Photo: Jeff Fernandez
SPREADHEADS FOLLOW IRMA INTO ST AUGUSTINE FOR THREE CAT5 SHOWS
September 20, 2017
On Friday, we blew into St. Augustine like a friendlier, headier version of that hateful Hurricane Irma that had just come through. Unlike Irma, we were there to spread love in the form of cash donations, canned food drives, local spending, and lots of gettin’ down. Making the most of a storm’s aftermath is a Southern tradition. You can turn wooden bowls from fallen trees and weave baskets from the palm fronds that the trees have shed. This spirit of making the most out of what you have is also what inspired musicians to turn feedback into its own musical instrument instead of just an annoyance.
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That audio feedback was a highlight of Friday night (September 15th) for me. Lots of heavy, edgy tunes and tons of distortion and speaker cabinet manipulation took me back to my earlier days of Panic. All that guitar energy is reminiscent of a hurricane’s chaos. The storm theme was so abundant, it seemed that JB was having a conversation with me about the experience of living through it. While the “Climb to Safety” opener was no surprise, we all sang along to “I can hear the water rise…” I appreciated the “sling a little mud, girl…” line a bit more than usual during “Tall Boy.” The highlight of the evening for many of us was “Stop-Go” (last played 10/2016) with an amazing “Three Little Birds” rap in the middle. “Every little ting really is gonna be alright, y’all.”
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Saturday’s show treated us like a graceful eye of the storm. The “Disco” opener went right into “Heroes,” and “everybody turns hero” reminded me of the hard-working crews of Florida during this song. In addition to the songs not played since last year (“Weak Brain, Narrow Mind,” “Sharon,” “Street Dogs” and “Happy”), the gem of the evening for me was “Vacation.” Not only does this tune always calm and refresh the crowd, but they snuck in a “Mountain Jam” tease that warmed my heart and cooled my skin at the same time. I’m sure Duane Allman himself would’ve smiled to have witnessed Jimmy Herring painting this masterpiece in the Brothers’ home state.
The wall of pressure that comes through after the eye of the hurricane is called The Right Punch. And that’d be a good name for Sunday night’s show. We all showed up tired but ready, and Panic worked us over like the last big storm surge. The line “I cut a hole in my roof the shape of a heart” (“Goin’ Out West”) has a new meaning for me now after walking around and watching all the roof workers sweating it out on a sea of devastated asphalt shingles. This evening also included a few songs we haven’t enjoyed since last 2016: “Angels Don’t Sing the Blues” and the ever-popular “Four-Cornered Room” AND “Coconut.”
Not only was “Four-Cornered Room” exciting due to its rarity, but the line “thinking, talking, we’ve worked out our problems” really resonated. Florida has once again methodically worked through a natural disaster that isn’t for the faint of heart. We closed the weekend with “Blackout Blues,” and, like the Sunshine State, I will “pick my head up off the ground” and see you on the lot at the next go-round.
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