“Since we have three hours tonight, we thought about playing two sets,” John Bell said last weekend as he sat in the back lounge of his tour bus, parked outside Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, where his band, Widespread Panic, was playing a music festival. “But instead we’re going to play one long set – the longest set we’ve played in years.”
A three-hour set is impressive, no matter the band. But wait, there’s more. The night after Widespread Panic’s three-hour set at the Vegoose Music Festival, J.B. and his friends took the stage of the Thomas & Mack Center for their annual Halloween rager – another 2 1/2 hours of madness and music. And after three days off, Widespread kicked off a four-night engagement in Denver – one of its top-two markets – at the Fillmore Auditorium on Thursday, a sold-out venture that continues through Sunday.
While jam-band culture intoxicates hundreds of thousands of people, sending them into trances and noodle dancing, it baffles others with its oftentimes-derivative improvisation and repetition. But to hear J.B. talk about the appeal of his band, it’s easy to see why the jam world is taking over such a goliath slice of the live-music economy, especially in Colorado.
“We’ll hang in a town for multiple nights, and we’ll play all different songs, and that’s what keeps us excited – and it’s what keeps the fans going, too,” said Bell, the band’s vocalist since Widespread’s inception 22 years ago in Athens, Ga. “Then the kids are like, ‘I’m gonna buy a ticket for three shows and see 50 different songs,’ and that’s unusual.
“Our shows are reflective of your day-to-day life. It’s not scripted, and anything can happen. The way we approach it is that you’re not going to know what to expect. And that works for a lot of people.”
It’s essential to note Bell’s sincerity here. When he says, “we’ll play all different songs,” he means exactly that. That promise of different material every night is a key reason people are attracted to Widespread and other bands of its ilk.
When Bell’s fellow Athens musician Michael Stipe brought R.E.M. to Red Rocks Amphitheatre for two consecutive dates in the summer of 2003 promising two very different set lists, that was a rock star talking. Stipe delivered only five or six different songs from night to night. But Bell is a jam star, and his non-hit-based world affords him different freedoms from those allowed to his compatriots on the radio.
Like honesty.
When asked how many songs Widespread will repeat during its four-night stand in Denver – which will be more than 10 hours of live music, in total – his answer came without thought: “None.”
“There are a couple songs where we have slow and fast versions of them and one where we change it to ¾ time, and we might do that,” Bell said. “But there’s enough material and there’s enough stuff out there to help us make it new each night. It’s actually easier to do it like that. It’d be weird to get pumped up to play the same set every night. The longer you go between playing a lot of these songs, the better (it is). … It’s like seeing an old friend.”
Colorado is an old friend to Widespread. And that’s not Bell blowing smoke.
“It’s arguable that if Denver’s not our biggest market it’s our second-biggest to Atlanta, but it’s close either way,” Bell said. “They like to get together and see a concert – whether it’s us or somebody else. Music, getting together, skiing, drinking beer, mountain climbing – there are a lot of those types in Denver.”
Colorado, with its concert-loving populace and touring circuit of mountain towns, is a world hub not only for jam bands on tour but also the creation of these groups – String Cheese Incident, Yonder Mountain String Band and Leftover Salmon are only the tip of a very large iceberg.
“Colorado has become one of the top markets for all forms of underground music, including the ‘jam community,”‘ said Don Strasburg, who is a partial owner of the Fox Theatre in Boulder and spends his days booking for Chuck Morris Presents, the Clear Channel Entertainment subsidiary that owns and books the Fillmore. “It’s impossible to attribute it to just one factor, but on a level of radio, Colorado is more driven by AAA radio (i.e. KBCO) than any other metropolis, and that definitely swings people’s exposure toward more rootsy sounds.”
There’s something else about Colorado’s undeniable link to the jam community, but it’s difficult to nail down. As owner of Madison House Publicity, a Boulder firm that handles jam luminaries String Cheese Incident, Keller Williams, Umphrey’s McGee among others, Carrie Lombardi is all too familiar with the culture.
“Some of it is the laid-back nature of the people who live here,” Lombardi said. “And a lot of these people need a place to get together with their friends and spend the day or weekend – or week, even – and Denver is such a destination place that when Panic or String Cheese are in town, their friends will come out and stay for four or five days. Maybe they’re going skiing and hiking during the day and then hitting the shows at night.”
Adds Strasburg: “Bands like Widespread Panic and String Cheese Incident and the Grateful Dead and moe., the attitude is a little more liberal and environmentally aware – and that works in Colorado. They’re not preachy, but there’s an undercurrent there that works with the outdoor lifestyle.”
Panic’s Bell also thinks Denver has a more adventurous concert climate than most cities.
“A lot of people use the stage in different ways,” he said with a face that made it obvious he was being politically correct. “Some bands come out and it’s choreographed and the lights are perfect and, you know, ‘We’re gonna play this,’ and they say things between songs, they’re promoting an album. It’s their package.
“And us, we don’t have a game plan. Our game plan is that we don’t have a game plan. And folks in Colorado appreciate that more than anybody else.”
Pop music critic Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-820-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
Widespread Panic
JAM|Fillmore Auditorium, 8 p.m. tonight through Sunday |SOLD OUT|last-minute releases will be available via Ticketmaster outlets.
