Tai Anderson of Third Day. I think it’s a bass player thing.
For the grandparents: If you make it to the end of the article, I’ll put up some cute photos of the grandkids.
Thank you to The Family for the tickets to Third Day last night. Very cool, especially since the last time that I went to one of their concerts was one of my wife’s and my first dates (watching The Road to El Dorado with Mike and his wife is also in our First Dates origin story comics series.)
We have kids now. Look at my eyes – can you tell? Click to zoom.
This is how they started. For the other videos, I zoom in.
Before we get to more pictures, make sure you check out their Twitter accounts:
Mac Powell – Lead Singer
Mark Lee – Lead Guitarist
Tai Anderson – Bass Player (took pictures of fans during the concert…another bassist thing)
David Carr – Drums
Scotty Wilbanks – Keyboards
(What’s really cool/creepy is voyeuring how the band went to go see Wolverine, how their flight was and how they reacted to Celebrity Theater’s “in the round” set-up.)
Click to zoom.
I enjoy that they come off as very real. I’ve met with authors who show up and are very much, “Buy my book! Buy my book!” and then there are others who will talk for a little bit at the beginning and then walk the students through how to be a better author.
Mac Powell will sometimes call the audience to join in an impromptu church service and I love it. Mac shares my heart for Jesus and in turn shares my heart for the beaten down in the world. I know that some people get frustrated when they go to a concert and the lead singer just yammers (something Bono gets criticized of), but it doesn’t feel like that with Third Day. (I guarantee I’m biased.)
Third Day fact: Mac and Mark went to the same high school. Mark had heard Mac sing at a high school assembly and asked him to join the garage band. Also – they had technically played in a band previous to that. Mark played trombone and Mac played trumpet (like all holy marching band alliances…what did you expect, a clarinet? As if.).
Mac is mixed by a Mac. The great thing about the Celebrity Theater is that it’s very intimate. So much so that I’m thankful J got us aisle seats. I sat sideways (when I sat…Revive came out and asked everyone to stand. We stood for most of the show.).
I’ve determined that if libraries are abolished in the dystopian version of the future, I will become a rock and roll pastor. They have this guy, Nigel, whose sole job (as he put it) is to keep the guys in line. (Imagine if The Who or Guns n’ Roses had done this.)
They’re very honest with where they’re at, including musically. The majority of the second half of the concert was taking requests. Very cool. Jason Mitchener, who runs their fan forums, had been hounding them to play May Your Wonders Never Cease.
They’ve never done it live.
They did it live last night.
Now, when a rock star forgets the lyrics to one of his own songs that was on the set list, that’s a rip-off (but kind of funny). But when a band hasn’t played the song in years and is trying to remember how it goes? Reality. Mac jokingly told the crowd to stop Twittering him now. He apologized ahead of time.
They played Thief, still my favorite song of all time (followed closely by the song that plays when Kenobi dies (and Into the West is up there, too)(Wow. Never noticed the trend before.)).
And here it is:
Tears still welled up. I’m telling you, every time.
I’m big on humble bands not doing encores for the, “Look at me!” aspect. When they did an encore last time, they played worship songs with Jennifer Knapp. This time I held my breath – they started playing “Light at the End of the Tunnel” but thankfully moved on to some straight up worship alongside Revive (who Third Day connected with when they went to Australia) and Brandon Heath.
Brandon Heath on his own towards the beginning of the show:
Other fun moments:
When Mac came out at the beginning to sing with Revive for a song, he joked about not knowing how to get off the stage.
Brandon Heath said that he had some friends in the audience. He waved to them and said, “See you in about five minutes.” (Because the stage keeps rotating.)
You’ve got your trekkies/trekkers; you’ve got your browncoats. But have you seen the Gomers? They’re dressed in bright orange at the concerts.
Many artists don’t want pictures taken or video posted online. Third Day asked us to take as much footage as we could and that it would only help them out.
Because I needed more reason to like Third Day.
As promised for the grandparents: cute grandkids!
Click on pictures for zoomed view.
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