the ten spot. part 1.
In March 1998 Widespread Panic played their first shows in Europe, a now-legendary two-week stand at the Chesterfield Café here in Paris. It was a wild & wonderful time, in which I heard them perform live for the first time, became friends with the boys, the crew and of course the irrepressible American Panic heads, who jammed the Chesterfield each night. Assigned to cover the tour for RELIX, I kept a journal, which I e-mailed to a short list of friends, something I now rarely do. Before I had my personal website, these long e-mail reports, covering subjects I would later be writing about for RELIX, served a dual purpose. They got the Marti & Phil news out to those who might be interested, plus they worked as preliminary notes for my articles. With a long lead time before deadline, it was useful to get some of the stuff down right away while it was fresh & before my short-term memory slammed shut. In anticipation of this summer’s European Panic tour, I thought it might be fun to resurrect those contemporaneous reports from last year.
MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1998 -- I worked on tapes for friends here in Paris & in Barcelona & did some research for my Widespread Panic article for RELIX.
TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 1998 -- Daniel Deukmedjian, our friend from Marseilles whom we first met last year at the Who’s Quadrophenia concert at the Zenith, phoned Tuesday to tell me he was in town for this week’s Widespread Panic shows. I told him that Marti & I were going first to a Saint Patrick’s Day concert by Dan Ar Braz & 50 or so Irish, Welsh & French musicians at the Zenith and that I’d catch him laer at the Chesterfield Café, right off the Champs-Elysées, where Widespread Panic were scheduled to begin their 10-night run. I had phoned my one-off songwriting collaborator Nikki Matheson to see whether she’d be at the Dan Ar Braz show; she remembers touring with him years ago when the two of them were counting dimes to see if they could afford to go into a café! Now he’s a big star on the world music scene, but we never actually got to see him that night. Marti & I wound up bailing out of that concert at intermission because someone had decided to make a video of the show, using three -- count ‘em, three -- cameras mounted on huge crane arms that constantly blocked and/or distracted the audience’s view of the performers. Another sterling example of French customer service. I was real glad I hadn’t paid for those tickets! It was early enough for Marti to metro home alone (it was a school night), so I headed for the Chesterfield.
The scene there was wild, happily reminiscent of Dead tours. Hundreds of American WSP heads have followed the band for this long-awaited visit to Europe and particularly for the 10-night Chesterfield stand, where there is no admission charge -- just get your butt there early & cram into the club. Speaking with band members later in the week, I marveled at the phenomenon of such a large contingent of pot-smokin’, credit card-packin’ hippies trailing Widespread for the European shows. The group’s drummer Todd Nance laughed & said, “Ah, yes, the Trustafarians!” The Chesterfield was packed, as it would be every night, with no room to dance & bad sightlines to the stage, but WSP was determined to rock everyone’s world anyway. I squeezed through the crowd, then went down to the dressing room & met Domingo S. “Sonny” Ortiz, the Panic’s percussionist, a few crew members & the band’s road manager, a great guy named Dirk Stalnecker. I filled them in on the local head scene & mentioned that friends were coming from as far away as Marseilles and Bonn, Germany for the Paris shows. Dirk said to be sure to bring them along to the special soundcheck/showcase/schmooze for the press on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Things were off to a good start!
Upstairs at showtime, the scene was incredible -- the Chesterfield had packed too many people into the place & the energy was cranked & weird, with big black-clad security guards shoving fans around. It reminded me of the mid-70s when I used to go see Patti Smith, the Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie & Television at the impossibly-crowded-but-seriously-happenin’ CBGB’s on the Bowery in NYC. The band & crew said later that they could feel the crazed vibes & tried their hardest to chill everyone out. Widespread knocked out a killer two-and-a-half hour set with no intermission (!), as they would each night, starting around midnight. (This means I’ve been getting home at 3 a.m. or so -- just in time to uwind by watching Larry King Live on CNN for my daily Beloved-President-Bill’s-Blowjob-Follies update.)
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1998 -- I did errands, made some RELIX-related calls, had a visit from Chris Bartlett, a young Deadhead who had written to RELIX a few months ago looking for like-minded Parisians. My editor replied in the magazine that he should look me up & check out Deadicace. I had run some tapes for him. After he departed, I did some shopping for stuff for a little pre-show dinner party for 12 that Marti & I planned for Friday night. I was already having second thoughts about that scenario, however, given the crowded situation at the club & the logistics of getting 12 of us into one space together once we got there on Friday. Wednesday night’s ambience turned out to be a bit mellower -- Dirk had held some sort of come-to-Jesus session with the club’s management & it was agreed to let fewer people in at one time & to have the security thugs back off from manhandling the fans. This show was broadcast live on OUI FM; they will do next Wednesday as well. The French radio guys went nuts over the band & the fans -- they had never before encountered a crowd like these Dead/Phish/WSP twirlin’ & spinnin’ heads! The hardcore Panic fans are largely from the South (the band is from Athens, Georgia), so of course they are way friendly, rowdy and totally out of their skulls. Long live Southern Rock!
THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1998 -- This morning I was possessed by that bizarre kind of not-enough-sleep-but-I’m-awake-now-so-now-what energy, so I ran tapes and cleaned the apartment. I called around and notified our pals that we were changing Friday night’s plan to a rendezvous for dinner at the club at 9 p.m., so we’d be safely ensconced at a reserved table & could hang there together until showtime.
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The soundcheck/showcase.
Dirk was happy to see our krew at the 7:30 p.m. half-hour soundcheck/showcase for the press, since the band’s rather ineffectual French label Mercury/Polygram hadn’t managed to bring any local press or other invited guests. Marti & I were at the front table with Christophe Rossi (from Deadicace & BATTEUR Magazine), plus some folks from BATTEUR’s sister publication, GUITAR/CLAVIER Magazine. At the table just behind us were local Deadhead bud Michel Ravinet, Ralph Metzger & Hajo Lorenz (German Deadhead pals/website operators), Daniel Deukmedjian and Chris Bartlett. I suggested that Chris write up a story on the press event & whatever other shows he catches for Bill Pannifer’s Eyes Of The World Internet newsletter out of London -- instant teen rock journalist!
After the mini-set we all schmoozed with the band members. Everyone I’ve met -- band members, wives & girlfriends, managers & crew -- are really nice folks, as are the tapers & all the WSP heads. Marti spent a long time talking with John (“J. B.”) Bell’s wife Laura about Paris designer discount shopping, telecommunications (Laura worked in marketing for Bell South before the band got big) and Washington, D. C., our old stomping grounds, where Laura lived as well for a time. We also hung out with Dave Schools, the bass player, and J. B. (lead guitar/vocals) for a while. After the showcase our gang went to a French hamburger joint for dinner, then we put Marti on the bus home, and returned for Show 3, another super set. We wound up sitting in a booth behind the monitor board & crew area -- very comfy, & if you sat up on the back of the booth as we did, you could see the stage fairly well.
go to the ten spot. part 2.
take me home to
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Email: phildemetrion@yahoo.com