it's all the south really has, consistently
lulz.
jesus, i don't even really know how to respond to this. panic died on 8/10/2002 with mikey. that is a fact.
you can't compare panic to any of the bands you just mentioned because the only thing they really have in common is a dedicated following. i started seeing panic in 1995. i was far from a hippie. what drew me to them was the dark underbelly of the music and the cohesiveness that gained them the moniker "6 Headed Monster".
the only really outstanding musician in the band is dave schools, their bassist. aside from him, they are a mediocre bunch of musicians that just happened to gel together. george mconnell was just horrible, then they hired jimmy herring, who is a fucking prodigy, but in my opinion and most others as well, does not fit the band.
if you're looking for good panic shows, look around from 1997 and 1998. that was the peak, IMO.
in those years i saw a lot of phish and panic...on phish's best nights, panic could not come close to touching what they created. the problem was consistancy, panic brought it night after night after night, and phish didn't. you'd be hard pressed to find any mistakes, other than jb flubbing the occassional lyric in those days.
they did the segue jam better than anyone in the business. they didn't need fancy lights or any sort of circus show, they were just a bunch of normal dudes cooking on all cylinders night after night. take a look at some 98 shows, they rarely took a break between songs. every show was fluid. the dudes were all about business when they took the stage and didn't matter if it was a wednesday night in omaha, ne or a sunday show at red rocks. dem boys did not fuck around.
but it goes back to the dark underbelly. don't listen to the surface, listen to the layers. that's what panic did best and that's why jimmy sucks for this band, he doesn't play with the music, he plays over it like a lot of lead guitarists.
their lyrics are genius as well. they tell stories, and don't stray far from their southern roots. the jams never lose you, like a band like phish does at times. you're not going to see panic play a 30 minute song, 15 or so minutes tops. and it's tight. or it was tight.
the bottom line is, panic is done. they know it and have known it for a number of years, the fans know it, and i'm sorry if you missed it. it was a hell of a ride.