I'm Killing It! Sticker Raffle #1: First Spafford Show
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I wish I had a good story to tell about my first shows in 2013 at the Sail Inn, but those nights tend to blend together. I'm sure I had a wonderful time. I pretty much lived at the Sail for years before that, and was lucky to see a ton of great music. There was already hype building around these guys, having played the inside stage earlier, and right away I could tell why. Their tightness and ability to improvise really stood out to me, and I was excited to find some live recordings online. I made sure to catch them again a few more times there in 2013, and had my face melted at NYE 2013 on the patio. I started shooting photos at their shows in May 2014, saw my first shows outside of AZ soon after and I've been going strong ever since
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Ottawa 2016 on the river. Basically playing a show in the middle of nowhere on a deck on the fox river. Perfect night except I met some crazy kids from Milwaukee.
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My first show was on a Wednesday night at the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, NJ. My friends and I plus about 20 other people raged what felt like a private Spafford show. Got the salamander song my first show and was really impressed by the jams that went down that night. Also got like 100 "Im killing it" stickers and have stuck them all since, so I need to more! ... or another Spafford show in Jersey
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My first show was at the Sail Inn inside Fall of 2012. Jordan was wearing a fedora. I am a Deadhead who had just recently rediscovered Phish. I was not all that sold on "other" music honestly but I had met this cool guy and he'd asked me so....
It felt like the show lasted 10 minutes. I couldn't believe it was over already. I was having so much fun. They had just started I swear. But it was over and I remember thinking....and I've never said this about any other local band ever...these guys are going somewhere. They are gonna be huge. Everyone will LOVE them.
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@Christian-Harnisch I love that show bro. I wish I had gone.
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My first Spafford show was this past January at Milkboy in Philly. I had been listening to the band since the beginning of last year, but living in Maryland and being unable to attend the post-Phish shows for New Years, this was my first chance to actually see them live. Looking back, I can still remember how excited I was seeing the initial show announcement, and realizing that the wait was finally over. After making my way up 95 to a soundtrack of the Pizza & Cabin jams in what seemed like no time at all, I arrived in Philadelphia and made my way to the show. As I made my way up the narrow staircase, I remember thinking how cool it was going to be to see a band I liked this much in a venue this small. Once I picked up both the tour and show poster, I grabbed a beer and waited for Spafford to hit the stage. Although I had been waiting for this concert for almost a year at this point, and had listened to the band extensively, I still had almost no idea what to expect, and was probably a little bit nervous that they would not be able to live up to my lofty expectations. Fortunately, the first 30 minutes of the show consisted of an incredible VBD>LTLO, which certainly buried any doubts myself and the rest of the audience could have possessed. The rest of the night was a blur, and I am pretty sure the majority of my thoughts were made up of a combination of "Wow this band is awesome" and "Holy shit this place is way too crowded". As I was walking out, I got to talk to Brian for a minute, who was as humble as could be, even though he had just melted the faces of everyone in the venue, and I was able to express my gratitude for the performance I had just seen and my excitement for future shows. Soaking in the previous night the next day on the drive home, I had the realization that I would need to see this band as much as I possibly could in the future, and since then I have been fortunate enough to see them three more times (Baltimore, Charlottesville & Brooklyn) and will be seeing them for the fifth come August 5th. Although I have enjoyed seeing the band in bars and smaller clubs, I'm looking forward to seeing them grow in the near future and selling out larger and larger venues.
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@Todd-Cully Awesome story man! Love the hug from Jordan. He's really the nicest human alive.
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@phokus I've listened to a bit of Fruition. Solid band. Love the sound.
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My first Spafford show... my first Spafford show. Well... I have to start off with a reference to White Men Can't Jump.
White Men Can't Hear Jimi Hendrix (Only listen …) – 01:58
— Petter AndresenYou see... I got a chance to see Spafford on 12/31/2014... but all I did was LISTEN to Spafford. I'm embarrassed to say that I did not have a moment of true awakening. The show was fun, but the venue was loud, the sound wasn't great, and I was really lamenting NOT being at MSG for Phish New Years. I brought my pouty pants and didn't HEAR Spafford.
