Dave is…
At Woodstock.
Well I rounded out a three day mini-Panic tour with a show at the brand new Bethel Woods Center for the Arts built right where the original Woodstock occurred. And it was awesome.
Granted I got stuck in Yankees traffic for an hour and it’s in the middle of nowhere but it was totally worth it. Shame so few people were out to enjoy it. Maybe because of the location, maybe because it was Sunday, maybe because those city folk who’d ordinarily make the trip spent themselves the last two nights at RCMH but when I rolled up an hour from show time there was no one in the lot. I mean fans barely filled the small front lots. I’ve seen more people at REO Speedwagon concerts.
Still those in attendance did their best to make up for their lack of numbers with the level of their intoxication. I had barely exited the car before the guy riding shotgun in the car next to me falls out the door, staggers around and tries to introduce himself to everyone within 20 yards prompting his friend to remark, “This is what happens when you go four days without sleep”.
Then I barely had time to take advantage of that most august and respected of “lot” exchanges, the “One for three, two for five brah” on a pair of Newcastle Brown Ales and sit down on the back of my car to savor them, before some other dude walking by seemingly at random goes “What’s up” and follows my response of “How ya doing” with “Wanna smoke some pot?” Seriously this crowd was messed up far out of proportion to its numbers.
But it meant I got a ticket dead center one section back in the pavilion. But I didn’t stay there, I moved around cause this venue is amazing. They just opened it last year and it shows. The facilities and sound are state of the art the grass is green and full with no signs of the trampling that make places like Riverport Amp in STL look worse than my dad’s front yard. All the buildings have wood facades that help them blend into the beautiful rolling hills and woods of this gorgeous section of upstate NY. All show I had to keep leaving my close up seats to lay on the grass and savor the now all too rare joy of listening to live music while star gazing. There’s certainly tremendous upsides to seeing bands in the intimate little venues in NYC but for my money nothing beats a show from the lawn of a good amphitheater.
They even have a memorial to the original Woodstock and will be opening a museum to it and the ‘60s sometime next year. The only downside was the staff in the lots made such a big deal out of the no cameras allowed rule that I left mine in the car (of course then there was absolutely no pat down so I could brought in a goddamn tripod if I wanted to) and got no pictures the entire evening. So all photos are stolen from Google images.
Set 1: The Take Out > Diner > Porch Song, Gradle, Tortured Artist > You Got Yours*, Disco* > Greta* > North*
Set 2: Impossible > Visiting Day, Fixin’ To Die* > Driving Song* > Flicker* > Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys* > Driving Song* > Vampire Blues, Ain’t Life Grand
E: Expiration Day*, Sleeping Man* * with Wally Ingram on percussion
From the very beginning of the first set Panic showed they were here to put yesterday to shame. Take Out into a pounding Diner (a personal fave) gave the show tremendous momentum that they carried right through to the Disco>Greta>North triumvirate of awesomeness that finished the set and left me glad I moved out to the lawn.
The second set matched it at every level and left me actually doing the hippie boogie, something that is rarer than a Waker bust-out (now I am purposely trying to sound as dirty hippie as humanely possible). But the fact remained I was doing more than my usual head nod. Col Bruce Hampton’s Fixin to Die was stellar as always, and while I was hoping for a different filler for the Drivin sandwich they still carried it off. Every time they go into Traffic’s Low Spark my initial reaction is disappointment as I know how much of the set will go to it, but every time they end up pulling me into it after about five minutes with the soulful way JB makes that song his own and the dark way they play it out. The final two songs were weakly chosen but it was for the best as I was starting to really get tired from the unaccustomed dancing but in testament to the show I still bopped around to ALG.
The encore, true to form was weak with a double dose of Vic Chesnutt tunes (lotta covers tonight, though most long since made more Panic’s than their creators) but it seems petty to complain after such an overall excellent performance.
And you can’t beat getting from your seat to out of the amphitheater lot in under 10 minutes unless its having a Wal-Mart a mere 15 minutes down the road. Aint life grand indeed.