St. Augustine Night 1 (3/20/26)

Listen to the entire show on Nugs or Relisten or Archive.org.

Data mined and explored via Everyday Companion.

Photo Gallery

Charles Hatfield Fan Photo Gallery.

Spread heads gathered from across the nation to meet in the swamp for the annual Spring Break run at The Amp in Saint Augustine, FL, America’s oldest city. This was the 27th time Panic took the stage at this venue, Nick Johnson’s 7th time playing the lingering lead, as Jimmy Herring continues to regain his might. The weather on night one was a bit cooler and windier than fans were expecting, but with our favorite hoodies adorned, the energy was high and we were ready. 

The box office line was running quite slowly, creating a nervous energy for those still securing tickets only 15 minutes before showtime. The Friday night convergence of those just getting off work mixed with vacationers arriving and acclimating for a 3-night run made for surprisingly long venue entrance lines right before showtime, causing many people to miss the opener. Definitely Panic in Paradise Problems (PPP), but still a bummer nonetheless. The venue staff were all incredibly nice, from security, to ticket checkers, bartenders, ushers, and volunteers. Thanks for being there to kindly welcome in the best band in the land!

Promptly, at 7:07, our six favorite heroes  took the stage. JB came out lookin’ mighty fine - hat backwards, sunglasses on. Duane was rocking his sunglasses too, but Schools opted for his regular glasses. Nick rocked his gold PRS practically the entire run and JB led off with his natural wood colored hollow body Washburn. The crowd went berserk, the way the Amp is constructed allowed for massive crowd energy to emanate through the entire structure of the pavilion. The bleacher stomps added a nostalgic sound to the crowd energy. 

Without a word from the front man, Dave’s bass took us straight into Goin’ Out West, a Tom Waits cover originally released in 1992, only four years before Panic played it first on 1/20/96. This was the 238th time the band has played GOW, and the 20th time slotting it into the opening position. Simple math says that GOW has been an opener 8.4% of the total times it has been played. After recently announcing an official summer tour schedule taking the most spreadicated of fans all the way out west, we considered this a nod to their upcoming adventures in Montana, Oregon, and California. They’ll certainly get paid after selling out 11 shows (14 if you count Red Rocks!) in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. They ripped right into it demonstrating their plans for complete annihilation all weekend. The song ended with a nice groove and Schools setting the tone.

Duane led the charge straight into the first original song of the weekend: Surprise Valley. The percussion section caught fire and then danced the shadows. Nick really came out in front and seemed the most comfortable he’s ever been. The whole band operated as a cohesive unit. As our CBA likes to call it, Predator Panic. This was their second clear nod to the upcoming “out west” shows, according to our sources it was written about kissing the mountain air in the Centennial state, Colorado. They left this song unfinished and we had a hunch the conclusion would come just a bit later in the set.

A smooth well-practiced transition led straight into Pleas, mostly piloted by the big man atop Bass Mountain. Although it was still daylight, the bright lights were turnt up. This song evokes how hard working and humble this band truly is, felt deeply by their fan base. We work hard and play hard! Many fans we talked to were laying eyes on Nick for the first time. Witnessing his execution of Pleas quickly erased any and all doubt: he was clearly the best candidate to take over the Wizard’s corner. His tone and ability to play the lingering and achieve soaring heights while staying balanced in the mix was truly astonishing. Let's go Nick!

A flawless segue led us perfectly into the next song: One Arm Steve. Jojo absolutely crushed his first opportunity to lead the vocals. The dance party took off, as most everyone had made it into the amphitheater and folks felt lubed up enough to really let their freak flag fly by song number four of the weekend. OAS was ripping, but jam-less. They fully completed the song, despite Surprise Valley not being completed. Therefore, we caught a rare mid-sandwich full stop. 

After a few quiet seconds, Sunny picked up his goat toes and shells and summoned Hatfield, our rainmaker. This song tells the magnificent story of Charles A. Hatfield and how he was hired by San Diego City Council to cook up some rain because of an incredibly severe drought. The Wiki page is full of amazing information: study up, nerds! This was the third obvious nod to their looming West Coast tour, taking us all the way to Los Angeles (pretty close to San Diego!) for the first time since 2016, over ten years! This tour announcement is a huge deal! So far, the Panics were performing at a 100% lyrical mastery. JB likes to interchange lyrics, but sometimes he simply misses them. We got our first lyrical flub, which is part of the Panic magic, when JB forgot the line, “now the horses won’t race where the down’s turned to mud” but quickly recovered to share how the streams and rivers grew so much that our boots all filled with mud. 

