Third Day / Jars of Clay / Rome, GA

We had the privilege of going to the first show for the Christmas Offerings tour with Third Day and Jars of Clay last night in Rome, GA.  It was a blast (of course) and we met up some friends from TN to make it even more fun!  6th row on stage left was perfect - Rachel had the aisle in case she started going into contractions; thankfully that didn't happen and we got to see the whole show.  The baby did get pretty excited, especially with the bass drum the JoC lead singer bangs like its nobody's business! 

OK, it seems important to provide a more critical review than just "It rocked!", especially considering this was our fifth full-fledged Third Day concert.  So here it is:  All in all, the audience was deeply ministered to - as is the case at every Third Day event.  It is impossible to walk away from these guys, whether they are singing or playing or just chilling by the pool and not be ministered to.  I've had more time with them than most fans (in and out of the concert hall) and I can speak of this as fact.  The concert on Thursday night, though had some glitches.  I believe that they were almost completely due to two factors: 1. it was the first night of the show 2. the Forum in Rome, GA looks older than me.  Number 1 seemed to be the apparent reason for most of the problems.  For instance, the words during one of the songs were completely out of synch after the first couple verses.  The soundguy, to his credit, worked feverishly to get the right words up on the screen, however it was at times a little distracting.  Additionally, Brad Avery's awesome story about the adoption of their fourth daughter was followed by a complete darkout that seemed to contribute to an out-of-synch intro between him and the keyboardist.  During Little Drummer Boy, by Jars of Clay (and this may be my own audible deficiency), the lead singer took to the xylaphone like it was nobody's business, yet for some reason, I couldn't hear it save my life!  Nonetheless, the crowd loved the song and got to its feet by the end.  I think the oddest flub of the evening was when Mac tried to direct the follow spot over to Mark Lee so that he could be introduced.  Instead of following the lead's directions, the spot stayed focused (I think on Brad) and just sat there.  Mac had to tell the dude about four times before he started pointing to the operator and waving the light over to Mark.  It definitely disrupted a bit of the concert flow. 

 You know what, though, most of these issues really pointed to one thing: This was a live show!  It was not Milli Vanilli and things happen when musicians actually peform rather than pretend.  I hope that noone gets too offended by this post, as it is written, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" (Prov. 27:17).  The concert definitely rocked, regardless, and I'm anxiously awaiting the Spring tour dates so I can scoop up some tix for a few close by shows.  God Bless!