Panic in Charleston - History That Continues to Be Made
By: Ms. Lee @ClubSoda1997
Later this week, Widespread Panic returns to Charleston, South Carolina for the first time in just over 2 years. This visit marks another chapter in the band’s lengthy history with the Holy City—43 shows spread across 37 years. Being that Charleston is located along the Coastal South, and a short driving distance from Athens, the band has consistently shown up in the city to lay down jams for pretty much their entire existence.
Chucktown has seen every iteration of Panic from the T-Lavitz era to the current Jimmy Herring era. As with any panic hot spot in the South, the shows tend to be a little rowdier and the crowds tend to be a little drunker off the brown liquor. The band has graced the stage at 13 different venues in the city from small bars such as Myskyn’s Tavern, to large stadiums like the Credit One tennis coliseum, and even the local Port Authority building (07/30/91). For the younger panic fans like myself, it is most likely that you associate Panic in Charleston with that badass YouTube video of the Red Hot Mama from 10/05/13 in which Andy, Jake, and Joel from Umphrey’s McGee sit in. Maybe it’s just my algorithm, but I swear that video basically autoplays for me as the “Next Up” after any Panic video I watch on YouTube.
As the band gears up to play Charleston again for a 5th consecutive decade, this time feels different. Since the return of Panic after Jimmy’s battle against cancer was won decidedly by the White Wizard, the band seems to be operating on a higher level than anyone could have imagined. The 6-headed well-oiled machine has somehow gotten even tighter after the time away in the second half of 2024. The jams have been lengthy quests into places not always sought by the band. The transitions have been smoother than butter (and very unique combinations at that). Each member of the ensemble is firing on all cylinders and flexing their chops, all the while looking like they are having more fun together than ever before. It is no small feat for any band to be operating at this level as they approach their 40th anniversary. Very few touring acts have achieved the long term success that Widespread Panic has, and even fewer have continued to mesh together and sound better as they get older and wiser. That’s the beauty of this band. They never cease to stop innovating and trying new things while playing familiar venues and cities.
I wanted to do a write up for these Charleston shows for a couple of reasons. One of those is that I’ll be in attendance this weekend. The other is that I saw my first Panic show in Charleston in 2018 and I will always feel a connection to the city because of that. Shortly after the end of my Junior year at UGA, a few college buddies and I trucked up to Charleston to attend the first Trondossa Music Festival hosted by Panic (they need to bring Trondossa back). I had listened to the band some throughout my time at UGA thus far, but had never fully dove in and listened to every live release or attended a show. I remember going into the weekend really wanting to hear Airplane (sure enough they played it the second night of the festival on 05/06/18). Being naive and inexperienced, I wore a Boston Red Sox shirt and a Sea Island hat and probably looked like every douchebag college frat kid that I sneered at a few weeks ago on the lawn in Nashville.
Nevertheless, my buddies and I rolled into Riverfront Park with our heads in the right place and took in the opening acts beneath the Carolina sun. I had never seen Sturgill Simpson either, and he played the slot before Panic. Needless to say he rocked and was a great primer for the main act. It was in the middle of the first set that I knew I was hooked. The band played a joyful No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature that knocked my socks off. To be honest I didn’t know the song at the time but I could tell it would become a favorite of mine in the moment. At the end of the show (there were no encores at either Trondossa Festival), the band closed out the second set with a heavy Imitation Leather Shoes. I didn’t know that one either, but I fucking loved it. Fireworks were set off about halfway through the ILS and my dosed mind was filled with more serotonin than ever before in my life. I knew this band would become a part of my life from that moment forward.
Fast forward to April of 2019 at the second Trondossa Festival held again in North Charleston. I had a few more shows under my belt and understood more of what was going on this time around. One of my buddies invited a few girls he knew from high school that lived in Charleston to the first show with us that weekend. We spent the early afternoon at Home Team BBQ downtown (go there this weekend for the smoked wings and Gamechangers) and then headed out for the festival. Upon walking through the gates, there was a large stone rock setup with different crystals laying around it. A sign reading “take a crystal” invited all passersby to pick one that caught their eye and take it with them. One of the girls stopped for a second and chose a muted-pink colored crystal that she would later research and find out it was a “love crystal”. Lo and behold, that girl and I would start dating not long after and eventually get married. Panic brought me to my wife, a pretty cool aspect of my time spent seeing the band that I often remind my wife of when she complains about me going to another run.
Apologies for the length of this column. I started writing and just kept letting my thoughts pour out. I am just as excited to see Panic again in Charleston this weekend as I have ever been—that feeling never fades away.
Go and leave your mark. The Home Team never loses.
- Ms. Lee @ClubSoda1997