Umphrey's McGee closes the Fresh Cut tour's January leg at The Kent Stage

Last seen in the Akron–Canton area at Blossom in 2005, the band plays a 642-capacity room in downtown Kent on Jan. 24, 2027.

The last time Umphrey's McGee played the Akron–Canton area, it was July 17, 2005, on the big lawn at Blossom Music Center. The next time will be about as different as a return can get: a Sunday night in January, in a room that holds 642.

The band plays The Kent Stage on Sunday, Jan. 24, 2027. The venue's events page lists doors at 6 p.m. and the show at 7 p.m., all ages, with tickets from $61.68 to $78.03 through eTix. The date was announced Oct. 13.

Kent is the last stop on the January leg of the band's Fresh Cut 2027 tour. Umphrey's announced the run in mid-October, with an artist presale on Oct. 14 and general on-sale Oct. 16. The tour opens Jan. 15 at KEMBA Live! in Columbus, so the band starts and ends the January stretch in Ohio. Fort Wayne, Ind., and Saginaw, Mich., come right before Kent, according to Jambands' rundown. After a break, the tour heads west and finishes with two nights at Belly Up Aspen on March 18 and 19. Before any of that, the band's New Year's run at Denver's Ogden Theatre (Dec. 30 to Jan. 1) is announced separately.

The name fits the moment. Jambands reports that the tour follows the departures of drummer Kris Myers in 2025 and guitarist Jake Cinninger in summer 2026. For a band built on long-standing improvisational chemistry, that's a real change, and a tour called Fresh Cut reads as a statement that what's on stage now is a new version of Umphrey's, not a placeholder. For a jam audience, that's the reason to go: you're not catching a band you've seen a dozen times so much as hearing a lineup find its footing, one night at a time.

Twenty-one years after Blossom, Umphrey's comes back to a 642-seat room.

The Kent Stage is a good room for that kind of listening. It's an old theater on Main Street.

The Sunday slot is worth planning around. A 7 p.m. show leaves room for two full sets and still gets most people home at a reasonable hour before work on Monday. The all-ages door also means this could be the first Umphrey's show for a younger fan, which, given the 21-year gap, is a fair description of half of northeast Ohio.

Fans who have been driving to Cleveland or Columbus to see the band can stay closer to home this time. With 642 seats, there's no lawn to absorb a late rush, so the eTix link is the place to start.

Two decades is long enough. Kent gets the next chapter.

Sources: The Kent Stage — Events (kentstage.org); Umphrey's McGee — Fresh Cut 2027 (umphreys.com); Umphrey's McGee — Tour Dates (umphreys.com); Jambands: Umphrey's McGee Set Fresh Cut Tour Dates (jambands.com); Jambands: Umphrey's McGee Will Return to Colorado For New Year's (jambands.com); JamBase: Umphrey's McGee at The Kent Stage (jambase.com)