Winterjam 2008

Up until about two hours before the concert, I wasn’t going to go last night.  I just had so much to do and I was going to be gone for at least 6 hours and I hadn’t seen the girls very much.  But then my nephew wanted to go and we figure out a way I could drop the kids off at choir and meet the youth group up there instead of spending time going on the church bus and then riding the light rail up there.  And I figured  Scott could pick the girls up and spend the last hour or two before bedtime with them since he had been working all weekend.

The place was absolutely packed.  Bobcats arena can hold 20K or so I suppose and it was full all the way to the parts where you couldn’t see the stage up at the top.  Thankfully two of our youth had gotten there FOUR hours early and had seats saved for us on the floor.   

When we walked in I heard Group 1 Crew playing and I was certain they must have been playing their CD while everyone waited. NO!  The one group I was intent on seeing went on before 6 when I was told the concert started so we completely missed them.  We DID see Mandisa, Skillet, NewSong, BarlowGirl, Connersvine and MercyMe.

Just a short recap of each:

Mandisa – She is every ounce of wonderful she was on American Idol and ten times more.  That girl can SANG.  Honestly, I wasn’t that impressed with her songs on the radio but hearing some of them live just gave them a whole new meaning.  She sings with heart and meaning and it was wonderful.

Skillet – I don’t consider myself a rocker by any means but Skillet was AWESOME.  I was jumping, head banging (ok, only for a few seconds) and singing with the rest of them.  Yes, I was acting like a teenybopper last night.  But they were really good.  I’m figuring out rock bands are so much better live than they ever could be recorded.  It just doesn’t do it justice.

NewSong – They started out with Little Drummerboy and although the drums at the end were really, really cool I just thought it was weird they played a Christmas song.  We stepped out to eat at this point since I saw NewSong twice last year but they are a fabulous group and I love Nate Sallie.

BarlowGirl – Honestly, I’ve never been a huge fan of BarlowGirl and while they are very talented, I wasn’t jumping for joy over them.  They were ok.  It’s just after you see Skillet, it’s hard to compare the live show.

Connersvine – This is a duo and a guy from The Colts are in this group.  He wasn’t there yesterday because they were playing a sort-of important game.  Only one of them sang and I’ll just say I’d like to say I’d like to see them singing together before I make any judgment.

MercyMe – OK, honestly I was going to leave during MercyMe.  I know, I know they are a fabulous band but they are just so less exciting in person than some of the others and really, haven’t we all heard MercyMe played to death on the radio?  But after each song, I’d say, let me just see what they’re playing next and every time, it was a great song I didn’t want to miss.  I thought I couldn’t hear I Can Only Imagine one more time but it turned into the best praise song of the night.  And the lead singer was totally soaking it in.  He sat there with a smile and the microphone out to the audience obviously loving it 20,000 people were singing the words.  And I don’t mean to say he was being prideful, he seemed humbled by it.  They put on a great show and really, they have had a TON of radio hits that were great to sing along with since we HAVE heard them a hundred times over.

Without further ado, here are some pictures.  I stupidly left my dad’s lens at his house Saturday night instead of keeping it so the quality of the pictures are not nearly what they could have been.

Skillet:

MercyMe:

Mandisa:

BarlowGirl: