When Widespread Panic comes to the Triangle, they’ll stick around for 3 soldout shows

While Widespread Panic is used to the road and the Triangle music scene, the longtime jam band has switched up its touring strategy recently to offer fans a unique experience.

When the tour schedule was released for their current slate of 2019 dates, fans immediately noticed that outside of a few music festival dates, the schedule featured multiple-night stints. Instead of just wishing for that dream setlist, featuring all of the favorite cuts from Widespread’s vast catalog of music, now there is a better chance of hearing the long-elusive deep cut from the band’s past that is a personal favorite.

“We hope that people dig the experience [of the current tour] enough that if their one complaint was that they wanted more, well, we can live with that,” explains Widespread’s vocalist and guitarist John Bell.

Bell talked to The News & Observer during a break in the band’s tour before coming to the Durham Performing Arts Center for three nights of soldout shows March 29-31. It’s their first time playing inside a theatre-sized venue.

“We’ve pared our schedule down a whole lot, to about 25 to 30 shows a year, so we’re playing less frequently,” he said. “The thought was to hit some nice cities, some that are fun places for for us to go, to camp out for a few days and and end up playing a little shy of a hundred songs in those three days. That’s the formula [for these tours], and the fans seem to dig it. Hopefully we’re covering as many bases as we can.”

Bell discussed the technological changes for the band’s albums over the years; the physical and mental differences between playing one night versus multiple within the same city; and their history within the area.

Q: The 20th anniversary of your six studio album, “Till the Medicine Takes,” is this April. To celebrate, it will be released as an LP for the first time. As a band formed during a time where LPs were still around, and now all of the talk is about how LPs are the only physical form of music that still sells, does that blow your mind a little?

A: When we put our first record out — “Space Wrangler” — that was released on vinyl and cassette, and it was just a last-minute afterthought that this CD thing was happening, so we went ahead and printed up some CDs as a big leap of faith into new technology. If you bring it up to present day, I think you know that albums have the appeal of being something not only bigger and more tactile, but you get some artwork; it’s a blast for kids today, where they’re doing something ancient to recreate the album experience.

I think it’s kind of like books: you can read on your Kindle or iPad all all day, but there’s something about having a book in your hand, with that old book smell, and a dog-eared page and that kind of thing. So the love for the album didn’t die out totally, because there’s kind of a nostalgia there that can still be felt, even by younger kids. It also has this ritual to it, of keeping the thing clean, and you gotta get up every 25 minutes to flip sides; it’s more of an interactive experience in that regard.

Q: As a performer, which is more likely to take more out of you mentally and physically: playing that third night of a three-day run in one city, or the travel that would be necessary with a traditional tour schedule?

A: We gain more of a comfort zone from staying put for a few days, because you’re holed up in the same hotel room, and you’re playing the same venue; you pretty much have everything dialed in, sound-wise. By a few songs into the first set, you’ve got certain aspects where you just go into autopilot there. If you go to a one-nighter for a festival or something like that there’s a million things that can add up, like usually you’re playing through somebody else’s PA, or you’re not given the time to have a soundcheck.

You still want there to be some challenges to getting out there and sonically communicating, and give your best performance, but we had a lot of practice at doing those one-nighters. I can’t say that they make you more tired or weary or anything, but it’s a little more out of the comfort zone to come in and setup real fast, play 20 songs as clearly as you want to. That sonic communication is what this is all about, in trying to get lost in the music, and the fans can jump on and be part of that that collective unconsciousness.

Q: With the idea of cutting back the schedule to concentrate on playing a few nights in cities that you actually know that you’re going to enjoy, what kind of history does the band have to the Triangle?

A: Geographically it’s a good spot, because we definitely have history there from coming through the area when we first started touring out of Athens, Ga., when we were kids. That was part of our road trip scenario. We’d play a spot like Clemson [University], and then go over to Charlotte, and then hit the Raleigh area. I remember we’d play the Fallout Shelter [a rock club in Raleigh from 1986 to 1993] every time we came through.

Q: How did forming and working originally out of Athens help or hinder Widespread? So many great bands have come out Athens — R.E.M., Drive-By Truckers, Widespread — without any two sounding the same.

A: That’s the atmosphere that we were born into, where, when we first started, there was a big support system between the fans and the club scene. There was music happening everywhere, and it was country and blues and reggae, and that was all new when I got to the University of Georgia. The punk era was in full swing, but in Athens there was an artistic and fun-loving kind of approach to the music, whether it was traditionally musical or just stage art.

So there was a lot of experimentation, a lot of willingness to try new stuff then, and a lot of support along those lines. We were kind of the outcasts of the scene, because we were playing more of a traditional rock and roll format, while most everybody else was getting into creating songs with a New Wave sound. So we were accepted, but there was always a feeling of, “There’s that weird band.”

Details

Who: Widespread Panic

When: 7:30 p.m. March 29-31

Where: Durham Performing Arts Center, 123 Vivian St., Durham

Cost: Sold Out

Info: DPACNC.com or 919-680-2787