Widespread Panic Invades Red Rocks

By Amy Brouillette, 6-27-05

It was all about hippies this weekend at Red Rocks Amphitheater, as Widespread Panic played a three-night stand, returning to their favorite venue after a year-plus hiatus from the road. The Athens, Ga.-based jam band with a grassroots following ala the Dead took a reprieve from touring after beloved lead guitarist, Michael Hauser, died of cancer in August 2002. His passing left behind a broken band (the group was named for Hauser, who suffered notoriously from panic attacks), and a bitterly divided fan-base, especially after new guitarist, George McConnell, stepped in just a week after Hauser's death to finish out the ongoing tour.

After 15 months off the road, the group returned to the stage this spring, rejuvenated and determined to reconcile old and new, winning over skeptics and placating loyalists with its unique brand of psychedelic southern rock. However divided are Spreadheads around pre- and post-Mickey band, you’d not know it from ticket sales: So thirsty were WSP fans for a taste, tickets for Red Rocks sold out in a record 12 minutes.

Or perhaps such frenzied ticket sales are proof of just how desperate jam-band aficionados here in Colorado and everywhere have become. With the Dead gone and Phish finito (good riddance), Widespread is arguably the last true jam band out there (Dave Matthews, by the way, doesn’t count). This weekend's outpouring is, at the very least, evidence the seemingly embattled genre is still alive and kicking.

Widespread's upcoming regional tour dates:
6/28/05: Jackson, WY, Snowking Amphitheater.
6/29/05: Missoula, MT, Big Sky Brewing Amphitheatre.
7/1/05: McCall, ID, Brundage Mountain Amphitheatre.
For tickets call (800) 965-4827 or go online at ticketweb.com.




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