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H.O.R.D.E. Stories: John Bell

Aquarium Rescue Unit opened the shows in the northeast and then ended their sets with a segue into Widespread Panic, who performed second.

The most important element was you had two bands willing to do this. One drummer’s being wheeled on while the other one’s riser’s being wheeled off. And that we could jam together in an improvisational sense. At one point we’d be two full bands on stage and then slowly the band that was on stage previously, one by one they’d slip off and then it would be next band.

It really started because we saw an extra 15 minutes instead of doing the changeover. We saw the 15 minute window as an opportunity to do something different and continue to play and keep the music going. You really couldn’t do it unless you had the larger stage and a bunch of young crew members willing to go, “Whoah okay this is freaky, yeah let’s do it.” We wanted to stretch the usual parameters of normality in going to a concert and this was one way that just disappeared. The other bands and managers were wondering what the crap was going on. “Well you know, it’s our time…”

On overall intent

We were going to keep a low ticket price, hearkening back to my concert going days in the late 70s. You wanted to get people into these larger venues. We didn’t want it to be a bust, we wanted it to be a celebration. We accomplished what we set out to accomplish. We had lot of people in there. The bands created a festival situation.

It was early enough in our careers that nobody was trying to guard their territory or pee on any bushes. We were finding our personal enjoyment in the activity itself. It wasn’t career move as far as I was aware. It was trying to have a party.

The dressing rooms were nicer, catering was existent but the best element was that we as Widespread Panic were young enough to want to be out and involved and co-mingling with all the other musicians in a social way as well. Kind of like what you would see in some of movies of the ‘60s and ‘70s that were trying to document behind the scenes at rock and roll events. People were just getting together and spontaneously playing songs with each other, doing press together. And we were young enough that we weren’t trying to protect our personal time or anything. Everything was wide open.

Discovering The Flecktones

We were very familiar with Spin Doctors and Blues Traveler and Phish and obviously ARU. When we did the southern run with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, we were like, “Holy crap, there are other bands that embrace this Aquarium Rescue Unit kind of mentality. To watch the Wootens, the combination of technical ability and improvisational and intuitive skills was just off the charts. It was great to be able to play your set and then watch this stuff go down. It felt really good.

Legacy

If you look into the future the legacy took hold with things like Bonnaroo. I give the Bonnaroo guys full credit for just knocking it out of the park right off the bat. I know what we were feeling when we were doing the H.O.R.D.E. that was embodied in the Bonnaroo situation. And there are a number of other festivals around the place that are cultivating the same vibe.