oh kee pah

photo via jambands.com

In a venue used to hosting the likes of Johnny Mathis, Paul Anka and myriad doo woop extravaganzas Umphrey’s McGee delivered a surprise two set show last Thursday night in the intimate confines of the Westbury Music Fair. A band with a lesser attitude might have taken one look at the photos of Tony Bennett, Liza Minnelli, two beach boys who weren’t Brian Wilson and others of their ilk that ring the lobby, checked the ticket sales for the night (undersold, alas) and said to themselves “Let’s do our one set and get out of dodge.” Instead of mailing it in they over delivered giving the enthusiastic crowd two sets instead of one, and in the process playing what is easily the best show of the four times I’ve personally seen them play since 2002.

It would appear that the second of the New York shows on Aug. 18 was the better of the two. The first set was filled with classics: "Down with Disease," "Sample in a Jar," "Chalkdust Torture," "Run with an Antelope." Second set included "Axila," "46 Days," "Harry Hood," "Tweezer" and "Suzy Greenberg."

While first set raged the night before (CelebStoner was there on Aug. 17) with "Fluffhead," "Kill Devil Falls," "Wilson" and "Possum," second set ("Simple," "Backwards Down the Number Line") meandered at times, keeping people in their seats rather than dancing.

While we wish the music was the big story from last night’s Phish tour closer at Jones Beach in Wantagh, NY instead it was the story of a fan who leaped approximately 25 feet from the balcony to the loge during setbreak. In a story picked up by the NY Post, Daily News and Newsday, an unidentified 25-year-old fan landed hard after jumping from an upper section and started bleeding from his face before he was attended to emergency technicians.