Phish, Widespread Panic and their respective legions of fans will take over Alabama, top to bottom, this Memorial Day weekend.
The two biggest jam bands in the world. Three nights. Same state.
Phish will perform May 27-29 at The Wharf Amphitheater in Orange Beach, with Panic playing the same dates at Huntsville’s brand new Orion Amphitheater. Tickets are still available for both.
The globally popular quartet from Vermont features guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman and keyboard player Page McConnell. The beloved Athens, Ga.-based rockers are guitarist/singer John Bell, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Duane Trucks, percussionist Domingo “Sunny” Ortiz, keyboardist John “JoJo” Hermann, and guitarist Jimmy Herring.
Phish has played Alabama 11 times, according to Phish.net. They scheduled a 2020 show they later postponed for July 30, 2021 at Oak Mountain Amphitheatre in Pelham due to COVID-19. Widespread Panic has played Alabama 127 times, according to Everyday Companion, their last show on Feb. 17, 2018 at BJCC. This weekend will make it an even 130.
The bands used to play shows together in the early ‘90s, each opening for the other depending on the stop (Phish would headline Northeast gigs while Panic would top the Southeast runs). But the bands have never played the same night in Alabama, so against all odds in the storied histories of the jam band giants, we have a first.
“I haven’t heard of that,” said Scott Marks, who has managed setlist updates for Phish.net since 2009. “I would imagine it’s very rare. That’s definitely a rare thing.”
And choice is clear for die-hard fans on each side. They’ll go wherever their preferred band sets up. But for the ‘tweeners out there who love both, it’s a struggle. “In some instances, it’s a pretty polarizing thing where Phish fans want to see Phish and Panic fans want to see Panic,” Marks said. “It does cross over a little bit where you have fans that like both bands. I’m sure there’s a little bit of a conflict of interest. You’re going to have your decision made before that weekend.”
Marks noted that, given their roots, Panic might have somewhat of a larger following in the Southeast than Phish does, but that’s merely speculation. “I don’t think Phish fans hate Panic and Panic fans hate Phish,” he said. “The bands go back to the early ‘90s where they were playing together on bills. In 1990, Panic opened for Phish. Phish opened for Panic in South Carolina and Georgia. Panic opened for Phish in Providence, UMass, Boston, New Haven. There are ties between the two bands going back over 30 years. These 1990 shows from the end of January through the middle of May, Panic was a bigger thing down South so they were going to open for them, then Phish in the Northern shows Panic open for Phish.”
“I know a handful of people in my community who dip their toes in both ponds and are having a hard time,” said Cat Mountain, a fan a both bands with a heavy lean towards Panic. “I have friends who live in Orange Beach who are Panic fans. Do they want to leave and drive up to Huntsville? Everybody I know is going to end up going to see Panic. Although, Phish at the beach would be lots of fun. If Panic wasn’t playing that weekend, I’d try to make it down there. But it’s a no-brainer.”
Burton Curry of Vestavia Hills has friends coming from out of town for both shows, but for him, logistics and the lure of a brand new venue lean him towards the Panic shows. “My first thought when they announced these shows was ‘This is a brand new amphitheater. I think it’s going to be really cool.’ It looks like a Roman coliseum,” he said. “Panic always plays great in Huntsville, and I can drive back to Birmingham. It’s not that far. An hour and 40 minutes is a little easier than five coming back.”
‘It’s a special community’
Based in Cranston, R.I. (right outside Providence), Marks has attended 355 Phish shows. “This summer, I will hit a full year of my life seeing this band,” he said, noting the 19 shows he plans to hit in 2022. “It’s kind of mind-blowing, especially for my bank account. You have people who go on cruises or go to baseball games. Everyone has their thing. Mine has been live music, seeing this band I love. I’ve made some great friends along the way. It’s a special community. If I could do it all over again, I would.”
Marks won’t attend the Bama run, but he said the holiday weekend bodes well for those who do. For one, the band hasn’t played a Memorial Day weekend since Bethel Woods in 2011. The shows kick off the summer tour, and beginning with a trio makes for a festive occasion and could lead to some fun surprises for fans. “It’s kind of a destination on the tour,” Marks said. “A lot of people are going to go. I don’t think a lot of people have gone to Alabama. It’s not a common place for Phish to play.
“It’s kind of impossible to predict what is going to happen, which is one of the draws of seeing this band.”
Phish returns to the Wharf for the first time since August 2014, during the band’s summer tour behind the studio album “Fuego.” A repeat stop at a venue isn’t uncommon, but booking three nights in a row on one tour marks the first time the band will have played an Alabama town multiple nights in a row.
The weekend stop might reflect an affinity for the Wharf itself, or it might depend on scheduling and what venues open where, Marks said. It also helps with it being a holiday weekend to do multiple shows. “You look at them in 2022 versus 1992 or even the mid-90s, you’re not seeing three-night runs nearly as often as you are now,” he said. “If you look at this summer alone, you have Alabama for a three-night run, Deer Creek for a three-night run, Alpine [Valley Music Theatre] for three, Dick’s [Sporting Goods Park] for a 4-night run. Whether it’s a comfort level or they might not want to travel from venue to venue night after night, less traveling. I want to say the Grateful Dead followed the same formula where by the end they were doing more multi-night runs or residencies. You also have the luster of being near the water, I think, that’s appealing to the fans and the band.”
