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Now THAT is how the mighty Widespread Panic gets it done…

WOW… What a difference a few shows/days can make..

The same band that had left us frustrated and perplexed less than two SHORT weeks ago came out last night and re-established why they are still the Heavyweight Champion of the World!

After the standard get away day fiasco - leaving work late, standard atl traffic nightmare, GPS misdirection, no time for dinner McDonald’s indigestion, past the venue ticket pick-up fun - we got to the venue with a few short minutes to spare. Not needing that much time to catch up with our smaller than usual mid - week crew, the lights soon went down and away we went.

A kinda short, but also sweet, double opener (ala bertha>stranger or jack straw>bertha etc) did a nice job of easing us into a stellar evening, with North taking the ending jam around a few times more than the standard, and lil Kin providing a nice little intro, as well as some sweet jimmy vibrato on that ending note.

Jimmy then switched to the tele for a rousing version of Pigeons, complete with awesome pre- & post wake up melt downs, with both jimmy and JB, and of course Mr. Schools, laying it down nicely during those parts. Not 6/24/00 insanity or anything, but not your granny’s pigeons either.

The debut of the final track off of DSD, Cotton was King, came next, with Jimmy REALLY laying into the riffs and solos on this one (tele again). If you are “part of the posse”, fire this one up and enjoy ur boy ripping it up on a rockin new tune. I was hoping to get the previous track, Jaded Tourist, busted out tonight, but I guess that will hafta wait until tomorrow.

Next came the first real jam tune of the evening, Greta, with jojo actually remembering the words and keeping things moving in the right direction. The outtro jam was hot per usual, but not as over-the-top as it can sometimes get. I give jojo alot of shit, but I gotta say I never get sick of this one. It is really probably the only jojo tune I can say that about, other than HMS & SF, but YMMV as always.

After a spacey slow down jam that sorta melted away to silence, todd signaled it was time again to “live it up”, and off we went into porch. Unlike Greta, I don’t have much use for this one if it doesn’t have the ending jam, and this one didn’t, so this was a little bit of a catch my breath tune. There wasn’t a > here that I remember, as porch didn’t have the jam, and JB had to switch to the woody for the next tune, so don’t fire up the stream expecting 5 minutes of crazyness here (as can sometimes be the case). I had a few choice words, weak, lame etc., as that one came to an abrupt halt, but, you can’t win em all… even if you REALLY want to!

I hadn’t made the cinco de mayo = casa connection until someone mentioned it pre-show, so this wasn’t much of a surprise, but it was a little bit of a bummer after we had had visions of real sweetness - DBD, PD>SM, CFMWH etc - dancing in our heads at the sight of the acoustic. JB tends to stumble with the words on this one due to its weird cadence and somewhat rare appearances, and this one was no exception, but it was a decent version of a less than favorite tune. Seems like I remember a > at the end there, as it seemed to be crystalizing into Angels for a min or 2 before turning on a dime and lurching into heroes.

I took a quick walk to the facilities and hoped for a big 2 song push to close things out, and as would be the theme of the evening, i was not disappointed.

My boy J. Knight had mentioned before the show that he hoped for a papa’s in honor of his dad that had recently passed, so it was a little bit bittersweet when todd signaled for momma to put her perfume on, and for the dog to warm up his tail, as papa had indeed turned for home.

Jimmy of all people seemed to struggle during the transition back into the papa’s coda at the end, and I was grumbling a little as they were seemingly ending things up, only to jump 10 feet in the air, more on that later , as dave signaled NO SUGAR!! Yes, YES & HELL YES!!!!! THAT is how u end up a fuckin hot first set. Not with stumbling, but with fuckin authority!

High fives, BIG smiles, and back slaps all around during the break, as we all were like kids on xmas morning thinking about what MIGHT be in store during the 2nd stanza.

Happy is almost always indicative of future jamming and heat, and tonight was certainly no exception, as the band wove back and forth thru the sweet lyrical melodies, with jimmy laying it down clean and smooth. The jam outta there led into what was obviously gonna be solid rock, but this pumped me up even more since they have been KILLING this tune recently. This one has such a hot percolating jam when they are doing it right, and they flogged the shit outta that jam, taking it around and around and around. This is why I am here, and it hasn’t even gotten good yet!!

