Cat's Chit-Chat

August 13, 2011 – Wild Adventures, Valdosta, GA – Skillet: Awake Tour

I think one of the best ways to describe the evening was said by the lead vocalist/bass player/coordinator/song-writer for Skillet, John Cooper “Not like it’s hot and humid enough, we had to have someone to shoot 30-foot propane flames, just to make it hotter.”

But this band was on fire in more ways than one and everything about this band was big.

Let me put it this way, it was one of the hottest evenings of the summer, there were over 6,000 people crammed together in a rather small area with a band that was shooting out flames almost every 30 seconds and in spite of these rather taxing settings people were being moved.

The performance was awesome. You had flames, you had fireworks, you had these platforms that lifted the cellist, the violinist and the drummer~ even with all these awesome aspects to keep people entertained it still seemed to be the message that moved people the most.

Like the speech John gave before they sang “Awake and Alive.”

“Every single day that we wake up in the morning we should be aware that there is a war going on.

I’m not talking about Iraq and I’m not talking about Afghanistan, I’m talking about a war for your souls.

Some people will tell you how to live and how to think. They’ll tell you what you can and what you can not believe in. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of people telling me what to do.

It’s about time we were able to stand up and say ‘I am not ashamed of the Gospel or His name, and I know Jesus is The Way and The Truth and my salvation.’

My question for you is, who cares what they say? Let them know that you are Awake and Alive!” said John.

Here’s the video of Awake and Alive, I know video is no where as near as awesome as seeing them live, but I’m hoping to share at least some of the experience.

Another special moment was when John was speaking with the audience about a personal experience that led to one of his songs and the realization that there are people like this everywhere.

One of the big things that John was talking about in his interview was that all of the songs he wrote is personal in some way, shape or form and in this way he feels that he can be honest, have more feeling and the words he sings has more meaning. It’s really hard to describe what all he was saying because you could tell there was a lot of his own personal feelings are behind everything that he was doing. Most of this, he said, was because a lot of the songs are based on his experiences.

I think it’s really awesome that he still feels convicted about everything he or his band puts out, like he’s holding himself accountable no matter the costs and that’s really something that is considered admirable.

Here’s his story about his friend and the song he wrote for her that seemed to touch so many other lives:

“This is a special and personal story about a young girl who wanted to take her own life. All her life she was told that she was a loser, that they wished she was never born, that she’d never amount to anything, that everything in their lives that went wrong was her fault and she decided she didn’t want to live, not one more night.

She came to me and said to me ‘Look, I just want to say goodbye.’ I did this song as a chance to tell my friend how special she is. A chance to tell her that her life is not a mistake.

I’m telling you this story, not just so you know what this song is about, but because I meet people like her at every concert we play and I know there are people like her in this arena right now.

Some of you guys have already given up, some of you have said ‘Yes, I’ve thought about suicide,’ ‘Yes, I’ve tried suicide,’ ‘Yes, I am a cutter,’ ‘Yes, my life is without hope and I don’t know how I’m going to make it.’

If that’s you I want to tell you something that got me through my hardest nights, when I didn’t know if I was going to make it.

This is a quote from my number one hero and His name is Jesus Christ and this is what Jesus said: ‘Anyone who is weary, anyone who is heavy burdened, come to me and I will give you rest.’

Do you need rest? Do you need peace? Or do you just need a reason to wake up tomorrow, I am here to tell you there is a God and His name is Jesus and He’s here to love you, right here and right now.

If you’ll just give Him a chance this will be the last night you’ll ever have to feel alone. If you can relate to this story, this song was written for you,” said John.

I know a lot of my blog is mostly John talking, but it’s such an awesome message and I know that it touched me and I know it touched my friend that went with me to the concert and everyone around us. I’ve been to a lot of rock concerts and I’ve been to a lot of Christian band concerts, butI’ve never seen as big of a movement that Skillet made that evening.

So if you get the chance to see them, I definitely recommend it. Check out their website at www.skillet.com and we’ve got more pictures and video available on our website too. Just look under Photos and Videos.

I’ll definitely try to keep everyone up to date on upcoming concerts in our area and not just for Skillet, but for other awesome talents as well.

WOW!! I STILL don’t believe it!! Third Day came to Ozark, AL and they totally CONQUERED the stage!! They were even better live!! (Which isn’t the case for many awesome band, trust me.) Beyond AWESOME! Get the all access pass while you’ve got the chance!! SO WORTH IT!! Go GOLD!!

Once again I’ve gotta tell how odd how it worked out too. A friend of mine was going to take a young person he’s mentoring to go see the concert. When he got his tickets he got an extra one. He then decided to give that extra ticket to me. I thought that was pretty neat (ok, I thought it was beyond phenomenally awesome of him, but I digress).

So, on our website http://www.chipleypaper.com/video/?videoId=701283716001&lineupId=1266417042&play=now and on our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47CipkVAbZg you can totally check out the video we have made for your viewing pleasure!!

Anywho, for those who aren’t too familiar of Third Day (which is an inconceivable notion to me) here’s the 411 I got from their official website at www.thirdday.com.

