ekoostik hookah celebrated the year’s end with two nights at the PromoWest Pavilion in its hometown of Columbus, OH. Leftover Salmon opened on the 30th with plenty of intraband collaboration. hookah’s Cliff Starbuck and Johnny Polansky sat in with Salmon early in the evening. Later LoS’s Drew Emmitt, Vince Herman and Bill McCay returned the favor during ‘Little Maggie,’ ‘Glendale Train’ and ‘Black Water’ while Noam Pikelny and Jose Martinez performed on ‘Dragonfly.’ The David Grisman Quintet opened the next night which featured a countdown Jam that yielded The Who’s ‘Long Live Rock’ at midnight. In addition, DGQ percussionist/multi-instrumentalist Joe Craven joined hookah for ‘Life is Good.’ hookah has little time for a breather as it is performing tonight at the House of Blues in Chicago followed by a gig in Cincinnati at Bogart’s on Saturday. Meanwhile the band’s March European tour looms.