For over 24 years, Umphrey’s McGee have pushed the bounds onstage — taking part in an improvisational progressive rock model that effortlessly merges genres, moods, meters, and tempos. They’re veterans now, however again in September 2001, they’d simply graduated from the College of Notre Dame and the whole lot was nonetheless contemporary.
Umphrey’s had constructed a powerful following exterior of their midwest base and, independently, expanded their attain with a singular dwell strategy. In fall 2001, having made main headway on the touring circuit, they set out on their second large East coast tour of that 12 months. It was a pivotal month for the band — throughout a time of nationwide tragedy, they staged what may very well be their most significant present.
Earlier than heading out on the highway, Umphrey’s McGee had constructed the trek round a September tenth gig at New York Metropolis’s jam band haven Wetlands Protect, a venue they’d performed a number of instances earlier than. Owned by promoter Peter Shapiro — the present proprietor of the Capitol Theater exterior of the town and Brooklyn Bowl — the Wetlands was a TriBeCa venue that booked each established and rising artists in that scene.
Simply after their fall tour was booked, the Wetlands misplaced its lease and the Umphrey’s present was canceled. Shapiro, wanting the venue’s remaining exhibits to honor the legacy of the membership, introduced again its embellished alumni to shut in model. Had the present not been canceled, the band would have discovered themselves in New York Metropolis on the morning of 9/11.
What follows is the story of that point, advised immediately by the band members and their associates.
Peter Shapiro, former Wetlands proprietor: On the night time of Sept. 10, Warren Haynes, Mike Gordon, Stanley Jordan, and DJ Logic performed the present as a substitute of Umphrey’s. We needed to cancel their present. It was the top of the venue, and we needed to exit robust! We had some big acts. A lot of folks had been at that present; it went ‘til nearly 6 am. My good friend, dwell music fan, and photographer, Greg Aiello, had a reasonably wonderful story due to that present. He was going to overlook it however then heard that Mike Gordon from Phish and Warren Haynes had been going to point out up on the Wetlands. He labored at Oppenheimer Funds on the thirty second ground of Tower 2. He walked out of The Wetlands because the solar was arising and headed over to crash at a good friend’s condominium. He was woke up to his cellphone buzzing consistently; his household couldn’t attain him and thought he was at work. Greg says that, for thus many causes, music actually saved his life!
Joel Cummins, keyboards: There’s no disgrace in being bumped as a result of Bob Weir wanted your slot. That stated, taking part in the Wetlands was an enormous badge of honor, and it had considerably of a built-in viewers that launched the careers of many younger bands on the scene. So dropping an essential gig like that actually felt prefer it may harm our momentum in New York Metropolis. We’ve performed the Wetlands perhaps two or thrice earlier than then. And it was like, you recognize, Jam Band Mecca of New York Metropolis. Should you wished to play the place that mattered, that was the place you performed. So getting canceled was form of a bummer. However then after we came upon we obtained the Lion’s Den gig with Addison Groove Challenge. We had been like, OK, cool. This may not less than be one thing that’s salvaging the tour. We’re attending to play in New York Metropolis.
Sept. 8, 2001
Earlier than they headed to New York, Umphrey’s was in Pittsburgh for his or her mates’ marriage ceremony, the place — after commandeering the occasion area after hours — the first-ever “Jimmy Stewart” periods occurred on the Jimmy Stewart Ballroom on the Renaissance Pittsburgh Resort. The employees let the band play uninterrupted late into the night time as they explored the musical language of improvisation. The essence of the “Jimmy Stewart” idea was to improvise in a method that sounded deliberate and scripted. Umphrey’s try and carry out new music in real-time in entrance of an viewers.
Vince Iwinski, supervisor: Whereas we’re in Pittsburgh, we’ve got to restructure the tour. We ended up, I feel, in Pittsburgh an additional night time. I imagine Jeremy (the groom) put us up someplace, after which we made our solution to Ithaca, New York.
