On June 11 in Harrisburg, moe. and Umphrey’s McGee finally took it to the next level. After more than two decades of sharing the stage in multiple contexts and co-hosting a festival together, at long last the groups embarked on an extended series of co-headlining dates.

Each night of the moe.mentUM Tour has yielded an extended set from each of the bands, along with a collective encore, featuring shifting personnel and a dynamic roster of songs.

Following an initial batch of nine shows, the two groups will pick it up again this evening for a run through the Carolinas, followed by Midwest dates in August. Here, moe. drummer Vinnie Amico and Umphrey’s McGee guitarist/vocalist Brendan Bayliss reflect on the bands’ musical relationship which began with an anonymous letter (of sorts) in 1998.

[Note: this conversation took place prior to the Umphrey’s McGee announcement that Jake Cininnger would be departing the group.]

Before we talk about the current tour, let’s go all the way to the first time you shared a stage, which I believe that was at the very first Bonnaroo in 2002.

Brendan Bayliss: Yeah, it was at Bonnaroo. I was on the side of the stage and I was in no condition to be on the stage. Then Al looked over at me and just kind of nudged me up there. I kind of realized before it was too late that he was putting his guitar on me. At the time he was playing it punk style above his kneecap. It was too low for me, so I looked at him and I was like, “Dude, you need to adjust the strap.” He was like, “Really?” But he did it and I went out there for “Rebubula.” This must have been at two in the morning during their late night set.

In the early days of Umphrey’s you sent Al a tape with the band performing that song, I believe, along with a letter. Can you remember what you wrote to him?

BB: Yeah, I sent a cassette to Al of us playing “Rebubula.” Actually, a friend of mine might have sent it but I was the one who wrote the letter. I said something like, “Hey, I saw a band covering your band. You might want to hear it.” I didn’t tell him it was me.

Then at some point we began exchanging emails and I admitted what I had done.

I think we sent him that tape in ’98, not so long after we started. Now here we are all these years later.

Vinnie, what are your recollections of first meeting Brendan?

Vinnie Amico: It was a while ago and my memory isn’t always great, but I do remember hearing that tape, which we all thought was pretty cool.

I don’t think I spoke with Brendan at that first Bonnaroo. Was that also the year when Travis came up to play and knocked over all the drums?

BB: Yes, he came up there and it was like a pinball bouncing around. Good times guys, good times.

VA: Then I remember by the next year, we were all partners, basically. I think that’s when we first did Summer Camp together. It was pretty quick where it was like, “Oh, we met these guys. They’re freaking awesome. Their band’s great. Let’s bring them on board, do this Summer Camp thing and kind of co-headline it together.”

We’ve been friends ever since. I know we’ve all been trying to put together what we’re doing this summer for a number of years. Now we’re finally able to get it happening.

BB: Yeah, after talking about it forever. Another thing that we did after a couple years of Summer Camp, was this thing called Split Squads, where it was half-moe., half-Umphreys and that took it to another level with merging the bands.

VA: That was in like ’06. It wasn’t like what we’re doing now where we’re kind of all playing together and moving people in and out. That was like we had two separate bands that we formed in advance.

We did this at Summer Camp and then we had a short tour together where the encores every night would feature each of the Split Squads. We’d take turns going out there first.

Brendan, jumping back, do you remember the first time you saw moe. perform live?

BB: I was still in college and it was in Ann Arbor.

VA: At The Pig?

BB: At the Blind Pig. Chuck had a pink guitar.

VA: He still has it.

BB: A pink Strat and long hair.

VA: So was that ’97 or was that before then? That would have been me in ’97, otherwise it would have been somebody else playing drums.

BB: I’m pretty sure it was you.

VA: Yeah, it was probably ’97. That was my first time at the Pig.

BB: The Blind Pig. I saw you guys a couple times around then.

It’s still kind of surreal to me. Vin and I are friends and we have the same birthday [August 11].

Sometimes I forget about the years and stuff. Those last two weeks on the road, we were sitting around talking after the shows and all these stories would pop up. I’d be like, “I don’t remember that but I guess I was there.”

