THE STONE PONY SUMMER STAGE

An Evening with Umphrey’s McGee

Tickets: $35 in advance (plus applicable surcharges), $40 at the door

Singer-guitarist Brendan Bayliss had just landed in Los Angeles after a flight from Chicago, expecting to start a West Coast tour with Umphrey’s McGee, when he found a text on his phone. It basically said, “You’re going home.”

Keyboard player Joel Cummins, who lives in L.A., was in San Diego, squeezing in some golf before the shows, when his phone lit up. And guitarist Jake Cinninger was at his home studio in Niles, Michigan – across the state line from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, birthplace of Umphrey’s McGee – about to leave for the airport when he got the news.

It was March, 2020 – the first shock and whiplash of pandemic lockdown. After 22 years on the road and a dozen ambitious and eclectic studio albums, including the 2004 breakthrough Anchor Drops, 2009’s prog-rock trip Mantis and 2015’s The London Session, recorded in a single day at Abbey Road, Umphrey’s McGee – Bayliss, Cummins, Cinninger, bassist Ryan Stasik, drummer Kris Myers and percussionist Andy Farag – were grounded until further notice.

“I remember almost vibrating, like an anxiety attack,” Cinninger says now. “We were always in motion, going forward. It’s weird when that stops on a dime.” Cummins sat in his house, “just beside myself,” he says, “because I didn’t know when I would play music with my friends again.”

“Everyone was guilty of taking a couple of weeks, just staring at the sky,” Bayliss says. “Then you run out of excuses to not do anything.” Emails flew back and forth “with ideas and chord progressions” as Bayliss, stuck at home, worked on lyrics for a pair of songs already underway: “Always October,” an anxious meditation with a jolting chorus, started at a Nashville session in the fall of 2019; and the helplessness in “I Don’t Know What I Want,” a combined reflection on solitary confinement and heavy, personal loss. In June, 2019, Bayliss’ friend Jeff Austin, the former mandolinist in Yonder Mountain String Band, died unexpectedly. “I’m only looking for an antidote,” Bayliss wrote in the song. “What if I’m only asking for a friend?”

“I was thinking about a friend that I couldn’t help,” he admits, adding, “There’s something to be said for speaking your mind. If it’s a true emotion, it’s something everyone can feel: ‘Why is this happening to me?'” — David Fricke

JAKE OWEN
with Parmalee

Multiple chart-topping singer/songwriter Jake Owen’s new single “Made For You” is rapidly climbing the Billboard Country Airplay charts. With eight No. 1 songs to his name, “Made For You” follows Owen’s fastest-rising career No. 1 single, “I Was Jack (You Were Diane)” and most recent No. 1 single, “Homemade.” Owen’s songs have resonated with listeners and audiences everywhere with 2X Platinum anthem and Most Played Song of the Decade “Barefoot Blue Jean Night,” Platinum-certified hits “Beachin,’” “Anywhere With You,” “Alone With You,” “The One That Got Away,” and Gold-certified “American Country Love Song.” Owen’s sixth studio album, GREETINGS FROM… JAKE, produced three Top 10 singles, including two No. 1 singles and his current top 30 and climbing “Made For You.” Signed to Big Loud Records, Owen is reunited with award-winning Joey Moi, who helped produce his breakout Barefoot Blue Jean Night album, which landed at #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and garnered four consecutive No. 1 hits. Owen is gearing up to join Moi once again to record his seventh studio album.

Tickets: $49.50 in advance (plus applicable surcharges), $55 at the door

Counting Crows: Butter Miracle Tour

Counting Crows have enchanted listeners worldwide for more than two decades with their intensely soulful and intricate take on timeless rock & roll. Exploding onto the music scene in 1993 with their multi-platinum breakout album, August and Everything After, the band has gone on to release seven studio albums, selling more than 20 million records worldwide, and is revered as one of the world’s most pre-eminent live touring rock bands. In 2004, Counting Crows recorded the chart-topping “Accidently in Love” for the animated motion picture Shrek 2. The instant success of the track earned them an Academy Award nomination for “Best Original Song” at the 2005 Academy Awards, a Golden Globe nomination for “Best Original Song,” and a GRAMMY Award nomination for “Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.” Over the last 30 years, the masterful songwriting from frontman Adam Duritz put the band at No.8 on Billboard Magazine’s 2021 “Greatest Of All Time: Adult Alternative 25th Anniversary Chart.” The band released their newest record, Butter Miracle, featuring hit single “Elevator Boots” in April of 2021.