Cummins: Pondering we’d disguise ourselves, we turned out the lights within the room and simply tried to play. Turned out, it made us pay attention to one another. However the entrance desk one ground beneath us additionally knew precisely what we had been as much as. Seems, they didn’t care so long as nobody complained.
Kevin Browning, supervisor: Enjoying that night time in Pittsburgh was a penultimate second we didn’t but perceive. Celebrating the nuptials of nice mates was joyous sufficient in its personal proper, crystallizing the essence of what would show to be the UM trademark was past expectations.
Sept. 10, 2001
After Pittsburgh, the band headed to Ithaca, the place they had been now scheduled to play the Hang-out on 9/11. They discovered a band and breakfast, a retreat for bands on the highway, run by a man named Means who marketed in Relix. Deep within the woods with no TV or web, the home had an analog vibe.
Cummins: The place was not what we anticipated it to be. Sadly the “Band and Breakfast” didn’t underpromise and overdeliver. Upon our arrival, we found the marketed sizzling tub wanted to be stuffed by warming cauldrons of water on the stovetop. The house owners then requested us to show down the electrical devices at one thing like 9:30 p.m. that night time as a result of he was going to sleep together with his girlfriend in a room subsequent door. We had been promised all-night jams! So we needed to simply get drunk and play acoustics and singalongs on the porch that night time.
Browning: We did the whole lot you’d count on a younger band on the highway to do at a retreat like this — we drank, performed guitar, wrote music, and partied all night time. We stayed up method too late at Means’s place after the present. It was sitting on the porch taking part in acoustic guitars in a cabin within the woods. They began messing round with this improvisational stuff that they’d simply accomplished a number of days prior with no thought the following morning would convey us one thing none of us would ever neglect.
Sept. 11, 2001
On the morning of Sept. 11, Iwinski awoke late to plenty of missed calls from his sister on his mobile phone. (Keep in mind, this was 2001 — he was the one one with a mobile phone.) When she lastly obtained ahold of him, she advised him to wake everybody up and to activate the information instantly. The nation was beneath assault.
Iwinski: Sept. 14 was the rescheduled New York date. We had been bummed we couldn’t play the Wetlands anymore, so we booked the Lion’s Den in New York. The Lion’s Den was owned by New York firemen. I’ll get to that a part of the story later. The night time earlier than, we in all probability overindulged. I used to be the one particular person with a mobile phone on the time. I’ll always remember my little orange Nokia cellphone with its annoying ring. My cellphone saved ringing and ringing on the morning of Sept. 11. All people was asleep. Bayliss woke me up as a result of it was ringing continuous. I’m form of groggy however absolutely awoke once I noticed all of the missed calls from my sister.
My sister, who’s eleven years older than me, says, “The place are you?” And I used to be like, “I’m in upstate New York. What’s the issue?” She’s like, “Do you not know what’s happening proper now?” “I don’t know; I’ve obtained a headache. I do know THAT’s for positive!” And he or she stated, “Activate the TV now.” I stated, “OK, however there’s no TV right here. And he or she stated, “The World Commerce Heart has been attacked. Are you in New York?” I’m like, “I’m in upstate New York.” And he or she’s like, “Go discover a TV and get someplace secure.” She’s getting loopy. And so I wake all people up. I stated that my sister simply known as me and one thing was happening. And so we form of throw ourselves collectively and soar into Kevin’s Suburban and drive into city. There was a TV retailer, or some type of electronics retailer with TVs on, and individuals are standing exterior watching the footage of what’s happening. And we’re like, holy shit. We didn’t know what to do. Keep in mind that film Pink Daybreak? It form of began to really feel slightly like that. What ought to we do? We ended up going for a hike within the woods, to a waterfall in Ithaca. We wished to speak and hike and assess and attempt to wrap our heads round what the hell is happening. And we’re imagined to go to New York later that week.
Cummins: Like everybody else within the nation at that second, on that day, we wanted to attempt to make sense of all of it. We had been in our mid-20s; we had no thought what to do. The blokes determined to take a hike as much as a number of the waterfalls in Ithaca to determine what they had been going to do about their present that night time and course of the unthinkable tragedies of the day. After our hike we went to the venue, the Hang-out, to see if the present would nonetheless be on, and it was. The venue had its TVs on, which made it arduous for anybody to give attention to something aside from the nation being beneath assault. We had been glued to the TV even after we had been imagined to be specializing in soundcheck.
