Concert

My wonderful daughter won 4 tickets to this concert and very generously gave them to me and the busy one. We called some friends of ours and they were willing to try it out, even though both of us were not very familiar with either artist, but had only heard their music over the years on the radio without taking special note.

The line up at the door of the Broadway church was a block long and fortunately the rain had not yet started and it was actually a balmy evening for standing around waiting for someone to open the doors. We had not been to the Broadway church before and found it to be very similar to the local Alliance church in both size and layout. It filled rather quickly and we were feeling good about having come a little early.

Point of Grace was on first (who's on second? ...... never mind) and was all I had hoped they would be. Gracious southern gals who had impeccable harmonies and very nice tunes. They had a down home folksy quality that was endearing and at times quite humorous. They verge on 'country' as far as style goes, without getting twangy. Actually, they were very easy on the ears. They are Christian artists and it came through in their comments as well as their music, but one had to listen carefully. They had never been to Canada before and that made for a few funny anecdotes, and altogether, an enjoyable time for them and us, the audience.

Many Christian groups these days are aligning themselves with Compassion or World Vision and these folks were on the band wagon. Their goal was to raise up 100 sponsors, for impoverished children around the world, at each concert on their tour. I cannot fault them for their efforts in this regard. Because their ticket prices were so reasonable, I cannot accuse these people of being in it for the money, as I have done with some groups in the past. Of course, we all need to make a living but when you profit excessively from 'ministry' I can have a bit of a challenge with that.

At this point in the concert, I was sorry I had not had the foresight to bring ear plugs. Oh my goodness! I have heard Mark Schultz often and have quite liked many of his ballads and praise and worship music, but in a live venue, my preconceptions of him were blown out of the water. This guy is high energy, as is his music, his band, and his light show. Why can't they turn down the pounding bass drum a few decibels? It became quite irritating after a short while as the vibrations in my chest cavity felt like a seismograph during a Chilean earthquake. I was having trouble with my pacemaker and I don't even have one. It was all I could endure, and I can usually take quite a bit and actually like my music loud. His voice, his keyboard, and every other noise making device on the stage was cranked to the limit, and I was actually wishing it was over soon, and very soon. However, we endured, until, that is, the encore. That is when we snuck out of our aisle and scurried out the door of the church, finding the busy traffic of Broadway Street rather quiet and calming.

I find myself saying "What?' and "Pardon me" quite a bit since last night, to say nothing of the splitting headache I woke up with this morning.

Mark had a very engaging personality and one cannot help but like him as a person. He has a heart for God, and is a compassionate and loving man. He is also a gifted song writer and at his quieter times was able to engage the listener with his sensitive lyrics. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the music, but then every artist has their die hard fans. I cannot fault him, really, because he was living out every single word of Psalm 150. I just need a good set of earplugs.