Sabbatical coming to an end

Acetate kicked ass last night at the Georgia Theatre. Kevin Sweeney rocked the house, Ben Mize provided a pounding beat, and Dave Schools, well, is Dave Schools. He knows how to drop the bombs. It's great rock 'n' roll.

Dave took a few minutes after the show to talk about the upcoming end of Panic's yearlong sabbatical:

When and where are you guys going to start rehearsals?

We'll start March first. We're still on vacation! We'll rehearse for a little while at the Fox before the shows [they start with a three-night run at the Fox in Atlanta March 24-26], but I'm sure we'll do most of it here in Athens. It's better to try and shake the rust off in a familiar setting.

So how was the year off?

I think everybody had a great year off. Everybody did what they wanted to do. I didn't really have a year off, I played in five bands. JoJo did a lot of work having a baby, and he put out a record. Todd put out a record and did a tour. JB has been writing songs and gardening most likely. George went off to climb the Himalayas or something. After 20 years, no matter what it is that you do, it's good for you. ...

Are you ready to hit the road again?

I wasn't quite ready, but then I walked into the Brown Cat office and saw the biggest mountain of mail order requests that I've ever seen. It's nice to know no one forgot about us.

(A mutual acquaintance) told me that you'll probably just wait until a few days before the shows to begin rehearsals at the Fox.

That's what Bruce Hampton told me at the Christmas jam. He goes, "If you guys were real men, you wouldn't rehearse until you set foot on stage at the Fox." I said, "I agree with you. That would give me two more weeks off!"

You've done a lot of things this year. What's been the most fun?

Well, they've all been fun in their own ways. Probably the most comedy was J Mascis and the Fog. It's Kevin Sweeney running sound. And Kyle Spencer of Tom Collins on drums. And fucking J Mascis. Just the four of us together up the East Coast. We had a ball. Stockholm Syndrome was a lot of work. It was great fun, and by the end of the fall tour, we proved to ourselves that with a lot of hard work, you can become a band pretty quickly. We're excited to see what the future holds for that.

You had a good year off, didn't you?

I had a great time. It's been a blast, and I can't wait for the next year off (laughs).

What are Panic's plans? You're going to be doing a bunch of shows right off the bat. Any plans to get back into the studio?

Yeah, we're going to do a six-week tour, about 35 shows. It's what comes natural. There's not going to be a record until next year. We just want to get back to playing and see what we can come up with out there.

Have you been in touch with the guys through the year off?

Yeah, I've seen all of them here and there. I saw JoJo in Nashville, George in Oxford, ran across J.B. here in Athens, of course I see Todd all the time living here, Sunny I see. We're a family. But more than just needing a year off the road, we needed a year just to do what we need to do by ourselves – be with our families, start families, avoid having families (laughs). I think I'm the only guy I know without a kid right now. But it's been great and I'm really looking forward to getting back to it. The Fox is a great place to get back into it.

You seem pretty happy.

I'm real happy. I can't complain.

Posted by David Bill at January 21, 2005 11:46 AM