Airplane Lands in Vegas
This was the second Vegas show of the weekend. The show the day before was outside at Vegoose for a big festival audience. But this show at the MGM Grand's Garden Arena
was for Panic fans. In addition to dancers high above the stage and naughty nurses with kneepads in the crowd, there were covers, bustouts and a whole lot of guitar love. It was Panic's finest Halloween show in years. A tight CONTENTMENT BLUES began the show—so it made perfect sense that JB was dressed as a chicken(1).
The second song was the first bustout, a straightforward take on the Doors’ PEOPLE ARE STRANGE.
I have no scientific evidence of this, but it seems they really like to
cover the Doors on Halloween(2). Panic, pumpkins and the Doors.... An upbeat YOU SHOULD BE GLAD followed and then an
all-too-brief moment of guitar bliss. Not even two minutes long, JOHN'S
OTHER JAM(3) was way too short. Even at 10 minutes, it wouldn’t have
been too long. If I didn't keep my cell phone on vibrate, I’d want this
to be my ringtone. OK, you get the point.
Panic then eased into a fine
PILGRIMS (with John Keane on pedal steel) before segueing into a long,
lively GRETA and then into David Bromberg's SHARON. JB was chatty throughout, applying the song’s lyrics to Fiona Apple(4): “That girl could dance like her back had no bone.” After TIME ZONES, they went into a perfectly spacey STOP-GO, with JB doing a THREE LITTLE BIRDS rap and then later offering “a moment of prayer for Allah, a small, flightless little friend,” before finishing strong with IMITATION LEATHER SHOES > CHAINSAW CITY.
With John Keane back on guitar, Panic showed some Athens, Ga., unity by opening the second set with R.E.M.'s CANT GET THERE FROM HERE(5). Another cover, War's sprawling SLIPPIN' INTO DARKNESS—first covered on Halloween 2002—followed and went right into WHEN THE CLOWNS COME HOME(6). What was played up to this point was really very good, but what followed was special. First, an 18-minute DINER with great musical interplay and plenty of JB rapping ("And sometimes, why do I just start talking like Chris Rock?") into PROVING GROUND into a short DRUMS with Carrot Top and Outformation's Jeff "Birddog" Lane(7) joining TODD and SUNNY.
Then something really surprising happened. With JB singing, Panic played AIRPLANE for the first time since Mikey’s last show. As the song cascaded over the crowd, a palpable emotion swept through the room. And then, to the delight of many, Panic jammed out of AIRPLANE into Bonnie Dobson's oft covered MORNING DEW(8). They closed the set with a quick LOVE TRACTOR, leaving everyone to wonder what covers remained for the encore.
When the band returned to the stage, JB greeted the crowd: "We always have a lot of fun here in Cleveland. Thanks for having us." And then they made their way into THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC(9), the first of three covers. The second song of the encore was another bustout, the first cover of Golden Earring’s(10) RADAR LOVE in 10 years. The crowd was loving the music and would not be disappointed with the finale, the Beatles' I WANT YOU (SHE'S SO HEAVY). (It was light years better than the WHY DON'T WE DO IT IN THE ROAD cover in 2002.) The song's culminating guitar frenzy was the perfect end to this show, sending thousands of cheering fans out into the corridors of the MGM Grand.
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1 I really enjoyed JB's costume because in 2001, I was part of a group of 30 chickens clucking away on the floor of UNO's Lakefront Arena.
2 To be clear, I don't got scientific evidence of much. But a quick check of Everyday Companion reveals Panic has covered five Doors songs right around Halloween in '96, '97, '98, '99, '00, '06.
3 Written by fiddle-extraordinaire Papa John Creach for Hot Tuna's second album, First Pull Up, Then Pull Down, this eight-minute instrumental is simply called JOHN'S OTHER.
4 Fiona Apple also appeared at Vegoose. I didn't see JB there, but other people said they saw him checking out her show from the side of the stage.
5 The song's title really is "CANT" instead of "CAN'T."
6 Although at the time, I think it was called WHEN THE COWS COME HOME.
7 This is according to Everyday Companion. I really had no recollection of Carrot Top being there. And, truthfully, I thought John Keane was onstage for JOHN'S OTHER JAM, but Everyday Companion reports otherwise.
8 Although Panic hadn't played MORNING DEW since January '89.
9 Because Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. had covered THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC, written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, the song definitely has a Vegas connection.
10 Who knew they were Dutch? Seriously, a show of hands.
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