Mile High Monsters

© Tobin Voggesser / RumBum.com

Widespread Panic at Mile High 09.

Over two days, six hours of Widespread Panic bounced off the Rocky Mountain air. Why two days?? Cuz they jam their asses off. Widespread is the quintessential Southern jamband. They grab a groove, ride it, extend it, take it to the stratosphere, and still make it down-homey, accessible, and friendly; perfectly mannered, like Southern hospitality.

The Denver crowd really felt Widespread's jams. One was hard-pressed to see any Spread-head standing still; in fact, if someone looked transfixed in their own head, sort of spacing out after a long festival day, someone else would slap that person. "Wake up," they'd say. "Dance." And that person would snap to, look around, and fully realize the extent of Widespread Panic's popularity. People of all ages, places, shapes, sizes, colors, socio-economical brackets, levels of education; all were spinning, shaking, twisting, and wet-noodling, on the good foot. Girls hula-hooped in hordes. Glow sticks flew around sporadically.  The show was a blown-out rocket fest of a jam, both Saturday and Sunday.

10 studio albums deep, this band is thriving more than ever. And they've never had a commercially successful song in their twenty-three year history. Known for not playing the same show twice, Widespread is a band you have to catch live. And many people do. Widespread Panic can be compared to bands like Phish, the Grateful Dead, and String Cheese Incident. They draw on the same fan base, although the music is different. Like the big jambands, the Georgia based Widespread also allows fans to record live shows, which has spawned a whole counterculture of tapers and audio-visual fanatics.

Widespread Panic also had an audio / visual crew in Denver. They were recording the Mile High Festival performance in 3-D, for a 3-D documentary to be released next year. A 3-D documentary of live jamband performances!! You heard it here at Rumbum first. 

Widespread Panic made the beginning of each day seem like a week earlier. Although a lot of wonderful music and beautiful times occurred throughout each day, Widespread Panic represented the crescendo of the Mile High Festival's poignant symphony . . .