Manic About Panic Athens, Georgia, Sextet Has Inspired A Devoted Following That’S Hooked On The Band’S Long, Improvisational Riffs

The comparisons are inevitable: They sound like Phish. They’re like the Grateful Dead.

Yeah, the members of Widespread Panic have heard both before. And they’re flattered to be linked to such noted bands.

But if you ask Michael Houser — guitarist for the Athens, Ga., band — the comparisons have more to do with the fans who come to the Widespread Panic shows than the actual Widespread Panic music.

In the tradition of the Grateful Dead and their jam-rock protege, Phish, Widespread Panic enjoys a following that literally follows them around. In a great flurry of tie-died T-shirts, patchouli cologne and hemp anything, a good number of Widespread Panic fans travel not to just one, but to multiple shows.

“Typically they’ll stay for as many as they can,” Houser says, “which may be two shows or it may be a whole week.”

And the reason the fans can stand to see the same band night after night after night?

(Insert Grateful Dead/Phish joke here about the prodigious use of mind-altering substances.)

But seriously folks, says Houser, they come back again and again because no show is the same.

“We try not to repeat a song that we played the night before or even two nights before. And most of the songs have places where they change every time we play them,” he says. “They travel to hear a different show every night and they expect it and they get it.”

And certainly this six-piece band has worked long and hard to gain the dedicated followers it has. Like Phish, Widespread Panic formed in the early ‘80s, slowly building a following without the help of radio, which has a rigid format their music does not fit.

Instead, the band relied on extensive touring and word of mouth. The group appeared on the first two H.O.R.D.E. Festivals and toured with Phish.

In addition to Houser, Widespread Panic is John Bell on vocals and guitar, John Hermann on keyboards, Todd Nance on drums, Domingo S. Ortiz on percussion and Dave Schools on bass. All but Nance join Bell for some cool multi-part vocals.

The Widespread Panic sound is blues and rock with a freewheeling flair. Their songs are often of extended (some might say epic) in length, heavy on jammed improvisation rather than cemented structure.

Houser is more than willing to point out that Widespread Panic is an acquired taste.

“I think that people have to kind of stick their feet in first and then go up to their knees and then up to their waist until they’re finally in the water all the way,” he says.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I personally like bands and music that you don’t really love right off the bat.”

And apparently plenty of others would agree.

“We started out with about 20 fans at the Uptown Lounge in Athens. We played every Monday night for a year or two and we went from 20 people to selling the club out over that span,” Houser says of the old days.

“Now we have a great big old monstrous crowd. And I think they’re the best fans in the world.”

Widespread Panic, G. Love and Special Sauce, Gov’t Mule and Galactic perform at The Gorge Sunday at 4 p.m. Tickets are $26.25, available through Ticketmaster.