A Portsmouth Vacation
"Vacation" 7/19/08
We drove down the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, crossing over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a 23-mile engineering marvel of bridges and tunnels, before landing in Porstmouth, Va., a small, Southern city situated hard on the banks of the Elizabeth River. It was hot and sunny and seemed like as a good a day as any to see Widespread Panic. Seating was general admission, so we found a spot near the center of the floor as the venue slowly filled with girls in dresses and guys in collared shirts.
The show opened with Jerry Joseph's reggae-tinged CHAINSAW CITY and then moved onto compact versions of HEROES, WALKIN' (FOR YOUR LOVE) and TIME ZONES before an elongated BIG WOOLLY MAMMOTH. After playing Bloodkin's WHO DO YOU BELONG TO? and "ripping off Bob Dylan" with TICKLE THE TRUTH, the band invited violinist Ann Marie Calhoun to join them onstage to close the set with ANGELS ON HIGH, THE TAKE OUT > PORCH SONG. I was thrilled to hear a fiddle added to the mix, but with the sounds of '97 Panic accompanied by David Blackmon in my head, I wanted more. Fortunately, there was more to come.
JB opened the set with a brief warning: "You all look kind of mushed up there. Be careful of one another now. Unless that's the way you like it," and then went right into FROM THE CRADLE (BLACK HOLE on the band's set list), which, for me, is a perfect way to open a set. From there, the band began to stretch out the music, with WONDERING > BLACKOUT BLUES, AUNT AVIS > YOU SHOULD BE GLAD following the opener. Ann Marie, who seemed as gracious as she is talented, came back out and things really took off. ("Well, since Ann Marie's back, I think I'll tune up," said JB.)
So often when someone sits in with a band, that person interacts with whoever is playing the same instrument. But that's not what this was like. Just like with Robert Randolph sitting in at Bonnaroo, Ann Marie interacted with the entire band. Her sound complemented Panic's rather than sounding like an addition, taking the songs, SURPRISE VALLEY > VACATION (!!!) > DRUMS (which, obviously, she didn't play on) > SURPRISE VALLEY > CITY OF DREAMS, to a different place. (I could listen to this VACATION on a loop all day long.)
Fortunately, at intermission, I was able to move to a uniquely close
vantage point, which allowed me to notice things I probably never would
have. And during the second set, the most obvious thing was how much fun everyone onstage was having. It was smiles all around, especially when Ann Marie was fiddling away between JB and Jimmy. The other thing I noticed was the eye contact and head nods used to signal the direction of a song. And when it came to the elongated HENRY PARSONS DIED (with a GREEN ONIONS jam in the middle) closer and the nearly 25-minute encore, NONE OF US ARE FREE and RIDERS ON THE STORM, that direction was simple—keep moving forward. (It's worth checking out this show for the interplay between the guitars and fiddle on RIDERS alone.)
As we made the drive north the next morning, I began to think about whether I should try to make it to Myrtle Beach when I remembered what JB said just before the encore: "I do not know what the question was, but the answer is yes."