Spafford 5/4/19 NOLA.
I left St. Petersburg Florida late Friday night driving to Nola. Thinking about how awesome this was going to be. Sitting outside the venue and meeting up with a big group of nerds/fans the excitement was building pretty good. Everyone talking about how, and what they will sound like, and if it was going to be a “safe” played show.
Standing in line and meeting even more people the overall anticipation and super high energy was definitely flowing. Old fans and new all collaborating on the night to come.
Now to the show:
Lights go down, the crowd explodes in joy and Nick walks out. The pour of support and the welcoming back screams from the crowd was pure bliss. Nick was smiling so wide his cheeks couldn’t expand any bigger lol. You can see the emotion of happiness and ecstatic joy on his face. Rumor has it that he was super nervous before the show. The Ted bird whispered that to me after the show. Lol. Then “Take Your Mama,” starts. The open vocals lead up to the beginning build and like a switch, the floor started to bounce. The smiles between Jordan and Red and then Brian and Nick were priceless. The connection with the fans and the band was then locked in. Now there was a sound issue with Brian’s rig as his sound was definitely not pushing through. And here we go New Orleans!!!Then inside the venue sound was fixed by the middle of ETS. Now “ETS”was a great lift off for the night. Leading right into an Impressions which was a great surprise for me. They melted through it and right into Brian bringing the funk back and right into a tremendous building of solos and peaks that to me felt like a statement for the rest of the night. Before the show, many of us were discussing if any of the new songs were gonna be played. And here we get a “Comfortable”. A great new Red lead song that is making a good impression in the ears of the fans. After the show, Red and I were talking about the song and Red was just Happy he didn’t flub the lyrics. Lol
Now from here till the end we have lift off. “All In gets the energy really going as Jordan literally starts dancing up and down and side to side during the Jams. The crowd is totally responsive and again the floor was bouncing so hard that the boards of the floor were lifting off the concrete. It was so much fun. The Jam at the end was so pumped and energetic. Watching Nick just feeding the pocket and peaks of the music was super to see. There was really good stage communication between all of them. Then Nick starts a count and the chords to “Minds “Unchained” start and a beautiful vibe fell over the crowd. And Brian welcomes back Nick. Crowd was Lit!! The build ups in this song were epic. The jammy trancy jam that took place was started with a jazzy spacey feel. This is the moment that I think Nick started to feel very good and settled in. And the smile still is big. Jordan again just jamming and dancing on stage. He smiled and was enjoying the moment more then usual. We had talked about that at the end of the night. (More on hanging out the band later.) And a song I knew they would play and deliver, “The Postman.” If you have listened to any old versions of this song, you know that Brian and Nick always teams up in driving this song to epic levels and this one didn’t disappoint. Red building the song to its first big peak and they didn’t miss a beat. Nick is like a metronome. His high hat and snare technique is on the money and the rolls in off times are snuck in there like he has been there the whole time. He is so precise in this song. Tempo kept level and the band filling in the gaps in perfect time. The off beat fills thou!!!!! Red and Nick having a little duo at about the 13 min mark and in the venue sounded great. (The Nugs doesn’t do it justice.) Then Brian holds and bends a high note leading right into an epic solo of pure emotion and peaks and sending the ears into overdrive. Pushing the envelope, soaring the sound all through out the venue. If you have seen my video on this, the crowd on all levels of the balcony, the floor, and where I was on the rail we raging right along with Brian. The drum rolls at the end into the peak signature ending sound. Epic!
Now you just had three songs that averaged 20 min a song. So I’m thinking maybe a Slip or an Eternity. Cause there is still time and maybe a little cool down. But......
“Leave Your Light on” takes us to the end. A 25 min version of some great playing. Feeding off of each other and layering the sound effortlessly was a joy to hear. Even when they started to break it down, all the space was filled with music. The snare pops, Jordan driving the tempo with Nick. Red with the Organ like he is setting the table for everything to sit on. Then Red leaves the stage lol. He didn’t look mad he was laughing and looking at the band members with a smile. Then popping back in with Joel Cummings (Umphrey’s McGee) sitting in on one keyboard, Red on the atmospheric keyboard and Brian and Joel feeding off of each other. Taking the song on a journey and pushing the envelope. Brian and Joel taking us on a musical journey playing scale patterns and certain notes hitting at the right times. They bring the band together in the jam and we are back to blasting off again. The feels right here were again lifted very high!! The middle section here thou. Some great talking of instruments happening here. Trading off riffs and taking us on a musical journey from jazzy to rocky to dance your ass off fun. Red and Joel taking control at one point and lifting us again. Going dark sounding but up beat in tempo. Then Brian bringing swells of notes into the for front. This is just Epic Spafford right here. This is why!!! Tying all the sounds back together was flawless. Set closed.
Encore:
Now after the last four songs, totaling a time of 1hr 15min it was quiet easy to hear and say that Spafford will be just fine.
They walk back on stage for the encore and the “Weasel” makes an appearance. Straight forward rock right here. The last 4 min thou are pure adrenaline!!! It was the perfect ending to one FANTASTIC show.
