Imitation Leather Shoes | 2003-06-14 | Widespread Panic

3:33:49

Rating:

10.00 / 1 rating

Taper:

Scott Bernstein

SHNID:

wsp2003-06-14

Source:

Original Recording: Neumann TLM170(hypercardoids, FOB, center)->Apogee AD1000->Sony D7 or D8 via digi-cable (master@16/48) DAT playback: Sony R-500 -> Sound Devices 722 digital input (@24/48) Mastered: Steinberg Spectralayers 11 to scrub many loud whistles and yells. SoundForge 13.0 for volume normalization and clap scrubbing; 24->16 bit dither using POW-r #3 noise shaping. Tracked in CDWav. IDv3 tagged in Tag&Rename 3.9.15

Lineage:

Sony R-500 -> Sound Devices 722 digital input (@24/48)

Taper Notes:

View Notes* = w/Mike Dillon and Stanton Moore on percussion
+ = acoustic
^ = w/Warren Haynes on guitar
# = w/Robert Randolph on pedal steel guitar
@ = last time played 7/28/01 (122 show gap)

There is a small cut in track 30 ("Chilly Water") where my 3 hour tape ran out and I had to swap to a 2nd tape.  If another source for this show appears, I will attempt to patch it

Other acts on the What stage on this day:  The Wailers, Emmylou Harris (before the Allmans); Z-Trip and The Allman Brothers Band all appeared before Widespread Panic.

Special thanks to "The Dude" for lending me his recorder for the weekend of this festival while I couldn't power my recorder due to a loose battery wire.

Recorded by Scott Bernstein
Transferred 6/16/12, Tracked 10/7/2019, Mastered 9/6-10/2024.  Posted 9/11/2024

Taper notes:
Rolling right along after the <a href="https://archive.org/details/abb2003-06-14.tlm170.fob" rel="ugc nofollow">Allman Brothers Bonnaroo 2003</a> show that I posted for BARN257, I give you the set that literally followed that ABB show on the main stage at Bonnaroo that year -- Widespread Panic's marathon (over 3.5 hours!) headlining performance from that night (note that I also recently posted the standout/marathon length <a href="https://archive.org/details/mmw2003-06-14" rel="ugc nofollow">MMW late night tent performance</a> which followed as BARN252 -- and this explains the mystery of why I missed the beginning of MMW's performance as Widespread played more than 30 minutes past their stated curfew).

Even though this is a show from the much-maligned years when George McConnell was the guitarist who had been initially brought into the band in the wake of Michael Houser's death from cancer at 40 years old in 2002 (and before they would go on to hire guitar-master Jimmy Herring), this is one spectacular Widespread performance.  From one listen, it is abundantly clear that the band both came to play some serious music and to have fun as well.

Right off the bat, the band barrels into the familiar notes of their frequent set-closer and rave-up "Love Tractor", getting the crowd dancing right out of the gate.  Before finishing "Love Tractor", the band brings us right into the present with a low down and funky version of new-ish tune (for the time) "Thin Air (Smells Like Mississippi)" which folds perfectly into the middle of "Love Tractor".  Continuing the high energy atmosphere, the band takes us through old and new favorites of the time frame -- "Ain't Life Grand", "Papa Johnny Road", "Greta" -- until they hit on a standout version of their anthemic "Driving Song" with a super funky version of Curtis Mayfield's "The Pusherman" folded inside.

Also notable about this show:  Stanton Moore (Galactic) and Mike Dillon both sat in during an extended drum feature, a great version of "Henry Parsons Died",  an incredibly rare acoustic segment with some tasty song choices ("Fishing", "Counting Train Cars" -- usually reserved for acoustic sets; "Porch Song", "Imitation Leather Shoes", and "Climb To Safety" -- which are usually not reserved for acoustic sets; and in my opinion "Imitation Leather Shoes" really shined brightly in an acoustic format).  Then the fireworks really start as the band invites out Warren Haynes and Robert Randolph on guitars (and pedal steel) for some extra high energy jamming on "Don't Wanna Lose You", "Surprise Valley", "Ride Me High", and "Chilly Water".  By this point the band had hit their curfew, but apparently got permission to play a few more, and we got a nice 3 song encore of "Down On The Farm" (a rarity, but apropos for the location of the festival), and Widespread classics/crowd pleasers "Pilgrims" and "Space Wrangler".

If you are all playing along at home, you may recall that the epic late night MMW tent set that I posted from this same night was missing the beginning of the show.  Well, this Widespread Panic overrun (this show is 3.5 hours, and the band only had a 3 hour time slot) explains why my recording was missing the beginning of MMW's set.

So, now 21 years after this show, 12 years after I transferred it, and 5 years after I started working on it, I bring you this killer Widespread Panic set -- and in better quality than I would have ever been able to bring it to you in the past -- given that I have some new tools in my toolkit to polish away stray crowd yells, whistles, etc. -- so I hope it will have been worth the wait!  (I know it was for me...)

Enjoy!

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