Registration is required.) Artwork and Merch Sales (Anyone, including students at any level, may attend as audience participants.
Advanced undergraduate students may submit abstracts to be considered for inclusion in the Student Scholar session. This event is an academic conference, not a class.
The conference will be open to the public, but you will need to register. Visit Focused Vision’s online photo gallery. You can purchase an event poster through the artist’s website. You can view video recordings of conference presentations by following links to individual panels on the program or visiting the conference media playlist.
The effects of this one may be felt for years to come.How can I access conference presentations? The band just announced a pair of NYC post-Phish gigs and an opening slot for Lotus back here in November.īut for one long night in Chicago, Spafford provided an epic night of entertainment. That's about to happen for many more people across the country. The jamming far outweighed much of the composition anyway, but it was also nice to just go along for the ride. Not being familar with the originals was kind of a blessing. Just enough to ground the crowd before the band takes off yet again. Spafford doesn't get too cute with covers - just some meat-and-potatoes classic rock and soul (Stevie Wonder's "Living For The City" opened the night's second set, a Doobie Brothers debut kicked off the third). Reflexive fist-pumps and can-you-believe-it looks fall gradually, then all-at-once, over the crowd upon recognition of these moments. Long, winding, thoughtful four-way conversations building up to a peak (or three. Most of these jams sneak up on you in a way not employed consistently since the "Antelopes" and "David Bowie"s of 90s era Phish. With probably the highest ratio of songs to jams of any band this side of JRAD, they swing the improvisational bat often and they swing it hard - on Friday night they made lots of solid contact. Everything else seems to fall into place. First order of business: scratching the band's collective itch. Without falling back on the crutches of untz-rock, two-chord funk or (God forbid) hippie-dippie bullshit, the music on Friday doesn't really even ask to be liked, but is highly likeable nonetheless (for the right type of listener). I couldn't help but think of this exchange from the "Homerpalooza" episode of The Simpsons. It's confident, patient communication that needn't be dressed up in anything to smack the listener right in the sweet spot. Their look is profoundly uncool - so much so that it's kinda cool. Yes, this is a jamband, almost archetypically so.īut while 21st century jambands can often slip precariously into groan-inducing stylistic choices, Spafford just retreats into the music. Despite the inconvenience of two seperate admissions and the emptying of the room in between (somewhat charming in its uniqueness), Spafford managed to deliver well over five hours of music without repeating songs, with plenty of room for the jams. Luckily, this is the type of band who can rise to the occasion. To make a case to not only enjoy them, but to help spread the word. I sense many daytime festival slots, late night after parties and opening gigs in the band's future, but over the course of four sets on a tiny stage in Chicago, Spafford would have to give everything they had - to demonstrate the potential of their enterprise. They will establish the next beach-head for the band as they look to branch out further and spread their gospel. More than a few interested parties were shut out, creating an even greater sense of anticipation.įor a band who has built a career largely on word-of-mouth, these will be the folks that will have to be won over. It didn't draw curiousity seekers - the folks that sold out the Tonic Room had to be on the ball, as tickets were snatched up with hours of their onsale annoucement. While many of the stops on the Break Out itenerary fell on weeknights, or in relative backwaters, Friday's gig in a cozy room in the big city was the showcase. But, SoundCloud and Mixlr know no geographical constraints - and there is something about their improvisations that can't be contained, regardless of the physical distance between their homebase and a host of potential fans who have been captivated by their recordings. Tucked away in the wide-open expanses of the southwest, it's been physically difficult for the four-piece to "Break Out", which happens to be the name of this tour, their first east of the Mississippi. It was a Friday night at Chicago's Tonic Room, but also probably the important show in the career of Prescott, Arizona's Spafford.
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