Fast forward a few years. 12/30/2016. We hosted a gathering of Phish fans including some of the Arizona crew that are neck deep in the Spafford scene. We had a crew of a dozen or more, commonly known as the Shit Show, in our entourage and at least another dozen who would meet us at American Beauty for the after show.
We left YEMSG and wandered out into the street. Because so much of the crew was from out of town, and our fearless leader Superman was engaged elsewhere, I was saddled with the task of herding a bunch of spunions through the NYC streets. As we headed south on broadway I realized how monumental this task was going to be. The entire street was covered with nitrous tanks and used balloons and it was pretty clear the police were indifferent to this fiasco. Realizing the enormity of what I faced I reached into my pocket and found... @Mustard's blue squeeker tennis ball. It was just what I needed.
One good squeeze and half of the spunions on the block were at attention. One more and a call of "let's go" and we were on our way. Before I knew it we were in front of American Beauty and on our way into the back. Others have mentioned the opening licks, @RadiantDarkness dancing in a cage above the stage, but for me... I could finally HEAR Spafford. I was in my city, after seeing Phish at my home venue, and I was with my very own band of merry pranksters. In that moment I was completely sold. I was all in for the ride...
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@damian
The squeeze ball was brilliant btw. It's something I've planned on adding to my kit for anytime I'm travelling with a group. I was often on the verge of wandering absently into the streets of New York, or about to freak out when I'd hear that happy squeak, and I'd be back in the fold.
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@Tim-Reid
Those WiscoBoys will seriously hijack a weekend!
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@SassyPete Dude it was a TOTAL coincidence. I had had Mustard at the field near my house that day and happened to bring the same coat to NYC. But yeah, once it was there I realized it's a staple.
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@myanruth
That's a great story! I remember That feeling of excitement and amazement leaving my first show. -
@damian
That's funny! Keli said it was a happy accident.
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@Andrew-Hilston
I forgot about free shows! Those are indeed a thing of the past. Hahaha -
@catfishsteve
Describing the band is always a struggle. To people outside the scene it just ends up being a bunch of gibberish. "So, they sound like funk, rock, reggae, and edm? So, they're just a big mishmash?"
To people in the scene it's describing them without constantly dropping other band's names that is difficult. And trying to convince them that Spafford is better than other jam bands without sounding like you're using hyperbole.
Ahh, the struggles of a Spaffnerd.
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@Poppa
I remember that show too! Even though Spafford played early they brought more people than anyone except Panic I expect. There was nobody watching the first act or two. Then Spafford took the stage, and the crowd finally arrived! They brought the crowd to its feet and set the rest of the acts up nicely. It was my first time seeing them at a festival, and I just remember being so disappointed when they were done in 45 minutes. I think they did 4 songs.
I guess I could check the show stats for that. Haha -
@SassyPete Yes, it was a little too short, but it was enough to know I was hooked and would be attending a lot of local shows. Made my year living in Arizona all that much better and met some awesome people in the process.
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Whats up Spaffnerds! Thanks to this website, I now know the date of my first Spafford show. It was 5-19-12 at the old Quixote's in Denver. Back in those days I was constantly going to shows looking for good new jam bands. Little did I know, the show I was about to see would become my favorite band.
When I saw this band called Spafford on the Quixote's website, I decided to google them and came upon a video of the band covering Men at Work's -Land Down Under. The video was from September 2011, I think. It's still up and still hilarious to watch the people dancing in that video. I'd never heard of anyone covering this song before and Spafford completely jammed the shit out of it. From that moment, I was hooked and had to see the show.
I remember getting to the show a little early to play ping pong. After crushing my friend, we decided to sit down next to the stage. We ended up talking to this guy sitting next to the stage for about 10 minutes. His name was Nick and he played drums for Spafford. Nick was a super cool and gave me a great first impression of what these guys were like.
I don't remember much of the show, so I'm really hoping a setlist pops up someday, but there were a lot of Phish covers in the second set. I do remember talking to Brian at set break and trying to convince him to move the band to Denver for more exposure. He respectfully declined, and I will always admire them for staying close to home, even if it meant spending more time breaking out.
I continued to be amazed at how much this band and fan base has grown over the last 5 years. It was rough seeing these guys play Denver in front of 10 people sometimes, but to hear they are playing the Ogden (1600 people), I couldn't be happier for this band, the fans and the future of improv music.
