Widespread Panic celebrated Halloween last night at the Kiefer Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, LA. The group first appeared at this venue on Halloween 1997. This was the Panic’s 10th All Hallow’s Eve appearance at Lakefront, with the previous occasion taking take place five years earlier.
The theme of the evening was Dante's Inferno in which the narrator descends into the nine circles of Hell. Dante’s journey takes him from Limbo into Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery. The band’s songs reflected this journey.
As for costumes, John Bell was Professor Porter, Dave Schools was the Devil, JoJo Hermann was Lane Kiffin, Duane Trucks was Papa Legba, Sunny Ortiz was Julius Caesar and Nick Johnson was Judas.
The night opened with “Down,” from 2001’s Don't Tell The Band beginning a four-song sequence. It led into Jimmy Cliff’s “Sitting In Limbo,” which the group debuted at LOCKN’ 2015 with Cliff and has played on just three occasions since then. This was followed by the group’s debut version of The Doors’ “Break On Through (To the Other Side)” which led into the band’s own “Bust It Big.” The six-piece then covered ZZ Top’s “Tush” for just the second time ever. A 23-minute section then followed with three band originals: “Red Hot Mama,” “Ribs And Whiskey” and “Contentment Blues.” From there the band closed out the set with another Don't Tell The Band track, “Thought Sausage” which moved into Warren Zevon’s “Lawyers, Guns, And Money.”
The second set began with a clip from the 1976 film Network, in which Howard Beale (Peter Finch) criticizes the state of culture and encourages everyone to push back in anger. This fittingly preceded Widespread Panic’s debut of Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” The Meat Puppets’ “Lake of Fire” came next, which the band last played on 4/21/18. “Papa Legba” followed and moved into a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Machine Gun” which the group was revisiting after a 82-show gap. This segued into The Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime,” Panic’s “Imitation Leather Shoes” and “Going Down,” a Don Nix song associated with Freddie King and played for the first time by Panic. The theme of descending into Hades continued with two more debut covers: Howlin’ Wolf’s “Down In The Bottom” and Curtis Mayfield’s “(Don't Worry) If There's A Hell Below We're All Going To Go” followed by Panic originals “King Baby” and “All Time Low.”
The three-song encore offered first-time takes on Dolly Parton’s “Halos & Horns” and Black Sabbath’s “Lord of This World” before and then the first version of the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” since 1/27/20. Prior to the Stones’ tune, Lane Kiffin (JoJo Herman) quit, echoing the decision that the Ole Miss football coach made on November 30, 2025 when he left the team and signed a contract with LSU.
Watch a couple highlights below:
10/31/26 Kiefer Lakefront Arena, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
1: Down > Sitting In Limbo > Break On Through (To the Other Side) > Bust It Big, Tush, Red Hot Mama > Ribs And Whiskey > Contentment Blues, Thought Sausage > Lawyers, Guns, And Money
2: We're Not Gonna Take It > Lake Of Fire > Papa Legba > Machine Gun > Life During Wartime > Imitation Leather Shoes > Going Down, Down In The Bottom > (Don't Worry) If There's A Hell Below We're All Going To Go > King Baby > All Time Low
E: Halos & Horns, Lord of This World > Sympathy for the Devil
Entire show with Nick Johnson on guitar
[Only '(Don't Worry) If There's A Hell Below We're All Going To Go', Only 'Break On Through (To the Other Side)', Only 'Down In The Bottom', Only 'Going Down', Only 'Halos & Horns', Only 'Lord of This World', Only 'We're Not Gonna Take It'; Audio from the movie 'Network' played before 'We're Not Gonna Take It'; Without Jimmy; 'Going Down' teases after 'Sitting In Limbo', 'Lake Of Fire', and 'Papa Legba'; Last 'Lake Of Fire' - 04/21/18, 292 shows; Last 'Sympathy for the Devil' - 01/27/20, 221 shows; Last 'Tush' - 10/10/21, 201 shows]
Setlist via Everyday Companion
