Dalla$ (Dempsey)

7-10-2007 Little Rock “Spoonful > Porch Song” review

spoonful …. what a version for LR… banks of the Arkansas River bringing up the bubbling sparse and fierce blues with JB frontman for a hell of a band. they’re so restrained at 2-3 minutes in it sounds like the song could be ending but really they are opening up space around JB’s words and then for free playing for a few minutes. JB gets to squeeling at the end of it, with Dave and Jojo backing vocals.

I think they are playing a bit more of the blues numbers in light of Dave’s podcast revalations about how The Blues was 1 pervasive influence, i.e. the radio show with Dave’s Dad on bluepower.com ; they ended 1st set with SPOONFUL > Porch & opened 2nd set with JUNIOR for more blues (on the Jr. they have quite a different approach)

every member of the band plays well and hangs together on Spoonful all the way to the Porch transition, Herring plays off of Jojo a bit, Jojo plays good piano stuff before moving back to organ. Nothing Herring plays on this Spoonful is too shreddy, he does get axey for about 5 seconds but it’s all restrained and in the mud of the music.

naturally, some of the words come out JBism, a cursory listen // rough transcript,

spoon that spoon that spoonful
spoon that spoon that spoonful
could be a spoonful of coffee
could a been a drop of tea
a spoonful of your precious love
all i need
men lies about it, men cries about it
can’t get enough of it / spoonful
spoon that spoon that spoonful
spoon that spoon that spoonful

been something you saw
picture in your mind
??
catch you ??
men cried about it / spoonful
see the men lied about it / spoonful
{jb squeeling about something, lolz}

10-and a half minutes
straight into Porch Song set closer = things that go boom

Widespread Panic spreading its chaos at Amphitheatre

By Ingrid Norton, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Sunday, July 8, 2007

LITTLE ROCK — Domingo Ortiz first played with Widespread Panic at the Uptown Lounge in Athens, Ga., more than 20 years ago. Ortiz, a percussionist who plays everything from bongos to log drums, said he was impressed by how in tune with each other all the players were – and by how much they seemed to be enjoying themselves at their weekly gigs at the mediumsize bar.

In 1988 when the band, which had been together for three years at that point, asked him to become a permanent member, he said yes.

“Sometimes it’s fate,” Ortiz said, “hooking up like that.”

Now, nearly two decades later, the band is a long way from the Uptown Lounge. The group has recorded nine studio albums and toured all over the country as well as internationally, playing showsfor a fiercely loyal fan base. Everydaycompanion.com, a fan site that puts the set lists and chords to Widespread’s music on the Web, lists more than 130 songs written by the group. There are even more covers and songs by collaborators that the band, known for rangy jam rock, includes in its repertoire.

Ortiz said that to keep the shows fresh the band keeps a master list of hundreds of songs to play and will revisit a tune if it hasn’t been played live in a while. He said that although the band likes recording, the music is really about the shows.

“[Recording], you do it as many times as it takes to get it right,” Ortiz said. “And that’s all good and proper and everything, but we really shine in the live element.”

He said the band is constantly evolving. After founding member Michael Houser died of pancreatic cancer in 2002, Ortiz said the members shared their grief with each other but made a decision to “keep on moving.” He is quick to add that they stillplay Houser’s songs.

Ortiz said he has seen the fan base evolve with the times. Though there are still “tapers” who record the shows on cassettes, Ortiz said that the current generation is more techsavvy and likely to demand high-quality recordings of the shows, which the band supplies for download on the Web site, widespreadpanic.com.

Little Rock native Daniel Gold can testify. Gold has been a Widespread Panic fan since he saw the band play in Memphis in 1992 when he was 16. Gold said he was drawn to the band’s energy – “how they were flirting with the edge of chaos.” In the years since then, Gold has attended more than 100 Widespread Panic shows. He has been to all eight of the shows the band has played in Arkansas, starting with one at the now-defunct North Oaks Special Events Center in North Little Rock where the bandblended a song called “The Rock” with another called “Aunt Avis” to open the show. Gold estimates the medley was 12 minutes long and said he was rapt the whole time.

In 1997 Gold co-founded An Honest Tune, a Widespread Panic-oriented magazine, and in 2000 he started producing Honest Tunes, a weekly radio show from Fayetteville, where he now attends the University of Arkansas School of Law. The titles derive from a song on the sextet’s first album, Space Wrangler, which includes the lyric: “Choose my bluest tape and unlock my car/An honest tune with a lingering lead/has taken me this far.”

