By Paul Robicheau

Playing nearly 60 songs across a trio of near-three-hour shows,  jam-rockers Widespread Panic certainly made their return to Boston count.

John Bell (center) with Duane Trucks and Domingo Ortiz of Widespread Panic at MGM Fenway. Photo: Paul Robicheau

The name Widespread Panic has always been a misnomer for the Georgia band that proves the slow and steady wins the race. It’s hard to believe the laconic Southern group has been around for 40 years, rivaling Phish in longevity among a second generation of popular jam-rockers. Unlike many modern jambands, Widespread Panic more closely sticks to the earthy blues roots of predecessors like the Allman Brothers Band and Grateful Dead in a relatively stoic way while it goes about its business onstage.

But that didn’t stop fervent fans from flocking to MGM Music Hall at Fenway for three nights of Widespread Panic on the band’s first Boston visit in a decade. In contrast to typical touring, the group now hits a city every few weeks for a multi-night stand, allowing time off between dates, a smart lifestyle option for members in their early 60s (and for 73-year-old percussionist Domingo “Sonny” Ortiz). The band didn’t quite fill the 5,000-seat MGM on any night from Thursday through Saturday, but that made it easier for anybody to get tickets.

Dave Schools of Widespread Panic at MGM Fenway. Photo: Paul Robicheau

To the uninitiated or even the casual fan, a lot of songs in Panic’s vast live repertoire can blur together with a similar, swampy sound – and good luck trying to decipher many of the words sung by frontman John Bell in his pinched, arcing growl. But Boston diehards soaked it all in with a knowing appreciation for the ride – and that’s what it was. Across three nights of wholly different songs and moods, variety poked through the band’s music.

A cool Thursday night offered a slow build as the sextet began to settle in on opening night, though a 12-minute “Bear’s Gone Fishin” elicited a big jam powered by guitarist Jimmy Herring’s spiraling trills and subtle volume swells. A friend of the band since its early days, Herring joined in 2006 (a few years after co-founder Michael Houser died of cancer) and solidified that lead-guitar spot after stints with the Dead and the Allmans. Like Nels Cline in Wilco, Herring serves Panic as a virtuoso ringer who can grab the reins, though he mines a more narrow range with his quicksilver soloing. As a member of  Col. Bruce Hampton’s Aquarium Rescue Unit in the 1990s, he regularly covered the standard “Fixin’ to Die,” which lent a spark near the end of Thursday’s first set, with Bell’s slide guitar biting in contrast to Herring’s bluegrass-nimble runs.

Yet Thursday really took off in the middle of its second set when another old friend, Chuck Leavell (Rolling Stones, 1970s Allmans), came out to play rippling piano on J.J. Cale’s “Ride Me High.” Its funky jam grew into chaotic free form (rare Dead-style abstraction for Panic) that stretched the tune to 17 minutes, Herring adding vibrato whines and chordal slashes before it slid into “Ain’t Life Grand,” which contained one of Panic’s few overt choruses. From there, the group sealed the night with a wistful cover of “Don’t Be Denied” (Bell nailing Neil Young in falsetto), early original “Chilly Water” (its lyrics prompting some fans on the floor to fling water into the air), and a straightforward, rocking encore of Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime.”

Jimmy Herring with JoJo Hermann of Widespread Panic at MGM Fenway. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Friday revealed a more energized Widespread Panic, particularly its rhythm section. A decade since joining the band, drummer Duane Trucks (younger brother of guitarist Derek) fits the group’s non-flashy, workingman aesthetic, rounding his beats with beefy, thumping toms that fortify the band’s cycling drive. Ortiz was also more charged from the start on Friday, laying into his timbales on a scorching “Henry Parsons Died.” A 10-minute “Smokestack Lightning,” a Howlin’ Wolf blues known from the Grateful Dead repertoire, also highlighted the first set, Bell effectively pouring himself into its vocal like a carnival barker who’d come back as a ghost.

The band kept flexing through Friday’s second set, from the ebb and flow of an extended “Diner,” with Bell musing over Ortiz’s conga taps and Herring riding his whammy bar over sliding chords, into a raw cover of Tom Waits’ “Goin’ Out West.” Bell’s exclamation of “I got hair on my chest, I look good without a shirt” cut through, while Herring’s guitar moaned over the spidery anchor of Dave Schools’ six-string bass. A rocking “Bust it Big” set up a 14-minute duet of drums and percussion that went on far too long, though Trucks and Ortiz never lagged in the intensity of their thoughtful tradeoffs. And the other players returned to regain momentum with “Saint Ex” (which included Black Sabbath-like guitar tones from Herring) and the marching “Climb to Safety,” featuring another of Panic’s more memorable chorus hooks, this time with Schools and keyboardist John “Jo-Jo” Hermann on backing vocals. And Bell burrowed into Buffalo Springfield’s message song “For What’s It’s Worth” with one of his clearest vocals in Friday’s encore.

John Bell of Widespread Panic at MGM Fenway. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Saturday rounded out the MGM run in a more relaxed zone, though it had plenty of upbeat moments, including spirited, old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll in Professor Longhair’s “Red Beans” to close the first set. The second set wound down with Hermann’s firm piano strokes signaling Traffic’s “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys,” shrouded in a blue-lit fog while Bell’s high inflections bore a brief similarity to Dave Matthews. The sextet segued into a rollicking “All Time Low” and back into “Low Spark” before capping the segment with a spirited reprise of “Surprise Valley” from earlier in the set.

Saturday’s encore took a sweet turn with the breezy “Blue Indian” and a sublime cover of “Dear Prudence,” one of the weekend’s most beautiful performances, with Bell bathed in cross-lights underscored by Herring’s brittle, melodic guitar – before a shuffling “Porch Song” took it all home. Playing nearly 60 songs across three near-three-hour shows, Widespread Panic certainly made its return to Boston count – even if some of it was a blur. Hopefully the next time will come a lot sooner than the last.

Paul Robicheau served more than 20 years as contributing editor for music at the Improper Bostonian in addition to writing and photography for the Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He was also the founding arts editor of Boston Metro.