Sound Check Ain’t Is a Word
posted by on October 8 at 14:16 PM
Widespread Panic played the Paramount Theatre this past Friday and Saturday.
They’re from Athens, GA and their fans get fired up. People are there to dance. They are there to see each other, to throw down, and to take part in the songs. There’s not a body in the place that’s not moving. Find your spot and break it on down, or step back into the peripheries and zone.
Widespread Panic shows have become archetypal occurrences. They are the face of hippie culture. They’ve taken the reigns from Phish, who took over from the Grateful Dead, who started this cultural phenomenon. If you’re a real, grizzled or star-child hippie, the Widespread show is your release. It defines you as much as you define it.
Dave Matthews is for sorority girls and String Cheese Incident is who you see if Widespread isn’t touring. If you’re a hippie, the only real way to break it down and truly unleash is at a Widespread show.
Here’s three minutes of breakdown from Saturday at the Paramount. The guy with the fro is so high he can’t see:
Widespread is Southern Rock. They wrap the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd into one. It don’t get no better.
The shows were packed and the band sounded big but tight. Bass player, Dave Schools is big as well. He is a large man. He stands in front of a fan, his long hair flows, and his 6-string aircraft carrier of a bass is tamed down to manageable chunks of groove right before your patchouli scented eyes.
Drummer, Todd Nance, and percussionist Sunny Ortiz create worlds. Very solidly they hold it down. Sunny makes congas sound like pistol shots. Jojo Hermann on keys sits, stands, and sings. His keys go liquid and make frog sounds from the Everglades.
John Bell’s words spell out people and characters and scenes. He gnarls out phrases and back porch prophecies. The people moving to the music in the room tell the songs how to go. There are sections of improv and guitar solos that tie off giant cursive lines in the sky. Jimmy Herring, who has toured with the Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead, is Widespread’s new guitar man on those solos. He’s rejuvenated the band and the fans with his ability to coat and cut his leads in the same aerial way that departed original guitarist Michael Houser did.
The highlight of Saturday’s show was the cover of Traffic’s “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys.” Bell didn’t say much to crowd other than that he felt good. The songs were a fairly even mix of old and new. “Pigeons” was my favorite.
We’ve been wondering, will we ever know the truth? What it’s like washing windows when you know that there are pigeons on the roof?
The ultra broster-froster in front of me had skanky, waist length dreads that kept whipping me. But he was the nicest nudge of weed smoked hippie man in the world. When he saw that his dreads were whipping me in the face, he said he was sorry and moved over. He looked both ways, broke out a J, and tried to smoke me out. I thanked him and declined. There was already enough of a contact high.
Setlist from Saturday’s show:
1: Chainsaw City, All Time Low, Bear’s Gone Fishin’, Pilgrims, Thought Sausage, None of Us Are Free, One Arm Steve, Jack, Traveling Light
2: Protein Drink > Sewing Machine, Ribs and Whiskey, Mercy, Love Tractor > Drums > Ride Me High, Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, Bust it Big, Pigeons
E: Old Joe > Mr. Soul
How nice, back in the day I was at a nomeansno show in olympia.
Someone with long dreads was whiping those locks back and forth in front of me and I took a shot of them into my mouth. I came close to puking, but was able to keep it down and enjoy the show.
After that night I learned, stay back if they have dreadlocks, they taste as bad as they look.
Sorry, whipping, not whiping.
I must admit, Dr. Heavy, that I too had that urge. My throat tightened and I felt vomit coming. But right then, he saw what happened and offered me the J.
Oh, and I meant to say that the new Widespread guitar player, Herring, looks like Gandolph. But not in a bad way.
Gandolph indeed!!! I saw ex-Hawkwind members performing as Space Ritual and the synth player Del Dettmar was sporting the Gandolph look. He had a controller made out of an axe as well.
Panic Attacks, the shows are called, according to my mother who is an expert in these things. She likes them a lot, but it's Gov't Mule that brings her out for a visit.
Awesome video, Trent. It's fresh and real. That guy has no idea what is going on.
Is Athens some town in the South or something?
I wish my Mom was an expert at Widespread Panic shows like #6's. I'm jealous.
Ah, Gov't Mule. It was only a matter of time before they cracked into Lineout. Moms into Gov't Mule, it's like the anti PTA. MIGM?
That is a packed Paramount Theater there. Very nice, Mr. T.
Great article. Aside from the reference to hippies in the past tense, harumph, what do you call an '07 hippie?
Long live Southern Rock and Jerry and the Dead and thank God for the Paramount!
Nice job Mr. T!
Tante
Nice review - it's great to see a "hippie" band get a good say in the Stranger.
These guys have come a long way since they opened for Tough Mama @ The Central in 1990. "Mighty" Dave Pellicciaro (www.davepellicciaro.com), keyboardist for TM came up to them after their set and said "oh man...how bout you guys do another set and we'll just dance!" He later told me "I don't care how big we get or famous we become - I will never go on stage after Widespread again..." (Although they did precede them in 1992)
The next year they came through and played RkCandy opening for Blues Traveler and I caught their last half a set. After that Blues Traveler paled in comparison and seemed nothing more than a disappointment. In Spring 1992 they played the Backstage and I finally caught my first whole show. It was a hippie mosh-pit. I’d never seen a frickin’ hippie mosh-pit before. I was stone cold sober and thought I wuz trippin’. I just had to dose for this band…so I drove to Portland and caught their Roseland show which featured Jerry Joseph for most the second set. I saw God…
I had to have these guys play at school – at Evergreen in Olympia, so stoned out of my gourd – I handed a piece of paper with my name and number saying I wanted to book them in Olympia next time they came through, and lo and behold I got a call a few months later from their booking guy and got a great “college show” offer to do a show for only $2500. Yup…$2500, and we had to “take care of real nice” which was a lot of fun in itself. Back then they had no road crew or manager and Sonny carried the briefcase and did the business end. We blew the power box three times that night…
But where they are now, after the loss of Mikey and a period of unevenness, they are a whole new ballgame with Jimmy Herring. Damn – they really ripped the joint and had energy that I haven
Comments Closed
In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).