Widespread Panic is a preeminent jam band, a preferred taste of live concert connoisseurs and founders of a following that first flocked together nearly four decades ago. Panic helped revive the practice of acts booking multiple dates at venues, such as their upcoming three-show run at The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
“We look at all these towns that we’ve been going to for 30-plus years as a museum and we just leave our art there,” says percussionist Domingo “Sunny” Ortiz, pictured far left, in a phone interview. “They can do with it what they want to because, man, it still is an energized machine with lots of movement involved, and I think that’s what keeps us fresh.”
The band holds the record for most sold-out performances at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre (66) and comes to Vegas after the latest iteration of its own Panic en la Playa festival on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Only a well-maintained vehicle can travel that far and long from humble Athens, Ga., college town origins, which could make Ortiz the timing chain.
Ortiz prefers to think of Widespread Panic as a baked potato. “We’ve got the drums, which is the actual baked potato, because that’s what drives—Duane Trucks. And then if you want to add butter you add Jimmy Herring. If you want to add bacon you can add JoJo Hermann. If you want cheese you can add Dave Schools or J.B. (John Bell). I feel like the chives. You can either take it or leave it.”
Fortunately, Ortiz elaborates, keyboardist Hermann, bassist Schools and guitarist/vocalist Bell enjoyed the Texas native’s playing enough at the first gig he played with them in Athens on Oct. 6, 1986, that there would be chives on their potato from then on. While Trucks, who took over from founding drummer Todd Nance in 2016, keeps the beat, Ortiz can react to guitarist Herring’s flurries and flourishes or Hermann’s Southern rock piano pounding.
The lineup has been relatively stable since Herring joined in 2006. The band’s repertoire still contains compositions by original guitarist Michael Houser, who passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2002 (Nance died in 2020). A 2022 album release, Miss Kitty’s Lounge, featured demos recorded in 1990 such as “A of D,” “Pigeons” and “Conrad” that would go on to become concert staples. It also contains “Love Tractor,” go-to evidence of what Ortiz contributes to the music. He adds not only polyrhythms but also the legacy of percussionists that came before him, such as Willie Bobo and Mongo Santamaria.
“You look at bands now and unless you’re a Latin band or have that Latin feel-groove … percussion players, you can take them or leave them,” says Ortiz. “My philosophy as a percussion player is, I just add color to the music. When it’s time to play a Latin feel or a Latin groove, we’ve got that covered. I feel very fortunate to be around these other brothers of mine.”
Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, 9 p.m. March 3-5, starting at $69, ticketmaster.com
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