Review: 2018-07-29 - Element Music Festival - British Columbia, CA
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Setlist, Attendance, and Recordings for: 2018-07-29 - Element Music Festival - British Columbia, CA
After the late night madness, Spafford moved from the barn to the main stage which has a beautiful background of mountains, a lake, and trees as far as the eye can see. Set time was 5:15pm and the weather gods provided cloud cover for the opening of the set. This allowed for maximum daytime dancing! The crowd was once again very intimate as this was the Sunday of the festival and many guests had left earlier in the day (still was basically under 100 people). As we approached the stage we noticed two extra microphones in the back left corner. Natalie Cressman and Jennifer Hartswick from Trey Anastasio Band were artists at large and immediately the wheels started turning in my head on what song would they bring out horns for? I was freaking STOKED!
I've read a lot of times on the forums and Facebook that a lot of people like Spafford because of their ability to open a set stronger than most bands we see, and man if you're one of those people wait till you listen to this. Lonely began the set in an un-freaking-believable 30 min performance that is Certified "Do not drive while listening to this song." Mr. Cameron Laforest puts on an absolute clinic laying down fantastic grooves that the band could create jams on top of. First time I can remember looking at my phone was around the 20 min mark in the midst of Red and Brian trading big sections of the jam and thinking to myself, "Are we still in Lonely?" Spafford continued on to the final peak and as Jordan sang the final verse I checked the clock and was amazed we were at the 30 min mark.
My Road (My Road) finally showed its head as the second song of the set. After the opening section by Red, the jam took a strong opening form grooving nicely along but sort of got jammed into the noodle infinity for a little bit before nicely switching gears and ending in a strong peak by Brian. The rocking opening of Ain't That Wrong continued the set. In the middle of ATW a bunch of kids and adults wearing costumes walked through the crowd and some of them were on stilts (the festival is very family friendly there was a whole kids area with bubbles and different activities to do). Ain't That Wrong's jam kept the foot on the gas pedal and featured a strong solo by Mr. Moss.
In an interesting decision a stand alone Reprise came next which i hoped meant it was going to get the royal jam treatment but just had a small jam section attached to it before going into the ending guitar rift (to complete the America from last night, I suppose). In the biggest "bust out" of the weekend Legend served as the lovely cooldown song after the 4-song smack down (clocking in about 1 hour and 10mins). Legend was last time played at Ullrs Tavern Winter Park, CO on March 17th. The crowd pleasing Leave the Light On came over the speakers next and the long jam theme continued. Jam one took on a couple different themes and we all floated along soaking in the sun that had come out of the clouds and cheers rang out as the band entered the middle vocal section. Spafford then plunged into the dark second jam and the daytime dance moves came out in full force and Jen and Natalie could be seen coming onto the back of the stage getting their instruments warmed up.
As Leave the Light On finished I looked at the clock: there were only 10 minutes left before the end of the set. I was guessing some sort of cover as to what they would play with the TAB horns. Much to my excitement the sound of Galisteo Way filled the mountain air. Jen and Natalie didn't start playing until the quick shuffle part after the 2nd chorus. Natalie took the first solo on trombone and everyone in the band got a huge infectious smile on their face. You couldn't help but smile and dance. Jen on trumpet took the next solo as the band ran through the same quick shuffle before going into the chorus once again. The jam continued the horny madness and added in Brian as the three of them traded solos back and forth. Red couldn't contain himself... he was just laughing and smiling. The set ended with the crowd and the band singing together and clocked in at a 2-hour-and-5-min 7 song magical afternoon set. I can't wait to hear all your comments when the recording drops and as happy as the band was with the horns I don't think it's the last we will see of some Spafford Horn Funk.
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And also, as always, available in the embedded media player on the show page, here:
https://spaffnerds.com/shows/2018-07-29
Thank you @ebernet for taping these!
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@ebernet I think the tracking is off on the recording.
About 1/2 way through "The Reprise" track, Legend begins.
The track labeled "Legend" is actually "Leave the Light On"
and the track labeled "Leave The Light On" is the jam from LTLO. -
@Damian Not sure how I fucked that one up.... Weird. Anyway, updated those 3 files on archive, so if you want a corrected set just download tracks 4, 5, and 6 from that night
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@ebernet now it's only showing 4 tracks. The flac may be correct though. Idk ...
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@Damian Yeah it takes it a little while to upload everything and reserve. Wait 15 minutes or so.......
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@ebernet re-render, re-derive. Not reserve.... Give it a few more minutes should be all set.
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ug... patience. You never said that was part of it.
Great work @ebernet. Thank you! This set is amazing.
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@Damian Should be good to go now!
