Widespread Panic Dusts Off Talking Heads Cover At 1st L.A. Show In A Decade

Widespread Panic launched a three-night run at the Orpheum In Los Angeles on Thursday. The shows mark the band from Georgia’s first performances in L.A. in 10 years.

The Los Angeles shows wrap a wider West Coast swing, Panic’s first since 2016. Guitarist Nick Johnson, filling in for Jimmy Herring, is still on board with guitarist/vocalist John Bell, bassist Dave Schools, keyboardist JoJo Hermann, percussionist Sunny Ortiz and drummer Duane Trucks.

WSP fittingly kicked off the concert with the Buffalo Springfield protest anthem “For What It’s Worth,” a song Springfield’s Steven Stills wrote about people taking to the streets in L.A. The first set saw Panic on classics “Tall Boy,” “Rock” and “Rebirtha” along with the newer tune “King Baby.” The first frame came to a close with the Bloodkin number “Henry Parsons Died.”

Widespread Panic initiated set two with “Papa Legba.” The song originally appears on the Talking Heads’ 1986 record True Stories. Panic unveiled “Papa Legba” a little over a year after it was released on New Year’s Eve 1987. WSP dusted off the cover for the first time in three years in L.A.

Panic kept the hits coming for the second half of the show including “Blue Indian,” “Surprise Valley” and set closer “Chilly Water.” The two-song encore featured Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me In Your Heart” and the Jerry Joseph-penned “Climb To Safety.”

Official audio and fan-shot video from the show below: