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Show Notes
I typically think of spring tours as a way for the band and the crew (and you too actually) to shake the rust off and get back in gig shape. It’s nearly impossible to expect to be hitting on all cylinders right out of the box, particularly when you’ve been idle for a winter. I’ve seen it before where you can go the whole spring run and never quite feel that things clicked as a whole. Moments here and there might be special, but as a whole…it just takes a while. The touring year is most definitely an endurance test and finding and setting a pace is important in the beginning too. It’s okay to stumble a bit so long as you find your feet eventually, right? But on this one…well, I think we forgot to tell the band about all that because they were in a full on, mid season form sprint only a couple of shows in. I won’t say when but I knew the exact moment at the exact show when it was apparent that things had already taken shape and it was on. Just seeing them get it together so quickly would have been enough to constitute a successful tour in my book, but they weren’t done. About halfway through the tour I found myself looking at the setlists on the way to front of house (that’s where the console is) thinking “damn…what’s this all about?!”. The setlists started to look, um, different? Something about their structure, their layout and, in spots, their content just changed. A conscious effort to bring about change or, just like so many things in Widespread Panic land, a change that just happened? Who knows, who cares. It worked. I mean it REALLY worked. Needless to say there was no shortage of material to pull from for Driving Songs III. Give it a listen and try to catch your breath, we’ll be back on the road before ya know it!
See ya there,
Chris Rabold
Athens, GA
May 2008
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