JB added, “eyes of the little baby children are wide open” quickly making up for skipping a line. Yasssss, get some, JB! The middle guitar part of Hatfield, (a quintessential Panic lead) was played quite well by Panic’s 5th lead guitar man - Nick is getting dialed in. The next segment of the song then arrived and JB started his rap (7:51):

“Charlie always had the touch. Oooooh, a little magic in ya, boy. Swears his Mother. I ‘member Hatfield’s Mama. A beautiful, beautiful Pordic lady. Lawd, she’d come here, give us cookies when we were tired of playing. Oooooooh, and I remember one day… we were done playing and it was so hot, hot, hot, hot in the summer time. Awwww, maybe Hatfield’s sister come riding up on her boyfriend’s motorcycle. Threw us, threw us three cans left out of that 12 pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Said, ‘here boys: enjoy, enjoy a cloud show.’ Oh, the smells wafting out the house, Hatfield’s Mama, pies cooling on the window, Hatfield’s Mama, oooooh she sittin’ there in a comfy chair. Celebratin’. Last little sun comin’ over the hill, strummin’ on her three string banjo, playing nine and a half bar blues. Awwww, Hatfield!”

Hatfield ended with JB proclaiming, “Mama, mama, mama” and then the drums swiftly and calmly rolled back into Surprise. Not a heavy drop, more of a slow build: inspired by Hatfield’s cooling rains.

Let’s talk Surprise Valley and show placement. It seemed like a rare sandwich for the first set, so our nerds got to number crunching to figure it out. Here is what we found: It’s been played 59 times in a single set show (indicated as 0 in Everyday Companion), 113 times in the first set, 358 times in the second set, 10 times in the elusive third set (typically only seen during a NYE show), and 19 times in the encore. The numbers show it’s only played in the first set 20.21% of the time, about one fifth. Nick absolutely destroyed the conclusion of the first sandwich of the run.

They then came to a complete stop, Dave teased the Jaws theme song - beware of fins out there on Saint Augustine Beach, people! After warning us to not get eaten by a shark, DAS sent it straight into Imitation Leather Shoes. JB was loud and clear in the intro! Turn the man UPPPPPPP to 11. It was released in 2001 on Don’t Tell The Band, Mikey’s last studio album and first played on 4/2/00 in Athens, GA at the Classic Center. It was the first time Nick played the song as the lead guitarist and he nailed it, the kid has clearly been studying. When JB wailed, “he took a trip to California” there was an audible roar from the audience. Clearly, everyone was amped about the West Coast tour announcement, and catching on to their subtle hints about taking us all out west. JB is very lyric fluid, and changes them a lot. That’s why you’ve got to listen loud. This particular song has a lyric documented in EdC as “waking up at Ruby Ridge” and it’s noted that sometimes he’ll replace that line with “waking up with Linda Tripp.” But at this show, we heard loud and clear, “waking up to Patti Smith!”. At the end of ILS they came to a full stop and we had barely a moment to capture our breath.

Sunny busted out his whirly toy, the man has so many toys! Duane led the six-headed monster into Trashy, our organization’s anthem. What are the chances a group of us chose to wear our WATLO shirts during the show! We are sooooo lucky! You should see the grass in our HQ’s yard, its gotta be 10 feet tall; cutting grass is hard, man. JB’s voice oscillations were smooth like butter, he crushed all the beautiful lyrics, as masterfully written by Danny Hutchens (R.I.P.) and Eric Carter of Bloodkin fame. Each band member played their heart out; listen closely to minutes 7:30-9:30, Nick stepped firmly on the gas and they played with palpable emotion and intention. 

After a brief pause, the ninth and final song of the west coast shout out set began. We entered into vibraslap central, aka Space Wrangler. They’ve played this song 1,218 times: 103 times with Duane, and twice with Nick. Both young studs KILLED it, along with their elders. Stud city all around. Eyewitness reporters spoke with many people leaving the show who raved about the Space Wrangler being the highlight of their entire show. They all revved up to hyper-speed ready to take off into space around 7:30, they brought out a peak around 8:29, and just kept going! The crowd went wild and they couldn’t stop! The best band in the land peaked again around 9:06, until they finally came down around 9:22. The crowd was hollerin’ so loudly, smiles were plastered all over their faces! Even Duane couldn’t contain a sly smile. It was on the very edge of being out of control, this was savage and sweet southern Panic, and we were just getting started.

JB growled, “Be right back!” and they triumphantly exited the stage for a 33 minute set break. We all knew set break would be “short”, as they have a really strict curfew at this venue, so say “hi” to the homies, grab a frozen banana, refresh your beverage, and quickly get back to your spot. 

They kicked off the second set with another first for Nick, Let’s Get Down to Business. Since 2018, for 8 years, we’ve only been blessed with this Vic Chesnutt song exactly once per year. Time will tell if we’ll get another one in 2026. This was the “rarest” song of the evening, as it’s only been played three times in the last 100 shows. They were really feeling it! As shrewd fans know, typically JB will play his jet black guitar during Vic songs, although for this uncharacteristically poppy Chesnutt song, JB held onto his wood grain colored Washburn, and he sounded great.