The next section is exactly as it looks. The band texted me at set break and asked me what to put there. click click click… that oughta do it!

JB fumbled around with the lyrics during RHM & Sharon (as always), but the words he DID get were spit out, mashed up, and growled out at maximum ferocity!!! There is nothing like JB, ever, when he is on his game.

RHM wasn’t as tight as it can sometimes be, but the jam leading out was on time, only to slow down into dave signaling out to left field… I might not have gotten 10, but I bet I got 4 feet in the air when that familiar bass riff rang out!

The vocals were muddy where we were, so I had a hard time making out what JB was preachin. He was reachin for lyrics during the verses, so he just made up for it with cool vocal noises and saying crazy shit like only he can. I can’t wait to hear the playback. It was weird how when they slowed it down for the main street moan a couple times, it almost seemed like jimmy didnt know the riff, even though he plays it later, and jojo kinda took over playing the riff. Pretty sure JB said she was 60 feet in the air at one pint, then he said he thought she could fly. It was that kinda night.. Listen to JB and Dave screaming back and forth during the ending of sharon before the last riff. Awesome. Like dave said about what sharon does to keep us coming back every night, “I Don’t know, but they like it!”

As Sharon finally came to an oh-so-sweet close, dave gave the call for the next deep cut on the list, Coconut. Kinda seemed like an obvious cut for OB, as it has every yr, so playing it tonight makes it even cooler imo. They had this one swinging and swaying like a hammock at the beach, and the place is going NUTS by now, with the energy already off the charts from RHM>Sharon! The band milks all of the jams, and jimmy and dave just continue to bounce it back and forth before dave takes a hard right and slams into the familiar beat of TYS.

Away we go again. Are you kidding me?!

Wives stuck at home with kiddos are sending VERY, VERY nasty texts about missed opportunities at this point, lol. You want the show to be good, but not that good, cuz you got some splaining to do when it’s that good and she missed it for being a team player.

TYS eased into a nice slowdown jam before morphing into UTR. I always dig this, but tonights version seemed to be particularly well played, with jimmy really shredding on the solos. I am interested to hear this one back too, because I remember thinking jimmy really played some inspired, and nicely extended out, stuff. Hopefully it was hot playing, and not RHM>sharon>coconut>tys talkin.

As they downshifted out of UTR I could tell it was gonna be arleen, and I really couldn’t believe it. There are so few nights when all the stars align, and it is just sick>nasty for an hour straight. Much like JB on his game, there is nothing like it. Wow.

This show was starting to remind me a little bit of the 8/6/05 show, with JB takin his game to the highest level, JB in ALL his Glory, as he was rapping about his sad state of affairs, and angry neighbors. The band was hitting on all cylinders, Jb was hitting on all cylinders… Fuck yeah..

After giving arleen all u wanted, extended jamming between every verse, The jam back out of arleen was great stuff too, with the end of TYS finally coming into view. I swear JB forgot what he was gonna say the first 2 times they wound it up, but he remembered finally that above all else you need to Love Your Girl! We gave a very loud cheer for our ladies back at the house, god bless em, and rode TYS into a very appropriate Give. I swear they did a little vocal arleen thing at the end of tys too, but i may be foggy.

Since I can’t remember the last time I was that late to a show, “How dare u show up on time?” drew a big cheer from me and my boy after the struggles we had earlier on the way in. Since the band had been cooking with grease for quite some time, they even raved up Give pretty good, giving the back end jam that punch that it has when they are trying to flex, rather than just banging it out.

After a HUGE cheer from the crowd there at the end, the band came back out to more hearty applause for what would be the capper to an outstanding evening. I believe JB mentions something about this being a blues tune before they bust in to an all to rare Contentment encore.

I love my chicken, and this chicken was tasty, with JB tearing it up again. I like how they have been moving songs around some lately. Great placement and execution.

I really had to piss by this point, so tallboy was a welcome relief. I was WAY more than satisfied already, so if tallboy was how we were takin it home, so be it.

I got back in time to jam the ending, but I was more just standing there basking in the light as much as enjoying the music at this point.

Reposted from panicfreaks.org with permission…thanks 042602. I was at this show and he pretty much nails it in his review. Great Work!