Spafford continued their extensive Winter Tour 2019 on Wednesday, February 20, with a performance at Jacksonville, Florida’s 1904 Music Hall. The show, which kicked off the group’s four-night run across the Sunshine State, saw the Arizona-based jam band pay tribute to the Allman Brothers Band through three covers, tipping their hat to the iconic rock act that formed in the city exactly 50 years ago.
Spafford sandwiched their entire performance between two ABB classics, opening with “Midnight Rider” and offering an encore of “Soulshine.” Both numbers had not been performed since 2017. “Midnight Rider” was last played in April 2017 during a home-state show in Phoenix, marking the band’s 17th performance of the 1970 hit after a 174 show gap. The encore marked the group’s second-ever rendition of “Soulshine,” following up its debut performance during a set at Ruidoso, New Mexico’s Wind Rider Mountain Festival in May 2017.
After the first set began with “Midnight Rider,” Spafford offered two originals: “Plans” and “The Remedy.” To close the four-song first set, the group again returned to the Allman Brothers Band’s catalog, performing a shred-heavy take on “Whipping Post.” Unlike the other two ABB songs, “Whipping Post” is a newer addition to the group’s songbook; the beloved 1969 standard was debuted by Spafford in December during their New Year’s Eve run in Arizona.
For the second frame, Spafford stuck to their own originals, primarily offering relatively new songs debuted in the last two years. The first two songs, “Lovesick Melody” and “Soil,” were both debuted at the tail-end of 2017, with around 30 previous plays each. From there, the band shifted into a brand-new song, “The Hard Way,” that was debuted at the beginning of February, marking the number’s third performance ever. “Lonely,” a song dating back to 2013, served as the oldest original of the set, and was followed by setlist rarity “Levilan Shores,” which has only been played a dozen times in around three years. To close the set, again Spafford offered a new song, “Dirtbath,” which was similarly debuted in the beginning of February and had only been played two times prior to the Jacksonville show.
Setlist (via Spaffnerds.com)
Set One: Midnight Rider, Plans, The Remedy, Whipping Post
Set Two: Lovesick Melody > Soil, The Hard Way, Lonely, Levilan Shores, Dirtbath
Encore: Soulshine