All through the years, any time a well known musician died or the nation skilled a notable occasion, the band usually paid homage to it by way of their exhibits. That night time, they performed Jaco Pastorius’ model of “America the Stunning” led by bassist Ryan Stasik, and the room went silent.
Ryan Stasik, bass: You could possibly hear a pin drop. I used to be in shock, together with the remainder of the world. The venue was replaying the planes hitting the towers advert nauseam on the televisions. Performing Jaco Pastorius’ model of “America the Stunning” was a therapeutic second in a time of tragedy. Fortunately music was nonetheless there to assist out, even for only a second.
Andy Farag, percussion: We didn’t suppose we’d even be taking part in, I imply, the temper was positively somber. However we additionally felt prefer it was the appropriate factor to do to nonetheless play a present. The turnout wasn’t nice, so, yeah, it was slightly unusual. However all of us nonetheless thought it was the appropriate factor to do.
Sept. 12, 2001
Howie Schnee, a live performance promoter in New York Metropolis, had exhibits booked all around the metropolis the week of 9/11. With the nation beneath assault and the town shut down, Schnee had loads of rescheduling to determine and never a lot time to do it. He known as Iwinski to see if Umphrey’s was nonetheless thinking about taking part in within the metropolis on Sept. 14. After the Wetlands cancellation, it was a present they booked to switch it. The band wasn’t positive if the present could be canceled.
A Boston present at Home of Blues on Sept. 13 was nonetheless scheduled, and the band headed there from Ithaca. Upon arrival, the town was eerily quiet. There have been no planes overhead, little visitors, and folks had been nonetheless on edge. “It was so unusual wanting up within the sky and see no planes,” says singer-guitarist Brendan Bayliss.
Browning: The scope of the tragedy took days to sink in. The fact that almost all of these misplaced wouldn’t be discovered grew to become clearer. We didn’t know precisely how the world would change, however we knew it might all be completely different from then on. Ready for an imminent battle is sobering.
Cummins: The NYC Lion’s Den gig had been booked a while in early August. After we heard of The Wetlands fiasco that canceled our Sept. 10 present, there we had been provided a co-bill with our mates Addison Groove Challenge. On Sept. 12 or Sept. 13, promoter Howie Schnee known as and advised us Addison Groove Challenge didn’t really feel proper taking part in the present and that they had been going to again out. Howie advised us he would nonetheless like to have us and that we may now play two units if we wished. We requested what he thought, and he stated, “I feel folks will actually need dwell music by Thursday night time. All we’ve accomplished is stare on the TV in disbelief for the previous two days.” So we made the choice to play the gig, towards a few of our households’ needs, who had been naturally nonetheless involved for our security out on the highway. We knew we wanted to do the present, and we wished to do it. It was such a bizarre time. We simply wished to take folks’s minds off of it.
Sept. 13, 2001
The Boston present at Home of Blues was sold-out. That night time, the town was on edge. Bayliss remembers that one of many terrorists’ vans was discovered throughout the road from the lodge the place they had been staying. American Airways Flight 11 took off from Logan Airport with 5 terrorists aboard.
Everybody was so on edge that the venue needed to be cleared out in the course of the set break present because the fireplace alarm went off. The hearth division cleared the venue, however the alarm went off not due to a hearth: as a substitute, the band set it off by smoking weed.
Cummins: Yeah, we had been smoking weed within the inexperienced room. We have now a foul historical past in Boston of getting in hassle with safety. However that’s one other story. We set off the hearth alarm, and it completely freaked everybody out as a result of it was, you recognize, proper after 9/11. We needed to say we had been stoners and we’re actually sorry. They usually had a severe restaurant at that time. It was full of individuals eating, they usually needed to clear each closet in your complete constructing. Jesus. However yeah, it positively was a kind of instances when all people was nonetheless on edge. Solely when it was on the finish of the night time, and the venue was closed, may we truly chortle about it.
