*Tales from the upcoming Trucking Memoirs
11/15/2002
Over, 5-months of trucking,I hardly am able to get back to Memphis for more than a night much less a full weekend. I am looking forward to an actual weekend of fun in Memphis that PAM granted me for belated time off for my birthday.
Returning to Memphis, I tune into a local radio station to hear if there is anything worth checking out for the weekend. The radio DJ notes the musical happenings for the weekend in this music city. Only one band catches my attention: Widespread Panic at the Mid-South Coliseum.
Though not very familiar with their catalogue, my cousin has always recommended that I check out one of their shows. The Mid-South Coliseum sounds like the perfect place to catch this traveling jam-band influenced by Southern rock, blues-rock, progressive rock, funk and hard rock genres. They are from Athens, Georgia, been around since 1986, and have traveling group of fans like the String Cheese Incident. I expect that there will be a lot of cannabis and pyschadelic users.
The whole scene Friday night is an interesting music carnival starting in the parking lot. Venders of all legal and non-legal sorts are in the parking lot. The pre-concert parking resembles a tailgate scene for a band such as the Grateful Dead.
I do not have to problem getting a ticket at the box office, so I do not have to resort to scalping a ticket (or trying to sneak in like the String Cheese Concert in Florida).
The indoor Mid-South Coliseum reminds me of an UFO-shaped arena for 10,000-people.
Opened in 1964, the Coliseum became know as “The Entertainment Capitol of the Mid-South” for hosting events such as sports, professional wrestling shows, and concerts. It also was the first racially desegregated facility in the region. Musicians such as The Rolling Stones (1965), The Beatles (1966), Rod Stewart and The Faces (1972), and Elvis Presley (1974). The Mid-South Coliseum was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
My seat is fairly easy to find as it is on the lower-upper deck facing the stage from the back left. I am in the middle of the row with two groups of younger adults on each side. A very attractive young woman is sitting to my left.
When the stadium lights drop for the show to start, about a thousand lighters are sparked around the arena. As the band gets into the first measures of their song, a giant cloud of marijuana drifts through the air the collective exhale of the people sparking-up. Cannabis is not legal anywhere in the states in 2002, but this is more or less what I expected might happen.
Unfortunately, one mother did not expect this. Before the band was even half-way through the song, you could see the silhouette of a mother forcefully dragging her two middle school aged kids to the exit.
I laugh inside. It seems that there was a misunderstanding on who Widespread Panic is as a band. Don’t worry mom; your kids are not going to get a passerby high and turn into druggies.
It will be quite the family memory for these kids and their mom someday. “Remember when we got mom to take us to the Widespread Panic concert?” Ha!
Previous to being on the road and broke, I was smoking weed everyday. The last time I smoked was when I was working day-labor in Memphis back in the spring. After that, I hadn’t touched it because of truck driving and piss tests involved with the job. I just didn’t want to risk it being a factor since I was new to driving a truck and I certainly did not want to get fired over failing a piss test. I knew a couple of truckers that smoked regularly driving semi, including Dr. Love’s dad, that operated just fine. I have to admit, I had driven cars for a few years and put thousands of miles whiled stoned with no traffic incidents or tickets. However, being new to operating a big rig, I felt it was better to be safe than sorry and give cannabis a rest.
Sitting in this cloud of smoke, I start wondering if I might want to take a puff if offered.
My answer arrives shortly. A joint gets passed down the row. The hot chick to my left takes a couple of hits and passes it to me without saying a word. I take the joint and give it two good rips. I’m not too worried that I will get drug tested in the next week. Even if I did, since I haven’t smoked in months, the THC should be out of my system by Monday.
Not having smoked in awhile, the joint kicks my ass. I sit back and enjoy “full immersion” into the Widespread Panic experience.
Friday, November 15, 2002 Widespread Panic set:
Set 1
1. Mr. Soul
2. North
3. Pigeons
4. God Was In The Water
5. Old Neighborhood
6. Old Joe
7. Daisy Mae
8. Love Tractor
Set 2
1. One Arm Steve
2. Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys
3. She Caught The Katy
4. Surprise Valley
5. Drums
6. Jam
7. Slippin’ Into Darkness
8. Barstools and Dreamers
9. Sometimes
10. No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature
Encore
6. Visiting Day
7. Porch Song
After throughly enjoying the concert and smoking with strangers, I decide that I need to come back for the Saturday Night show. The song that hooked me for a 2nd night was “No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature.”
The seats were good, but I decide to get a ticket for the upper deck and center to the stage. Just as the previous night, when the lights go down a mass of people light up and haze-out the stadium.
It is further back and higher up, so the singer looks tiny. However, the sound is excellent for being farther back. The arena is set up well for concerts.
This time, I am sitting next to two middle aged guys that traveled from New York for the concert. They brought two strains of high powered herb with them. Joints are passed. I oblige.
Again, I feel like I am smoking for the first time. When you take time off from smoking your tolerance goes down. On top that, these two gentlemen have significantly stronger herb than the younger adults I sat next to the night before. And, they have more joints they are happy share.
In short time, I am fully immersed in the concert and crowd. One strange affect when I am super-high is that the universe seems to want to “talk to me” which is similar to psychedelic trip.
In my mind, the lead singer quickly becomes a tiny devil singing this concert….at me. I know I am high, so it doesn’t bother me so much that I have this perception.
Again, the band crushes it.
1) Chilly Water
2) Henry Parsons Died
3) Chilly Water
4) Pilgrims
5) Stop Breakin’ Down Blues
6) Wondering
7) Blue Indian
8) Ain’t Life Grand
1) Hope In A Hopeless World
2) Climb To Safety
3) Driving Song
4) City of Dreams
5) Jam
6) Driving Song
7) Flat Foot Flewzy
8) Drums
9) Tears of a Woman
10) Cortez the Killer
11) Conrad
Encore:
1) Doreatha
2) All Time Low
3) Imitation Leather Shoes
Being super-baked and walking out of the concert, I start wondering the underlying meaning of the band’s name might be. What is “widespread panic?” Everyone else seems pretty tuned too as we zombie walk to the parking lot. Nobody seems to be panicking at least.
Outside feels a bit chaotic as I’m way to self-aware and anxious from the herb. Fireworks go off in the distance. Police cruisers drive slowly through the parking lot with there lights on and speaking mechanically through their vehicle’s loud speakers, “everyone must go home.” Things are starting to freak me out. Is this the panic?
Is the end of the world coming?
“If the world is coming to end, I must call my parents to see if they are all right,” I think as my anxiety and creative-outlook on life grows.
“But, what if this is all just in my head?” I wonder.
“Nope, I better call them just encase this is the end.” I feel compelled to call them. Even though It is midnight.
They are in bed. I can tell they woke up to answer the phone.
“Michael, are you OK? Why are you calling us so late?” my mom asks.
I immediately feel like an idiot. There is no way I will make this situation better by explaining myself. First of all, they do not much about marijuana and have never smoked it before.
“Just calling to say I miss you guys and I love you. I apologize for waking you up. I will give you call this week.”
I am embarrassed. Worse than that, I probably just caused my parents undue worrying. Having a cellphone to call anyone at anytime has it downfalls. I don’t think I will smoke again anytime soon.
