The seventh installment of Widespread Panic’s multitrack archival release series has been announced and features the first set from the jam titan’s “history of Widespread Panic” performance that took place at Atlanta’s Fox Theater on December 31, 1997. In a strange move, it appears this release contains only the first set of that magical three set performance.
For their New Year’s show in 1997, Panic started off the show with a bit of a history lesson. The opening stanza began with just John Bell performing Coconut and Let’s Get The Show On The Road. From there, guitarist Michael Houser came out for Wish You Were Here. JB and Mikey were joined by bassist Dave Schools for Stop-Go and then that trio was augmented by drummer Todd Nance for Travelin’ Light. Ophelia, played for the first time since 1991, featured the whole band minus JoJo, while Junior was performed by the entire ensemble. All in all, the set showed off the order in which the band came together since forming in Athens.
Widespread Panic Archives #7 is due out on December 13 and costs a mere $9.99. A pre-order has already started on through the group’s online store. While I’m extremely happy to see a high-quality soundboard recording of this historic show released, why just the first set? Hopefully WSP archivist Horace Moore will explain soon on the Widespread Panic Archives blog.
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full show
http://panicstream.com/streams/wsp/1997_12_31/player.html
I’m kind of surprised that all these years later the story of why the first set was opened the way it was with “Coconut” and “Wish You Were Here” and later “C. Brown” and “Pigeons” has not become more public knowledge… Guess it’ll always be our little secret then! WSP will forever be the most beloved by their fans and they return that love quite equally – this show is definitive proof of that.