Widespread Panic, photo by Wesley Hodges

Widespread Panic returned to Savannah, Ga. last night for a very special Halloween performance. Halloween has long been a staple of the trailblazing Southern jam ensemble’s live calendar, and their third annual Enmarket Arena haunt, following memorable appearances in 2022 and 2023, was a hotly anticipated revival after a year away. For night one, the band appeared in full costumed embrace of an Alice in Wonderland theme, complete with several debut and revived covers.

On Friday night, Widespread Panic stepped onstage and into an immersive recreation of the classic children’s novel-turned-Disney film, complete with set dressing and projections. To pull together the picture, the quintet dressed as central characters with frontman John Bell as the Cheshire Cat, guitarist Jimmy Herring as Tweedle Dee/Dum, bassist Dave Schools as the Executioner, keyboardist JoJo Herman as the Caterpillar, drummer Duane Trucks as the Queen of Hearts and percussionist Domingo Ortiz as the Mad Hatter. The colorful ensemble set off their performance with a bang with the Bombs and Butterflies cut “Gradle,” staged for the first time since March 2023.

Panic’s home state return continued with the first “Entering a Black Hole Backwards” since Sept. 2023, adorned with a section of Jefferson Airplane’s psychedelic classic “White Rabbit.” After “All Time Low,” the band brought on the evening’s first debut cover as they lit up Alice in Chains’ “Down in a Hole.” Highlights through the remainder of their first set included resurrections of “You Should Be Glad” (last played Feb. 2023) and their cover of The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” (last played Oct. 2021), the latter of which was deftly merged with “Proving Ground” before a set-closing “Tall Boy.”

Widespread Panic commenced their second set with staples “Greta” and “Conrad,” then ascended to an anthemic debut cover of The Who’s “Who Are You.” Two tried and true brute. tracks led into long-dormant originals “Free Somehow,” last played in Jan. 2012, and “Crazy,” last played in Dec. 2016. Following a first-time cover of The Doors’ “You’re Lost Little Girl,” the quintet capped off the main portion of their performance with a segued pairing of Funkadelic’s “Red ot Mama” and their first-time full cover of “White Rabbit.” The band slotted one more surprise into their three-track encore, debuting Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” between “Dream Song” and “Climb to Safety.”

Widespread Panic will close out their stand at Enmarket Arena tonight, then appear next for three nights at Port Chester, N.Y.’s The Capitol Theatre from Nov. 21-23. Find tickets and more information at widespreadpanic.com/shows.