Umphrey's McGee trades Red Butte's lawn for The Depot in March

The Chicago-born jam band's Fresh Cut tour stops in Salt Lake City on Thursday, March 11, its first local show since a June 2024 garden night.

The last time Umphrey's McGee played Salt Lake City, it was June, the sun was still up for the first set, and the crowd was spread across the lawn at Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre. The next time will be a Thursday in March, indoors, at The Depot. Different season, different room, and a band with a new record since that garden night.

Umphrey's McGee plays The Depot on Thursday, March 11, 2027. The show starts at 6:30 p.m., and tickets are $49.50 through Ticketmaster. It was announced Oct. 13 and is the band's first Salt Lake City show since June 13, 2024, at Red Butte.

The date is part of the band's Fresh Cut Tour, which JamBase reports runs 31 shows across three legs between January and March 2027. It opens Jan. 15 in Columbus, Ohio, and closes with two nights at Belly Up Aspen on March 18 and 19. Salt Lake lands one week before that finale, deep enough into the run that the band should be locked in, with songs that have had two months of nightly reworking.

Before any of that, the band rings in the new year next door: JamBase lists a three-night run at Denver's Ogden Theatre on Dec. 30, Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. That is the closest the band gets to Utah this winter until March.

The big change since 2024 is on the record shelf. Umphrey's released Blueprints, its 15th studio album and its first since 2022's Asking for a Friend, as Relix noted in its coverage of the band's touring. Umphrey's shows have never been about simply playing the album front to back, but a new batch of songs gives the improvisational sections fresh places to start from and land on. The band also kept busy through 2026, with a Sky's the Limit run, a West Coast swing and hometown Chicago dates with Andy Frasco & The U.N., according to Relix.

The Depot is a good fit for this band in winter. It is a general-admission room where a jam crowd can actually move. The 6:30 p.m. start is early for a Thursday, which in practice means a long night of music rather than an early one. Plan on two sets and leave room for whatever stretches out.

Different season, different room, and a band with a new record since that garden night.

Summer amphitheater shows are a ritual here, but there is something to be said for catching a band like this in March, when the snow is still on the Wasatch and everybody has been indoors too long. Red Butte was a picnic. The Depot will be a release.

Sources: JamBase: Umphrey's McGee Outlines Fresh Cut 2027 Tour Dates (jambase.com); Relix: Umphrey's McGee Announce 2026 Sky's The Limit Tour (relix.com); Relix: Umphrey's McGee Plot 2026 West Coast Tour (relix.com); Relix: Umphrey's McGee Plot Hometown Dates with Andy Frasco & The U.N. in 2026 (relix.com); JamBase listing (jambase.com)