Doors and Sabbath and Panic, Oh My!
Widespread Panic just finished three nights at 1st Band Center in Bloomfield CO, closing down the October leg of their fall tour. They will not play again until the three-night New Year’s run in Nashville.
The boys were loaded with covers, many on regular rotation, some rare, and one dating back to 1987! Friday (10/29/16) featured songs they enjoy by James Taylor, Bukka White, Jorma Kaukonen and J.J. Cale before pulling a Doors > Black Sabbath encore with “The Changeling” (a bust-out) into “Black Sabbath,” a tune last played on Hallowe’en 1992.
Saturday (10/29/16) featured David Bromberg’s “Sharon” and a song for new Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan with “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall,” only the seventh time played. Encore? How about Doors > Sabbath again? This time it was “L.A. Woman” into “Iron Man.”
Sunday brought out the costumes. John Bell, replete with pink top hat and coat, was a Disney Haunted Mansion ghost. Jimmy Herring was styling in a bloody Colorado Rockies uniform and hat, while Dave Schools came out as Ozzy, quickly losing the cape and tossing the cross. Sitting behind part of the S.S. Minnow, JoJo Hermann absolutely was Gilligan. Sunny Ortiz was the devil, and Duane Trucks was The Hulkster, Hulk Hogan! Onstage were part of a right field wall and the side of a police car, with King Tut’s bust hanging overhead along with a flat earth, all items from the past ten years of Panic Hallowe’ens.
And the covers, including another bust-out: Nirvana’s “Lithium.” Other artists covered included Z.Z. Top, Neil Young, The Ramones, and Dr. John. Did you call a Doors > Sabbath encore again? CORRECT! “Soul Kitchen” and “Paranoid,” a song played 2811 shows ago on Hallowe’en 1987! They came out for a second encore, closing appropriately with “Postcard” and “End of the Show.”
They’re not called the six-headed monster for nothin’, ya know!
Photographs courtesy of Jeff Fernandez.
