After two straight late appearances to concerts, I managed to get to Central Park for this show hours early . . . and it paid off. As I ran to claim my spot, the ushers at SummerStage yelled at me for running, so I slowed it down to an Olympic speed walk. Alas! Victory was mine and my gold medal was front row, center stage for what was to be undoubtedly the best benefit show of the 2009 SummerStage season.

Two titans of summer music festivals squared off in rock fest of eardrum exploding, brain melting jams, and scanted angelic praise. While waiting for the show to start I noticed that Umphrey’s sports Star Wars bobble heads on top of their amps. Yoda, Darth, Chewy, and R2 were all there. As soon as the group walked out on stage, you could tell the force was strong with these guys.

The shredding and endless jamming began and rarely ceased until they had completed their nearly two hour set. For those of you not familiar with Umphrey’s Mcgee, they’re a progressive rock jam band from South Bend, Indiana. They thrive on the virtuosic qualities of all the members and their ability to jam like strawberry spread.

Umphrey’s began the day with an older song Proffesor Wormbog from One Fat Sucka (2001), which soon transitioned into a newer song Cemetary Walk on this year’s Mantis. Brendan Bayliss, who does most of the vocals and plays guitar, was practically inaudible in comparison to Jake Cinninger’s lead guitar. In fact it was hard to make out much of anything beyond his ear piercing solos, though rightfully so because the man shreds with the best of them.

As the sun began to sink below the skyline and the temperature cooled, Umphrey’s heated up. Nemo from Safety in Numbers (2006) and Walletsworth from Anchor Drops (2004) got the crowd dancing and singing along. Mulche’s Odyssey another selection from Anchor Drops displayed the guitarists harmonic abilities in an epic jam that must have lasted 25 minutes! Just when they built the song up to the highest octave you think possible, they will held it and took it even higher. I swear at one point Cinninger left the fret board and was playing notes half way to the bridge!

Sensing that everyone’s ears were bleeding from the severe rocking, Bayliss announced that it was now officially a party due to the fact that a tiny beach ball was being knocked around the crowd. In perfect timing Umphrey’s did Higgins off of Bottom Half (2007), a reggae tinged song that seemed to foreshadow the evening’s headliner.

It was interesting to watch the group from so close up. Anyone that’s played in a band knows that they don’t read each other’s minds when deciding to end their 20 minute jam sessions. Cinninger or Bayliss would give 4 to 5 different hand signals. The number of fingers indicated going up so many steps or octaves while signaling it up or down meant higher or lower notes. The ever-popular fist usually meant for Ryan Stasik (Bass) to groove with Kris Myers (Drums) and Andy Farag (Aux Percussion) while the guitarist regroovinated themselves for their next flurry of notes.

With the sun all but gone for the day, Cemetery Walk II began an electronic rave dance party reminding me of those late nights at Bonnaroo. It was also the first time we had really heard very much from Joel Cummins, the band’s keyboardist/vocalist. He set the electronic mood with dancey noises from his Moog.

Cummins really shined though on the group’s final song of the evening I Want You (She’s So Heavy) originally recorded by the Beatles on their legendary Abbey Road album in 1969. Umphrey’s gave the Lennon and Mccartney a run for their money too. Stopping as a whole several times to build up furious anticipation from the audience, the crowd pled for more. Surely it didn’t hurt to throw in the Mcgee touch and lay it on thick with the Hammond B3. Need visual proof that the Mcgee boys rocked the spot? Here’s Myers’ drumstick after an evening of ripping hard on the skins!

While the stagehands disassembled Umphrey’s Mcgee’s play land of audio, the crowd was in awe over the raising of a gigantic Matisyahu banner with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background. Later on Matisyahu eventually announced to an electric crowd, “It’s good to be home!” Matisyahu, or Matthew Miller was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania but grew up and spent many of his days in White Plains, New York; a bit north of Long Island.

Accompanied by Aaron Dugan (Lead Guitar) and Rob Marscher (Keys) and Dub Trio, Matisyahu opened with Escape from his yet to be released Light. As with many other shows I’ve seen by Matis, he begins with ambient guitars and a phat reggae bass line. As the song transitioned into Dispatch the Troops from his most commercially successful album Youth, the crowd wailed along. This song transitioned to another ambient session where Matis did his signature beatbox and then rapped the lyrics to Aish Tamid.

In the midst of the ambient chaos, Dugan starts up the chord progression to the crowd’s favorite Jerusalem. With the power of Israel the band laid it on thick while Matis impressed us with his lighting fast raps, circle dancing, and sweet kicks.

You might have heard that the white man can’t jump, but a Hasidic Jew can fly! During the rock out section of Youth, Matis walked right to the edge of the stage and signaled to us like he was going to come down and get into the crowd. We immediately went wild with cheering. First it looked as though he was going to safely step down off the stage and then climb the barricade to get to us but no! Air Matis was scheduled for take off!

He surveyed the gap for a second or two then ran back to the drum set. The security guards freaked out and gathered at his landing point. I’ll estimate the gap to be a good 8 feet at the least. Add to that about 6 feet of height to the stage and what do you get? A dangerously star-powered move that could easily go wrong. But do you think we’d drop Matisyahu? Hell no! The already jam-packed crowed compressed into a package of sardines in preparation to catch a rather tall man. He’s got to be at least 6’5” or taller.

I don’t know if it was the aero dynamics of his yamaka or the fact that he recently chopped about a foot off his beard, but Matisyahu ran towards the edge of the stage and took off! He landed just inches short of the barricade on the crowd’s side. Instantly everyone grabbed on to him and chaos ensued! The security guards fought off the fans to drag him back to the stage. Eventually Matis climbed back onto the stage and finished the song. Then he told the crowd, “Wow . . . that was a lot further than I thought! My grandfather would be proud . . . he always wanted me to play basketball!”

After the flying yamaka incident, the crowd went wild! The band moved the set along with Exaltation from Shake of the Dust . . . Arise! before Matis invited a few local friends on stage. A guy named Pete sat in on drums for a bit and then Kosha Dillz came up to rock the mic. Matis made him freestyle using words that the crowd shouted out like “love” and “yamaka!” His most memorable line was, “The non-stoppa/ girls call me the Jewish Big Poppa!”

Matis finally dawned another new track on us from his upcoming album, which is also the single One Day. The lyrics speak of freedom, peace, and change. It was a perfect way to end the evening by summing up the majority of his lyrics in one song. But wait! No Matisyahu show would be complete without a little King Without a Crown encore; the song that first got him into the lime light.

Matisyahu and his band managed to pull of a killer show. After the two titans had long left the stage and the dust had settled, I had a very hard time hearing anything. However, I don’t think hearing loss was the most important lesson I took away from this show. The moral of the story is that with the correct beard length and thickness and a strategically positioned yamaka, anyone can take flight!