If you don’t succeed try, try again is what they say. Well after a rain shortened set in 2014, Widespread Panic made a return trip to Artpark in Lewiston to give the fans what they waited a full year for. A night full of elongated jams and music in which they can happily move freely and dance to.
Longtime drummer Todd Nance left in October of 2014 to attend to personal issues. Drummer Duane Trucks (brother of Derek Trucks) is currently filling in.
It’s been over 5 years since the band has released a new studio effort but nonetheless the fans of the band are some of the most dedicated and still come out to see them perform. With 11 studio and 10 live albums, the band has plenty of songs to choose from when deciding what tracks to play live.
For this show, the band opened up with “Travelin’ Light off their first studio effort “Space Wrangler.” Both guitarists Jimmy Herring and John Bell were locked in and played off each other the entire set. Bell also gave a little bit of slide guitar on a few tunes like “Weight of the World’ and “Ride Me High.” JoJo Hermann handled keyboard/organ duties and co sang on a few tracks with Bell.
If they weren’t dancing some fans occasionally held up letters stating WSMFP after selected songs throughout the set. You can tell there was a real connection between the music and the fans. The show wasn’t sold out but it was comfortably attended. It really made for a nice experience for the fans to maneuver around freely to dance and mingle with one another.
Percussionist Domingo Ortiz and Trucks combined for a drum solo in the 2nd set. With each song going into the next, it left little time for band chatter with each other or the audience. Both sets lasted about an hour and a half with a 30 minute break in between. The weather was perfect and it was a great band to open up the Tuesday night concerts series with.
Set 1:
Travelin’ Light (J.J. Cale cover)
Can’t Get High (BloodKin cover)
Weight of the World
Ride Me High (J.J. Cale cover)
Shut Up and Drive
Pilgrims
Space Wrangler
Greta
North (Jerry Joseph cover)
Set 2
Second Skin
Rebirtha
Cotton Was King
One Arm Steve
Henry Parsons Died (BloodKin cover)
Cease Fire
Jamais Vu
Drums
Surprise Valley
Rock
Encore:
Chainsaw City (Little Women cover)
We would like to thank Maria Hays from Artpark for her assistance in obtaining credentials so BackstageAxxess could review the show.