VA: All the years and all the things we do kind of blend together. Then someone mentions something and I’m like, “Oh yeah, I forgot all about that.” Like the video of Rob smashing a bottle over Pony [Ryan Stasik]. I had forgotten that even happened but then they had the video they’d made, which just resurfaced.

BB: Yeah, that brought back some stuff. [Laughs.]

Can you describe it?

BB: We were at Summer Camp and Rob and Pony had staged this skit where they had a fight in catering and Rob smashed a bottle over his head. It’s on YouTube

They were acting but I didn’t realize it was acting. I didn’t move to defend Pony because I assumed he deserved it and that he had done something wrong.

When this came up two weeks ago, it brought back 20 years of loyalty guilt. It’s like a fresh new wound. But that’s what we’re doing on this tour. We’re making memories. [Laughs.]

VA: All kidding aside, we’ve been having a blast on this tour.

Before we talk about some of the recent encores, I’d like to go back to some of the early moe. shows where there were full-band segues back and forth. Vinnie, I think the official term you guys used was “hostile takeover.” I remember one at the Orpheum Theater in 2003 where Umphrey’s came out during a moe. jam and played “Glory” before with moe. returned.

VA: Yeah, I think we call it a hostile takeover. I believe Al was the one who came up with that.

We just had the idea of “Wouldn’t it be cool if these guys came in, took our instruments and played a song of their own?” It would be improv at the beginning when we handed it off, then they’d go into their song, then it would be improv while we returned and tried to see if we could get back to where we started. I don’t think we were the first band to come up with it, but at the time we were like, “That would be fucking cool. Let’s see what happens.”

BB: It worked and then we did it several times. I remember one in Vegas and then you guys did one at Bonnaroo with us. I’m sure we did several at Summer Camp.

VA: Brendan did something pretty crazy more recently. We were both playing in Portland, Oregon. I don’t know who booked us both on the same night in Portland, Oregon, but he came over, played with us and then went back over to his own show.

BB: I think I came and played the first song with you. Then I ran out the door and we started our show. Later on, Al came over and did our encore.

VA: Right. So that was like full-on venue switch craziness.

How far away were the venues?

BB: Oh, not that far. A couple miles or something. It was probably like a 10-minute Uber.

What was the origin point for all that?

BB: I think Al texted me and was like, “Hey, we’re going to be in Portland the same night. We’ve got to figure out a way to collaborate.” I responded, “I don’t see how it’s possible.” Then, of course, he thought about it and came back to me and said, “Well, just come play the first song and then you can leave.” It worked out great.

Then he showed up and we ended up doing something. Andy Frasco was there and he also came out. He took like six beers out of his back pocket, slammed them and then crowd surfed. That was his version of the sit-in.

Now that I’m thinking back on all this, in 2004 at Bonnaroo, moe. replaced Umphrey’s during the Umphrey’s late night set.

BB: I think moe. came out in the middle of our set for what was supposed to be our set break, then they played for like 30 minutes before we swapped back in and replaced them. I think the idea was that we were going to be playing until 3:00 AM, so let’s keep it going and not give people an opportunity to explore other things.

Another thing I just remembered was in 2006 when Al had carpal tunnel or maybe a wrist tendonitis thing and I flew out.

VA: It was the Palace Theatre in Albany.

BB: So I flew out there and did the whole show. I learned like 12 or 14 songs, something like that. I remember at the end of the show, I looked over and everybody in moe. had these shit-eating grins, like smirks. I knew that they were about to try and prank me. I could just smell it. I didn’t know how, but I figured that they were going to do something.

So they all just stopped at one point, assuming that I would keep going. But I could smell the blood in the water and I stopped when they stopped. I remember Rob being like, “Who told him? Somebody told him.”

When I think of everything you’ve just described, I come back to the lesson I took away from the Grateful Dead and many of my favorite artists—that whole idea of being confident but egoless.

VA: Well, none of us have egos. We’re all kind of self-deprecating. There’s not a whole lot of ego going around.

BB: Well, for us, we always looked at you guys as the big brother who gave us a fake ID and let us into the bar. Then we started drinking together and we’re like, “Oh, we can drink with these guys.”

