Widespread Panic Began Fall Tour In Milwaukee

Last night, Widespread Panic launched a brief Fall Tour with the first of three nights at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee. The opening night of their five-gig run included the first performance of the year of “Better Off” during a night heavy on originals.

With fill-in drummer Duane Trucks behind the kit in place of Todd Nance, WSP began the first show of their Fall Tour with “Goodpeople.” They then moved into “Bust It Big” (perhaps signalling the song that followed) as they shifted into “Better Off” – busting out what’s become a rarity for the first time since July 6, 2014 at the High Sierra Music Festival. Panic served up the rest of an all-original opening set highlighted by “Happy” > “Greta” > “You Got Yours,” and closed out with “Radio Child.”

The second half kicked off with Willie Dixon’s “Weak Brain, Narrow Mind” followed by “Up All Night” and a “Driving Song” which was split by a “Blight” > “Climb To Safety” > “Pilgrims” run before the returning to conclude the classic original. Two songs from the band’s recently issued studio album Street Dogs – first “Angels Don’t Sing The Blues” followed by “Cease Fire” – straddled the Drums & Bass > Drums portion of the set. “Ride Me High” > “Fishwater” closed out the second set of the band’s first night of Fall Tour.

The show concluded with a two-song encore led off by “Street Dogs For Breakfast” and concluded by only the second performance in 2015 of The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” which included a bit of The Allman Brothers Band’s “Jessica.”

Widespread Panic plays the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee again tonight, as well as Sunday night.

Setlist (via PanicStream)

Set One: Goodpeople > Bust It Big > Better Off^, C. Brown, Happy > Greta > You Got Yours, Christmas Katie, Radio Child (77 mins)

Set Two: Weak Brain Narrow Mind, Up All Night, Driving Song > Blight > Climb To Safety > Pilgrims > Driving Song, Angels Don’t Sing The Blues > Drums & Bass > Drums > Cease Fire, Ride Me High > Fishwater (103 mins)

Encore: Street Dogs For Breakfast, You Can’t Always Get What You Want^^

Notes ^ LTP 7/06/14 High Sierra; ^^ LTP 1/26/15 PELP

[‘Cars’ tease out of YGY; ‘Run Like Hell’ jam during D&B; ‘Jessica’ tease during YCAGWYW]