Photo via Widespread Panic’s Facebook page

Widespread Panic closed out their Panic en la Playa Tres event with a guest-heavy performance last night. The group has hunkered down in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for the past few days and used the opportunity to both interact with fans and play around with their setlist a bit. (Wednesday’s show opened with “Heroes” as nod to the event’s theme night.)

The group kicked off yesterday’s show with “Makes Sense to Me” and brought their first set to a close with a run from “Protein Drink” into “Hatfield,” before closing the sequence with the sequence with “Protein Drink”‘s sister song “Sewing Machine.”
The guests started to emerge at the start of Panic’s second set.
First, Meters bassist George Porter Jr. and Aquarium Rescue Unit drummer Jeff Sipe took the stage for Panic’s first cover of Professor Longhair’s “Tipitina” since June 21, 2008 when keyboardist JoJo Hermann offered the song as a solo number. The New Orleans theme continued as both Sipe and Porter helped Panic through their first version of The Meters’ “Just Kissed My Baby” since October 16, 2011. Then, Sipe remained onstage as Col. Bruce Hampton joined in for one of his signature covers, “Fixin’ to Die.” The moment served as a partial Aquarium Rescue Unit reunion since Hampton, Sipe and Panic guitarist Jimmy Herring were all part of the band’s core lineup.

Widespread Panic charged through the rest of their second set, running through “Blight,” a version of “Arleen” sandwiched between “Papa’s Home,” “Vacation,” “Postcard,” “Bowlegged Woman,” “Conrad” and “North.” They returned for a three-song encore that boasted War’s “Slippin’ into Darkness,” their anthem “Ain’t Life Grand” and Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime.”

Widespread Panic’s spring tour will kick off in Seattle, WA on March 25.

Here’s a look at last night’s setlist as it appears in our Box Scores section

Thursday, March 20, Punta Cana, Macao, Dominican Republic

Set I: Makes Sense To Me > Proving Ground, Good People, True To My Nature, Sell Sell > Jack, Casa Del Grillo > Tie Your Shoes > Protein Drink > Hatfield > Sewing MachineSet

II: Tipitina* > Just Kissed My Baby^, Fixin To Die^^, Blight > Papa’s Home > Arleen > Papa’s Home > Vacation > Postcard > Bowlegged Woman > Conrad > North

E: Slippin’ Into Darkness > Ain’t Life Grand > Life During Wartime

*with George Porter Jr. and Jeff Sipe, last time played 6/21/08
^with Randall Bramblett, Jeff Sipe, John Gros and George Porter Jr.
^^with George Porter Jr., last time played 10/16/11