When we were first talking about doing this run, we were both at some festival and what came up right away was that neither band cared who played first or last. It was more about the hang.

I’m actually happy to be done early so we can hang. Although even if you’re done early, you’re still up there at the end.

VA: That reminds me, we have to figure out what we’re going to do for the encores for the next part of the run.

Thinking back to those initial shows, how far in advance were any of those encores planned out and what was the nature of the conversations?

BB: They were not planned out.

VA: There was no plan.

BB: I think Joel might have sent an email the week before and people kind of chimed in and were like, “Yeah, we’ll figure it out…Here are some things we’ve done in the past. Here are some things we could do. ” Then nobody spoke for a week, and we woke up the first day and were like, “Oh shit, we’ve got to figure something out.”

VA: Here’s a list of songs we all know. That was kind of like the gist of everything. Then it was like, “Okay, now what?”

How did you take it from there? What were the factors that came into play? Do you think about things like moving gear on and off?

VA: That’s always the challenge. It’s not just who’s going to play the songs but whose gear are we playing on?

The songs themselves, either it’s a song we know or it’s a song we can listen to a few times in order to familiarize ourselves with it. We’re all pretty decent players and some of us are really good at figuring out the music.

So someone will say, “Hey, do you guys want to play this song? I’ll go listen to it and get it together.”

BB: It’s kind of been like a throw and go for the encore because we haven’t really been soundchecking that part of it. I think the second night of the run in New York City I sat in on Chuck’s amp and it sounded amazing, but it was loud. So I was turning around to trying to turn the amp down but I didn’t realize I wasn’t turning my amp down, I was turning down Chuck’s vocoder amp. I was turning the wrong amp down. Then Frank (Robbins, moe. guitar tech) ran out and pointed at the other amp. I was like, “Oh, okay. Good to know.”

VA: There’s another technical kind of mishap that happened to Brendan. We were playing one of those encores and the mic stand just didn’t work. No one could get it together, so he was like, “Next time I’m bringing my own mic stand.” Then the next day he walked around all day long with a mic stand and never put it down. It was amazing.

BB: Well, thank you. In my defense, it happened twice. The first night I went to sing and the mic stand was folded in half and pointed at my kneecap. Then the second night it was there and when I went to adjust it, the thing snapped into two pieces. After that I was like, “I’m just going to kind of be obnoxious about it.” So the next day I had Bobby Haight (UM Tour manager) as my mic tech tech. He was carrying it around for me. If I wanted to go to catering, he’d bring it with him.

I’d like to ask about a couple of the encore tunes. On opening night in Harrisburg, in addition to songs by both bands, you played Wang Chung’s “Dance Hall Days.” What prompted that one?

BB: Well, Vinnie, Rob, Al and I did a late night show with Joel at Jazz Fest last May. “Dance Hall Days” was one of the songs that we did, so we felt pretty good about playing that one.

VA: The first time we did it was at Summer Camp. We were supposed to do a Blue Star Radiation show [which features Vinnie, Rob, Nate Wilson and Tim Palmieri]. Except Tim had COVID and couldn’t make it, so we were like, “Oh shit, now what?” Then we threw a band together and Brendan was in said band. That was one of the songs we ended up playing because it was on our list, and he knew it. That was the first time we did it, then we did it at the gig in May.

Sometimes the hardest part is choosing personnel. Someone will say, “Here we are. This is what’s going to go down and these are the songs we’re thinking of.” It’s kind of a joke, but I’m always like, “I know that song.” I’m putting it out there even though it might be Scotty’s turn to play the cover song. I’ll be like, “I know that song” just because I want to play it, even though I know I’m not going to play it. Plus there are songs these guys know that we don’t play where I’m like, “Could I play that one? I’d like to play that one, please.”

But the beauty of us being out together is that we’re all buddies, so it susses itself out. Once we’ve landed on the songs, I’ll ask Scott, “Do you want to do that?” It’s kind of that simple and it’s almost quietly assumed that if one person’s doing one night, the next person’s doing the next. That’s how happens with the two of us. Guitar-wise and keyboard-wise, it might be a little different.

