The Peach Festival barreled into it’s third day atop montage mountain in Scranton, PA. Saturday’s lineup was arguably the most formidable with sets from Gov’t Mule featuring John Scofield, an all-star tribute to Gregg Allman, two sets from Umphrey’s McGee, Marcus King and the legendary Widespread Panic. Panic’s headlining set last night was the first of two sets they will play at the Peach with the second one coming tonight.

It’s been a while wince WSP has joined forces on stage. Lead guitarist Jimmy Herring has taken his new band, The Invisible Whip, out on the road for a stretch of dates. The other members of Panic have been keeping busy as well. John Bell was recently spotted at Red Rocks with Tedeschi Trucks Band and drummer Duane Trucks visited Red Rocks a week late for Jerry Garcia’s 75th birthday celebration.

A rollicking “Henry Parsons Died” kicked off the kick-ass set from WSP. A few tracks later, Jimmy and WSP ripped into the ZZ Top classic “Jesus Just Left Chicago,” which a regular in Panic live sets.

On the second half of the set, WSP welcomed guitar prodigy Brandon “Taz” Niederauer for a blistering “Surprise Valley.” The last time Taz shared the stage with a lot of WSP members, was at Colonel Bruce Hampton’s fateful 70th birthday celebration show. It’s a treat to listen to Jimmy and Brandon jamming together on stage.

The next up and coming guitar slinger to hit the stage was Marc King. King is just a handful of years older than Taz and has the makings of a future guitar legend. Marcus sat in for “Me and the Devil Blues” and the Talking Heads cover “Life During Wartime.”

Setlist
Henry Parsons Died >
Love Tractor
You Got Yours
Waiting For The Bus >
Jesus Left Chicago
Big Wooly Mammoth >
Pilgrams >
Party At Your Mama’s House >
Ribs & Whiskey
Cease Fire
Surprise Valley#
Marcus intro
Me & the Devil Blues*
Life During Wartime*
Crowd
Lawyers, Guns and Money

Notes
# w/ Brandon “Taz” Niederauer on guitar (Thinking of Col Bruce tonight. Zambi)
* w/ Marcus King

Thanks to Ted Gakidis for the recording.

Photo credit: chicagogizmo