Review: 2018-10-12 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY
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Setlist, Attendance, and Recordings for: 2018-10-12 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY
Wow…what a killer weekend! Each night was sick and so great to see so many friends and Nerds at the show! Awesome to meet so many of you, even if I don’t remember it…post show can get pretty …hazy.
Anyway…Fuck Yeah, Friday night was sick.
After some hiccups trying to get out of work on time, I made it over to the venue to VIP Check-In and grabbed my poster and cup then went and got in line with all the Nerds already waiting out front. They let us in about 6:30 to catch the tail end of Soundcheck which included a rocking version of Simon & Lily, then after some discussion, a sick In the Eyes of Thieves.
After Soundcheck, we were all kept in the venue until showtime - and the bars weren’t serving yet (lame) - but it gave us a chance to just hang out downstairs and say hi to a few more Nerds I saw rolling in then get up to a good spot before showtime.
Set 1:
A fat Lovesick Melody > Soil to open things up was great way to start the weekend. Really digging Lovesick Melody lately and have been loving the Soil jams since they started playing it. Funkadelic > The Remedy…FUNKADELIC > THE REMEDY. It’s just that fucking good, like for real. I love the Funkadelic riff and anyone that was around me at all this weekend probably heard me and my buddy singing it “ba-da da-da dat-dat-da baaaa-da da-da dat-dat-da” over and over…It’s Tuesday as I (started) writing this and I am still catching myself singing it. The groove into The Remedy was pretty stellar and then Remedy went straight bananas... it was sick. I’ve only caught Remedy once before, which was a pretty stand-out version (1/25/17 in Asbury - check that out, I’ll wait..) so this had a lot to live up to, and it nailed it. Really cool jam here, dug the almost post rock kinda feel to it as it built up before Brian did those Brian things to bring us back into it. Honestly, they could have just ended the set there and I would have talked about how good it was for weeks. Living for the City was a great choice for a set closer and got me dancing into set break with everyone else.
BA-DA DA-DA DAT-DAT-DA BAAAAA-DA DA-DA DAT-DAT-DA
BA-DA DA-DA DAT-DAT-DA BAAAAA-DA DA-DA DAT-DAT-DA
BA-DA DA-DA DAT-DAT-DA BAAAAA-DA DA-DA DAT-DAT-DA
Oh, right…Set 2:
The Postman is always a great set opener and this one did not disappoint. Some really great interplay between the band but so much from Brian & Cam it was getting ridiculous. Cam has been getting better and better with the rest of them over the past year and a half and now that he’s really started to push everyone harder and harder its great. You can tell Brian digs it too. So many times over the weekend Cam would start going ape shit and Brian would just light up and blast it was great. I am a very big fan of Hollywood and this was my first time (I think) catching it live. The jams out of this have been getting cooler and cooler lately and after the whistling section that felt like a “45 minute bird of paradise duet in an electric rain forest on one of the rings of Saturn” (shout out to @Johnny-Love - couldn’t have worded that better myself) they take us through a really cool jam that I’m definitely going to be listening to more and more. The jam eventually takes a darker turn and works its way into the dirty funk Weasel intro. Weasel wasted no time, about 3 minutes in and it was a full-on dance party. This kind of stuff is what really got me to love Spafford. They can be untzing and getting weird but Red stays on that Electric Piano sound and just keeps them grounded and its such a cool combination that I love. Not that there's anything wrong with big 20 minute dance party jams, I get it - I do drugs, so I love them too, but this is better. I'm a huge fan of the bliss jams and it’d be a really hard choice if someone asked me to choose between Palisades and Alternate Ending as my favorite but we got both over the weekend so luckily I didn’t have to. The Palisades jam was awesome and a great, b-e-a-utiful peak. HARD STOP. WEASEL DANCE PARTY IS BACK. Right where they left off and they rock us full blast to close the set. I’m tired. But I can always keep dancing.
Encore:
I think I saw the setlist someone got listing something else for the encore but I’m really glad they decided to do some Van instead. Have always loved Into The Mystic and after not hearing much in the way of Red vocals all night, it was really great.
Truly, a beautiful night of music…really hard to pick a favorite but this show is definitely in the Top 3 for the weekend.
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The recording does no justice to the way their whistles sounded in that hall. It wasn’t a long show but the playing was exquisite throughout and they moved the crowd through bliss and filth and untz with a deft touch
