Widespread Panic
07/04/01
Harmony Park Music Garden,
Geneva, MN

1: Henry Parsons Died, Who Do You Belong To?, Jack, The Waker > C. Brown > Tie Your Shoes > Good Morning Little Schoolgirl > 1 x 1 > Conrad

2: Happy > Dyin’ Man, Airplane > Holden Oversoul > Better Off > One Kind Favor > Drums > Four Cornered Room > Heathen > Four Cornered Room, This Part Of Town, Fishwater

E: Old Joe, Red Beans

['America The Beautiful' jam by JoJo after 'Drums'; Last 'Heathen' - 04/07/88, 1685 shows]

Available as a WP Archives Porch Songs release.

Horace’s commentary:

We’ve returned once again to 2001…this time for the 8th volume of Porch Songs…and for quite the 4th of July celebration. To be a little off the beaten path and surrounding 10,000 frozen lakes, Minnesota sure does draw the heat from Widespread Panic. With many stellar shows in Minnesota over the years, this 4th of July performance at Harmony Park in Geneva ranks as one of the best.

Settling us into the first set with “Henry Parsons Died” and “ Who Do You Belong To?,” the band is obviously setting us all up for success. “Jack” and “The Waker” then follow and things begin to stretch out a bit. Finding its way out of “C. Brown,” “Tie Your Shoes” locks everyone in for the evening’s ride. Nicely dropping into “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl,” JB and the band continue to do their thing as only they can. “One by One” seems to set up for the set ender until Mikey charges right on into “Conrad” without warning and then it’s another jam down the homestretch to get everyone…band and crowd…to a well-deserved set break.

Coming out for the second set, the expectations for fireworks are running high…due to the first set heat, a mid-week show in a remote area of the U.S…and a July 4th “ready to celebrate by getting down” kind of vibe. Returning right off the bat to the evening’s trademarks…playing with patience and transitioning evenly…we get a “Happy” slamming right into a “Dyin’ Man.” Taking off from there with “Airplane,” the band and crowd both anticipate the jam and ride it hard all the way to “Holden Oversoul.” With another clean transition into “Better Off,” it’s more of the same into “One Kind Favor”…that just gets out there before giving way to the “Drums.”

With the rest of the band returning to the stage, JoJo lays out a nice holiday rendition of “America the Beautiful.” Continuing the weirdness out of “Drums,” Mikey’s tone and JB’s howl give us the keys to that door which opens up into the “Four Cornered Room”…and then the band slides effortlessly into their first performance of “Heathen” since 1988 and almost 1,700 shows. Walking back through “Four Cornered Room” before finding their way to “This Part of Town,” the band ends the second set with a raging “Fishwater” to finish up two amazing sets of Widespread Panic. With a couple of encores to go, they send everyone off to their camp spots with “Old Joe” and some “Red Beans”…and a show tucked away in their bellies that surely left them satisfied.