Widespread Panic Performs Before Massive Crowd At Hometown Concert In 1998

Nearly 20 years ago on April 18, 1998, Widespread Panic held a concert in their hometown of Athens, Georgia in celebration of the release of their debut live album Light Fuse Get Away. The performance took place on Washington Street outside the 40 Watt Club, with some estimates placing the total number of attendees near 100,000.

Author Gordon Lamb will soon issue a new book, Widespread Panic In The Streets Of Athens, Georgia, to coincide with silver anniversary of the historic night in WSP history. Lamb interviewed members of Widespread Panic, Athens city officials and fans to detail how the now infamous concert went down.

For more on the concert, check out this post from 2010 on the This Day In Athens blog. This edition of Sunday Cinema goes back just shy of two decades to look at footage from that memorable day in Athens.

Notable not only for the number of people who went to see Widespread Panic that day in Athens, the show also featured a number of original song debuts performed by guitarists John Bell and the late Michael Houser, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Todd Nance, percussionist Domingo “Sunny” Ortiz and keyboardist John “JoJo” Hermann. The first set saw the first WSP offering of “All Time Low,” while set two saw the original live renditions of “One Arm Steve” and “Christmas Katie.”

Interview footage from the SoundCheck television program feature on the concert as well as first set highlights and the complete second set can be viewed in the videos below:

Setlist (via PanicStream)

Set One: Disco > Tall Boy > Love Tractor, Aunt Avis > Diner > Walkin’ (For Your Love), Henry Parsons Died, All Time Low*, The Take Out > Porch Song** > Blackout Blues

Set Two: One Arm Steve*, Chilly Water, Greta > Christmas Katie* > Radio Child, Arleen > Papa’s Home > Drums > Papa’s Home, Pilgrims, Fishwater

Encore: West Virginia > Space Wrangler, Ain’t Life Grand

Notes:

• * Debut
• ** Slow version