Concert preview
Widespread Panic
8 p.m. Dec. 30.
Atlanta Symphony Hall. 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. (sold out)
Widespread Panic
With the Megablasters Horn Section
9 p.m. Dec. 31. $65-$75. Philips Arena, 1 Philips Drive, Atlanta. 1-800-745-3000.
For Widespread Panic, it’s all about the flow.
That’s the term bassist Dave Schools uses to describe the onstage communication and instrumental interplay between the band members that, when it’s right, makes for one of their legendary improvisation-spiced performances.
“If we have all six people show up and that phenomenon is alive for everyone, it’s going to be one of the best shows of the year,” Schools said. “It’s hard for all six to show up like that. But there are days, when people allow the collective thing to happen, it really happens.”
The Athens-based band will play a sold-out show at Atlanta’s Symphony Hall on Dec. 30 and another at Philips Arena Dec. 31, for which tickets are still available.
The band — singer-guitarist John Bell, drummer Todd Nance, percussionist Domingo “Sunny” Ortiz, keyboardist John “JoJo” Hermann, guitarist Jimmy Herring and Schools — took 2012 off.
“The audience was really glad to have us back,” Schools said of the band’s return to work this year. “They would work us to death if they could. If it was down to some sort of concert party marathon, we’re pretty good at it, too. It would be interesting to see who would survive, us or them.”
That loyal audience has had much to do with the success of Widespread Panic, which came together in Athens in the 1980s. There were some shifts in personnel in the early years. The band signed with an independent label and began to tour, building a following of loyal fans that often would travel with the group to more than one show. Many of them recorded the proceedings, a la Grateful Dead concerts.
“It was a real ’80s thing,” Schools said. “We all didn’t have cellphones and only the military had the Internet. People would record the shows and trade them like baseball cards. That spread the music. It was the only way that would have happened for a band trying to do it independently back then. MTV didn’t pay any attention to us.
“The overall effect of that was that our fans felt like they’re part of the music,” he added.
“That still continues today,” Schools said. “In fact, that model is the working model for every band today. Anybody who signs with a major label is asking to have 80 percent of everything taken away from them. It’s worked out well for us and for the fans.”
Widespread Panic has recorded 11 albums in close to two decades, the most recent of which was 2010’s “Dirty Side Down.”
Schools said the band has separated itself from the jam-band pack because it also takes recording seriously.
“It’s an overall belief that the live shows are better and the recording process is a different thing. We look at it as totally different. Some of us like being in the studio more than others. It can be a difficult process.”
Schools is excited to be back on the road with a band that he said continually gets better, more interesting and more fun to play with.
“The notable change, the sweeping change, is we’ve gotten better at being ourselves, at being Widespread Panic,” Schools said.
“That comes from having done over 2,500 gigs. Anything you do over and over when you have freedom, you have to learn to be yourself. When you do that, it just gets better and better.”
