Concert Review: Widespread Panic at the Midland, Night One

BY ELGIN SMITH

After hearing so much about Widespread Panic over the past few years, I decided it was finally time to take the plunge and check the band out in concert. While I knew of Widespread’s heroic status in the upper echelons of jam, I had only heard a few songs here and there, and figured that these cats probably saved their best stuff for their live shows.

Unfortunately, the music that I heard during most of last night’s show just wasn’t that interesting.

The show started with a couple of medium tempo numbers that sounded OK, but after three of them, I was really wondering if the show was going to go anywhere. Guitarist Jimmy Herring was certainly in high gear from the get-go, blasting through a ton of notes on each solo.

However, I soon realized that Panic’s livelihood really depends on an aggressive guitarist like Herring, the group’s compositions relying on his playing almost to a fault. I’m certainly not saying he isn’t a skilled, competent guitar player. However, his hasty, non-melodic riffs just seemed to lack continuity and gave the band a one-dimensional sound. Combine that with John Bell‘s unclear, waffling vocals, and most of the songs became very predictable.

Percussionist Chico Ortiz could barely be heard, except for one song that featured him on congos, followed by him playing a didgeridoo into a microphone (actually, that was pretty cool).

The first set ended with my impression that they sounded remotely like a diluted, half-speed version of an Allman Brothers song. Not the Allman Brothers Band as a whole (which I’m a huge fan of, and which has produced music which is both interesting and lengthy), just one of their songs. Half speed, over and over.