Sept. 14, 2001
The Lion’s Den wasn’t solely a well known membership in Manhattan, however it was additionally owned by some particular folks. Umphrey’s McGee weren’t conscious of this till they arrived on the Greenwich Village venue.
Iwinski: We instantly realized that not solely would we do the present, however we additionally wished to do it for the firemen and the folks of New York Metropolis. All of us knew we needed to be there and play an excellent present that night time.
Cummins: Andy Farag, our half-Egyptian percussionist and greatest driver within the band, was driving after we arrived in NYC. We in some way got here by way of the flawed lane of the Lincoln Tunnel and ended up in a “metropolis bus solely” lot. Safety instantly surrounded us for questioning and we defined who we had been and what we had been doing. President George W. Bush was on the World Commerce Heart that day accessing the injury and to provide a speech. After a fast look into the trailer, they purchased our story and despatched us again out the right solution to get to the venue. There was an eerie calm as soon as we rolled as much as the venue, with the wreckage of the Twin Towers in plain sight only a few blocks down the road. I couldn’t convey myself to stroll down there — it was simply too contemporary. The odor reeked of burning plastic, steel, gas, and humanity. It was painful even at that distance. The odor will all the time be with me.
Brendan Bayliss, lead vocals and guitar: Driving into New York, I bear in mind all people was simply quiet. We weren’t actually listening to music, and you possibly can see the smoke from like an hour away. It was nearly like we had been driving right into a battle zone. That form of felt harmful. And will we be doing this? The Lion’s Den, the place the gig was, was near Floor Zero. I bear in mind at one level we had slightly little bit of time, and some of us walked and obtained as shut as we may. It was all barricaded off, however you possibly can odor burning. And it was like we had been actually in a battle zone. There have been cops working crimson lights left and proper. It smelled like poison, like one thing I shouldn’t be inhaling.
Jake Cinninger, vocals and lead guitar: Once we lastly did get the Lion’s Den present, we pulled as much as the venue. And I imagine the Lion’s Den was owned by loads of firefighters. It was form of like their native bar hangout. So after we pulled up and loaded in tools, there have been soot-covered firemen on the bar having a drink. It was loopy. They’d simply been pulling our bodies out of the rubble, you recognize, after which they’re like, on their little break and having a drink on the bar. I bear in mind after we had been lastly up and taking part in, they stated to play one thing to assist get their minds off of all this. So at our common soundcheck, we ended up form of taking part in for the fellows that had been simply having a hell of a day clearly. I bear in mind vividly taking part in a Waylon Jennings tune, “Good Ol’ Boys.” I believed that was form of humorous, and so did they. I do do not forget that. Like, they wanted to listen to slightly one thing aside from, you recognize, sorrow and distress. So yeah, it was fairly particular, for positive.
Farag: I bear in mind the fighter jets flying over Manhattan prefer it was a battle. Yeah, it was form of eerie seeing them flying by way of the skyscrapers. Wow.
Cinninger: One of many bizarre issues was to lookup into the sky. There was no air visitors. Usually, you lookup and also you’d all the time see some type of exercise happening within the skies. However there was, like, nothing. They canceled all of the flights, proper? It was eerily quiet. It positively stood out. New York is simply all the time such a metropolis that you simply really feel is so large and loud; there’s a pulse. The loopy vitality was simply so subdued. It was the best assault on New Yorkers ever. New Yorkers had a lot pleasure.
Cummins: That metallic soot? Burning plastic, burning steel? Yeah, it was, you recognize, burning our bodies. Most likely. It was surprising, the entire thing. I imply, I do not forget that, once you regarded down the road that the Lion’s Den was on, you possibly can see the World Commerce Heart wreckage from in entrance of the venue. That’s how shut it was. I’ve vivid photos of these shards of cut up metal. It was actually, actually, actually traumatizing
Cinninger: And contemporary, proper? It simply felt actually contemporary. It was attention-grabbing to be there at that place at the moment. It’s form of bizarre that we had been even there at the moment.
