Right now I'm in a transitional phase. I made the correct decision to leave a job I was unhappy doing. Last weekend I started working at Geneseo Brewing Co. in the kitchen. I will be doing UPS driver helper in December. It felt like with this roadtrip I got back to being me. For the last 9 months I worked hard and tried my best at what ultimately was not a good fit for me. Yesterday I drove by myself to Omaha for Spafford. It was a crisp autumnal day with clear skies but temperatures in the 40s. The corn and soybean harvest heads toward the home stretch. I saw equipment in the fields until well after dark. With daylight savings over the weekend I'm still getting used to it being darker earlier. I stopped in Avoca on my way there and ate at Taco John's which proved to be a rookie mistake. With this being a 5 hour trip each way you have some time to reflect on things.
I found a parking spot near the venue which was something at these smaller funky bars that I worry about. Everything worked out well on this road trip. It was good to see Low Soxx from The Bort. There was maybe a 100 people or so. It was a bar setting. There was one taper. I was right up front for the first set. It was a loose crowd and you could move around easily. Kenny showed up at setbreak and I'm glad he checked Spafford out.
I liked watching the group interaction before they took the stage. It reminded me of a basketball team. They all slapped hands as they walked out of the dressing room. Being up close I felt the drums were a bit loud in the mix. Red wasn't turned up loud enough on the keys. They replaced one of Brian Moss' guitar pedals on the go right as the show started. I was impressed with the guitar tech's prowess under pressure. Backdoor Funk was the song from this band that initially made me a fan from a show from Las Vegas 2015. Remedy was a patient, extended version that had a segue into Walls. Moss tipped his hand pretty early on the segue. Remedy > Walls was a major highlight of the show. Walls clocks in around 17 minutes. Legend featured some slower blues work. Slip and Squander is probably Spafford's most accessible song and it worked well to close out the set. Anchoring this version was solid bass work from Jordan Fairless. Moss' solo at the end was huge per usual. I was impressed with the first set.
The second set started with a 20 minute version of Leave the Light On. Both jams were successful, especially a powerful one after the second verse. I dig Space Gagdet with its implied Inspector Gadget theme portion. That was a cartoon I watched a lot back in the day. Todd's Tots is one of their better songs in my opinion. Some of the parts remind me in a good way of Pat Metheny Group. All My Friends was followed by Bee Jam which was more contained than the now famous version from Columbia, MO this fall. I was delighted by the choice of Minds Unchained at that juncture. Overall I was very happy about the playing and the song selection. For the encore they did their reggae take on The Band's "I Shall Be Released". The guitar tech gave me Brian Moss' stage setlist after the encore. This was my 3rd time seeing Spafford. It's fun to have a new thing to nerd out to, learn, and enjoy. It was a lot of driving but I'm glad I went. I had breakfast at McD in Newton by the Iowa Speedway. Earlier in the day my sister had her baby. Now I'm the uncle of Tommy Lake Dawson.
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