Dave’s eerie Jaws-theme bassline came back, but this time he used the horror movie soundtrack to introduce Halloween Face, another first for Nick. Folks in the crowd who aren’t too keen on metal may still be getting used to this song. But, those who LOVE metal Panic likely have a neck injury from so much raging head banging. Panic’s fifth lead guitarist approached a level of civil audio-based violence with those epic guitar rifts… the kind of violence that hurts so good. For how hard he shreds, his body language was impressively calm. 

They came to a full stop, everyone needed a deep breath after that one! The lights turned red, Sunny reached for one of his shakers, and the second original song of the set began - Mercy. Sunny didn’t reach for his bird whistle during this version of Mercy, but his shaker set the mood and held the tempo with a familiar grace. They played with their hearts wide open, an emotional and stirring rendition. In modern Mercys, it’s common to get a meaty jam right after. Towards the end of the song, they sped up the tempo into a groovy danceable jam. 

Let’s talk setlist punctuation. For those of you who know this, please continue on to the next paragraph. For those of you who want to strengthen your inner nerd, LFG. After each song, there’s either a sideways caret (>) or a comma (,) which indicates how they exited and entered each song. If there’s a sideways caret (>) that means it was a clean, continuous segue into the next song without a stop. If there’s a comma (,) that means the song came to a complete stop / ending before the band began the next song. Mercy is a common song to segue into the following tune, demonstrated with a sideways caret (>) in the setlist. The last seven Mercys had a sideways caret afterwards. They last came to a full stop after the Mercy on the “Halloween” show on 10/28/23, when the band famously crafted a Wizard of Ozzy theme.

They sideways caret-ed their way into the Howlin’ Wolf cover song, Smokestack Lightning, originally released in 1956. This was Nick’s second time playing this song with the best band in the land. His blues guitar prowess lended a power and soul to these classic covers. He was bending the strings mournfully and then led the charge into a more rock n’ roll style peak after a brief Nobody’s Fault but Mine tease by Jojo. It felt like a mash-up of styles with Blues meeting Rock n’ Roll. Americana at its finest. JB crooned, “they’re gonna see me no mo’ no” as they moved into a softer jam. The crowd was eerily quiet, you could hear a pin drop, not a chomper chomping anywhere within earshot. Then things got weird and abstract, a Colonel Bruce-style Zambiesque jam commenced. 

With enough tension in place to get us all feeling a bit uneasier now, DAS instantly relieved us as he dropped into Rebirtha, like hearing a good friend's voice welcoming you to a stranger's pot-luck. They played this one three times in 1993 as an instrumental, then took a 117-show break before playing it for the first time with lyrics on 10/2/94. The last 90 seconds of the jam had a Ribs and Whiskey tease, and that’s where these nerds thought they were going next. JB even had his slide on his finger, which gave a clue for a handful of songs he likes to play the slide on. 

However, instead of Ribs, the boys swiftly shifted into Party at Your Mama’s House, the first instrumental of the weekend. Last played over the New Year’s run, this was Nick’s first opportunity to show off his ability to party at a mama’s house. We hear his Mom is an absolute gem of a human, very present on social media, and has been enjoying the welcoming atmosphere of Spreadheads! Keep up the kindness! Your WATLO HQ Staffers adore and love instrumentals. Check out the 2025 instrumental breakdown in our 2025 Annual Report, with an emphasis on Widespread Panic. PAYMH tied Disco for most played instrumentals last year, at 8 times each. So far, this year, Disco is leading the charge at two times played, but we have heaps of shows coming up in 2026, so strap in and count on us to count for you! Our pencils are sharp, our brains are strong, and our minds are wide. The jamming was gentle but energetic, akin to a soft parade, yet full of emotion. Nick had such a stellar show listening to the elders, following, but also stepping up and leading at times. This number was certainly a highlight for some of the folks in our epic Schools’ Zone dance party! One of our dear friends nearby (shout out Marshall: we love you buddy!) said “this is giving off major Allman Brothers’ vibes.” Jojo’s keys brought the jam to a conclusion, a beautiful and eloquent ending to a noteworthy FTP for Nick on PAYMH. 

After a microscopic full stop, Nick kicked off the familiar introduction to Jack. Each time JB said “wizard in the corner” the crowd had an enormous eruption of hootin’ and hollerin’ as we all sent out good vibes and healing energy to our beloved Jimmy Herring, the “white wizard.” It was truly one of the loudest crowd participations of the weekend. Duane smiled SO big, one of the hugest grins our intern has ever seen him produce, as if he was also thinking of his Father-in-Law and how much we miss him and his calm and peaceful presence in the corner. With the amount of kindness and camaraderie we experienced at The Amp in Auggie, there were plenty of biscuits for EVERYBODY! The ending cooled down a bit, and Nick was also obviously having a lot of fun. He had a big smile plastered on during the conclusion to Jack. 

