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MP3.com Live: Panic at the Greek
Veteran rockers confirm they've emerged from a multiyear funk with a rousing set filled with a different sort of Southern-fried funk.
When you're drowning in a sea of receding hairline ponytails, microbrew-swilling future investment bankers getting their hippie rocks off, and the least funky dance moves on the planet, it can be a bit hard to focus on the music.
Widespread Panic
Such was the lesson at the Widespread Panic show at Berkeley's Greek Theatre Friday night.
But despite attracting an audience that sometimes warrants the ridicule it receives, the veteran Southern rockers put on a rousing performance, mixing old tracks with new and proving that they've emerged from their lengthy rut following lead guitarist Michael Houser's death from cancer in 2002.
With the sun still blazing, the show started off a bit sheepishly, often meandering into what could only be described as adult contemporary jam rock (light rock, less rawk?), but it quickly righted itself with the rolling, meandering groove of "C. Brown" off the band's 1988 debut, Space Wrangler.
The band began cooking in the latter part of the hour-long first set, moving from the Tower of Power-esque rhythm of "Old Neighborhood" to the punishing funk rock of "Makes Sense to Me." It was that track that hinted at the sound that has long separated Widespread Panic from the rest of their jam band brethren: Southern-fried rock, with a dash of Latin percussion and Bootsy-style bass.
After a short break, the band returned with "Diner," an undulating track that highlighted the guitar work of Houser's replacement, George McConnell. Fan response to McConnell has been mixed. Although he's more than adequate, he seems to lack Houser's ability to turn any song into a scorcher, a style that gave the band part of its whiskey-fueled edge. But McConnell got plenty of help from longtime Panic producer John Keane, who has joined the band on its current tour, playing both guitar and pedal steel.
Widespread Panic
The second set was vintage Panic, with harder grooves, funkier guitar and keyboards, and enough room to let bassist Dave Schools do what he does best: give every song, no matter the rhythm, a massive electric charge of funk.
It was with "Second Skin," the first single off Panic's new album, Earth to America, that the band showed off its rebirth and its rediscovered knack for writing songs that sound both haunting and danceable. Built around a moody, hypnotic beat and a thunderous bass, the voodoo-laced "Second Skin" sounds like the perfect soundtrack for a Serpent and the Rainbow remake.
The band then surged into the furious rhythm of "Tie Your Shoes," a song that seemed to teeter on the edge of explosion before segueing into the Cajun tune "Ride Me High." Next came the obligatory drum solo, during which conga master Domingo Ortiz broke out the cuica, the Brazilian percussion instrument that at once can be both painfully annoying and wonderfully entertaining.
A cover of the Guess Who's "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature" sent the crowd into a tizzy, and the band closed out the set with another bass-led burner, "Barstools and Dreamers." The encore was rather uneventful, concluding with the soulful "Dream Song."
But on this night, Widespread Panic showed the ability, just like their sonic forefathers Allman Brothers Band before them, to endure the loss of a vital band member, retool, reload, and come back firing.
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