Bluest Tape

Panic Goes to the Zoo This week, we take a listen to selections from Widespread Panic’s several visits to zoos throughout the United States. The band has always enjoyed playing shows surrounded by natural beauty, but zoos provide an extra added bonus of exotic wildlife. If nothing else, it gave JB and Garrie something random to talk about from the stage. We start off with back-to-back visits to the Jackson Zoo in Mississippi, where Panic played in both 1994 and 1995 (a stellar show, by the way), followed by a trip the Cincinnati Zoo for an all-time favorite summer 96 concert. From there, we head Up North for two shows in the state of Minnesota. The first, 1994 show at the Minnesota Zoo, features a sublime “Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” with Kofi Burbridge on flute, while our show closer, “Knockin’ Around the Zoo” comes from a visit to the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in fall 2001. Yep, a show about zoos closing with a song about a zoo (well, sort of - it’s about a mental institution) not played in a zoo. The i