Wisespread Panic
Channel 24
July 21, 2026
Photos by Paul Piazza
The beloved jam band Widespread Panic played a sold-out show at Sacramento’s Channel 24 on their recent West Coast swing. It was their first multi-city Pacific Coast run in a decade. And for a band forty plus years into it, they are at the top of their game. The band had last played Sacramento at the Crest Theater in 1991 with over 2,300 shows taking place in between.
Though their return to Sacramento took longer than it took Odysseus to return to Ithaca, Widespread Panic finally made it back. And true to their reputation, they showed up in top form.
To be fair, the band have made it a habit to concentrate on localized runs, where they take up a temporary residency at a venue that they enjoy playing. In fact, Widespread Panic recently extended their streak of being the all-time leader in sell-out shows at Red Rocks near Denver, Colorado. They have a total of 78 consecutive sold-out shows in that storied beautiful venue. They achieved this mark on their latest tour and were also inducted into the Colorado Music Hall Of Fame.
The band, who fans simply refer to by the acronym WSP, or if you are heavy into them you might say WSMFP, originally got their start in Athens, Georgia. Most of the band members still live there or somewhere in the nearby regions and states. Bassist Dave Schools is the lone member to reside in California. And he and bandmate Duane Trucks are the most recent to play in Sacramento, when they performed with Hard Working Americans, the roots rock supergroup formed by the late Todd Snider. They played at the Crest Theatre in 2017.
This tour also marked the first time out West without longtime guitarist Jimmy Herring, who is currently dealing with a bout of throat cancer. Known by fans as “Gandalf the Loud,” Herring is a beloved and super-talented character in the music world. He spent significant years as the guitarist in Col. Bruce Hampton’s Aquarium Unit and also did stints with Phil Lesh and Friends and the Other Ones, among many others. Herring is reportedly planning to rejoin the band when fully recovered. In his place, the band called on the talents of Nick Johnson, who brought a killer tone and seemed to be widely embraced by the crowd.
The rest of the band were as always, in fine form. John Bell on guitar and lead vocals, Schools the master of the bass, John “Jo-Jo” Hermann superb on keyboards and vocals, and the syncopated sensations of Domingo “Sunny” Ortiz on percussion and Duane Trucks on drums. Together, they are a formidable bunch who leave the egos at the door and share the lights equally all night.
In Sacramento, the band played two lengthy sets that sounded fantastic and they electrified the room in the packed house on this warm July evening. The band’s fans, who sometimes refer to themselves as Spreadheads or the Home Team, were in abundance. Many of those in attendance had been to all three shows the previous weekend in Oakland. Some had followed the band down the coast from their shows Bend, Oregon.
The band’s fans make a practice of paying close attention to each night’s setlist and seeing if the band may call an audible or switch things up during the show. The setlist are different night to night. An audible may have been called after an overindulging patron had gotten more than a little wobbly on the middle of the rail early in the show. This necessitated assistance and the gentleman had to be slowly ferried over the barrier by security as band and audience waited patiently. After he was safely cleared, a fan called out “Blackout Blues!” And coincidence or not, the band played this song two songs later.
There were a number of fantastic covers on this night including The Meters “Just Kissed My Baby,” as well as covers of NRBQ, Bloodkin, Funkadelic, and closed with a show-stopping rendition of The Band’s “Ophelia.” In between, there was a treasure trove of Panic nuggets ranging through ten different records.
After the show was over, the band prepared to head to Los Angeles for the final three nights of the West Coast swing. Meanwhile, back in Sacramento, fans will be hoping they stop by again. This time hopefully much, much sooner than 35 years as they carry on with their musical odyssey.
