jars of clay

I don't know if I've mentioned this on my blog before, but I'm not much of a crowd person. Places with more than 20 people in them tend to freak me out a little. I used to be able to handle it a bit better when I was younger, but now I avoid big crowds. This is one of the big reasons I generally don't like live concerts.

My other issue with concerts is that usually, you're seated so far away from the performer that you have to watch them on the big screen video feed just to make out facial expressions and have them look less like fantastic marionettes. For example, several years ago, I went to a U2 concert with my mom at the stadium. We had floor seats, but were still so far away from the stage that I had to do the jumbotron watching thing just to see what was going on. A couple years later, it was Janet Jackson in Montreal and it was the same thing with worse seating.

All this to say that I went to see Jars of Clay last night and it was, by far, my best live concert experience ever. To start, I LOVE Jars of Clay. Love them. Have all their albums memorized kind of love. A friend of mine in high school, Chris Radtke (who was actually at the concert last night), turned me on to them in grade 11 or 12, and I've 'collected' them ever since.

The funny thing about my JoC obsession is something I didn't actually realize until last night. Lizzie and I were pumping ourselves up for the show and it occured to me all at once that I didn't even know the band member's names. I only ever think of them as a band. Weird.

Before I talk any more about the concert itself, let me just interject this - if you ever want to go to a concert or concert-like event, go with the Magyars. They totally rocked my world by getting to the theatre at least 45 minutes before the doors even opened and waiting in the cold just so they could get front-centre seats. And they saved me one. We were - as I mentioned more than once last night - within spitting distance of the band. Fantastico (as Frank & Anna's favorite band and JoC's opener, Burlap to Cashmere would say). The bands looked like real people and not marionettes!

Okay, enough about my heros, the Magyars. Onto the concert itself!

As I mentioned, Burlap to Cashmere were the opening band. Check out their link above to find out more about them. Wicked awesome. If you love folk music (and who in Winnipeg doesn't?), you need to check out this band. Their guitar skills will blow your mind in a 'man, do I wish I could play a guitar even half as good as that' kind of way. I love 'real' musicians - the kind of musicians that seem born to do what they do - and Steven Delopoulos and his cousin are definitely those kind of musicians.

And then, of course, my Jars of Clay took the stage and rocked my socks off. They played all my favorite songs (helps that all their songs are my favorites) and just put on a really terrific show. I didn't know it until near the end of the night, but we were their first stop on their Canadian tour. I'm half tempted to try to get to their last show on their tour just to see if they could conceivably get any better.

My favorite part of the night, though, had to be their encore because that's kind of when the 'show' stopped and you could tell they just wanted to jam with us until they couldn't stand anymore. The lead singer (I think it was after they played the Walker, Texas Ranger theme song) made a comment that he didn't want to stop - he just wanted to keep on playing. Honestly, I would have been content to hang out there all night if they'd wanted to stick around and jam into the wee hours of the morning. I know for a fact there were at least a half dozen awesome musicians in the audience who could have easily hopped up on stage and jammed with them (check out my friend Don Amero to see what I mean).

At any rate, I have to say that I am very glad I went to this concert. After a good 10 or more years of collecting Jars of Clay, it was probably about time I actually saw them live. I couldn't have asked for better circumstances or company to see them, either.

And in April, John Mayer! That'll be artist #2 in my top five that I get to see live (any guesses on who the other 3 are?? Hint: one of them was already mentioned in this blog. And Sheri, you're not allowed to guess because you already know!).