I’d like to start this review with a little free association.  Jam band.  What comes to your mind?   A lot of college kids with dreadlocks and tie-dyed shirts playing hacky sack while listening to endless noodling and marathon drum solos.  Right?  Well, maybe.

Widespread Panic provides a lot of what you’d expect from a jam band.  The shortest song on this disc is five and half minutes.  The longest is over seventeen minutes.  No big surprise there.  They do provide a couple drum solos.  And in fact, they give you some noodling.  Although Widespread Panic’s noodling sounds more like jazz improvisation than drug-induced jamming done by a band that’s forgotten how a song ends.

However, there are some things you wouldn’t expect from a jam band.  John Bell’s vocals are considerably raspier than any other jam band vocalist.  John Bell sounds like he gargles with gravel before going onstage, and I don’t mean that as a criticism.  It’s pretty cool.  Also, on this album Widespread Panic teams up with The Dirty Dozen Brass Band.  Maybe that’s not utterly surprising but when was the last time you saw flugelhorn and sousaphone listed on a rock album?

Let’s get one thing straight about Widespread Panic.  They do not want to be a next generation Grateful Dead.  That position is already held by Phish anyway.  A better comparison for Widespread Panic’s sound is Funkadelic.  This album contains some funky bass lines as well as some psychedelic organ and guitar.  Frankly, Widespread Panic blends the two genres together probably better than any band since Funkadelic.  

If there is one thing this album could use, it’s an intermission.  It is a long CD at 78 and a half minutes.  But it is a live album, so the length is forgivable.  Widespread Panic brought a lot of energy to their performance and they have packed this CD with songs that are bound to get your body moving.  I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised with this CD because I was expecting just another jam band.  Widespread Panic has shown me that they are not just another jam band. 
  

• Visit the Official website.
• Listen to samples and Purchase this CD online

Fan Speak: