of break-up ballad ‘Mulche’s Odyssey.’ They picked up the groove with the classic ‘Bright Lights,’ got down-right funky with hard bass rifts and sweet key licks in ‘Dump City’ before bringing it back into their oh-so-familiar tease rift with ‘Ocean Billy.’ That swept right into my absolute favorite dance groove ’40s Theme.” They wound the crowd in and out of their sweet, rollicking mayhem with a solid ’46×2,’ a little dance up-chuck ‘Day Nurse’ and a final bounce back into ‘Pay the Snucka‘ to round out one helluva kick-off performance for Scamp 2012! Wooo. I’m red, hot and bothered just writing about it.
The best way I can describe it, I explained to a fellow Scamper, is that it’s “the best sex of your life. Hell, it is life. It winds you up and gets you all heated and mad yet satisfied then brings you back down with soft, soothing tickling bass and keys rifts… and before you can say STOP, it jolts you right into a climax with an epic, face-melting guitar rift.” Only UM knows how to do that. More on Saturday’s performance tomorrow….for now, enjoy previews of the UM tracks mentioned above by clicking on the highlighted tracks. They’re also selling all three sets from Summer Camp 2012 on a USB drive on their website. ‘Til next time music lovers. ~Tiffany