In a venue used to hosting the likes of Johnny Mathis, Paul Anka and myriad doo woop extravaganzas Umphrey’s McGee delivered a surprise two set show last Thursday night in the intimate confines of the Westbury Music Fair. A band with a lesser attitude might have taken one look at the photos of Tony Bennett, Liza Minnelli, two beach boys who weren’t Brian Wilson and others of their ilk that ring the lobby, checked the ticket sales for the night (undersold, alas) and said to themselves “Let’s do our one set and get out of dodge.” Instead of mailing it in they over delivered giving the enthusiastic crowd two sets instead of one, and in the process playing what is easily the best show of the four times I’ve personally seen them play since 2002.

The reggae tinged “Higgins” got the show started and featured a middle section jam with heavy riffs and dueling leads from guitarists Jake Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss. “Out of Order” gave ample evidence that watching the two guitar players soloing together is one of the great joys available to live music fans today. A straight reading of “13 Days” was followed with “Mantis>Robot World>Mantis.” The sandwich was well done and gave testament to just how well Umphrey’s can pull off their more prog rock influenced material without some of the pretentiousness that crept into their forebears music.

It also served to highlight one of the difficulties in taking in an Umphrey’s show. I was utterly lost. I consider myself fairly familiar with their material, at any given time I have about five shows on my iPod which get rotated for a monthly spin, and it’s been that way for long time now. I ramped that schedule up even more in the run up to the show trying to come to come to terms with some of the newer material knowing the potential for getting lost was there. Even with that level of comfort Umphrey’s has such a daunting catalogue that they couple with and ability to slice and dice their already multi-sectional songs in any given set that I had no choice but to admit defeat. That being said I highly enjoyed the “Mantis” sandwich but had no idea whether I had just seen one, two or three individual songs.

Fortunately the friendly and familiar “Triple Wide” started up to wrest me from my confusion and whip the crowd into shape. The version was a monster, Joel Cummins established the framework with a simple and effective groove while the Cinninger and Bayliss vamped underneath. Andy Farag was and is the band’s nuance, their improvisations would lack subtlety if it weren’t for his smartly time percussion fills. Together with Kris Myers they propelled this “Triple Wide” onward and upward, it was a superlative way to end the first set.

After a very short set break (wasn’t this supposed to be a one set show?) the group opened with “Prowler” which was really just an exercise in loosening up for “Syncopated Strangers.” It is worth noting vis a vis this version of this song just how insanely talented Jake Cinninger is. His soloing during the song was sublime and akin to Eddie Van Halen in his youth as for speed. He is seemingly never out of ideas and he doesn’t ever fall back on a storehouse of licks to get him through any solo. In what I later found out was the middle section of the song (again lost) the band faded out into a straightforward cover Stone Temple Pilots “Interstate Love Song” before finishing up “Syncopated Strangers” with some line dancing and a quote of “Breezin” by the soft jazz legend George Benson. I’d like to think that last touch was in tribute to the venues heritage of hosting the best in recycled schmaltz.

“Nothing Too Fancy” followed, an always enjoyable addition to any Umphrey’s show. The energetic version featured a shredding solo from Brendan Bayliss reminding everyone that there are two supremely talented guitar players in the fold. I got lost yet again during “The Haunt” in the best possible way, enjoying the slap bass of Ryan Stasik before the outro jam faded out, despite it being one of the few unfocused moments during the show. A mashup of the Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” and Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night” segued out of “The Haunt,” a novelty albeit a fun one. Some raging, buzzsaw guitar work led the band from out of the mashup and into the ending of “Nothing Too Fancy.” The encore of “Wife Soup>Glory>Wife Soup” was sufficiently energetic and brought the night to a much later end than anticipated. I was left to walk out into the parking lot on one of those “good show” natural highs vowing to check in with Umphrey’s a little more frequently and to study up in the meantime.