The goliaths in the Southern jam scene, Widespread Panic, traded the honky-tonks of Music City for the white sandy beaches of Florida’s Panhandle. After the intense regime of rehearsals and a truly one-of-a-kind run in Nashville, a week at the beach was all the band needed to prepare for their two-night run at the Pensacola Bay Center. 12,000 fans piled into the venue eager to hear the band’s heavy electric sound with high-voltage amplifiers maxed out.

As JoJo Hermann’s keyboards tinkled mysteriously, Dave Schools charged down the introduction of “Bear’s Gone Fishin’” off 1999’s Til’ the Medicine Takes. It wasn’t long before guitarist Jimmy Herring cut into his first solo as the jam expanded beyond ten-minutes. After a punctuating, percussive crash, it was once again JoJo that introduced the song with his piano and voice and was accompanied by John Bell in serving out a refreshing “Tall Boy” to the thirsty audience.

Sunny Ortiz’s drum kit opened the way into a sizzling “Better Off” led by an omnipresent Jimmy Herring and charismatic JB. This tune was co-written by T. Lavitz. JoJo retook the helm for “Greta” while JB and School echoed and howled. With Hurricane Dorian working its way up the coast of Florida and toward South Carolina, JoJo’s wisdom of “Mother Nature’s come to arms / She’s in a fighting mood!” seemed especially appropriate. Jimmy Herring led the band down the rabbit hole, descending deeper and deeper with the help of JoJo’s clavinet into a jam that eventually resurfaced as the dark and heavy “You Got Yours”. The badass jam featured Duane Trucks smashing his kit to bits. The lyrics “I’ve got my hole in the wall / Somewhere, I can go / When the sky begins to fall” seemed too appropriate to be coincidence.

From there, staying within their own repertoire, Panic dug out “Papa Johnny Road” for only the second time this year. Rounding out the first set, Widespread performed an outstanding take on the beloved classic “Diner” off Everyday. JB improvised a “Take Me to the River” rap for an added treat while Jimmy Herring went full-blown intergalactic.

Herring and Schools seemed more excited than anyone plug back in and get loud. To close the first set, Widespread played their first true cover of the show as Dave Schools pummeled his way through Robert Johnson’s “Stop Breaking Down”, transporting the audience back to the birth of the blues in the early years of the twentieth century on the Dockery Plantation. John Bell’s vocals were doggone dirty from his years of drinking muddy river water as JoJo jumped between several keyboards.

With set break over and the spotlights back on, Dave Schools returned to the stage alone to perform a solo take on his “Run Like Hell” jam that eventually culminated into a scorching rendition of “Junior” from 1994’s Ain’t Life Grand. The tune was inspired by a handful of Junior Kimbrough’s songs, who shared a record label with JoJo at Fat Possum Records. The pulsating rhythm died down as JoJo’s fingers danced around the progressively building “1×1”, which tells the story of the historical figure of Sugarman and the collapse of the Clear Creek Bridge on Interstate 80.

The slow, swinging introduction to “Christmas Katie” eventually accelerated into an electric maelstrom with a centripetal force rivaling that of the approaching storms. Herring stood tall in the middle of the fray as he redirected his volatile energies into the esoteric crafting of yet another original, “Radio Child”. Herring, always the mad scientist, conducted sub-atomic division between Schools’ foundational rhythms on this cut from 1997’s album, Bombs & Butterflies.

Two back-to-back covers followed as a highly coveted performance of War’s “Four Cornered Room” bled into the Bloodkin’s swamp-rock staple, “Henry Parson’s Died”. Last night marked the first performance of the War tune of the year, with its last two appearances coming at 2018’s Red Rocks and Las Vegas runs, respectively.

“Four Cornered Room” rolled right into the steady rhythm of “Henry Parson’s Died” which in turn continued into a flood of whistles, shakers, and drums from Sunny Ortiz’s corner. The sound swelled under the percussive fiesta, JoJo’s organ, and School’s bass guitar manipulations until the levees broke and “Fishwater” surrounded the stage. The sizzler about New Orleans died down as the band walked offstage to make room for Duane Trucks and Sunny Ortiz to intertwine dueling rhythms.

The four other musicians in WSP walked back onstage to dish out a fiery version of Alan Price’s “Sell, Sell” from his soundtrack to Lindsay Anderson’s 1973 movie, O! Lucky Man. Panic jumped back into “Fishwater” for the raucous call-and-response section between Schools and Bell (Mo!.. Mo!.. Mo!) while Schools dropped a barrage of bass notes that scattered through the acoustic space like buckshot.

To wrap up this wondrous Saturday night’s second set, Widespread appropriately delved into a cover of Steve Ferguson’s “Flat Foot Flewzy” with Schools at the vanguard of this final charge (“ Singing Flewzy woozy boogie on a Saturday night”). Dave Schools included an added rap in the middle of his rowdy vocals, “Oh man, there’s a whole lotta darkness all around / Lotta darkness, darkness, darkness, everywhere, baby / Maybe somebody gonna light a candle / Cause if somebody lights a candle / There’d be a little bit more light / Aint that right, yall? / Cause see if there’s light, you can look around and see everybody around you / And when you can do that and you can see everybody around you / You can tell them that you love them / Cause in the darkness, the only cure is / Light / And Love / So give it up / Tell the person next to you that you love ’em / You gotta check up on ’em / and remind them that there is light in the darkness / and that means love / I’m feeling love all around baby / There’s love in the light!”

Dave clearly had rap clearly had the late Neal Casal, his former Hard Working Americans bandmate, in mind here. The world lost yet another brilliant musician last week, and depression needs to be talked about and addressed in a sincere and public forum.

Upon return for encore, Widespread Panic performed a cover of The Meters’ “It Ain’t No Use” in tribute to the life of founding member Art Neville. Dave Schools commandeered the notorious basslines of his musical father figure George Porter Jr.’s song for the first time since early June in Brandon, Mississippi. To end this Saturday night show, the Panics cranked the voltage and electrified all the birds on the wire with a psychedelic romp around “Pigeons” from their self-titled second album.

Widespread Panic resumes their musical conquest tonight for their last show of the summer. Enjoy the beaches, another night of tunes, and the long weekend ahead. Sunday Service tonight is set to blow the roofs off both the venue and the audience’s craniums.

As always, you can stream a full recording of the show via PanicStream, or give it a listen below:

Widespread Panic – 8/31/19 – Full Audio

[Video: Widespread Panic]

Setlist: Widespread Panic | Pensacola Bay Center | Pensacola, FL | 8/31/19

Set One: Bear’s Gone Fishin’ > Tall Boy > Better Off, Greta > You Got Yours, Papa Johnny Road, Diner* > Stop Breakin Down Blues (70 mins)

Set Two: Run Like Hell bass solo > Junior > 1×1, Christmas Katie > Radio Child > Four Cornered Room > Henry Parsons Died > Fishwater > Drums > Sell Sell > Fishwater > Flat Foot Flewzy** (86 mins)

Encore: It Ain’t No Use, Pigeons (16 mins)

Notes:

* with a ‘Take Me To The River’ rap
** Dave gave a rap with Neal Casal in mind about light defeating darkness and telling those you love that you love them