A swift transition (sideways caret >) brought in Big Wooly Mammoth, another first for young Nick! First played on 10/10/95, it wasn’t released on an album until 2001 (Don’t Tell The Band). They had plenty of opportunities to practice it live before taking it into the studio! This was the 280th time the song has been played by the four elders. While this was one of the shorter versions of this Jojo tune, it packed a punch! Wails from JB and Schools brought some extra unexpected energy. A man in front of us took his lighter out as Jojo said “somebody throw me a fire”, cocked it back as if he was going to throw it, but smiled and put it back in his pocket. Just one small example of how our fan base has evolved and grown over the several decades this band has been playing music, specifically this song! Remember what Dave says, “don’t throw shit at the band!” Right at the end, JB stepped up to the center, was loud and clear, likely inspired by Nick as they faced each other often throughout the entire weekend.

Another glorious transition shifted gears to All Time Low. One of seven songs played ten times in 2025, it’s already been played twice in 2026. The crowd realized it was time to empty the tank, the dance party started raging extra hard as most folks figured that we were approaching the end of the show. Nick also must have realized we were near the conclusion and there was nothing to hold back - he shredded the last couple minutes so hard! It’s amazing how many notes he can play, truly showcasing his lead guitarist capabilities while staying in the mix. It’s easy to hear the other five members while simultaneously recognizing how strong of a player Nick is.

SIDEWAYS CARETS FOR EVERYONE! Finally, the last segue of the second set brought on Chilly Water - the first song recorded on the first album. Both sets therefore concluded with absolute classics. This was the 1,162nd time Chilly has been played, the only other song in the show played more than 1,000 times. Most people enjoy water out of reusable plastic cups at the Amp, rather than plastic water bottles. Their sustainability strategy allows fans to rent a cup for $1, and they even offer free ice. Then, you can go to any water fountain and fill it up with municipally treated, sulfurous fishwater. They then have collection containers all over the venue specifically for used cups, so that they can wash and reuse them. What a great idea! However, open cups make it awkward to strategically splash water all over the neighboring crowd, and it was sadly one of their drier Chilly Waters. A dry ChillyH20 also checks out after the regulars were accustomed to unlimited single-use plastic bottles of water at in Mexico at Playa, the last time we soaked our neighbors and got this bitch wet! At around the 6-minute mark JB and Schools exchanged vocals, which sounded mysterious, chaotic, and eerie. They brought in the big finish and the crowd went buck wild! 

During the break before the encore, we met the three young bloods behind us. Shout out to Sam, Ford, and Patrick. It was Patrick’s 17th birthday! We got to introduce him to a birthday twin, Emily! The whole gang was stoked to see how they would end the show and what birthday encore would be to chosen to send them off into the night.

After about three minutes, the band re-occupied the stage and played May Your Glass Be Filled. A one-song ballad, such as this one, is a true test of whether your glass as a Panic fan is half full or half empty. An eye roll at this encore, and your glass is clearly empty. A tear from the corner of your eye, arm-in-arm with your besties, and your glass is obviously full. Our water cup may have been physically empty because we lovingly dumped it on our neighbor during Chilly Water, yet our hearts were overflowing - the proverbial cup full as ever. The encore is truly a bonus, and while fans have come to expect 2-3 songs each night after the conclusion of the second set, it really should never be an expectation. Our buddy, Patrick, was slightly disappointed at the one-song encore, but we reminded him how beautiful and perfect the message was for a birthday! “May your wishes come true, even those left un-prayed” is easily connected to the traditional birthday wish made over candles on a cake. 

While this song was just played on NYE, only seven shows ago, this was only the 93rd time it has ever been played. Since Duane joined the band it’s been played:

• 2014: 3

• 2015: 4

• 2016: 6

• 2017: 0

• 2018: 1

• 2019: 3

• 2020: 0

• 2021: 1

• 2022: 2

• 2023: 3

• 2024: 0

• 2025: 3

• 2026: 1  

So, relatively rare in the last decade or so. A song to be grateful for and to take JB’s words to heart. JB wants your songs to play, and boy is he going to play them! 

After a gentle and loving encore, JB said “Goodnight, everybody” and sent everyone into the night. There were several after shows to attend, a lot scene to enjoy, cool and funky fan art for purchase,  and delicious food to consume. Thankfully, not a huge “balloon” scene in the lot, which was nice for all the families who took their kids to the show! Salute again to the St. Augustine Amphitheatre for making our dreams come true. See ya’ll tomorrow for night 2!