The second day of Mempho Music Festival at Radians Amphitheater at Memphis Botanic Garden in Memphis, Tennessee featured music from High Fade, Mavis Staples, The Pharcyde, Lukas Nelson, The Flaming Lips, and, later, two headlining sets from Widespread Panic.
Unlike on Friday, when Kevn Kinney sat in, Widespread Panic blitzkrieged through both sets as a six-man demolition team. The juggernauts of jam reached into their well-stocked arsenal to barrage Saturday night’s audience with a sonic blend of originals as well as J.J. Cale, Talking Heads, Buffalo Springfield, and Neil Young covers.
Through most of the first set, a traveling theme persisted, clashing with militant undertones that ran rampant during the back half. From a certain vantage point, the setlist symbolized traveling either to or from war in search of sanctuary. WSP typically aligns setlists to pay tribute to birthdays, tributes to the recently departed, or to the city’s local musicians or influences. I couldn’t help but feel that this setlist was in response to the Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s speech at Quantico and the Charlie Kirk assassination earlier this week and month, respectively.
Getting started, JoJo Hermann and Sunny Ortiz meshed a funky concoction of sounds with Dave Schools’ bass and Duane Trucks’ cymbals to build a monumental “Bust It Big” opener (“Ride my liquor down to Mexico”). Without stopping, Duane redirected the tempo into J.J. Cale’s “Travelin’ Light” (“Travelin’ light is the only way to fly”). John Bell took over vocal duties from JoJo, allowing the keyboardist to ripple swirling organ notes before Jimmy Herring took his first solo of the show.
Switching to piano, JoJo carved out the introduction of “This Part of Town” (“I’ve never been to this part of town”) and supported JB’s vocals until Schools barged into the heavy bass line of “Imitation Leather Shoes” (“Took a trip to California!”).
A classic combination of Michael Houser compositions, “Travelin’ Man” (“Wanna carry my life in a bag / Like to live in a hotel room / Wanna be a travelin’ man”) and “The Waker” (“Always searching for something new”), followed. Both have stayed in rotation since their bust-outs on D.C.’s St. Panic’s Day run and New Year’s Eve, respectively, and have been paired together 13 times since 2018.
“Jamais Vu” invited the audience to “close our eyes and remember the places we’ve been” after “the world has changed.” Right on cue, the tone took on a darker, more militant tone as Panic segued into “Greta” (“Mother Nature’s come to arms / She’s in a fighting / mood / Greta’s got a gun / This ain’t no flowerchild”)—perhaps a nod to Greta Thunberg, who was captured by Israeli forces en route to Gaza along with a group of activists.
Further cementing the new theme, Panic punctuated the first frame with Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime”. The entire song’s lyrics describe acclimating to a state of constant warfare in the local environment.
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After set break, Widespread Panic continued the bombardment of warfare imagery by opening with a cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth”. Not only was this the first song the band ever played live together, but it also describes “a man with a gun over there” and “battle lines bein’ drawn.” With hardly a pause, JoJo cracked open “Tall Boy” (“We’re gonna summon the Holy Ghost from the battlefield”) before crowning a shrieking “King Baby” (“The baby king will burn it down”).
Widespread Panic — “For What It’s Worth” (Buffalo Springfield) [Pro-Shot] — 10/4/25
Similar imagery was conjured during “Saint Ex” (“children all wear crowns”). The tune was inspired by the story of a German pilot shooting down his favorite author, Frenchman Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (“Don’t you realize I’m not your enemy” /& “If I knew, I knew you / I never wudda shot you down!”). Jimmy Herring cruised through a complex sequence of maneuvers with casual grace.
An instrumental “Party At Your Mama’s House” featured JB on slide guitar and progressively accelerated into a satisfying “Diner”. In the improvised rap, JB describes “waking up on a park bench” and later “snowy rooftops” which meant that it was a particularly cold night for the protagonist of JB’s imagination as he stumbled into the light of Ms. Lee’s sanctuary.
Walking out of “Diner”, a fun, improvised segue danced down the weathered and familiar path of “C. Brown” (“C. Brown- Charlie there is drawing a gun / Right there in the square he’s sketched Lucy on the run / Aims his eye, cocks his head /In a cloud of dust, dear old Lucy’s gone”). After a quick pause, WSP completed a 58- minute, unbroken stream of music.
Barreling forward almost immediately, the Panics advised to “shoot first and ask questions later / if anybody mess with you” before tumbling down the well into a conclusive “Chilly Water”. The lyrics paint imagery of a rider on horseback (a refugee if you will) riding away from the city and attempting to quench his thirst. Parallel imagery of “wells running dry” in the two last songs of the second set insinuate that this was intentional, possibly referring to oil wells and humanity’s dependence on barrels (“A.T.L.”) of crude oil.
Back for the last encore until Milwaukee later this month, Widespread Panic penned an evocative “Cosmic Confidante” before closing with Neil Young’s “Rockin’ In The Free World”, a protest song critiquing George H.W. Bush’s 1989 administration (“We got a kinder, gentler, Machine gun hand … Got a man of the people, says keep hope alive / Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive”).
Outside latent setlist meanings, the two Mempho shows were heavy on the Panic and relatively few covers. Musically, the six-piece sounded as good as ever. As always, the signature sound, improvised transitions and jams, and one-of-a-kind setlists keep our zealous community coming back time and time again.
The eighth annual Mempho Music Festival rolls onward with a killer Sunday lineup headlined by Tyler Childers and supported by Sierra Ferrell, Charley Crockett, Lucero, John R. Miller, and Amy Lavere. Stream their sets live via nugs here.
Widespread Panic, meanwhile, will set their sights on Milwaukee, Savannah, and Port Chester before closing out the year in Atlanta. Find a full list of upcoming shows and purchase tickets here. Until next time folks, meet you at the crack in the edge of time.
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Setlist: Widespread Panic | Radians Amphitheater | Memphis, TN | 10/4/25
Set 1: Bust It Big > Travelin’ Light, This Part Of Town, Imitation Leather Shoes, Travelin’ Man > The Waker, Jamais Vu > Greta > Life During Wartime (57 mins)
Set 2: For What It’s Worth, Tall Boy, King Baby > Saint Ex > Party At Your Mama’s House > Diner > C Brown, All Time Low > Chilly Water (78 mins)
Encore: Cosmic Confidante, Rockin’ In The Free World (16 mins)