[Originally published 2/6/17; Updated 2/6/26]: 40 years ago today, John Bell, Michael Houser, Dave Schools, and Todd Nance played their first show under the moniker Widespread Panic at The Mad Hatter Ballroom in their hometown of Athens, GA. The performance—which saw the group opening for Strawberry Flats during a Benefit for Africa—marked Todd Nance’s first show with the band, and it’s widely considered the first “official” Widespread Panic show.
After releasing its first album, Space Wrangler, in 1988, Panic would officially add to its arsenal with percussionist Domingo “Sunny” Ortiz and keyboard player JoJo Hermann in subsequent years, building up a following in the South by taking the approach of the great road bands before them: play as many shows as you can.
For the next decade, Widespread Panic would play with some of the biggest names in the 1990s jam band community including Aquarium Rescue Unit, Phish, and Blues Traveler, all participants in the short-lived H.O.R.D.E. tours. In 1998, at the release party of its first live album, Light Fuse, Get Away, some 80,000 to 100,000 Panic fans descended on the city of Athens for some “Panic in the Streets“, making the biggest album release party in history.
Widespread Panic — Light Fuse, Get Away — Playlist
In early 2002, the band was dealt a heavy blow when beloved guitarist Michael Houser was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Houser’s final show with the band would come in early July of that year, and he passed away a few months later on August 10th, 2002. In his stead, former JoJo Hermann bandmate George McConnell was pegged to replace Houser. Despite playing on several albums in the early 2000s—Night of Joy, Über Cobra, Earth To America—McConnell left the band in 2006, leaving producer and former guitar tech John Keane to finish out the final two weeks of the tour.
Widespread Panic — “The Waker” — 6/28/02
[Video: mistakeitfordancin]
In 2014, Todd Nance stepped away from the band and Duane Trucks resumed his seat. Panic’s guitar search ended in late 2006 with the addition of Jimmy Herring, who played his first shows with the band at the famed Radio City Music Hall in New York City during WSP’s fall tour. Since then, the remaining original members of WSP and Herring have been nothing short of prolific, playing to some of the largest crowds at some of the biggest jam festivals and venues across the country. It has been a working man’s career, and no one is more deserving of the accolades they receive than the guys in Widespread Panic.
Widespread Panic was dealt another setback earlier this year, when Herring announced he was temporarily stepping away from touring due to a recurrent case of throat cancer that sidelined him in 2024. The show, as they say, must go on, and Panic called up Col. Bruce Hampton acolyte Nick Johnson to fill in for Jimmy while he undergoes treatment. Johnson made his full-show debut with Panic at last month’s Panic En La Playa Trece, where they celebrated Herring’s 64th birthday from afar. One of Widepread Panic’s defining characteristics has been its ability to persist through tragedies and setbacks—not unlike their Southern rock forefathers, the Allman Brothers Band—and the band has always played on.
In honor of today’s momentous occasion, you can listen to Widespread Panic’s first show at the Mad Hatter Ballroom in Athens, GA via ReListen.
Setlist: Widespread Panic | The Mad Hatter Ballroom | Athens, GA | 2/6/1986
Set One: For What It’s Worth, Sleepy Monkey, Chilly Water, No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature, Heathen, The Other One, Dear Mr. Fantasy, Iko Iko, Werewolves of London, Fire on the Mountain
Encore: Space Wrangler