Hopefully I’ll be able to shed some light on the band that Billboard magazine said was “not only the best Christian bands of the ‘90s but one of the best rock bands, period.”

“Third Day has clearly weathered the difficult climb from obscurity to success, but the band is hardly suffering from over-confidence or complacency, in fact, the band’s eleventh album, Revelation, addresses that very issue head-on,” as stated in their Bio. “Rather than lean back in a figurative easy chair, Third Day challenged itself immensely, shaking up its direction and reasserting its place as a rock band of enormous depth and passion.”

Drummer David Carr said, “Our career is like a dream I didn’t even know I had; it’s gone beyond anything I could have dreamed of.”

They said they were highly influenced by the rock of Lynyrd Skynyrd and other artists such as U2 and Rich Mullins and was originally formed by vocalist Mac Powell and acoustic guitarist Mark Lee.

After adding bassist Tai Anderson and drummer David Carr they signed on with Gray Dot Records and made their debut in 1996 with Conspiracy No. 5 produced the following year. This was followed by Time, Offerings, Offerings II: All I Have to Give, Live Wire and Wire.

When they went back to their “rock-n-roll roots,” they hit 2005’s Top Ten with Wherever You Are. They went on to produce Christmas Offerings and Chronology before they announced that Avery was moving on in February of 2008. Shortly after that they released Revelation, produced by Howard Benson and featured the appearance of Chris Daughtry and Lacey Mosley, and the band won the American Music Award that year.

What has me really excited is their latest release called Move. Personally I think it’s the best album they’ve ever made. And trust me, I don’t take these matters lightly. I have sensitive ears and allow only the finest of melodies to touch them. Music has had a very large impact on my life, but enough of my accounts for Move, here’s some of Third Day’s…

“There’s a familiar verse in Ecclesiastes that says, ‘to everything there is a season,’ and in the life of every believer, there’s a time to seek answers and a time for action, for Third Day, it’s time to Move!”

Third Day Bassist Tai Anderson said, “For us, there was a wake up call right after we won the GMA Artist of the Year a few years back; it’s like ‘okay, what do we do with this?’”

“We’ve been given this platform and we feel like God wants us to use that,” said Anderson. “It’s really about putting our faith into action and that idea of motion.”

With the album, Move, the lead vocalist Mac Powell, guitarist Mark Lee and drummer David Carr are encouraging others to “take the next step in their walk with God,” with Move being a follow-up for Revelation.

“That was a record about prayer and about really asking for direction,” said Powell. “Some of these songs are about receiving that direction, moving on that and going forward.”
Lee said, “The lyric on Revelation says ‘tell me should I stay here or do I need to move,’ and we’ve given everybody a couple of years to marinate on that and now we’re saying, ‘Go, move!’”

“Third Day issues the challenge in the song Make Your Move, an in-your-face Americana rock anthem that makes it impossible to remain inert, physically or spiritually,” as described in their latest project. “Make Your Move is the equivalent of throwing down a musical gauntlet, and while the song’s soul-shaking intensity washes over the listener in sonic waves, the penetrating lyric is a call to action that encourages believers to share the hope of Jesus with the hurting world around them.”

I know it sounds really theatrical to describe the song like that, but it’s amazingly accurate.
Third Day has an amazing record, with 27 No. 1 singles, sold more than 7 million albums (which is two Platinum and nine Gold Records), been inducted in the Georgia Music Hall of Fame for 2009, 24 GMA Dove Awards from 42 nominations, 4 GRAMMY Awards, an American Music Award, 3 American Music Award nominations and multiple ASCAP honors for songwriting.
They were so awesome their song, Call My Name, was selected by Keith Urban as a bonus track on his Defying Gravity project.

“This is music that people can share with friends who aren’t necessarily Christians, but when you talk about light and darkness this room is adequately lit,” said Anderson. “If you light a candle, it doesn’t add anything to the atmosphere, but if you go where it is dark and you light a candle, then it’s beautiful and you can appreciate the light; I feel like that’s what our role is a little bit more, our candle is lit, we’re trying to bring hope.”

Another nifty tid-bit of info is that Third Day works extensively with World Vision, Habitat for Humanity, the One Campaign, Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee (which aids farmers in Rwanda) and they even created their own funding called the Come Together Fund.

The Come Together Fund is a commitment made by Third Day using their concerts as “vehicles” to raise money focused on grassroots charitable initiative around the world. For over five years they have committed $1 per ticket to raise this funding and because of their extensive touring schedule they have been able to raise quite a bit for funds such as Come Together Compound: Gateway School Project, Rajamundry, India; Operation Christmas Child: Uganda Shoe Box Distribution; Invisible Children: Uganda Child Soldier Awareness; Hands in Service: School Project in Soroti, Uganda; Blood Water Mission: Thousand Wells Project; Habitat for Humanity: U.S. and International projects; World Vision: Haiti Relief Fund; Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee: Help make a difference… just by drinking good coffee; and Engage Atlanta: Metro Atlanta Flood Relief.

So, I’m excited about the upcoming concert like you wouldn’t believe. If you get the chance, visit their website, check out some of their songs, they’re pretty awesome.

