Winding down their fall tour, Widespread Panic played a show at the old Lyric Opera House, now known as the Model Performing Arts Center.  The venue isn’t a place you’d expect to see a band like Panic, but the acoustics are great and really enhanced the show.  There was limited room for dancing with fixed seats. This recently refurbished and renamed venue has a capacity of a little more than 2500 and is clearly not prepared for an event like a Widespread Panic show; they ran out of beer at the set-break.  The band had a couple days off before the Baltimore stop, and it seemed the rest served them well.  The sound was great, however, little too loud.  I saw several comments online that also complained of the volume being a little too much.

The show opened up with Heroes, then Diner into Little Lilly into Cotton Was King.  Next up was Down, which featured a vocal duet by JB and drummer, Todd Nance.  The overlapping voices created a cool “3D-like” effect.  This was followed by Proving Ground.  The first set closed out with the triplet Aunt Avis into the Tom Waits cover, Goin’ Out West, into Ribs and Whiskey....