From Panic comes Hope

I was on a work assignment in Atlanta, Ga. 1988 when the guys on the crew suggested I go see a really hot band from Athens that evening - "Wide Spread Panic" - How can you go wrong with a name like that, back to the hotel for a quick shower and out the door for a club in the Little Five Points area of Downtown ATL. The crowd was diverse with hippies, preps, bikers, punkers and even a few suit and ties, what kind of band could bring all these peoples together in a mellow happy atmosphere? I got the answer a few minutes later when "Panic" took the stage, from the very first chord it was apparent that these guys were the real deal - they "meant it" when a group of musicians gets on stage and bares their soul to the crowd and even the dude with the slicked back hair and wife beater, whose only mission for the night was another conquest, puts down his drink and is enveloped by the groove, you know something special is happening. Panic took everyone in the bar that evening on a journey to someplace where there was no war, hunger, hatred, black white or negativity, it was "religion" in it's purest form and it touched my soul. Flash forward 8 years. The cassette tape I bought on the way out the door that magical night had long since been worn to a droning hiss, a local radio station announces a new band called "Wide Spread Panic" is coming to town and they are giving away tickets to a little pre-show gig in a local recording studio called "Dajelon", caller 15...I dropped my nail gun and ran for the phone and won 2 tickets!! I think the radio station was WMAX and they would periodically collaborate with the Dajalon Studio for a event called "Live at Dajelon" it was about as intimate as a recording studio can be, small stage and maybe 50 folding chairs set up in front with pizza, wings and sodas in the back. Around noon, the band walks on stage, John Bell has a half empty 12 pack of Bud, they begin to play and instantly take me right back to that bar in Atlanta, They played the entire Space Wrangler album, and a couple weeks later WMAX broadcast the gig start to finish commercial free, I recorded it and once again had my Panic fix.
Now it's 2009, married, kids the economy sucks, my once steady job is long gone, I've been overcome by war, hatred, worries, politics, bills, life is killing me slowly, I'm losing hope, panic..... I'm online looking for work yet again and an email pops up from my beautiful wife - Allman Bros. and Wide Spread Panic are coming to CMAC, you want to go? My heart skips a beat HELL YEAH I WANNA GO, then reality rears it's ugly head, shit, we can't afford to go and spend money on entertainment... I write back, "luv to but can't afford it" as I hit send my message was somehow transformed into "let's do it!" before I can correct it, a reply comes back " it's done". Divine intervention perhaps? It's a Saturday night, puffy clouds are scattered in the warm breezy sky, we are driving to the outdoor venue at CMAC, a perfect place for music on a perfect evening. As we pass by the other folks walking to the show, I am once again amazed by the diversity , an old gray beard on the side of the road with a sign that says "I need tickets" I laugh and say - "look at the old dude", my wife reminds me that if it were me standing there, one could say the same...ok, point taken. The vibe in the parking lot is very mellow, everyone having a good time and relaxed, as we walk up the sidewalk towards the stage, the tour coach passes us, 30 minutes later Panic opens the show and halfway through the first song I am once again returned to that place where everything is good. As I look around the venue at all the out stretched hands overhead and everyone swaying in unison, it seemed as though we were not sitting in a theatre watching a musical performance but instead riding a giant roller coaster through the astral plane on a ride through time ( no I wasn't trippin') Thank you Wide Spread Panic once again for giving me hope and reminding me of what's really important in life, and thanks to Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes for feeding off and adding to the energy that was onstage that night. It had been 21 years since I first saw that show in ATL y'all still have it going on, and thank you for baring your souls to so many people and giving us all a part of you to take with us forever. Peace, Jon