Hello Elegant Readers,
My Birthday weekend and birthday month of May is in full effect.
I have been to many big name concerts in my life, but nothing compared to the Summer Shed Tour that I experienced over the weekend.
The brief tour consisted of only seven venues in ten days and featured four and a half hours of music from six diverse musical acts. It was by far the loudest, most explosive, and most uplifting concert that I have attended.
Summer Shed Tour – May 2014; via tobymac.com
So far in 2014, I have attended two concerts with my hubby and our new concert cronies, Eugene and Roxanne, who invited us to the Winter Jam concert back in January. These two concerts have literally opened my eyes up to a new concert-going experience. For more on the Winter Jam concert, click HERE!
Toby Mac, of the famed trio DC Talk, organized and headlined the Summer Shed Tour, bringing together an eclectic group of rap, hip-hop, pop and heavy metal. Typically if you mix together heavy metal and hip-hop into one concert, it is a disaster waiting to happen. The styles of music, not to mention the audiences, would clash. But what makes this concert works is the fact that each of the acts are focused one mission, to spread the good news of Jesus Christ and His redemptive power. No matter the type of music, the message was the same.
The four and a half hour show included newcomers WE AS HUMAN, CAPITAL KINGS and TEDASHII; with veterans LACRAE, SKILLET and TOBY MAC. When Eugene and Roxanne invited us to this concert, my hubby was not sure if he wanted to go to a concert and we did not know four of the six acts. We had seen Lacrae at Winter Jam and we had listened Toby Mac for a while now. But looking at the ticket prices, my hubby thought, sixty dollars for a ticket was not a bad price for six musical acts. Ten dollars per act was a pretty good price. And I am glad that he made the decision to get the tickets. By getting a pre-sale password from Toby Mac’s newsletter, we were able to get tickets in the fifth row. We had never been able to sit so close to the stage. The seats were awesome!
We waited in line maybe twenty minutes and that was not bad because it was not hot and we like to people watch and get a since of what the crowd is like, Eugene and Roxanne bought the front of the line passes so they walked up to the gate and when the doors opened at a quarter to six they got right in.
The Crowd by JTWISDOM
The concert started with MC / Pastor Sammy at 6:10 p.m. introducing WE AS HUMAN and we were so close that the bass was thumping. This band is heavy metal and got the crowd pumped. We were really close so the energy was all around.
WE AS HUMAN photo by JTWISDOM
Capital Kings came to the stage after WE AS HUMAN. The music was high energy and reminded me of being on the beach with the ball floating through the crowd.
Capital Kings
Up next Tedashii, he keeps the crowd pumping with his love for Jesus.
Tedashii shared his testimony about how he lost his one year old son. This really touched me and his performance was heart-wrenching but powerful.
Tedashii
The music keep coming and it’s all good. Lacrae officially had the crowd hip hopping. He included his testimony from “I AM SECOND,” which is awesome. Christians can have fun, yes Christians can have fun. He sang some of my favorites, I can Play the Background and Faking it.
Lacrae photo by JTwisdom
The first photo below is a clip that was shown of Lacrae’s testimony from I An Second. Lacrae, Tedashi had fans come on stage for the one of the songs. Really cool!
Lacrae with Tedashii and fans
The artist just keep coming. Skillet was next and Pastor Sammy said that this group will make you melt, so get ready. He was right. He said as soon as the video comes and the music starts to get up out of your seats.
Skillet
This band is literally on fire for the Lord. I really like their sound. We could feel the heat from the flames and every beat of the drums, the bass and guitar riffs.
Skillet
Next is the one and only TobyMac. I have been listening to this dude since DC TALK so I know quite a few songs. Lets say I can sing along to practically every song.
TobyMac
This was a fun set and the main focus was Jesus. Priceless!
TobyMac
After TobyMac’s set, the crowd gained more momentum for an encore and raised their phones to beam bright lights and here comes the artist.
Summer Shed Tour Finale – “Jesus Freak”
This was four and a half hours of awesome music.
A few words from my hubby about the concert:
“I have attended some major concerts in my life: Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, REO Speedwagon, Sade, Duran Duran, Paula Abdul, to name a few. But his concert is by far the best concert that I have ever been to in my life. The sound, the message and the atmosphere left me wanting more. I will be searching out these acts to find all of their songs and albums.”
Follow!