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Mayan Holidaze (feat. Disco Biscuits, Umphrey’s McGee, STS9)

Umphrey’s guitarist Jake Cinninger later admitted to me that he felt their first show on the beach was a little rusty. “We haven’t seen or played with each other since the New Year’s show, and there was kind of a lot of time between then,” he said on Sunday afternoon looking back on Thursday evening. “It was kind of like getting the training wheels back off the band.”

It’s good that he was honest, but honestly few fans would’ve agreed with him entirely. Sure, the band reeled in the improvisation (something they would compensate for the following night, such as when they plunged through “Plunger” and threw a ‘Superstitious” jam in “Booth Love”) but a second set sandwich of “The Bottom Half -> Glory -> The Bottom Half” was just as tasty as anything at the nearby late-night buffet and, certainly, their much-adored cover of the Talking Heads’ “Making Flippy Floppy” had people kicking off their own flip-flops to go make splishy-splashy in the ocean just yards from the front of the stage. Everyone kinda knew right then and there how the rest of the four days were going to go and, no matter what words they would’ve used to describe it, “training wheels” were definitely not part of the otherwise all-inclusive package. This party was strictly for varsity players.

Bonobo took over for an hour before Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9) played a late-night show that would go until just before 3AM, followed (yes, followed) by a late-late night Orchard Lounge set inside the resort’s lounge/banquet room — a set-up that looked like the kind of place where people get married, luau’ed, lectured and/or congratulated.

By Friday people were beginning to get their bearings. They learned the lay of the land and while some took off to explore Tulum — and, yet, others the underwater cave systems known as cenotes — I explored my more immediate surroundings… and the bars that adorned them. And the beach just beyond. That evening, I went with some friends to the resort’s Japanese restaurant, Lemongrass, for a hibachi dinner. Because eating Japanese food in Mexico is kinda like watching a band from Philadelphia play their heart out in the Yucatan — it adds perspective. Or something. Disco Biscuits’ guitarist Jon Gutwillig ate with us at our table as we were treated to a resort-class teppanyaki show from one of the chefs. He seemed relaxed enough but something must’ve happened between desert and his soundcheck minutes later because by the time he took the stage with the Disco Biscuits, he was shredding like there was no tomorrow. It actually made you wish there was no tomorrow… or, rather, impatient for it to arrive so you could do it all over again. And then we got to do it all over again.

But, that night, Gutwillig never took his eye off the prize, building sonic pyramids worthy of their own Mayan creation myths as the band shredded through songs both old (“Crickets”) and new (“Neck Romancer”), launching jams into territory that was at once strange and comforting, as if to match the immediate surroundings, before bringing Umphrey’s bassist Ryan Stasik onstage for an electronically-saturated “On Time” encore. Count that as a win.

Later that night, Umphrey’s McGee celebrated their 13th birthday — their Bar Mitzvah, as they posited it — with two tight sets filled with loose-lipped improvisation and other appropriate pageantry. Perhaps, most notably, the band debuted a Spanish-language version of their greatest hit, “In the Kitchen” — a move that was both bold and finely executed, not to mention entertaining. As were their cover choices for the evening — Steely Dan’s “Peg” and Snoop Dogg’s “Ain’t No Fun” — the latter being a misnomer because, in fact, Umphrey’s late-nighter was some of the most fun of the entire weekend.

And then we got to do it all over again. By the time most people — at least, most of the people I knew — woke up on Saturday, half the day had already been sacrificed to the Mayan gods. Which was fine: one of the many precious things about Mayan Holidaze is that the days and nights really are divided. Not only is there no overlapping music — which, of course, is huge — but the daylight hours really are laid back affairs while nights are given to excess, in the darkness of the Yucatan wilderness.

STS9 bassist David Murphy spun a DJ set from the pool’s floating gazebo around 2PM while Umphrey’s Brendan Bayliss and Yonder Mountain String Band’s Jeff Austin teamed up for their acoustic side-project known as 30db. That set turned out to be another certified Holidaze highlight. It was a casual set for a casual afternoon, with most fans pulling up beach chairs and chaise lounges, while others stood along the waterline and yet others sat on their own private balconies and watched the easy breezy proceedings — as they are in real life, Bayliss and Austin were comedic and informal. Austin even joked to the few hundred in attendance that “this is exactly the same amount of people that bought the 30db record… Welcome to our album release party!” In addition to relaxed renditions of their album tracks, 30db treated the audience to undressed, oceanside versions of Wilco’s “Handshake Drugs” and Modest Mouse’s “The Good Times Are Killing Me.”