Newsboys!!

Sunday night I had a first in this new career of mine: worked an event by myself! The Newsboys were in concert at the Honeywell Center in Wabash, which is about a half hour from my house, so I was assigned to work that concert! Since I was working alone, I got to take a friend...and I asked my good buddy Jaye if she wanted to go with me! (Her husband, Brian, was the one who baptized me last summer.) So she got a t-shirt and a volunteer lanyard and the whole nine yards! (And then she had to help me set up the table. Work work work.)

My little table felt kind of naked! The station worked five events this weekend, so we had to share all the table stuff.

So we set up the table and then had dinner at the restaurant attached to the center (which I could have enjoyed SO much more if I hadn't been so blessed nervous about being on stage later!) and THEN...we got to attend the Meet and Greet! The Newsboys handed out bags to all the Meet and Greet attendees, so I got an 8x10 of them and their new CD and...drumroll please...MY OWN LANYARD!!! (Seriously. I'm obsessed with lanyards. I don't know why.)

The group came in (with their own Sharpies, which apparently cost someone in the room five bucks...little bet gone bad) and spent some time answering questions for us. (We might have qualified as their worst group ever. Everyone was too shy to ask questions!)

So they sang. We heard an acoustic version of The King is Coming. (NOT the Gaither song. Just to clarify.)

And THEN...we got to meet and greet. I handed the guy in charge  my camera and he noticed my nametag and told the group we were from the radio station. Michael Tait (who is their lead singer and the one standing next to me in the picture below) was really sweet and talked to us for a while!

After that, it was time to head backstage! I had to make announcements for the station and was SO NERVOUS! In case you're not sure why - THIS was what I looked out upon (picture from the Honeywell site). Yeah. That's a lotta seats.

But I did it! Made it through the announcements without shaking visibly, losing my dinner, tripping over a cord, or saying an inappropriate word.

Then the concert began! At the beginning they reminded me of the band from the movie That Thing You Do - I think because the drummer had on sunglasses. And they had matching suits.

It was a high energy, high volume concert!!

Incredible light show. I about went blind a couple of times. :)

They did several worship songs and it was so neat to see everyone participating. (After the show, the cop on duty stopped by our table and said, "Wow. That was amazing." Love it when God shows up for the ones who are there just to work!)

Michael Tait. (My new buddy.) Okay so he doesn't remember me. But let me live in my delusion.

Toward the end, the stage holding Duncan the drummer started elevating and then....tilting!

And I mean TILTING!!!!!

And then it just became a tilt-a-whirl for drums. Around and around and around....

Really fast. And all the while...he kept the beat! Amazing. And now I know why I was not offered THAT job.

A great concert...long one but a great one. And at the end, they sang my current favorite of theirs. If you've not heard it, check it out. God's Not Dead!