If you were in Athens in the late 90’s, you had the opportunity to attend one of the many unique experiences that I can say only Athens, Georgia can afford: Panic in the Streets. The audio quality on a cover of Vic Chesnutt’s Aunt Avis (from his appropriately titled album, Drunk) here isn’t necessarily great (a little better here), but the interviews at the beginning captures what feels like peak late 90s Athens from my fuzzy memories of the day:

From the Rory Cochrane-like guy who leads off the interviews to the father, Rick, who is leisurely waiting for the concert and reading a paper while the “kids” he brought are no doubt exploring the physical and chemical entertainment of Athens on the day, it’s pretty much what one would expect. Someone asks the Polish sausage vendor if people had the munchies. Yes, yes they did.

In case you’re not familiar with the band, we’re listening to another Athens institution who achieved Grateful Dead-like fame and following with the same blend of jam-based music. From the band’s website:

Widespread Panic has been together over three decades. Formed by vocalist/guitarist John Bell, bassist Dave Schools and late lead guitarist Michael Houser in the mid-1980s while the three attended the University of Georgia, over the next several years band’s lineup expanded to include drummer Todd Nance, percussionist Domingo Ortiz, and keyboardist John Hermann. The current lineup now includes lead guitarist Jimmy Herring and drummer Duane Trucks.

Attaining true road warrior status, Widespread Panic has broken attendance records across the country, including a staggering 60 consecutive sell-outs at legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18 sell outs at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, additional records in the UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, Birmingham’s Oak Mountain Amphitheater, New Orleans Jazzfest and The Fox Theatre in Atlanta. Panic has headlined most of the major U.S. festivals including Bonnaroo (eight times), Lollapalooza, ACL Festival, LOCKN’, Outside Lands, Forecastle to name just a few.

Over the past 30 years, Widespread Panic has sold over 3 million albums, 4 million downloads. Twelve years ago the band opened its vault and began to release live recordings through its Archive series of releases, spotlighting exceptional shows spanning the band’s entire career. In 2008 was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and continues to sell out shows across the country.

The bars were open early, and me and my buddies started the day at Washington Street Tavern, lounging in the darkened basement having some beers and getting the distinct impression that we were getting way too buzzed too early for a non-game day, so we came out of the basement only to be met with the blinding light of the day and a crowd that spanned the entire length of Washington Street, well in advance of the start of the concert.

It was surreal. We continued to hang at Washington Street Tavern for the day, but far, far down the street we could see the stage, which eventually illuminated in the waning sun of the day, and the chords of slow jamming resonated up and down the way for the rest of the evening. Aside from the Twilight Criterium and, of course, game days in Athens, it stands as one of my top Athens experiences to this day.

Curious if any of you Refugees were in attendance…more so if any of you can remember much about it!