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

quote:

---

They took full advantage of a scene that already existed and were given a massive opportunity when the dead dude died. If the Greatful Dead stayed alive and in tact another 10 years, they would not have had near the success. I think even they would admit that...

---

WSP was a thousand times more regional than the Grateful Dead. Totally different animal.

Yes, Panic eventually toured all over the country, but when they played outside of the southeast it was in much more humble venues...........as opposed to selling out Philips arena in Atlanta or Oak Mountain in Birmingham or etc etc three nights in a row down here.

It's true that WSP adopted the two set format with a 30 minute pointless drum solo that the Grateful Dead used, but of all the trendy jambands competing for the Grateful Dead followers after their lead singer croaked, I'd say that Widespread Panic resembled them the least.

They covered a handful of Dead songs, but they also covered Talking Heads, Van Morrison, Traffic, Neil Young, and on and on much more.