Third Day was awesome. The groups that played before Third Day were great as well - Hyperstatic Union and The David Crowder Band. I'm not sure I understand the "warm up" band thing. Personally, I had to ration out my exuberance because I wasn't sure I was going to be able to yell and scream like an idiot for three straight hours. So it was, scream a little - take a break. Scream a little more, take a break. Time to stand! Okay, let's sit down now. I'm not as young as I use to be.
This was my first real concert. The closest I've come in the past was probably Lord of the Dance, which was awesome too although in a slightly different way. You didn't have to stand and scream as much, which was good, but there was probably more extended applause situations there than at Sunday's concert.
I realize now that people who try to buy tickets for the front row are screened. Did you know this? You have to be good at standing, holding your hands in the air and swaying back and forth. The front row did a great job. They also spelled out something about it being Mike's 40th birthday and caught the attention of the lead singer of Third Day, who led the audience in "Happy Birthday to You." This was extremely cool - I mean, how many fans get a Happy Birthday song from their favorite band? - but I was wondering what affect this would have on Connor. Because just before the concert, at dinner, we had a discussion of why restaurants don't seem to sing "Happy Birthday to You" anymore but sing their own special birthday song. I posited that it was because "Happy Birthday to You" was copyright protected and it would technically be illegal unless you paid the copyright holders. I think this blew his mind, because the inevitable conclusion is that everyone singing that song is technically breaking the law. And of course, right after that conversation we all did just that.
(Here's a link to Wikipedia's "Happy Birthday to You" discussion. The actual copyright issue is over playing the song for profit, so we're actually in the clear.)
Another highlight of the evening was Third Day's support of World Vision. They had booths to sign up to support World Vision, and showed a film of their work in Africa during the intermission. Alert Reader Tammy and I support a child through World Vision and have for many years. It's been fascinating getting letters from her and seeing her development over the years. I know that we sometimes spend money on things are are essentially meaningless (he says, on Halloween) but money spent helping a vulnerable child is a total blessing.
As I said earlier, I hadn't been to a concert before but we all know what happens at the end of a concert, right? I'll give you a few seconds to think about that. The band stops, says good night and... that's right. People clap and cheer and scream and the band comes back out for an... "encore." (Merriam-Webster calls an encore: a reappearance or additional performance demanded by an audience.) However, at the end of the show I was looking around, and then I turned back to where my family was and they were gone. GONE. POOF. They, like Elvis, had left the building. And I don't mean left as in it's-time-to-go left, I mean left as in FLED. Later, when I caught up with my family, I asked why were leaving. Alert Concert Goer Tammy explained that the concert was over and we could go now and get out of the tangle of cars that would soon ensue in the parking lot. Just about then we heard the band take the stage again and ask if they could sing some more songs. I tried to explain what the "encore" was and how it worked, but we were committed. Fortunately, I only missed two songs and neither was a huge favorite.
AND, we avoided the tangle of cars that soon ensued in the parking lot.
Overall a great night. The kids were very pumped as well, although they thought Dad's music was too loud. Kids these days.
Third Day maintains a blog and here's a post they wrote about the Sunday Concert in State College (Penn State)
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When I'm not chasing away Jean-Claude and changing the wash I spend time looking at music on iTunes. Before iTunes I rarely bought any music. Now I buy a song or two here and there much too often. This, I think, speaks to the brilliance of Steve Jobs, as does his style of dress (jeans and a t-shirt/turtleneck) but I digress.
