August 29, 2014
I need a miracle every day
-The Grateful Dead
Miracle tickets. They’re an easy, but crucial part of jam culture and fandom that are often overlooked in their significance. At any moment, one can swoop in, radically altering the course of a night. For anyone who has ever wandered a Phish lot, baking in sun – becoming more and more delirious for any number of reasons that could afflict a body in this situation – finger in the air, calling out who’s got my miracle, the emotional roller coaster, the anxiety of the experience is all too real.
Miracles can happen!
Sometimes the ordeal is over in minutes, sometimes hours go by without so much as glimmer of hope. And when the masses start funneling their way into the venue, the lot hollowing into a disturbingly quiet ghost town, those left behind still holding that one finger up, now slightly limp, things get real. To land a ticket in that moment is an experience everyone who loves live music should have. Once the stub is in hand, no matter where it leads to inside the venue, it is understood that everything is going to be just fine. You made it, and you’re not gonna miss a minute of the show.
So it was that around 8:45pm, as I paced madly around the kitchen, about to abandon all hope, that I received a call from a post on craigslist I had responded to earlier in the day, telling me that I had a ticket if I needed it, that the show starts in 10 minutes, that I could make an offer. I spat out $40 over the phone and leapt into my car. Every red light I hit was a penance in purgatory, agonizingly slow to change. It seemed like I hit one every hundred meters or so. Despite this, I found parking, sprinted to the doors, and received my beautiful ticket from a hand extending out of the building, struggling to make the connection as security strictly enforced no-exit policy. I was in.
Inside the Classic Center for Umphrey’s McGee
Up until this point, I had been contemplating wandering the streets of downtown Athens and people-watching as the swarming thousands that had arrived earlier in the afternoon for the UGA-Clemson football game the next day. It was quite a sight, but now was not mine to have, and believe me, I was more than okay with that.
The Classic Center is a small, but classy looking auditorium. It feels inspired by old theaters (think the Landmark in Syracuse, NY), but with a sleek, modern spin. The flat white walls of the auditorium’s interior make it a very pristine and elegant space, and act as a perfect canvas for whatever displays a lighting rig might display. It’s a perfect fit for a band like Umphrey’s McGee, complimenting their tightly polished, somewhat glamorous storm of power and piercing notes.Going to a show alone can create a lot of apprehension or doubt about the experience you’re going to have, but it wasn’t long before I remembered the fact that it is impossible to not enjoy yourself at Umphrey’s McGee. The energy in the music is always ramped up, and it carries listeners away on a journey through a wild blend of hard rock, metal, pop, funk, and just about any other genre conceivable.
Some nifty light work
Having just recently released their new album, Similar Skin, the six-piece rage-fest from Chicago that Umphs is played sets that were full of fresh tracks (“Cut the Cable, “No Diablo,” “Loose Ends,” “Little Gift”) and classic jams (“Plunger,” “1348,” “Booth Love”). Despite being in an auditorium, the show felt very intimate. When I think intimate shows, Higher Ground in Burlington, VT comes to mind. The playing was a little more laid back, relaxed but rocking, and there was nothing but love for Athens. I was not prepared for the show to be sold out, which was part of the reason for my last minute scramble.
“Spot” lighting the crowd
The popularity of Umphrey’s McGee here was much stronger than I expected, but apparently, they have quite the following down in my new home than they did up North. Flagpole‘s most recent release had a short promotional piece for the show in which it stated that Umph’s has “made Athens a second home over the years” and it certainly seemed to be true. There was more audience interaction than I’ve ever seen at one of their shows, and it felt like we were all getting a special treat.
The climax of the show hit at the end of the second set, with a steady and heavy cover of
Radiohead’s “The National Anthem” under dark red lighting. Immediately following this to cap off the set was “Wizard Burial Ground,” the preposterously hard romp of a metal 
anthem that’s enough to make your head do flips no matter what state you find yourself in. The break before encore was a raucous and joyful period of cheers between the audience on the floor and in the balconies. The classic “We got the Umph, gotta have that Umph” call and response resounded through the auditorium. The three song encore started on a clear response to the cheer with “Soul Food II,” a song that sounds almost exactly like Parliament’s “Give Up The Funk”. After playing through “Glory,” the final conclusion of the show came with a tender and powerful cover of the Marshall Tucker Band’s “Can’t You See,” which they announced with a shoutout:
This one’s for the South.
Sharing in a Groove 