Music

Owsley’s Golden Road

By Jon Solomon 

While listening to a live recording of Widespread Panic at last week's Widespread Wednesday at Moon Time Bar & Grill (846 Broadway), I noticed a bumpersticker (one of many plastered on the beer coolers behind the bar) that read "Politicians and diapers need to be changed for the same reason." Damn right, I thought.

Then I started talking to a gal who frequents Widespread Wednesdays, and she told me that she'd seen the Atlanta-based jam band only eighteen times. She stressed "only" because she knows people who've seen the band more than fifty times. She also mentioned that the bar's name comes from a Widespread song. (I'd find out later that there's a mention of a Moon Time Bar and Grill in "Porch Song," on the act's 1988 debut album, Space Wrangler.) Then another gal told me how Moon Time and Cactus Jack's Saloon (4651 Highway 73 in Evergreen) are the two main places frequented by local Panic fans.

And there are plenty of them, because as the night went on, a steady stream of people kept coming into the bar, and the energy in the place intensified. The bartender got fans to sing along with the songs, and those who weren't singing started talking louder. I heard a guy behind me say how much he disliked Jerry Joseph's singing, even though he's collaborated with Panic and the band has recorded and performed quite a few of his songs. A few other folks standing nearby apparently weren't fond of Joseph, either.

After listening to a few hours of Widespread songs, which I was really digging, Eric Martinez's Lake Effect opened its set with a few more Widespread songs. Then the band started covering songs by non-Widespread groups, and I couldn't figure out who'd written a particular tune. For some reason, it sounded like it had come from Led Zeppelin III. Hell, I was almost positive it was Led Zep, and if I didn't find out the name of the song soon, I planned to go home and go through every Zeppelin album I own. Which would have frustrated the shit out of me, because when I asked the guy sitting next to me if he knew what we were listening to, I found out that it was actually Pink Floyd's "Fearless." All of a sudden, I felt very musically stupid.

"Oh, yeah, that's on Meddle, right?" I asked the guy.

"I don't know, but she probably knows," he said, nudging his wife.

She confirmed that it was from Meddle, and then said what a great album that was. I agreed; it is a great album, even if I couldn't remember every song on it after five beers and a few shots of Jägermeister. But I was so relieved that I wouldn't have to scroll through dozens of Zeppelin tracks when I got home that I would have agreed to anything. Fortunately, I had no reason to panic — and plenty of reasons to enjoy Widespread Wednesday.

Club scout: The Bianchi brothers have just added another club to the Cervantes family of live-music venues with Owsley's Golden Road (2151 Lawrence Street). You'd think they would've named the place after a character in Cervantes's Don Quixote, since their lineup already features Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom (2637 Welton Street), Quixotes's True Blue (2637 Welton), Dulcinea's 100th Monkey (717 East Colfax Avenue) and Sancho's Broken Arrow (741 East Colfax). But they took this club's moniker from the Grateful Dead's Golden Road boxed set and longtime Dead soundman Owsley Stanley. And Deadheads should dig the three-night, all-star run of Steve Kimock, Bobby Vega, John Molo, Ray White and Melvin Seals that will come to Owsley's April 25-27.

Meanwhile, on Friday, April 11, Bijan Modeling will host a casting call for models at Open Bar (1403 Larimer Street); $10 gets you all you can drink from 8 to 11 p.m. On Saturday, April 12, DC10 (940 Lincoln Street) will kick off FlyGirl, its weekly all-girl night presented by DJ Tatiana, CafeVivid and Hip Chicks Out. Gals can get two-for-one FlyGirl Cosmos from 8 to 10 p.m., there's no cover between 8 and 9 p.m., and after 9 p.m., it's only $5 to get in to the stylish L Word-style party.