Gold said he is excited about the band’s new lineup: Earlier this year Jimmy Herring, a guitarist who has played with the Allman Brothers, the Grateful Dead and Aquarium Rescue Unit, came on board with original members John Bell, JohnHermann, Todd Nance, Dave Schools and Ortiz.

“Now they’re completely on fire,” he said. “They’re really fresh and improvisational.”

He said that, given his experiences at the band’s four previous shows at the Riverfest Amphitheatre, he can’t wait to see them this week. He said that usually the band, which has no opening act, plays its first set at dusk, takes a break after sunset and returns for a second time at night with a light show. He is going with three friends, one of whom has never seen a Panic show and whom he hopes gets “on board with the music.”

“They really just turn Little Rock into a Panic town,” he said.

Ortiz said it is fans like Gold who sustain the band.

“It’s the fans that keep us going,” he said. “Without them coming in mass numbers, we’d still be playing in bars.”

———————————

MUSIC
Widespread Panic
8 p.m. Tuesday, Riverfest Amphitheatre, Little Rock
Tickets: $32 for pit, lawn and
reserved seats
(501) 975-7575
Style, Pages 56 on 07/08/2007
Copyright © 2007, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.

Little Rock last night = First-time played with just Jimmy on lead guitar. First “Gimme” without Holt covering lead guitar since Houser 2001.

:medal:

GIMME

11/19/88 Little Five Points Pub, Atlanta, GA – First known “Gimme”

“Gimme” was played ~80 times, regular but increasingly uncommon from 1988 to 01/26/93 Myskin’s, Charleston, SC

> 318 shows > 04/14/95 Red Bank, NJ – the longest bust-out of “Gimme”

“Gimme” was played ~35 times, as a rare song from 1995 to 2001 including 04/11/97 Bronco Bowl, Dallas, TX (“Gimme > Pigeons” appears on Light Fuse Get Away)

> 28 shows > 11/20/01 Johnson City, TN – Michael Houser’s last “Gimme”

> 256 shows > 11/06/05 The Fillmore, Denver, CO – Holt, Gmac (2nd longest gap)

> 3 shows > 12/31/05 Philips, Atlanta, GA – Holt, Gmac

> 10 shows > 06/25/06 Red Rocks, CO – Holt, Keane, Gmac

> 25 shows > 08/01/06 Louisville, KY – Holt, Keane

> 20 shows > 09/27/06 Charlottesville, VA – Holt, Keane, Herring

> 71 shows > 07/10/07 Little Rock, AR – Jimmy Herring (3rd longest gap)

7-10-2007 LR “Gimme” review
By Dgold

It was a great feeling in the atmosphere when they played it outdoors in Riverfront Park in LR last night under humid hazy stars and rainclean skies. Schools and JB, cast in green light, did a great performance of apparent sincerity and memory on it with fine backing from the band: Give me a hand here Michael. Gimme a lift here Larry. Gimme a kiss, on Tuesday. It was a Tuesday. JB changed a line to sing “I’d gve you my heart, Give you my soul” (from: “Give you my heart if I could”) and sent the note out on souuuul. This is a Houser song that JB has pretty much always been the singer (most but not all other times Houser sang his own lyrics). He’s got to take on a Mikey aspect to deliver this kind of moment. I felt they collectively did a fine job of their old familiar song – although they can play it better yet if they play it again sooner.

When it got to Jimmy’s little mini solo at the end, that part was thin but it was 5% of a short song. He didn’t add much, but then, Houser kept it understated here. He’ll add on more next time, as his familiarity with the Panic back-catalog of rarities continues to grow.

The fact they busted it out in LR — first time played since 2001 without Holt or Holt and Keane covering — I thought it was a great moment and Houser nod. Many of the older fans particularly seemed to enjoy this. It had a mellow connection with another Houser song from the 1st set, “Pickin’ Up The Pieces.” I felt both were the ideal spacey-eyed pace for the riverfront show, a delicate lull that built up tension and dynamics in the show.

The LR07 show is up for download,
http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=508125

Everytime “Gimme” has been played by Widespread Panic,
http://everydaycompanion.com/played/GIMME.asp

Lyrics, story behind the song:
http://everydaycompanion.com/l...../gimme.asp