My first exposure to the avant-garde jazz trio Medeski Martin and Wood (conveniently known as MMW) was at the State Palace Theater during a Jazz Fest weekend in 1999 New Orleans.  MMW was still relatively new, but had the distinction of opening for Phish in 1995, which stamped them with the Phish ...view article

Coming off of one of their most prolific tours in recent memory, selling out nearly every show they played (including The Fillmore in Denver, Colorado), Umphrey’s McGee descended on the ever-familiar frozen tundra of Minneapolis for two consecutive nights at the First Avenue.

The raucous ...view article

San Diego was visited by an embarrassment of musical riches on this particular Tuesday night. In patchouli-soaked Ocean Beach, the city's own beachside Haight Ashbury, Leftover Salmon's Vince Herman led his Great American Taxi side project through an evening of bluegrass-tinged, southern-fried rock.

Further ...view article

A good friend of mine tells me that he has always experienced any troubles getting to a show as a good omen that said show is going to be a barn burner.  This could all be in his mind, but the adage has rung true for me over this past week while following around Umphrey’s McGee.  I’m a bit ...view article

We rose some time after dawn in a small bed and breakfast lodge in Sacramento and I was still suffering a bit of barrel fever from all the whiskey I'd drowned myself in the night before.  We had traveled East from San Francisco through the night to get a jump on the day.  We'd be riding plum through ...view article

The Independent in San Francisco played host to a night of musical pageantry as former String Cheese Incident keyboard wizard Kyle Hollingsworth and Animal Liberation Orchestra's song writing prodigy Zach Gill played an uninterrupted evening of cheerful songs and joyous jams.17356

Zach Gill, ...view article