Widespread Panic's lead guitarist, Jim Houser, has a simple explanation for the band's more succint, less jam-oriented latest offering: "We weren't out to change reputations. We didn't talk about it - it really just happened."
His message is clear: Fans of Widespread Panic's jam-heavy live shows and previous albums need not fret over all the press its supposedly "radically" different new album "'Til The Medicine Takes" has been getting.
Despite the tighter new disc, when Widespread Panic comes to rock University Hall tonight, fans can expect the same type of high-energy, improvisational show that has built the band's legendary reputation.
Houser said the audience could expect a set incorporating songs from their previous six albums, a catalog that reaches all the way back to 1988, when the band released "Space Wrangler," its debut album.
"We play a different mix of songs every night," he said, "so we can't really play the new album every night."
Widespread Panic's reputation as a crowd-pleasing, live band didn't happen accidentally. Beginning in their native Athens, Ga., the band members started out playing small bars and clubs. They then began touring all over the country, including several stops in Charlottesville over the years.
"We've been playing Charlottesville for years," Houser said. "We started playing the C&O Club in 1988, and we played the Mineshaft, which I don't think is around anymore."
Now it's more likely that one will find Widespread Panic in a larger concert setting, but the band's following is strongest in its home region, the Southeast. While Houser admits there were some areas like the Southwest and the Northeast that were harder to break into, he said they now do well all over the country.
"Now we're gaining ground in Europe," where the band has toured three times, he added. The guitarist and his mates even did a recent tour in Australia.
Houser does not, however, forget who got the band where it is today: the legions of loyal Widespread Panic fans. Through extensive touring and the relationship it has built with its listeners, the band has gained a solid group of supporters, some of whom travel hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles for concerts. In one contest last year, the band even put the fans in the role of promoter, asking fans in each town they played to design posters to advertise the show in exchange for free tickets. This type of highly personal "give and take relationship with the fans," as Houser puts it, is what keeps people connected to the band and keeps bringing them back.
Even when they aren't playing, the band members keep in contact with their devotees through the Internet and e-mail. Fans even can send the band a blank tape for a free concert recording. This technique may seem strange coming from a rock group with a record contract, but Widespread Panic has put personal accessibility ahead of potentially lucrative live albums.
And it's not just loyalty that brings Widespread Panic fans out in droves. They are also a legendary live band, with a spontaneous, eclectic rock show and serious musical dexterity. The band's diverse sound especially is evident on its new disc, which boasts the influence of everything from bluegrass to Southern Gospel to New Orleans jazz. Widespread Panic's music always manages to keep its listeners surprised and, as a result, satisfied.
In a fashion typical of the band's grass-roots reputation, Houser attributes the intense atmosphere the group's shows are known for to the crowds.
"The fans make it what it is; they bring up the energy level," he said.
And tonight, University students can be part of the experience.
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