BB: For lack of a better term, it’s been pretty organic, where we’re just kind of sitting around and throwing shit at the wall. Nobody’s gets hurt about being left out of it or being brought into it.

VA: And sometimes there’s a basketball game so someone can’t do it.

[Which happened on June 13 when the Knicks captured the NBA title.]

BB: I think we were doing a joint encore that night and Vinnie was like, “Yeah, I need to watch this game.”

VA: Sorry guys, no encore for me tonight. The previous night in New York, Umphrey’s played first and since Scott is from Long Island, his parents were there. So after their set he went out to Peter Luger’s with them and I played throughout the encore.

BB: The other thing is that we all know there are like 20 of these dates. So if you don’t do it tonight, you’ll do it tomorrow.

Brendan, there was an evening when you and Al came out as an acoustic duo and opened the encore with moe’s “She Sends Me” and then Tenacious D. How did that come about?  

BB: We were just hanging around talking about how to make it different and interesting. I had mentioned that if we want to make it easy on everyone, one night Al and I could play acoustic. That way the crew wouldn’t have to deal with as much, and everyone wouldn’t need to do the prep work.

Then when we had agreed to do that, I said to Al, “You can say no because I know this song is about your ex-wife, but can we do ‘She Sends Me’ because it’s a really good song?” He said, “Sure,” and he was very happy to do that. I’d listened to that song like a million times in college.

Then he was like, “Well, we should do a song about your ex-wife.” I was like, “Nah. Let’s just do Tenacious D and make everybody happy.”

VA: That one ended up being the loudest audience sing-along of all the songs we’ve done so far.

Beyond the tunes you’ve mentioned, do you each have a favorite or a memorable one from the first run that we haven’t spoken about yet?

VA: I like the New York City night. I mean, I played the whole encore, maybe that’s why. [Laughs.] The energy was super high that night, though, and the encore was awesome. Again, Frasco was there, so he came out. A couple guys from Tauk were there, so they came out. It was just a blast.

BB: That one was awesome because it felt like a party with so many people on stage.

VA: We were singing that song—”This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco…” It was a rager.

How about you, Brendan?

BB: In Baltimore we did “Nebraska” and I love that song. As a fan, getting to play on that one was fun for me.

You also just mentioned “She Sends Me,” so I guess that the late 90s was a peak era of your moe. fandom?

BB: Well, I wouldn’t want to admit this in person, but I still get kind of starstruck from time to time. I forget that we’ve been friends for so long that they don’t care.

VA: Yeah, we tell him to shut up. We’re as starstruck with you guys, so shut up already.

Now this is on a totally different level but I always felt that way around Bobby, even though he was totally cool and never made anyone feel that way. Sometimes I’d be like, “Oh shit, I’m sitting here talking to Bobby Weir.” He was the guy I’d seen in Rich Stadium wearing those short shorts going, “Aiieee!” and now we’re sitting there talking about football.

BB: It’s just weird. When you go from idle to peer that’s a strange thing when it happens.

VA: The same kind of thing happened when we were on the road with Robert Plant. After the second or third night, it just came to be expected that he was going to come down to our dressing room after the show, crack open a Red Stripe, unbutton his pants and sit there with us, just yapping, telling stories and busting balls.

Can you talk about the other side of that? You’ve both been doing this for a while and there are plenty of musicians who feel the same way about each of you. How do you approach that?

BB: Well, Vinnie’s much older than I am. [Laughs.]

VA: True. Very true. I’m proudly much older. It is weird because I forget we’ve been doing this a long time. It’s been 30 years for me. That’s because it’s just a constant thing that’s always been in my life. So when someone says, “Oh my God, I’ve been listening to you forever,” I sort of forget how long I’ve been doing this and that we’ve made all these records and we were early on in the jamband world. So when someone says it, I’m like, “Oh, thanks.” But it never really registers that it’s a thing.

BB: I think part of the reason our bands get along is because we don’t think of each other or ourselves in that way. To us, we’re just doing our job and it’s a normal day. Lately we’ve been fortunate that we get to do it together.