The following is an excerpt from Relix magazine's September/October '06 cover story.
 

photo: Lynn Goldsmith

 "The one thing that people always get wrong about us is that they think that we're the Grateful Dead, when we're really the Led Zeppelin of the jamband world," explains Nance.

"With Panic it's all about the song itself, and the jam part just came as a consequence of just having fun playing a good song," agrees McConnell. "It's kinda like Led Zeppelin when they play something that they've written in the studio, then when it gets live it would become this big monster thing with a drum solo. But then you could just as easily say that they're really Black Sabbath. As I understand, Mikey [Houser] was a big Black Sabbath freak, and real into heavy music and stuff.

"Mostly they tell me not to try to be Mikey, but to just be myself. It's never anything about notes, but more in terms of style. Get heavy, drive this part. Lay back on this part, or we want it to go to a crescendo and then drop off to-bam!-silence. What we're shooting for in the song. Whether it happens or not, you know doesn't really matter.

"I guess the thing that bothers me, and the thing that I'm first of all most concerned about, is making the guys in the band happy playing music. Because that's the last thing they want to do is be an oldies review of themselves," says McConnell.

But to their credit, the Panic members are not living in the past. Nor do they want to.

"The only thing that I'm afraid of is where we've been and how it might affect us in the future," explains Dave Schools. "I think our fans know that there's sort of a continuing evolutionary trend, and that it would be unhealthy for us to be stuck in some kind of rut, and I think we recognize that to a certain extent, too. But I think my biggest fear was-are they going to forget us while we're gone? I wasn't worried about the chemistry of the band because we've taken six months off, or whatever, and it's like riding a bike. Once we get together, it might be glorious slop, but the feeling is always there between the six of us."

photo: Lynn Goldsmith

Ortiz agrees. "The whole persona of the stage I think exemplifies how we present ourselves on the stage. I think people can feel that energy. They can feel that togetherness. Everyone was on the same page. Everyone was out there to have a good time, including us. That's our biggest thing. Even from the beginning when we first started playing, our main focus was to have a good time, drink beers and everything else, just have a good time. The only thing that is different is now is we drink wine."

And they do drink a lot of wine, expensive, deep, soulful red wines, that they buy in copious amounts from a local San Francisco store in the tiny Fillmore district. "If I could categorize what they buy, it's full-bodied reds," says Denise Johnson from the Napa Valley Wine Exchange. She's a guest of the band at the show for her six or so years of excellent service, helping the band's manager and percussionist pick out the hidden gems from the Sonoma and Napa regions.

When Ortiz spots Johnson backstage he gives her a hug. "We set up a wine-tasting downstairs," he tells her, gesturing his right hand toward the netherworlds in the warren of anterooms beneath the stage. The two continue discussing a wine that she brought him that security wouldn't let her bring in. Immediately Ortiz dispatches one of the road crew to go fetch it. Meanwhile, I slip downstairs to witness their ad hoc tasting. Sure enough, on a Butler's table is an array of fruit, cheese and an array of glasses set out with military precision. Behind are a dozen or so bottles of Napa's finest.

"Would you like a glass of wine," offers John Bell, pouring himself a glass of merlot from a side table before folding his now-lean frame into a rather patrician looking sofa with a low center of gravity. "If our new album was a wine it would be a Cabernet, dark and smooth," he laughs, taking another healthy sip.

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