Recap of Winter Jam 2009 – Charlotte

We were able to figure out the kids being juggled between our parents (thanks, ya’ll!) and were happy to be off at 4 yesterday for the concert.  Toby Mac was the headline artist and I’ve been a fan of his since the early 90s during his DC Talk days.  I thought I’d never seen him but I remembered going to a concert at a church in Charlotte sometime when I was in high school I think.  I definitely hadn’t seen him since he went solo.

By the time we got there, the doors were already open although we heard a few of our college students had been there since 1:30 and had 4th row seats.  The youth group had to go to the upper deck to sit together.  Scott and I and another couple in the youth group moved to be more centered on the stage.  A few minutes in our seats, and the college students text us and say they have 4 open spots.  Yippee!

The only downside was that we only had our zoom lens assuming we’d be far away so all of our pictures are REALLY close up.  From 4th row, I couldn’t get any wide shots at all.  No complaining…just sayin.

So here’s the line-up.

Pure NRG.  These kiddos were helping to promote PreciousGirlsClub.com, a web site for girls…Emma was already signed up there.  Their performance was….well organized yet….peppy.  I didn’t even upload a picture of them I just realized.

Stephanie Smith.  She was cute as a button (see tutu) and definitely has a big voice.  She sang a prayer type song mid-way through the concert and it was amazing. We were still up in the upper deck at this point and I took a picture from the megatron thingy.

Francesca Battistelli. I didn’t get to hear her because I went and ate. Friggin’ $17 for chicken, small fries and a drink. Rip-off. I did hear a lot how pretty she was when I got back. Sorry, that’s all I got. LOL

NewSong sang some great worship songs. I’ve seen them several times in concert. I still love that Nate Sallie is singing with them. I love him! They also sang Arise, My Love and man, that song gets you every time.

Hawk Nelson came out and I have seen them a time or two before as well. Every Little Thing is still my favorite of theirs. They are really fun on stage.

Brandon Heath came out and WOW I was really impressed with him. If you listen to Christian music you might recognize a few of his songs..”I’m Not Who I Was” and “Give Me Your Eyes”. They played a video during that one and it was very thought-provoking.

Finally Toby Mac and his band Diverse City came out and WOW. They did not stop from beginning to end. I may as well and get this out of the way and say Toby looked OLD. And if not old, VERY tired. I wanted to tell him to drink some water and go to bed. See?

Turns out he’s 44. Man, does that make ME feel old?! But he’s still cute as a button when he smiles.

The show was a ton of fun.

And Toby ended it well by jumping it to the crowd at the end. Scott caught him mid air.

Overall a very good concert.  Toby Mac was definitely the star of the show and made the night.

I’ve uploaded all my videos although I haven’t labeled them all.

If you’d like to see all the (very upclose) pictures we took, have at it.