Thursday, April 14, 2011

Building 429, Revive, Anthem Lights concert

Hi again!
So, we went to the "Listen to the Sound" tour last night with Building 429, Revive, and Anthem Lights! I love it when I can go to concert and totally enjoy every minute of it :). All my sisters came as well, which was nice. 
We hit the road way late. Partially my fault as I just couldn't seem to get moving. I feel bad for freaking out. 
However in any case, we made it.  It was on the John Brown University campus, we literally just grabbed tickets as we ran in the door (10 bucks each is crazy good for seeing 3 sweet bands).  Like 30 seconds after we sat down about 15 rows back in this huge, beautiful Cathedral, the concert started.  To our surprize, the MC told the crowd they could leave their seats and stand smack dab in front of the stage.. thus we went from row 15ish to row 3-4ish. 
Anthem Lights
Anthem Lights went on first.  I was super pumped to see them after discovering them on Air 1 and youtube.  I felt like a super fan (hehe) because I could sing along with all their songs (the result of playing the song on youtube, rewind, play again, rewind play again, and repeat. Yes, i love their songs).  Anyhow, they opened with radio hit "Can't Shut Up" and also played "I Wanna Know You like That", "Circles," "Can't Get Over You", and the only one I hadn't heard (i think "Outta My Mind" or something.) 
Already being impressed by talent, I found the 4 piece pop/techno/rock vocal harmony group to be fantastic.  Even my (self called) metal head brother was entertained. 
Aside from the music aspect, however, I was convicted by their asking (on "Can't Get Over You") the crowd to forget everything ("your neighbor, what you look like, most especially us") and simply worship God.  I was glad to connect to the utterly worshipful side of the band, which very clearly is what defines their purpose.  Overall, i loved it :).
Revive
Next on the stage was REVIVE (i capitalized it on purpose to reflect their awesomeness).  Now, Revive is on my top 5 list.  They are probably the most down to earth, friendly, fun, Christian people I've ever met (and I am not exagerating :D).  I've had the immense priveledge of seeing them three times (third day concert and winterjam 2X) and meeting them twice before.  However, I'd never seen more than a 3-4 song set.
They played probably 5-7 songs, i'll list the ones I remember
Blink
Almost Missed This Moment
Don't Give Up the Fight
Something Glorious
My Hope
Love Foun Me
Their performance was polished and entertaining.  I really enjoyed their new drummer, Michael Wright, though i am sad for the loss of the previous Mike Tenkate.  Dave Hanbury (frontman) and AJ Cheek (guitars and keys) perform great together.  The only major downside of the set was the absence of bass player (and also facebook page runner) Rich Thompsom.  I chickened out in the meet and greet and didn't enquire after his absence, however my mom thought she heard his wife was having a baby about now. He was replaced by someone whose name i didn't catch.
Anyhoo, "Love found me" was great singalong, with Dave going out to about the 5th row and singing with a fan.
my favorite part of their set was the last song, "Don't Give Up the Fight". Before playing it, Dave presented the audience with a charge to let go of the sin of lust and "chase what matters". He shared the verse (from a Bible on the stage) about putting on the armor of God before singing the hardest-rockin' song on the set. all in all, very good performance.
Food for the Hungry MessageImmediatly after Revive's set (it was all a very smooth process with little wait time), the lead singer of Building 429 (I'm 86% his name is Jeremy) came out and shared about his trip to Haiti.  And what began as a oh-great-another-band-telling-us-about-Haiti-and-asking-for-money-i-wanted-to-spend-otherwise ended with me having a crushing and much greater realization of what is going on in this world.  I could hardly believe the stories of so many stranded people barely surviving without little to no food, water, or medical supplies.  It was awful.  I honestly never really thought about the devastation...but it is reality. the craziest thing was, the whole earthquake happened in 30 seconds...but its been over a year and their is still horrible aftermath.After hearing all that, Jeremy? (okay wait im gonna look them up and find out his name...oops its Jason. Okay now we're clear) asked for a show of hands of people who wanted to sponsor a child from Haiti, then personally walked through the crowd singing one of their radio hits ("love is the answer" i think) and handing out the folders for sponsoring.  It was extremely convicting, but I held back.  I kinda wish I had done it, but I am already sponsoring a Holt International child from Haiti (her name is Elisa) and I wasn't sure if I could handle two.  still, im really wanting to help my youth group jump into sponsoring (we're going to do World Vision) a child and hopefully one from Haiti, now that im aware of the need there.Okayyy so yeah this is getting long.  Readers, PLEASE, if you will, consider looking up Holt or World Vision... there are people out there starving to death.  Live out your faith and give!!Building 429Back to the concert.  Building 429's set was rocking (legit) awesome! The four piece band had a lot more sound than i'd expected, and all their songs were deeply uplifting.  For not previously being aware or connected with the band, I still greatly enjoyed the performance.  Top 2 hightlights for me were "Glory Defined" which has been around for 8 years and is a glorious song, and a song called (i think) "Not Where I Belong" which has amazing lyrics ("All I know is I'm not home yet, this is not where I belong, take this world and give me Jesus, this is not where I belong.")On top of the Christ-filled message, the band was talented and played crazy instruments.  A Les Paul, Strat (i think) and Taylor acoustic guitars, and the lead guitar/keys player had a great sounding electric keyboard.
MEET AND GREETS!Revive are always very nice :)  I got them to sign a poster for my forever friend Ciara who really likes them too but couldn't make it.  AJ said, "tell her she has to come next time. Like, literally NEXT TIME." lol and we got a good pic with them.

Anthem Lights i had really wanted to meet and they were extremely super nice.  They all wanted to know what our names were and each personally introduced themselves and shook my hand ("Hi Im Chad" "Hi Im Alan" "Hi Im Caleb" "Hi Im Kyle") hahaha :)  Got a signed poster and the picture turned out really good.
Building 429 was doing something afterwards, but after no dinner and tired little sisters, we decided to leave.After this concert, I'm wanting to 1) get better at guitar. lol cause both Revive and Building 429 have keys/guitar players so maybe i need to be good at both2) Sponsor another child, hopefully through my youth group3) live wayyyy more focused on God.  What's the point is anything else?? We can only change the world if we are ALL about Him.Well, if you read all that, you are my absolute best friend. God Bless!

2 comments:

  1. I guess I just accidentally clicked something on your facebook page (yes, I was surfing your page) and I found this! Didn't know you had a blog! I mean, I could've guessed, because you're so up to date with salad serving utensils and such... anyway, this was great!! And thanks again for getting me the poster. AJ can rest assured, that I WILL (my turn to capitalize for emphasis) get to meet them sometime. :) You're such an awesome friend! Love ya!

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  2. I have surfed your page too :) I'm so glad you found it! Yeah, actually I just got a blog so this was like my second post :D. Uh huh, where else can one become emerged in such greatness as utensils? ;).
    Aw, thanks!! And you're welcome. Fantastic, I want you to meet them so bad!
    You are an amazing friend--you read the whole blog, aye? haha... love ya so much :)

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