Widespread Panic | Oakland, California | July 18th, 2026 – photos by Gabriel David Barkin
It’s been 40 years since
caused their first Panic as an upstart band in Athens GA. This weekend, the stalwart jam legends managed mischief admirably for three evenings at the Fox Theater in Oakland, proving they’ve still got what it takes to rile up a crowd.
In jamworld math, most bands are a unique sum of inspirations and innovations that include heavy ratios of either or both the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers. The Widespread Panic (WP) equation is weighted heavily on the Allman’s side, with heavy hints of Traffic and Little Feat. Throw in the unique magic that makes a band worthy of attention on its own merits, and you’ve got a result that can sell over 8,000 tickets in the Bay Area on a single weekend.
In the case of WP, that magic is largely tied to the vocal chops of singer and guitarist John Bell and the steady bass roots of fellow founder Dave Schools. On record, Bell’s voice rings midway between Steve Winwood and Dave Mason, with the addition of a gravelly quality à la Joe Cocker or Dr. John. If you want a more American reference, think Molly Hatchet’s Danny Joe Brown, perhaps some Chris Robinson (Black Crowes), and maybe even a little Alice Cooper at times. Bottom line: dude can belt!
Schools has earned a spot on the bass’y end of the pantheon with accolades that (almost) rival Phil Lesh and Mike Gordon. He’s also recorded and toured with his Sonoma County neighbor Mickey Hart and played frequently with Bob Weir at TRI studios — adding some significant Grateful Dead adjacency to his resume.
Speaking of which … it doesn’t hurt (nor is it surprising) that WP is overflowing with ties to the Grateful Dead and the Allmans. Jimmy Herring, who has been playing guitar leads with WP for roughly half of the band’s history, toured with the Allman Brothers and also served time playing in many Phil & Friends lineups and joined forces with Bob Weir and Phil Lesh in The Dead. Duane Trucks, WP’s drummer for the past decade, is the nephew of the Allman’s drummer Butch Trucks and younger brother of Derek Trucks (another latter-day Allman Brothers guitar player).
It’s not unreasonable to assume there is something in the water in Georgia that makes for a great jam band.
Panic is really one of the first bands that fully embraced the jam band formula: Persian rugs. Two drummers/percussionists. Two 70–80-minute sets of music, the second bisected by an improvised drum segment. A six-string bass player.
Their sweet spot in this genre is full of pedal-to-the-metal energy. WP is not a subtle band, and few of their songs have quiet sections. Spreadheads expect and receive a maelstrom of guitar solos, thundering bass, and intense rock and roll.
If you’re a Spreadhead, you already know all this. And if you are a Bay Area Spreadhead, you were probably at the Fox on Saturday night for an epic show, the last of this three-night stand.
You also might know that Nick Johnson is filling in on lead guitar these days while Herring undergoes treatment for a recurrence of throat cancer. (Herring’s prognosis is reportedly positive, and there is hope he will return to the band in the near future.) It’s not easy subbing for an ostensible jam band rock god – but let it be known that Johnson fills those WP shoes quite admirably.
After a strong start on Thursday, Friday’s show had set the bar a little higher leading up to the final show. That’s an easily defensible statement given that the first four songs on Friday were “Little Kin,” “Little Lilly,” “Little by Little,” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing.” Later, they covered Jerry Joseph’s “North,” a song Joseph originally played with his band Little Women. We may assume that’s not a coincidence…