Fan-friendly traveling band plans Vegas stop

By J. Patrick Coolican

Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Joel Cummins is the keyboardist for Umphrey’s McGee, the Chicago-based band that combines progressive rock with traditional American genres to create two-set improvisational journeys. Yes, the band plays 100 shows a year, often with a traveling group of freaky followers, but don’t stereotype it as like all the other jam bands. Umphrey’s released an album this year of songs never before played on the road, “Mantis,” to much acclaim and the band’s best sales ever. And of course, there’s Cummins’ famous side project Yacht Rock.

You’ve been on the road for 10 years. Is it exhausting?

Not for me. I’ve found the way we make music every night is such a difficult and challenging thing, but it’s only exhausting if we’re not doing our job very well. That’s hardly ever. I may have a couple of bad minutes during a set, but then I remember, “You love what you do — figure it out.”

Changing habits and lifestyle has helped. We don’t go out and rage. What you do the night before has a lot to do with how the next day goes. We also only go out for three weeks at a time. At the outer edge of that, the creative element suffers. There needs to be a normalcy, given serious relationships most of us have back home.

On your Web site there are photos of some members of the band community doing a triathlon. A rock band in a triathlon, really?

Yeah, five years ago I doubt we would have any triathletes in the group. That probably helps out physically and mentally.

You’re pretty fan-friendly. How does the state of the economy affect being a touring band?

The biggest thing we’ve learned is being smart about every move we make. We’re not counting on money that isn’t guaranteed, playing smaller rooms. We’ve tried to keep ticket prices down and give people other options if they can’t come out. Live webcasts. We’ve used Iclips.net. If you can’t spend $20 on a show, you can spend $5 to stream it and then you own it for a week. We want to give people options so they have something close to the live experience.

How was your last album different from the previous?

Not having played any of the songs live, it’s a different thing from what we do live. There’s more musical architecture involved, creating the big form and then all the smaller units within it. It’s a way to reach hard-core fans but also more casual fans who want a different experience and may come across the songs in different mediums.

Tell us about your side project, Yacht Rock, with its homage to such legends as Christopher Cross.

We play only the smoothest FM hits from 1976 to 1984, and we only play on beaches, or on water, a lake, a river, a ship. Who knows, Mandalay Bay is a body of water.

Is there a Yacht Rock philosophy, a Yacht Rock ethos?

I’ll reference Spinal Tap: Have a good time, all the time.