2009

The Widespread Panic/Allman Brothers Band co-bill tour came to an end on Saturday night in Houston, where the two acts each made sure to end on a high note. Panic kicked things off and welcomed ABB guitarist Warren Haynes to the stage for covers of Bill Withers’ Use Me and Neil Young’s Cortez The Killer. Panic hadn’t performed Cortez in nearly 500 shows and they also dusted off their cover of Warren Zevon’s Lawyers Guns & Money.

For their set, The Allmans welcomed WSP guitarist John Bell and percussionist Sunny Ortiz out for Guilded Splinters. Ortiz also came out later in the set for a Franklin’s Tower that also featured Jimmy Herring on guitar. Panic bassist Dave Schools lent his skills to a version of Dreams that Oteil Burbridge sat out for. Herring returned to play on one more Liz Reed before both bands assembled during the encore to end the tour with Southbound.

All told, the memorable tour contained 20 shows split between two legs. There were sit-ins aplenty and here’s a recap of who played on what…

Members of Widespread Panic:

John Bell – Guilded Splinters (8/21, 10/6, 10/17), And It Stoned Me (8/22, 9/2, 10/10), Highway 61 Revisited (8/26, 10/9, 10/16), Can’t Find My Way Home (8/29, 10/12), It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry (9/2, 10/14), Southbound (10/17)

Domingo Ortiz – Guilded Splinters (8/21, 10/6, 10/17), You Don’t Love Me (8/30), Franklin’s Tower (10/7, 10/17), Southbound (10/17)

READ ON for the rest of our guide to ABB/WSP sit-ins…

Dave and Jay each bring out a big musical gun this week. Leno welcomes Rod Stewart on Monday night and Letterman counters with a repeat featuring Paul McCartney on Wednesday’s

Usually we find it hard to keep up with grueling pace of Rocktober, but that didn’t quite happen this week. In one of the slowest news weeks in recent memory,

Today’s Friday Mix Tape represents a special edition of sorts, as we head into another year of New York City’s music industry extravaganza next week, the CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival. The CMJ Fest provides industry mavens with a look at what is next on the indie music front and always spawns a good dozen or so big name acts for the years to come.

What I find amusing about the showcase is that in order to weed through the literally thousands of bands vying for slots, the evaluation process essentially becomes an exercise in 15-second music criticism.

In fact, once an acquaintance asked if I wanted to make some extra cash by using his login and get paid fifty cents per album/demo to provide a few words and a thumb up/thumbs down as a first line of defense. It wasn’t actually for CMJ, but rather another one that involves a lot of BBQ. Anyway, this dude told me his friend made over a $1,000 doing it the year before, so you do the math. I never did it, hence I cannot actually say for sure if that actually occurs or not, but given the sheer numbers, it is probably pretty spot on. Really, what other options are there; hire an army? Regardless, these folks do a pretty darn good job at it one way or another.

Anyways, after playing a game of darts with the CMJ Music Festival’s easy-to-read lineup, we’ve sorted through and come up with ten pretty damn good songs from some of the most compelling bands making the rounds. Keep in mind; this is just a tiny sample of the full list, so if you like digging up new music, poke around the lineup and drop by the various MySpace pages. You really can’t go wrong.

READ ON for the playlist and to listen to the mix…

The Phish – Festival 8 website has been updated with a post about all of the cool elements they are building on the site. We’re particularly interested in checking out The Overlook and The Coil which will feature a Bloody Mary Bar, a movie area showing vintage Halloween classics, archival Phish video, World Series and NFL games, a 100 foot Ferris Wheel and an internet cafe.

Here’s all the details…

THE OVERLOOK + THE COIL – Right at the entrance to the concert field is an elevated area partially covered by spectacular Olympic Peak Tents that looks out onto the lush concert field. Here at the Overlook you’ll get the chance to enjoy a particularly bloody mary at the Bloody Mary Bar, a movie area showing vintage Halloween classics, archival Phish video, (not to mention The World Series and NFL games), a massive 100 foot Ferris Wheel and an internet cafe (though wi-fi will be provided throughout the site). The Overlook will be opened from 8 am to 2 am each day of the festival, and will also be open Thursday, October 29, beginning after Soundcheck. Between The Overlook and the stage you’ll find The Coil, a large swirled structure where Festival 8 turns and returns, host to multiple art installations and interactive works galore. When the sun goes down, look on the outskirts of The Coil for an explosive group of fire artists bringing the HEAT (that has TWO meanings!).

READ ON for the rest of the features being built at the F8 site…