want to waste some time? just click all the links in this post . . .

WARNING: This post is about to be very long and random.

I went to a Josh Wilson/Big Daddy Weave concert last night. The concert was at the Hastings City Auditorium, and as we sat there waiting for the concert to start (we got there about an hour early), I took a little stroll down memory lane. The first concert I remember attending there was Acappella. I was in 6th or 7th grade at the time, and it was one of my first concerts. (My first? Steve Green. It sounds silly now, but he was my favorite singer when I was in lower elementary school!) I remember loving Acappella's music, but more than that, it was a date with my mommy. Just the two of us . . . and she even bought me a sweetarts sucker from the concession stand! I saw Acappella there again with my youth group about a year later. Next up was Twila Paris with a friend and her family. And finally, the last concert I saw there prior to last night: Psalty, Jungle Jam, and Church of Rhythm! My family and my cousins' family went together. I think it may have been my idea for my family to go, but Psalty was pure torture! At 14 or 15, I was way past the target demographic. Jungle Jam was more entertaining--their radio program was always quite witty (I even saw one episode, "The Great Coconut-Clunking Debate," adapted into an OID by a really good speech team)--but Church of Rhythm was definitely the best part!

Now on to the concert I attended last night. Josh Wilson was up first. I had no idea who he was, but when he walked onstage by himself with just his guitar, I knew there was a pretty good chance I'd like him. I could have listened to him for hours. I don't know all the technical terms, but he had this machine that would record whatever he was doing and then play it in a loop. So he'd bang on his guitar to create the beat, then strum a bass line, then add some chords, etc. It was pretty cool, and his style reminded me of August Rush. His song "Savior, Please" is pretty popular right now--but I had no idea before last night that he was that song's artist. My favorite song of his was "Turn Around." According to Wilson, it's a song from God's perspective to His people. But I could see it playing on Delilah or some other love songs radio show--check out the first verse and chorus:

I'm ready to fall in love
So what are you running from
I'm what you're looking for, quit looking for yourself
I'm right behind you, while you're looking somewhere else

Would you turn, would you turn, would you turn around
Would it be that hard to do
If you turned, if you turned, if you turned around
I'd be right in front of you

Who hasn't felt like that about someone?

When Big Daddy Weave came out, I was slightly distracted--their electric guitarist could be David Boreanaz's brother (best known for Bones and Angel). I can't believe I didn't think to take a picture! Once I got over the shock of seeing Booth on stage, I really enjoyed the concert. (OK, so I'm known for thinking people look like famous people, and often no one else can see the resemblance. But this wasn't just a mild resemblance--they could have been twins!)

Partway through the concert, Big Daddy Weave paused to talk about child sponsorship through World Vision. Until that moment, I'd forgotten that I signed up for my sponsored child at a Big Daddy Weave concert a couple years ago. (Really, I was there for David Klinkenberg, and Mark Schultz was the headliner, so when I think of the concert, Big Daddy Weave isn't the first name that comes to mind!) If you've never sponsored a child, I'd recommend you do it. I love getting pictures of and from Argenis, my little boy from Guatemala. It's amazing to think that my $30/month can make such a difference!

OK, back to the concert. One thing I love about Big Daddy Weave is that their concerts are all about worshiping God, not about drawing attention to themselves. They put all their lyrics on a PowerPoint to make it easy for the audience to sing along. Unfortunately, their projector bulb went out during the third or fourth song. Fortunately, I knew all the songs they played! The last song was "Beautiful One," and I can't even begin to describe the emotions I felt as I belted it out along with hundreds of other believers. My heart was just so full . . .

A couple other things that didn't fit anywhere else:

• The lead singer of Big Daddy Weave is obsessed with the word "man." It was so bad that I got the giggles every time he said it. It was like my obsession with "dude" a few years ago, only times ten.
• I saw the singles group from my church there. Why didn't I go with them? Because they're all like 60.
• We went to Valentino's before the concert. My opinion of Valentino's definitely didn't improve following that visit, though I did enjoy their dessert breadsticks.
• I had the new Dairy Queen Midnight Truffle Blizzard after the concert; it tastes exactly like the discontinued Brownie Batter Blizzard.
• BDW didn't sing "Audience of One" . . . which was OK with me because I've never liked it all that much--but isn't it their biggest hit?
• I greatly appreciated that they didn't do an encore. I know I've written about this before, and I'd link to it if only I could remember when. Just play your songs--ALL your songs--and then be done. Don't make us cheer for you to come back . . . that's just ego-stroking. No thanks.
• Have I ever written something so packed with links? You could spend hours visiting all the websites I linked to!