Tickets: $65 in advance (plus applicable surcharges), $75 at the door

Andrew McMahon in The Wilderness & Dashboard Confessional
Hello Gone Days Tour 2022
with Armor for Sleep

Raised on the East Coast and in the Midwest, McMahon began writing songs at age 9, drawing inspiration from singer/songwriter/pianists such as Elton John and Billy Joel. While still in high school, McMahon co-founded an early incarnation of pop-punk band Something Corporate, whose 2002 major-label debut hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Chart. In 2004, he formed Jack’s Mannequin and then on the cusp of releasing the band’s 2005 debut was diagnosed with leukemia at age 22. Eventually fully recovered, McMahon went on to release two more studio albums with Jack’s Mannequin and established The Dear Jack Foundation, one of the first Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) specific cancer foundations which advocates for and supports initiatives that benefit AYAs diagnosed with cancer. In addition, McMahon composed songs for the NBC series Smash which earned him an Emmy nomination. In 2014, he released Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness which featured the gold certified single “Cecilia and the Satellite.” Last year he released his memoir, Three Pianos. McMahon lives in Los Angeles with his wife of 12 years Kelly and their daughter Cecilia, for whom the hit song was penned.

Dashboard Confessional’s ninth studio album, All The Truth That I Can Tell, is both a remarkable renewal and fortunate step forward for the band’s songwriter, front man, and founder, Chris Carrabba. Having ascended great heights over the past 20 years, Carrabba found himself at a distinct crossroads as the last decade came to an end. Running on fumes, unsure if he’d ever release another album, he waited. The songs eventually came, and though the project might’ve easily come to a screeching halt following a near-fatal motorcycle accident in the summer of 2020, All The Truth That I Can Tell stands among Carrabba’s finest – a strikingly potent musical look at himself through a rediscovered keyhole, both an achievement of vision and a vital burst of artistic clarity; less like reading someone’s diary and more like reading their eyes.

Tickets: $45 in advance (plus applicable surcharges)

INTERPOL + SPOON 
Lights, Camera, Factions Tour
with support from The Goon Sax

Interpol began in New York in 1997, when guitarist Daniel Kessler recruited bassist Carlos Dengler and singer/guitarist Paul Banks to form a band. In 2002, with Sam Fogarino on drums, the band signed to Matador records and released Turn On The Bright Lights, which made it to 10th position on NME’s list of 2002’s top releases and Pitchfork named it the year’s #1 album. Over the next decade and a half Interpol would go on to wide critical and commercial acclaim, with five subsequent high charting records on the Billboard 200; earning rave reviews across the map from Rolling Stone to TIME; performing on late night television shows and playing major festivals like Coachella and Glastonbury and headlining Mexico’s Corona Capital. The band (Banks, Kessler and Fogarino) have just finished recording their latest studio album with legendary production duo Flood & Moulder, due for release this year through Matador Records.

Spoon’s tenth album, Lucifer on the Sofa, is the band’s purest rock ’n’ roll record to date. Texas-made, it is the first set of songs that the quintet has put to tape in its hometown of Austin in more than a decade. Written and recorded over the last two years – both in and out of lockdown – these songs mark a shift toward something louder, wilder, and more full-color. Halfway through the recording process, the pandemic hit. The studio shutdown, but frontman Britt Daniel continued writing. “There are songs I wrote last spring [of 2020] that I wouldn’t have come up with otherwise,” he says. “It was that first-of-its-kind moment.” Lucifer on the Sofa is the sound of that moment, a record of defiant optimism, the sound of a band cracking things open and letting them spillout onstage. At a time fraught with uncertainty, it’s shutting the door on the devil you know and never looking back.

Tickets: $49.50 in advance (plus applicable surcharges), $55 at the door

Almost Queen (Queen Tribute)
Tickets: $30 and up in advance (plus applicable surcharges), $39 at the gate

It’s been described as the most authentic Queen live show since the days of Queen themselves. Almost Queen delivers a live performance showcasing signature four-part harmonies and intricate musical interludes. Donning genuine costumes, Almost Queen recaptures the live energy and precision that is the ultimate Queen experience.

“I am a very big Queen fan and Almost Queen does a great job of creating the illusion of actually seeing Queen live. We all miss Freddie Mercury, I feel the band pays tribute to him and Queen respectfully.” – Eddie Ojeda (Twisted Sister)

“I had heard a lot of great things about these guys, but the show was even better than I imagined.” – Randy Jackson

“Without a doubt, Almost Queen are probably the finest testimonial to Queen I have ever had the pleasure in seeing. If Freddie were alive today he’d queue for tickets!” – Eric Cook, Demolition Records

“Almost Queen proved that they are the best Queen tribute act around. Almost Queen captured the essence of Queen’s classic songs both from a sonic and lyric standpoint. Their show was high-energy and fun, and they are worth checking out in a live setting.” – Digital Journal