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Widespread Panic Portland Concert October 2
Memorial Coliseum Concert Ticket Presale starts Wednesday August 8 at 10
am to purchase tickets use this --secret password--RQPANIC---Presale link. Tickets go on sale Saturday
August 11 at 10 am for general
public.
WIDESPREAD
PANIC BIO
In a world of instant anything and disposable everything,
Widespread Panic stands apart. The notion of a band surviving for more
than two decades, continually thriving and creating vital music, is almost
unheard of in this age of digital sound bites, corporate radio, and pretty
video faces. One thing about Panic, they do things on their own
terms.
“Part of being in Widespread Panic has always meant trying
to break preconceived models of how bands are supposed to work and how
they’re presented to the world at large,” explains bassist Dave Schools.
This ethos permeates everything the band does from songwriting and
recording to touring and finances. The music these six men make has earned
them accolades in nearly every major music magazine, but it's their
revolutionary business model that's led to features in The
Wall Street Journal, The
New York Times, Variety, CNN,
Billboard Magazine, CNBC and Fortune Magazine.
Panic doesn’t follow
the usual format of touring only when there's a new album and then laying
low between releases. They tour constantly, and every show is different.
In 21 years they’ve never repeated a setlist. They don’t fight for the
limelight and search for recognition in the usual places. All songs are
credit to the band, and their frontman, John Bell (JB), refuses to even
acknowledge his place as the leader.
“I put pressure on myself to
be a viable, equal member of the band” says JB. “And leadership - if that
perception is imposed or present - that's more because I'm in that
traditional role of standing in the middle, singing and playing guitar.
But, there is nothing that goes down that's not a democratic process. And
99% of the time, we move unanimously.”
When something is this
genuine and this uncompromisingly real, you can sense it immediately. “It
still feels like it did when I first started,” says drummer Todd Nance.
“That’s kind of crazy. I think we’ve done over 2000 shows and the night
before we go on tour I still can’t sleep.” Through their passionate
performances Widespread Panic creates a space where people can connect to
something larger than themselves. Schools says, “It’s the same sort of
fervor that happens at a big tent revival, except no one is telling you
how you’re supposed to feel. People are just stumbling into a shared
feeling all at once, and it’s overwhelming and surprising and quiet
satisfying when it happens.”
JB continues, “The biggest selling
point of Widespread Panic is the fan base that comes out to shows and buys
our albums. Their relationship with the band, and with each other just as
an entity all by itself, that’s the phenomena. And, it’s always been this
way.” That relationship has been paramount to the success and longevity of
the band. Their fans are some of the most dedicated in the world. In
addition to the more than 3 million albums sold, fans follow them around
the globe, setting attendance records at some of the most prestigious U.S.
venues, and making Widespread Panic a fixture on Pollstar’s annual Top 50
Tours list for more than a decade.
Although the band-fan dynamic,
timeless songs and wild rock shows are the defining aspects of Widespread
Panic, it doesn’t stop there. The band is dedicated to leveraging their
success for those less fortunate. There’s John Bell’s annual Hannah’s
Buddies event (which raises funds to fight Spinal Muscular Atrophy), Panic
Fans for Food (conceived and run by fans, helping feed hungry communities
through donations at Panic concerts), Tunes for Tots (which, in just two
years, raised $200,000 for musical equipment in public schools), and their
ongoing work with Nuçi's Space to help keep music and arts alive in the
state of Georgia.
There’s no way JB could have predicted this life
when he began playing guitar with band namesake, Michael “Panic” Houser,
back in 1981; and he probably never thought this far down the line when
they started the band in 1986 at the University of Georgia with Schools
and Nance, eventually joining up with percussionist Domingo “Sunny” Ortiz
and keyboardist Jojo Hermann. Nance reflects on those early days with
great fondness, “Our first year, I remember the Uptown wanted to raise the
price from one buck to two bucks and we were like, ‘Nobody will ever pay
two bucks to see us.’ So, we made them compromise at a buck fifty. I think
we were all a little surprised that people wanted to come and watch this
experiment. We were really just playing to make ourselves happy, and by
doing that we made other people happy.”
The story of Widespread
Panic is also inexorably tied to the dark summer day of August 10, 2002,
when Michael Houser lost his battle to pancreatic cancer. “There’s not a
day that goes by where we don’t miss Mike” says JB. “What we learned
together as a band continues, with slight adjustments.”
Following
Houser’s wishes, the band pushed on and never canceled a show. For a few
years after Houser’s death, longtime friend and guitarist George McConnell
joined the band on stage and was present for the Widespread Panic’s 2006
studio release, Earth To America. Recorded in the Bahamas
with legendary producer Terry Manning (Led
Zeppelin, Lenny
Kravitz, ZZ
Top, Al Green) at his renowned Compass Point Studios, Earth To
America pushed the band to new creative heights and forged a lasting
relationship with one of the best producers in the game. Manning was so
impressed that he’s even equated Panic to what very well may be the
greatest rock band of all time. “I worked with Led
Zeppelin years ago, and I just felt a little bit of a similar vibe
and energy with these guys," says Manning. "They have a similar mix of
individual skill and power that Zeppelin had when I worked with
them.”
Using the Earth To America sessions as a building block,
Panic has already begun work on their next album with Manning. Although
still in the very early stages, Schools also hears a bit of Zep in what
the band has laid down, commenting, “Some of the songs really strike me as
something you might have heard on Physical Graffiti. They’re complex,
beautiful, deep, and it rocks. And its got some melancholy and a lot of
color.”
Although the band is excited about the next album, there’s
something much bigger going on in the world of Widespread Panic, and his
name is Jimmy Herring. Having toured with The
Allman Brothers Band, The Dead and the Aquarium Rescue Unit,
Herring is the perfect lead guitarist for Panic. Taking over where
McConnell left off, Herring brings a fresh dynamic to the band and
everyone is feeling it.
“There’s a lot of musical happiness in my
soul, which is due in part to having a like-minded experimenter. The bass
and guitar really go hand-in-hand,” says Schools. Hermann continues, “I’ve
just never played with a guitar player like Jimmy before. Everyone’s
speaking the same language.” Perhaps Nance says it best, “It’s like our
little dreams are coming true. How lucky are we to get another chance
after Mikey, to be able to find that chemistry?”
Herring's magic is
clear to anyone who's seen Panic play since he took over lead guitar
duties on September 14, 2006. Magic is never easy to find, not even for
the people making it. “I’ve been a fan of theirs for a long time and a
friend since about 1989," says Herring. "I grew up wanting to be in a band
[like Widespread Panic]. This is what I’ve been hoping for my whole life.
It just came to me pretty late.”
With Herring on guitar, a new
album in the works, and a major tour ahead of them, Widespread Panic
continues to embrace the passion they’ve shared with fans for over 20
years. “We’re barreling down the tracks and beginning yet another
chapter,” says Schools. “It’s not necessarily even an Act Three - life
isn’t easily split into acts like theater. It’s been challenging, but it
feels like there aren’t any limitations. We're still being children with
active imaginations and finger paints.”
--AARON KAYCE
