Widespread Panic and I have been seeing each other for nearly a decade, and we’re still in love. Not that we haven’t had our rocky points. After five years of passionate weekend rendezvous across the Southeast, she went through some hard family times. Her soul was still spirited, but deflated, and our multi-day trips became occasional one-night affairs when she rolled through town on business. I missed her, but it was harder to be satisfied.

Until Saturday. Panic must have sensed I was itching to come back, and rode into town with a candle ready to kindle. She gently reminded me of days gone by on a Friday night “Airplane” ride, before a second set drive through “Surprise Valley” while J.J. Cale’s “Ride Me High” played on the radio. As JB crooned, “Heaven is a place, where nothing, nothing ever happens,” I could feel that Saturday would be a second honeymoon.

And it was — just like our first date in Raleigh years ago. We went “Walkin’ (For Your Love)” while sippin’ on a “Tall Boy,” thinking about all the “Goodpeople” who packed the coliseum with so much energy it felt like an intimate family gathering. When the second set opened with “Disco,” (the same second set opener and highlight of my last show with Mikey  at Bonnaroo 2002), I knew a renaissance had come. Sometime after howling through “Werewolves of London,” I got distracted by a “Red Hot Mama” in the stands, but I got stoned on a Van Morrison encore that brought me back to earth. “Papa’s Home” got me boogying on out the door, tempted to get on the train to Jacksonville and do one more night. My health begged to differ, but Panic, I won’t stray far again.