Photo by Jed Matt Riley

Widespread Panic, Allegiance Field, Missoula, MT- 6/29

Widespread Panic celebrated thirty years as a jamband staple this year with an understandable but unfortunate statement: after three decades of relentless touring the group was going to reel it in and cut way down on their road time. Regardless of how much the band might scale back their venue-hopping in the future however, their decision appears to have no effect on the energy the sextet has brought to all points on the map on their current jaunt. Despite playing for quite possibly the smallest crowd of tour in Missoula, MT right after three consecutive sold-out nights at Red Rocks, the band delivered a powerful show stocked with gems spanning their career.

A charging “A of D” opened the night before taking an abrupt turn into the rocking “All Time Low.” The laid-back “C. Brown” greeted latecomers as the evening sun began to fade, offering the only real slow song in an otherwise charging show. Shortly thereafter keys player Jojo Herman warmed up “Christmas Katie” with rolling blues leads before guitar wizard Jimmy Herring steered the band into a manic crescendo that dropped into the steady boogie of “Let It Rock.” Bassist Dave Schools’ slap bass welcomed the shifty changes of “Machine” that heralded the first real jammer of the night, a nearly fourteen-minute “Barstools and Dreamers” that teased Sly and The Family Stone’s “Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin.” The first set rounded out with John Bell’s distinctive howl propelling the Guess Who’s classic pairing of “No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature.”

Herring welcomed people back to the stage with former guitarist Michael Houser’s unmistakable lead in to “One Arm Steve,” followed by Bell’s appropriately soulful delivery Van Morrison’s “And It Stoned Me.” From there the set got deeper and darker, starting with the greasy swampfunk of “Angels on High.” “Diner” started off light, but by the six minute mark drummer Duane Trucks was pounding the skins at a fever pitch as Herring peeled of burst after burst of lightning bolt notes before dropping back down to a spacey section of Bell’s rambling dementia. Soon the jam built again to tsunami levels, and seventeen minutes after starting the tune Trucks marched the band into “Shut Up and Drive.”

“Surprise Valley” gave way to the “Drums” portion of the night, and Trucks and percussionist Sunny Ortiz demonstrated uncanny interplay before “I Walk On Gilded Splinters” slid into place like a gator in the bayou. Two songs later “Surprise Valley” picked up where it left off, before Flicker closed down the set. The band re-emerged for the only song of the night off their new record, a mammoth take on “Honky Red,” before bidding Missoula farewell with a lively version of Junior Kimbrough’s “Junior.”