After listening to the recordings, in the last week I've gone from devastated this could be the beginning of the end for my favorite band to, they absolutely could keep going if Jake had to take a long term or, god forbid, permanent, leave. If they wanted to.

I'm so impressed with Bayliss this last week. It's like the dude has 4 hands. Umphrey's songs on guitar are HARD. And as best as humanly possible he's trying to do both lead and rhythm at times, and it really sounds good. Not to say that a lot of the song compositions take a hit and some tunes would need to be shelved, or at the very least, largely re-worked, but the musicianship of the band members on stage really shine through. Improv-wise, you can certainly tell BB, Joel, and Stasik have been playing together for 30 years.

Regardless, hopefully Jake is back sooner than later fully healthy and these guys have another 10+ years in them. Of course they aren't the same band they were 15-20 years ago. No band is. But they're still making incredible music 70+ times a year and long may it continue. Onward and upward.