Rock bands often live and die by their live shows, especially early on. It’s typically the first calling card they have before they’re able to write great songs or record them. But there are some bands whose live show isn’t a calling card. It’s the whole package.
Widespread Panic, which will perform at Credit One Stadium in Charleston on May 16, is one of those bands.
Since forming in 1986, the Athens, Ga., sextet has released 12 studio albums, many on their own label, Widespread Records. While there are great songs on all those records, the place to hear the band is onstage, where the musicians can pull apart a tune like taffy and explore every bit through experimental jams.
Jamming can be self-indulgent sometimes, but Panic has a secret weapon to keep things from getting tedious: Southern rock roots. Most Panic jams are driven by uptempo beats and gnarly guitars, which keeps the longer songs from dragging and puts them more in line with heavy improv performers like moe. or Gov’t Mule than the more contemplative Grateful Dead.
Widespread Panic also has the benefit of nearly 40 years on the road with roughly the same members. Singer/guitarist John Bell, bassist Dave Schools and percussionist Domingo “Sonny” Ortiz have been on board since 1986, and drummer John “JoJo” Hermann joined in the early ‘90s.
Drummer Duane Trucks (son of late Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks) and guitarist Jimmy Herring round out the group, with Trucks giving some Southern rock propulsion and Herring providing the soaring leads.
Herring has been with the band since 2006, and he had some big shoes to fill when he joined. Widespread Panic’s original guitarist was a brilliant, beloved and shy player named Mikey Hauser.
Hauser, who typically played seated with his hair obscuring his face, died of pancreatic cancer in 2002. His fluid, emotional style was so important to the band’s sound that it took members several years to find the right replacement.
Onstage, in full flight, Panic takes concise songs like “Pleas,” a tight rocker from 1993’s Everyday or the polyrhythmic swamp-funk tune “Bear’s Gone Fishin’ ” from 1999’s Til The Medicine Takes and spreads them over the biggest possible canvas, stretching songs and finding new nooks and crannies to explore each night.
And much like the Grateful Dead, the band’s constantly changing live show has attracted a huge cult-like following. But instead of “Deadheads,” the folks who follow Widespread Panic on tour are called “The Panic Fam.”
That “Fam” helps to create a communal vibe at Panic’s shows, and the vibe is important. In fact, sometimes it’s more important than the show.
In a 2016 concert review, writer Tom Szaroleta of The Florida Times-Union summed up the collective goodwill between band and audience at a Panic concert.
“The songs really aren’t the point at a Widespread Panic show, though,” he writes. “You don’t need to know any of them to have a good time. You get caught up in the vibe between the band and the fans, and you just can’t help it. If a song stretches to 10 minutes, eh, just roll with it.”
It’s difficult to come up with a better description, particularly the part about being new to the songs. Even if you’re not into “jam bands,” per se, Panic is still a little different, a little less self-indulgent and a little louder than the average group.
Legendary musician Robert Earl Keen once sang that “the road goes on forever.” Widespread Panic has taken that sentiment to heart, making the road their home, a musical one at least.
WANT TO GO: Two shows, May 16 and 17, Credit One Stadium, Daniel Island. Tickets ($53-$224+) via ticketmaster.com
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