re: "A RIVER OF BOOZE... Inside one college town’s uneasy embrace of drinking"...

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Dude, they were a Dead cover band. That's the point I am making. They melded into a slightly different but same thing...

I don't know that many bands start out playing 100% original stuff from the get go. Almost everyone starts with a lot of covers to get their foot in the door. But they evolved pretty fast and developed their own sound pretty quickly. I guess I just don't hear much Dead when I listen to them. I definitely see where the improvisation (even though Panic doesn't improvise near as much as I like) lead people to keep comparing them to the Dead long after they'd ditched that sound.

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I think it is because my first memories of them were them covering Dead tunes and yours are of them when they were more established. I have no issue with people playing cover stuff. I too like improv music, but I have to say the jam thing isnt my bag. Even if the whole poser scene that comes with it went away, I still would not like it. I am sure I am prejudiced in my recollection because of this, but I still can not agree with anyone who feels like the jam Greatful Dead genre scene was a vibrsant part of the 80s Athens music scene that gave it it lore...