Iwinski: There have been firemen sitting on the bar crying their eyes out as a result of they’d misplaced a few of their firemen brothers. And a few of these guys personal the Lion’s Den. And proper exterior of the venue, like half a block away, there was an enormous memorial with candles and footage of those that had been lacking.
Stasik: We had been children, only some years out of faculty. The world modified in a single day, and we needed to develop up. This night time could be one of the crucial essential exhibits we’d ever play.
Bayliss: There was just one music that I wished to play that night time: “Trenchtown Rock” by Bob Marley. I don’t even bear in mind what else we performed that night time. That music, these lyrics at that second, was all I cared about. These firemen spent 4 days risking their lives, dropping their brothers, working across the clock. It was all so surreal. They’d no concern. They labored across the clock to save lots of lives, after lots of their mates had misplaced theirs. No time to even mourn.
Browning: It was past surreal. After wandering the encircling blocks wanting on the 1000’s of “Have you ever seen this particular person?” flyers tacked to each streetlight, the size of all of it sunk in. Again standing on the soundboard earlier than soundcheck, I listened as two firemen in full gear sat on the bar rattling off names of their co-workers. “Frankie?” “Didn’t make it.” “Dallas?” “Don’t know.” “Jimmy?” “Nope.” A dozen-plus names later, it was evident most of their buddies wouldn’t ever be going house, and I simply misplaced it proper alongside them.
Cummins: The gang for the Lion’s Den present was actually targeted and responsive. There was a ubiquitous appreciation for everybody [of what] dwell music meant to each the band and followers. The thought that our lifestyle may very well be taken away from us, everybody in that room held on to every be aware that night time. It had by no means meant extra to us.
Throughout the exhibits, folks popped out and in of the venue, having a drink earlier than heading again to Floor Zero. The band carried out one in every of their most emotional units of their profession. Throughout the gig throughout load-out, one of many venue’s bartenders stood with a fireman staring down the road. They’d the 1,000-mile stare: The expression of their faces stated all of it — they couldn’t imagine the World Commerce Heart was gone. The proprietor of the Lion’s Den was so grateful that he and his brothers had been in a position to be distracted, even for a short while.
Bayliss: My remaining reminiscence of the night time was the way it ended. The blokes stayed after for some time and drank with the firemen and followers. All of us obtained slightly wasted and by no means mentioned who was driving us out of the town. Being the final one out of the venue, I used to be chosen to be that man. We drove away, trailer and tools in tow, zigzagging out and in of the best way of all the hearth vehicles, police automobiles, and ambulances…solely to be stopped and questioned on the Holland Tunnel. We couldn’t have been extra suspicious-looking, and the trailer didn’t assist! In the end, they allow us to go to ultimately sleep all of it off.
Outdoors, the odor of smoke and rubble was eerily distinguished. The present, nonetheless, was a quiet return to normalcy that the oldsters in attendance badly wanted.
Browning: The ash clouds fading within the rearview over Manhattan fading as we drove away was an eerie, unsettling feeling. In the end our consensus was that if the present helped even one particular person take care of the truth at hand, it was price it.
Howie Schnee, Lion’s Den promoter: It was a cathartic present for the folks within the viewers. On the finish, as I stood on the entrance door to want folks an excellent night time, nearly everybody stopped to provide me a hug and thank me for placing on the present throughout such a troublesome time when just about each different music venue was closed.
Cummins: Strolling onstage to carry out music is a singular expertise in that the whole lot you don’t want normally simply melts away. No matter cares or challenges that face you offstage change into peripheral. It’s all concerning the music. On this explicit night time, the music had an additional injection of depth and that means, because of the horrible surrounding circumstances. It meant extra to us as musicians; it meant extra to the viewers. Just some hours to interrupt away and neglect concerning the actuality exterior. That night time we created a number of hours of an alternate actuality for us all, to get misplaced within the music and bear in mind what it felt wish to smile and embrace one another in one thing good. We’ll always remember it.
