Nice tattoo Twilley.

n00b

I am horrified at the majority of this article. Let me preface this review/comment by saying I happen to be one of those clean and sober fans. If this guy cant let loose and have a little fun without being "in the right frame of mind" at a Panic show, well I can get the number to his local AA chapter. Most of us go see Panic because its fun. We dance off the weight of the world. The majority of us are not dread-locked hippies. We are professionals, people you see walking down the street every day, your business associates and classmates. These shows are about fun and friends. You meet people here and would sometimes never even associate with them outside the content of Widespread Panic. To be point blank, to criticize anyone for being sober is just sad, especially for a liberal area like LA. And by the way, its "Ribs and Whiskey," buddy.

A tad too tongue and cheek for a guy that knows nothing about the band he reviews. Do your homework and then write a review. That way you can be sarcastic and it'll probably fly. Here . . . not so much.

total n00b

Hey Jeff, thanks for reminding me why I don't read the LA Weekly. Good looking out dog!

la sucks

I like that little lady in the front row. she has a nice looking bulge... er... I mean legs. What's for lunch?

This is actually a funny and well-written review, but most of it is based on a false premise. The vast majority of Widespread Panic fans are NOT hippies. They are mostly Southern ex-frat guys and girls who have real careers, who fly to shows rather hitchhike in VW busses, and who stay in nice hotels rather than tents & teepees. Just look at these pictures: much more preppies than hippies. In fact, where is even ONE of the quote "couple thousand... white dreadlock set"? (Even the tatoo guy looks more like a UFC fan than a hackey-sack fan). And of the very few dreadlocked hippies that were indeed spinning around in the back-rows of these shows, I guarantee you that 99% of them are just displaced Phish-heads who would never go to a WSP show if Phish were still touring. Before Phish broke up, there were practically zero of those Patchouli-reeking, "Miracle"-seeking mooches at Panic shows, but now without Phish they have nowhere else to go do their acid-tripping devil-stick tricks. As a lifelong Panic fan, I hope that Phish reunites soon so that our beloved Widespread Panic ROCK-AND-F**KING-ROLL shows smell more like beautiful Southern girls in summer dresses rather than non-armpit-shaving oinkers living under bridges in Portland for the sweet heroin hook-ups and lax vagrancy laws. See, Mr. Weiss, there's two separate breeds of "jam-band" fans: those who love Phish and String Cheese Incident and chasing rainbows, and those of us who love our dirty rockin' Panic, New Orleans funk, North Mississippi All-Star bottleneck rock, old school Metallica, Bob Marley, and classic rock like the Stones, Zeppelin, Doors, Who, Skynryd, Clapton, etc. You're a clever, funny, knowledgeable music writer, Jeff, so if there's another band out there who truly rocks the house down every night like Widespread Panic and the Rolling Stones do, please tell us about them because we would genuinely love to hear it. Thanks!

CRACK KILLS

Bobby T,
you aren't helping with your mostly wrong assessment.
It wasn't phish breaking up that brought the Wooks out, it was Jerry's dying.

Yeah I agree Friday's show was a little weak being the tour opener and with the extra LA types checking it out. Should have been there Sunday and did your research.-Chomp

Why must we all be subjected to Ballards crack?!?
Hilarious!

Dear Phish Panic Fan,

Your phrase "mostly wrong assessment" is itself a mostly wrong assessment. After Jerry's death in 1995, there was no spike in Wookie attendance at WSP shows until AFTER Phish first went on hiatus in 2000, causing the displaced Wookie population to scatter across the jam-world like lost nomads on Tatooine. On the other hand, nearly every Deadhead-turned-Spreadhead I've ever met has a career, flies to shows, stays in hotels, doesn't have dreads, etc. My main point to the critic was that the Orpheum crowd was maybe 3% Wookies at most. No WSP crowd is ever, as he wrote, "a couple thousand... of the white dreadlock set." So even though his review of the band was pretty positive, his over-riding premise about Widespread Panic's demographics was based on false cliches rather than empirical evidence. But whatever, who cares. I actually love sneaking off during drums to go boogie in Wookie-town because those music-loving motherf**kers get down like James Brown!!! Let It Rock...

I love you Bobby T!
Remember....Dance when you get the chance.
It's safe to say that in all of my shows I've never met anyone who jams quite like you! So keep on rockin' ...
-JPeags

I went to college in the south and saw WSP many times. Like most say here, I can imagine the crowd is mostly now older frat boys and girls, and that for the most part wasn't that much of a laid back easy going crowd from what I remember. These are your people who voted for Bush. WSP rips and are one of the most underrated, unheralded bands of our time.

I don't know about that Bush comment, bro, but I do love Busch beer, air-guitaring, and havin' a good time any which way I can. This is pretty much the only band today that still sets my air-guitar on fire every night like all those epic Classic Rock bands I grew up with in the 70's. Hey Schools: "MORE SABBATH, BRO!!!"

http://www.myspace.com/tailgatepete

If you love air guitar, check out the photos by Tim Norris of the LA '08 edition held last night:

http://blogs.laweekly.com/play/live-in-la/us-air-guitar-tour/

Same photographer who shot the Widespread Panic photos: http://www.laweekly.com/music/slideshows/widespread-panic-orpheum-620/1386/

Great pics but DAMN! I gotta get in that Air-Guitar contest next year, bro! Been practicing everyday since '76! Mark my words: next year I will win it all by air-guitaring to Panic's cover of Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf"! Rock-n-roll, bro! http://www.myspace.com/tailgatepete

Hey Mauer, thanks for the link to Tim Norris' photos, they are GREAT as usual! But I'm pissed I missed that Air-Guitar Contest! I've been practicing everyday since '76, and I guarantee I will win it all next year with Panic's cover of Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf." ROCK-N-ROLL, BRO!

Tailgate Pete, you called it: they played "More Sabbath, bro." They played "Fairies Wear Boots" at Red Rocks on Sunday. Further proof that this is just a SIKK ROCK-N-ROLL BAND much more akin to the Classic Rock Gods of the 70's than their so-called "jamband" contemporaries like Phish, String Cheese, .moe, etc. I don't want to rip on those bands anymore; I'm just so sick of WSP being falsely lumped in with them and the Wookie circuit. Widespread Panic is an eclectically-influenced ROCK-N-ROLL BAND that happens to jam from one song into the next rather than stopping every 3 minutes like a corporate whore emo band or whatever. At Red Rocks they also covered "Riders on the Storm," "Stir It Up," "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys," "Life During Wartime," "Slippin' Into Darkness," "No

Whoops, my last comment accidentally sent before I was done, but obviously I gotta quit this addictive topic anyway & get back to work! P.s. - Hey Schools: more "Children of the Grave"!