Widespread Panic performed at Alpharetta, GA’s Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park for the first time this weekend. Since the show took place right outside the band’s Atlanta stomping grounds, it made sense that several of Panic’s longtime collaborators sat in throughout the show. Early in the night, Domingo “Sunny” Ortiz’s longtime friend and drum workshop collaborator Dr. Arvin Scott emerged for “Red Hot Mama” into “Arleen” and the end of “Red Hot Mama.”

Later in the night, Panic producer John Keane played pedal on “From the Cradle” and “Ain’t Life Grand.” Keane returned during Widespread Panic’s encore to play guitar on the band’s first live cover of Vic Chesnutt’s “This Cruel Thing,” a song the band recorded for its recent album Dirty Side Down. He switched back to pedal steel as Widespread Panic filled the rest of its encore with other songs written or co-written by Chesnutt: “Blight,” “Protein Drink” and “Sewing Machine.”

Widespread Panic also played its debut cover of Neil Young’s “Like a Hurricane” in the second set.