By Tim Van Schmidt

At the end of Widespread Panic’s first set at the Budweiser Events Center on Saturday, when the band put down their instruments and left the stage, there was a very discernable din of excited voices filling the air. I don’t think it was because no one was paying attention to the band, involved in their own parties. I think it was because that is just how ramped up the Widespread audience gets at one of the band’s shows- probably at every show.

Just like the busy, urgent talking going on at the break, the audience was also busy the entire time the band was on the stage. That is, it seemed like everyone in the room was in constant motion. If they weren’t dancing by themselves, or boogieing with friends, they seemed to be going somewhere- slipping through the crowd, making brief contact with strangers, getting drinks, finding random acquaintances- who knows what else. But this wasn’t just during Widespread’s set. They did the same exact thing during the DJ sets warming up the beginning of the evening and during the break.

I spent many of my teenage years in southern California and I went to a lot of Grateful Dead shows- since they seemed to be playing somewhere close all the time. There is a tendency to want to lump the old Grateful Dead audience with the Widespread audience. After all, they both were/are made up of a lot of hippie-looking people who make it a part of their lifestyle to travel to shows and become part of the “family” atmosphere. Because of this, both audiences end up creating their own kind of mythology about the bands and the shows- time being marked by what happened and stories being fondly told.

Beyond that general impression, however, the Widespread audience differs from the Dead crowd in this one major way: energy. The Dead audience was mellow and friendly- patient enough to allow the band time to get up to speed and finally kick things into overdrive. The Widespread audience wasted no time at all in participating fully in this event- cheering at the start of each tune, vigorously dancing (a lot of folks doing this kind of funky walk/stomp kind of thing- a lot more physical than the more swirly, in-your-own-world dancing that Dead people seemed to favor) and like I said- talking about whatever like there was no tomorrow.

Matching this was Widespread Panic’s commitment to deliver the goods- from the beginning of the first tune. While the tempo of the music rose and fell as the set developed, what seemed to be consistent throughout the evening was a very full, thick sound. In short, Widespread was a big, continuous jolt of electricity the entire time they were on stage.

Center stage was vocalist and guitarist John Bell, whose voice- a world-wise tenor- could easily be heard cutting through the wall of sound. Lead guitarist Jimmy Herring continuously added those snaky, wiry solos. But while Herring, Bell and bassist Dave Schools kept the heavy guitar sound of the band intact, it was keyboardist John Hermann who added plenty of melodic and rhythmic counterpoints to make the music more flavorful. This was also the case in the percussion department. Drummer Todd Nance was a powerful driving force throughout the night while percussionist Domingo Ortiz filled in the cracks with ear-catching accents. The sound never faltered and the band morphed one song right into the next for a strong continuous flow.

Once again, the Budweiser Events Center proved to be a superior place to see a show of this kind. It’s not the greatest looking place aesthetically, but its relative intimacy, compared to the bigger venues in the area, serves to accentuate and even intensify the bigger shows. Roughly half the size of Red Rocks- where Widespread sold out several shows over the summer- the Budweiser Events Center got the same level of show. Even at the back of the floor area- jammed with ever-moving fans- this show seemed right in your face- a very satisfying experience, indeed.