Widespread Panic Wood Tour Denver Photo Traci Lynn Markle / Mountain Weekly News
Widespread Panic returned to the Fillmore in Denver this past weekend for three sold out concerts. These particular shows were highly anticipated by fans of the band because of the very limited tour dates, the fact that the band has said they will take an undetermined length hiatus after the tour, and the fact that Widespread Panic had not played an acoustic tour other than their 1996 Sit and Ski Tour which was played mostly acoustic.
Another reason for the excitement surrounding this tour is the small intimate settings of the venues to be visited on the tour. Dubbed the Wood Tour, the tour began with 2 nights at the Fillmore in Washington, D.C. continued on to the Tabernacle Theatre in Atlanta for a three night run. The band then detoured briefly to play 4 nights in Puerto Morales, Mexico. The Wood Tour resumed at the Fillmore in Denver this weekend, and will wrap up later this week with 3 intimate shows at the Belly Up in Aspen, CO. The last time Widespread Panic played at the Fillmore in Denver was back in 2005, for a 4-night run of sold out shows.
I attended all three nights concerts at the Fillmore this weekend. The crowd was beyond enthusiastic to have Widespread Panic make a stop in Denver, on this limited tour. Fans entered the Fillmore Friday night with high expectations of a very special performance, and they were not disappointed. In my opinion, each night’s performance was quite unique and special in its own way. Friday night was a very classic Panic show, with lots of old favorites, played in a new way, acoustic.
The show opened with From the Cradle, followed by Can’t Get High, written by the Athens. GA band Bloodkin. Both of these songs translated beautifully into acoustic. They continued through the first set with old classics like Worry, Gradle and Wonderin’. To add a twist and close the set on a high note, they played Imitation Leather Shoes, in an old timey country bluegrass style, which got everyone’s feet stomping and ready for more.
The second was more of the classic favorites, including another Bloodkin song, Who do you Belong to?, as well as a cover of Jerry Joseph’s Climb to Safety. They finished off the evening with a generous three-song encore, including a crowd favorite, Neil Young’s Don’t be Denied. The show was played in a familiar manner, but with perhaps a slightly calmer style, which I found to be refreshing in its simplicity. All in all it was a classic Widespread Panic show with a slightly different flavor.
After some of the other shows on the Wood Tour, there were discussions going around that there was a lot of crowd chatter to deal with, since the acoustic style is not as loud as a typical Widespread Panic concert. My experience this weekend at the Fillmore was; if you were up front with the diehard fans who stood in line all day to get a front row spot, or if you were up on the risers of the sides of the Fillmore, it seemed to be no different than any other Widespread Panic show, with respect to crowd chitchat.
Saturday night however, I was down on the floor near the soundboard at the very beginning of the show. As soon as the first song started, I realized we would have to move to be able to hear the show well enough. There seemed to be an area that was a strange pocket where the sound wasn’t nearly as loud as it was in other parts of the venue. However, once we moved up on the right side riser, the sound was perfect. Perhaps I was lucky, but didn’t really experience a lot of the talking issues that I had heard others complain about.
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