To be served with tempeh
Posted: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 6:43 PM by John Roderick
Widespread Panic
If I owned a VW Bus, and my bus was having mechanical trouble, I would be so psyched to run into the guitarist of Widespread Panic out on the road. He looks like he must be the greatest VW mechanic in the known world. In fact, all the members of Widespread Panic could claim to be able to fix my bus and I would believe them, except maybe the guy who looks like a diamond merchant that plays the congas.
Just to establish my credentials here, let me state for the record that I saw the Dead twice, once at RFK with Edie Brickell and once at the Tacoma Dome with Santana. I’ve seen jam bands at their jammiest, and can attest that jamming is fun, both as a player and as an audience member, if you’ve been smoking pot all day and people will let you get away with it.
The Widespread Panic is a jam band of the highest order, except the guitar player, Jimmy Herring, does almost all the jamming. He is an AWESOME guitar player — apparently he’s the new guy — and the nature of the music allows him to literally solo for hours, a feat that would make even Clapton blush. Astonishingly, he keeps it interesting, lyrical and fluid. The rest of the guys hold it down, jam it out, take solos now and again, and sing lyrics over the music which the audience seemed to know and appreciate.
Unfortunately, it’s far too late, in my life and in this evening, for me to be able to get into the music of Widespread Panic. Perhaps it is that my heart does not have the spirit of love in it to connect with the music on a higher level. Perhaps it’s that I haven’t eaten enough tempeh, cumulatively. Perhaps it’s that they haven’t changed keys yet, and I’ve been watching them for a half an hour. Either way, I tried, I gave it a shot, but it was like listening to paint dry. But it’s not like I came up empty: I like the new guy.