And when a band draws crowds like Phish does, the fans have to eat. They will visit the local restaurants and bars, and they’ll book rooms at local hotels. The economy will benefit. “It’s an event where people would not normally be showing up now showing up, a destination weekend. It’s not a destination like Mexico, but a lot of people coming from out of state from afar flying in that are going to Alabama just for these shows, specifically for Phish, so it’s definitely a boost,” Marks said.
Curry grew up in Tuscaloosa where he discovered “college rock” via local record stores like Vinyl Solution and Whirligig and live shows at Riverside Amphitheater and CityFest. He first heard Phish on the radio in the mid-to-late 1990s, then for the first time with his own money, he bought a CD, Widespread Panic’s “Everyday” and has been a fan ever since.
Curry has attended nearly 100 Phish shows, and the Panic count is well into triple digits.
Favorite Panic shows in Alabama include 2009 gig when they co-headlined with The Allman Brothers Band night two, as well as one of Mikey Hauser’s final shows in the state. “There was so much to that weekend. Happiness, sadness. It was so many emotions all rolled into one,” he said. “A man’s life’s work being poured out and given back to the people that did his whole life for. It’s hard not to tear up even thinking about that, knowing the guy’s sick and just still going out and with a smile on his face and giving it everything. I can’t think of many things more noble than that.”
For Phish, he singles out the Tuscaloosa show in 2015, the stage now sitting where he used to play little league baseball at the YMCA fields by the Black Warrior River.
Mountain, also a Tuscaloosa native, first saw Panic live in 2005. Before that, she listened to them on burned CDs on recommendations from a few friends. But after that show 17 years ago -- specifically the April 22, 2005 gig at at the Walnut Creek Amphitheater in Raleigh, N.C. -- things changed forever. “It’s hard to describe to people who are not in it, who haven’t followed a band before,” Mountain said. “But something clicks inside of you that...it becomes you. It starts off that you find a place and a group of people you think are cool, and there’s cool music going on. As it develops, it becomes about the community and about the people you meet along the way.
“My entire life revolves around Panic. Every single thing, decision, friendship (95% of them)...Panic-related. When I wake up in the morning...I talk to 10 people in a day, nine of those people I wouldn’t know without Panic.”
So what’s her show count? More than 200, that’s for sure. “I quit counting somewhere around 180, four years ago,” she said. “The past four years I really ramped it up. So I’m looking at 220-230, 250 maybe.”
The shows that hold a particularly special place her heart are the home state shows at BJCC, Oak Mountain Amphitheatre, The Wharf and her hometown Tuscaloosa Amphitheater. “To have Widespread Panic in my hometown is almost overwhelming,” she said. “It’s my two worlds colliding, all of my friends all over the country coming to my hometown. Those were pretty special.”
Depending on the tour, she and fellow Panic fan friends get together in their favorite cities, sometimes even different countries. “To have all of your friends get together at a resort in Mexico for four nights, it’s so much fun. All of the stress you carry in your life, everything is washed away in the moments that I’m listening to the band and at the shows. There’s literally no happier place on Earth for me. It’s like a dragon that you’re chasing, to get to that feeling of complete and utter happiness, indescribable happiness. It’s so fulfilling. Everybody’s having a great time. They love each other and the music.”
‘We make fun of each other’
So do the rabid fan bases really have a rivalry?
“Not really, but sort of,” Mountain said. “We make fun of each other. There’s some ribbing.” She said she actually liked Phish before she got into Panic. She even caught a Phish show at the Gorge Amphitheater in August 2021, that is, when a Panic show canceled in Napa the week before. “They put on an incredible show,” she said. “They’ve got some die-hard fans. I totally get it. But my time, energy and money are dedicated to Panic. That’s where my heart is. I respect Phish a lot.”
And what does a Panic devotee think the Phish followers think of her lot? “Phish fans think Panic fans are redneck party animals, good timin’, mud-lovin’ Southern people,” she said. And how might Panic fans describe Phish fans? One fan said they consider them “noodly Yankee, strange, intellectual weirdos.” Mountain said they “take the cake as the king of the jam bands of this era,” and that, in the end, it’s all love. “We like to have fun and party, but we all take care of each other. That’s the basis at the center for most jam band families. We all look out for one another. That’s the part we all respect about it. We can joke about which bands are better.”
With basically anything today, some people take jokes too far, particularly internet trolls. That said, Curry said it’s also fun to jaw at the other fan base. “I have friends who love Phish and despise Widespread Panic. I have friends who love Panic and hate Phish,” he said.
“But with most folks, it’s fun. I go for the music. The way I see it is, originally I went for the music and I stayed for the friendships I gained. If it wasn’t for both of these fans, I would not have some of the most important people in my life I have now. And I can say that with all the veracity in my heart. Music is a healing thing. The way I see it is if it feels good, dance, enjoy it. That’s what it’s for, our enjoyment and our healing.”
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