When Umphrey’s McGee guitarist Jake Cinninger departed in 2026 after 26 years with the band, the group didn’t spend much time reassuring anyone. Instead they named their 2027 winter tour Fresh Cut, announced 31 dates from Columbus to Aspen, and told fans to “come see what’s growing.” Their official framing: “turning the page with renewed energy and plenty of daylight ahead.” Whether that’s the right attitude or the only available one, this is the tour where you find out.
About the Show
The tour reaches Penn’s Peak on Saturday, Feb. 13, the final stop of the February leg, the night after a Feb. 12 date at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y. — the band’s 13th appearance there. Current members are Brendan Bayliss (guitar/vocals), Joel Cummins (keyboards), Andy Farag (percussion), Ryan Stasik (bass), and Scotty Zwang (drums), Zwang having joined when Kris Myers departed in May 2025. Since Cinninger’s exit, the band has performed none of his compositions; the question of what the setlists become without him is, in some ways, the question the tour is built around.
“Fresh Cut” carries some weight. Umphrey’s McGee formed at Notre Dame in 1997, has logged close to 3,000 live shows, and released 15 studio albums. Their most recent record, Blueprints (2025), was assembled in an experimental fashion: 24 fan-voted improvised sections (which the band calls “legos”) were constructed into six songs and recorded above Chicago’s Metro venue, with audiences in the room voting in real time on which fragments should survive. Keyboardist Joel Cummins characterized it as potentially “the first-ever album by an artist that has been a complete collaboration with their fans.” The Fresh Cut tour plays like the next experiment: what does this band sound like now, in this configuration, without the compositions of the person who helped build their catalog?
Venue & Logistics
Penn’s Peak in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, is a 1,800-capacity room with a dance floor, well-suited to a band whose sets depend on extended improvisation going somewhere unexpected. The venue describes their approach as “the precision of a progressive rock band with the risk of nightly improvisation.” Fan archives document multiple prior Umphrey’s appearances there. Penn’s Peak is reachable from across the Hudson Valley region. Doors at 7:00 p.m.
Tickets
Tickets are $32 in advance, $37 day of show. An artist presale began Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 10 a.m. local time (password: FRESHCUT); general on-sale is Friday, Oct. 16, at 10 a.m. local. Buy tickets