It was crazy today. There were so many people crowding this huge hotel that it made it hard to walk anywhere. Let’s just say the traffic in that building was worse than the Atlanta traffic outside.

There were so many events going on at once you had pick and choose which one you wanted to do the most. There were discussion panels by artists, there were contests for costumes and acting. A lot of those who dressed up stayed in character the whole time, which was really neat. Most of them though acted like it was Halloween. Both points of view are very fun because both are equally enthusiastic about it.

So much was going on I barely was able to get pictures, but lots of pictures I still took and the costumes were so fantastic this year. I’d have to say the attendance more than quadrupled since last year. The over-all quality has improved greatly, along with selection and those who set up booths, it was all so very impressive.

Even more so was the fact that the events are carried on 24 hours a day for the three days it’s going on. So it’s non-stop shows, events, panels, live performances, games and activities galore.

The biggest thing was the karaoke, who knew Scott could sing?! Who knew he liked country? Oh, well, I won’t hold that against him. To each their own, right?

Tomorrow will mostly be visiting with the voice actors and going over the dealers room one more time, though I kind of wished I dressed up this year. It seemed like all the costumed people were doing activities together than with the rest of us normal-type dressed people, though I can’t complain, it was fun to watch.

What was as much fun as some of the activities was buying souvenirs for all my friends. They had a little bit for everyone and I knew if I looked hard enough I could find something for everyone. It was kind of like treasure hunting. Buying for myself is easy=peasy, but buying for someone else, that’s a challenge. I hope they all like what I got them. One of the big fads right now is something called “steam punk” where everything is made to look old-timey, like out of the 1800s and to look like it’s made to run off steam, that means a lot of bronze, bolts and gears. It’s pretty neat.

This year’s was so much bigger than the last and even though I’m missing out on some of the live bands I’m heading in early.

Got psyched for my second year at Anime Weekend Atlanta. Not much happened today. Most of the day was set for registration and for everyone to get a head-start on setting up their booths.

Tomorrow’s going to be the kicker. Tomorrow is when they start with all their contests and shows and programs. There’ll be showings of new anime and the place will be full of people in their costumes. Voice actors will also be arriving, though Vic came early this year.

I’m hoping to be able to hang out a little bit with Scott like we did in BotCon, he was a really fun guy to hang out with. He’d walk the floor like a regular Joe and hang out with everyone like they were their buddy. I seriously doubt he’d remember me though. The trip to Atlanta was crazy enough, but going back and forth in Atlanta traffic is insane. It doesn’t help that my driver is a maniac… o_O;

We got to go into the dealers room and look around, but it’ll be tomorrow when the best pictures will be taken. If the attendance was this high on the slowest day of the convention, there’s going to be a packed house tomorrow. Till then, nighty-night.

I had the chance to watch my favorite football team play in person for the first time this Friday, and it just so happened to be the Florida State University Seminoles first game of the season as well as first game since Bobby Bowden retired after 34 years of coaching the Noles.

I’ve been a fan ever since I found out my grandmother was one (heck, which was before I even knew what football was, lol). After so many games of watching it on television, here was my chance to see them in person.

It was nothing like I could’ve imagined. The air was like electricity, you could just feel the energy. I was psyched, even as we sat in the near empty stadium because we had arrived almost two and a half hours early to find a relatively decent parking spot. In a way it felt like I had the stadium all to myself as the anticipation of the upcoming game kept rising.

We had more than enough time to find our seat and then roam around the huge coliseum. Venders and booths galore. And it was hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, HOOOOOOOOT~ but I was super-psyched (that and I had an energy drink).

As the countdown continued it became overcast and people began filling the stands. The stands filled till all you could see was garnet and gold and only patches of other colors. And 30 minutes before the game, it was quite the show. With their huge screened monitors taking up each end of the field with engaging sports content, loud motivational music and sports trivia, we remained well entertained until the start of the game.

The whole game was so much more engaging then it ever was just watching it on the television. So many fans showing their support and the game started with an awesome display from the players and the band (which is humongous!). The game started and before you knew it, it was like rooting for a gladiator. In a way it is, because the team has to work strategically as one unit.

Just so happened that FSU was the white knight and Samford was the black knight (or green knight depending on the story, lol). It didn’t help that Samford was questioning almost every other play and could only get six points with two field goals. But here’s the test of character: with every play showed valid it encouraged the fans and when the fans were angry by a bad call (I mean at one point they were only a fraction away from rioting, literally) the team encouraged them to continue in high spirits.

It kind of renewed my spirits and interests in the game. So, I’m curious to see how Jimbo Fisher’s going to do as the only other couch I’ve known to oversee the Noles and these new guys seem to have shown quite a bit of skill and awesome sportsmanship (unlike years before -_-;).

So, what I recommend is if you ever get the chance to go out and see your team play do it. The experience was quite rewarding.

I also encourage watching games together with friends and family. My family had been divided into Gator and Seminole fans, so it’s fun to jeer back and forth over the games.

Like my uncle said when I told him the Seminoles had a decisive victory over the Samford: “I would’ve won too if I was playing against a bunch of cheerleaders.” Hahaha, fun times.