Widespread Panic performs at Southeast New York’s Arrowhead Ranch on August 18th, 1991, in newly restored 4K footage, now available on YouTube. The full-show video was remastered from the original VHS master tape by archivist TompDogg and includes remixed soundboard audio.
For a brief and beautiful time in the summer of 1991, Arrowhead Ranch was the place to be for the burgeoning jam band movement. The month prior, Phish played a two-night stand (which also recently surfaced in remastered video) at the Parksville venue about 110 miles outside of New York City, with support from the Spin Doctors and The Authority. Then in August, Widespread Panic and The Dreyer Brothers visited the ranch to open for Blues Traveler. From a time when Panic was just beginning to step outside its Southeast stronghold, Arrowhead Ranch marked one of only two dozen Northeast shows the band played that year out of 147 total concerts, per Setlist.fm.
Related: Widespread Panic Opens For Phish At UMass Student Union On This Day In 1990 [Watch/Listen]
This Arrowhead Ranch show presents a formative time for Widespread Panic, with original keyboardist T Lavitz rounding out his one-year tenure with the band before JoJo Hermann would cement the classic lineup the following year. On stage right, guitarist Michael Houser casts a long shadow—literally, as the Lingering Lead had yet to take his seated perch onstage, which would become an indelible part of the band’s iconography following his death from pancreatic cancer in 2002.
Though the band may look a bit different, all the signs of Panic’s ascension to the top of the Southern jam-rock food chain are present, starting with the opening “Chilly Water”. The docile daytime crowd refrained from sending any beverages skyward during the rowdy opener, as Panic moved through a nine-song setlist full of classics from the band’s earliest years. Of note, this concert includes only the seventh-ever performance of “Pickin’ Up the Pieces”, according to the Everyday Companion. The show also features a rendition of Talking Heads‘ “Papa Legba”, a commonplace cover for the band through the mid-2000s that has only appeared three times this decade.
Revisit the August 18th, 1991 Widespread Panic show at Arrowhead Ranch below in newly remastered 4K video. Widespread Panic will appear in high definition next month in Richmond, VA (9/12–9/13), followed by shows in Memphis, Milwaukee, and Savannah. Find tickets and tour dates here.
Widespread Panic — Arrowhead Ranch — Parksville, NY — 8/18/91 — Full Video
[Video: Michael Wilker]
Setlist: Widespread Panic | Arrowhead Ranch | Parksville, NY | 8/18/91
Timestamps:
Chilly Water 0:00:40
Walkin’ (For Your Love) 0:09:45
Weight Of The World 0:14:18
Makes Sense To Me 0:20:00
Papa Legba 0:24:10
Pigeons 0:33:08
Rock 0:41:20
Pickin’ Up The Pieces 0:50:07
Proving Ground 0:55:05