Review & Photos: Widespread Panic Concludes Strong Spring Tour In Chicago

Words by: Chad Berndtson

Images by: Dale Foster

Widespread Panic :: 5.7.16 :: Chicago Theatre :: Chicago, IL

View Dale’s gallery after Chad’s review.

Tour closers are far from sure bets; an exhausted band, however triumphant, might have only fumes to offer. But when Widespread Panic‘s feeling its jollies – when it really wants to go for it – a tour closer is something to build to, and bank on. And payoff is what we got Saturday night: a tank-emptying finale that built on a huge three-night run for Panic in the Windy City.

Panic at 30 creaks at times with the weight of both age and baggage, and no band that’s been around that long, been through deep sadness and long lulls in creativity, and has been that owned by its relationship to the road wouldn’t. But Saturday wasn’t the time for shadows cast by personnel changes or 2017 tour plans – it was a party, and if somewhat uneven in terms of pacing, went above and beyond in terms of scope.

Panic played long and drew from all over its repertoire, from favored corners of The Band, Grateful Dead and Talking Heads catalogs to furious jam vehicles holding up the sets like mighty pillars (“Ride Me High,” “Fishwater,” “Conrad,” “Disco”). So full was this serving of Panic that it included sets of 85 minutes and 102 minutes, included two songs not yet played in the Duane Trucks era (“You Should Be Glad,” “Gradle”), and even made room for old pal Jerry Joseph, who sauntered on stage in a white tanktop and lead the whole band through a ferocious version of his own “North,” one of those Joseph songs in the Panic lineup that gets something extra when its author is in the house.

More highlights? Yeah, plenty.

Give me the sandwiches from the second set and how effectively Schools and the drummers drove them: the sparks-on-metal run down a dark mine tunnel that was “Proving Ground > Cream Puff War > Proving Ground” and the hard boogieing “Fishwater,” which included a lengthy, Duane-dominated drums segment and “Life During Wartime” before slamming back home.

Give me the Jimmy Herring machine gun – safety off all night — and all those stabbing solos, but also the more patient, roiling flight of Jimmy-led improvisation that capped “Blight.”

Give me “Ribs & Whiskey,” which was the first set song where the band finally clicked into gear after taking some time to feel things out, and had the whole place shaking ass, right before a gorgeous “Porch Song.”

Give me the “Postcard” closer – heavy as fuck and a big-rock finish.

Most of all give me the 2nd Set opener: “Greta” was the right song at the right time and the right mood and the right level of JoJo goofy energy – I’ve never heard louder crowd “dog” howls – and it melted into one of the night’s more interesting jams before grooving into “Blue Indian,” and an audience shouting the “party going on” line in near-perfect unison.

A party, it was.

Photos

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Setlist (via PanicStream)

Set One: Let’s Get Down to Business, Rebirtha > Stop Breakin’ Down Blues, Last Straw > Ride Me High > Ribs & Whiskey, Porch Song, Ophelia > The Shape I’m In, North*

Set Two: Greta > Jam > Blue Indian, Conrad > Proving Ground > Cream Puff War > Proving Ground, Pilgrims, Disco > You Should Be Glad^^, Blight > Fishwater > Drums > Life During Wartime > Fishwater, Postcard

Encore: Gradle^^, All Time Low, Can’t Find My Way Home

• * w/Jerry Joseph, guitar and vocals, and including a Mother’s Day rap
• ^^ FTP with Duane Trucks