Winter Jam!

Went to Winter Jam on Friday! I was originally gonna go with Adam, but things changed so I went with Daddy instead.

We took a train there. I'd never been on a train before. I dunno if I like trains or not... We got there nice and early, and though like 20,000 or 21,000 people showed up, Daddy and I were near the front of the line!! While we waited, three members of Kutless came out! Jeff (drummer), Nick (guitarist) and James (guitarist) brought a few prizes out there with them and did a little game of Kutless Trivia with us fans. I was the first person to get a question right and I won a Kutless T-shirt! After that they wouldn't let me play though, otherwise I would've won more stuff. T-shirt was good enough though! I've been wanting one for ages! I would've had to pay $20 to buy it. And I won it straight from the hands of Kutless! They congratulated me and gave me high fives. And complimented my jeans. Goodness, I think those jeans became famous before I ever got inside! Haha, I'd written all kinds of band names on them and song quotes, the main things on them though was Kutless' name, in their special font and everything. (They've also been signed by both Kutless and Sidewalk Prophets!!) Kutless and all sorts of strangers seemed impressed by them. I wasn't expecting that. lol. I got my picture taken with the members of Kutless too.

Then out came Sidewalk Prophets! They let us sign up to win an awesome Sidewalk Prophets guitar and they posed for pictures with us, and launched T-shirts at us. I unfortunately didn't catch any. (They also complimented my jeans! o_O) And when they started to head back inside, Dave, lead singer for Sidewalk Prophets, gave me a random hug. I didn't mind. lol.

Then it was back to waiting. And waiting. And waiting. We waited outside that door for like an hour and forty minutes! It was sooooo worth the wait! And we got pretty good seats. Not that we used 'em a whole lot. Hehe. Seriously, who sits around at a rock concert?

First artist out was...Not Chris Sligh. It was Jason Castro?! They didn't advertise him as a Winter Jam musician... Oh well, he did fairly well. I don't know anything about him other than the fact that he was on American Idol though.

Next out was Chris August. He started out with his worst song... Then he did some silly song about how he loves candy. He ended with "Starry Night".

The last of the Pre-Jammers came out. Sidewalk Prophets! They only played four songs, but it was awesome!! Predictably passionate. :)

Then came RED, and what a show! They literally fired it up. Kinda smoky in there after they got off stage. They were energetic and really amazing live. Lead singer is short though. He was standing on a platform. At least, he was when he wasn't busy jumping and running around like a (maniac) typical hard rock star. I tell you, he's the only guy I've seen who rivals Jon Micah of Kutless when it comes to height of jumps. (The flames were totally epic!!)

KJ-52 never really did a performance. He just popped up every so often between acts ans gave us something to do while the stage was being cleared and set up again. He's better at working a crowd than he is at rapping for a record. And he convinced over 20,000 people to do stupid dances with him! And shake our hands around in the air in silly ways. I'll humbly admit that that in spite of crowded conditions, I wasn't half bad at dancing KJ style... lol. (Actually, it was a real step down from the dancing I used to do. I used to be a worship dancer.)

Then came Newsong. I'm not a Newsong fan, and I shall continue not to be, but they did have their good moments.

The speaker they had, Tony Nolan, was an a really powerful and passionate and amazing one. You could really connect with him. I can't explain everything he said though... Here's my advice, go to one of the remaining Winter Jam shows and find out for yourself! You won't be sorry! Oh, and when he was leading people in prayer to receive Christ as their Savior, I heard someone behind me repeating the prayer after him! It was amazing! People REALLY get saved at Winter Jam!!

Francesca Battistelli came next. I'll confess that I didn't enjoy her performance much, but I'm not a fan of her music and the poor woman was sick, so it would have been terribly difficult for her to put on a stellar show. She and a couple members of her band played ukuleles at one point...

Then out came the David Crowder band! I'll confess that I wasn't expecting to enjoy them, but I did! They're a band I find kind of annoying on their CDs, but they're pretty fun live! They praise the Lord with energy and really get the crowd into it.

And then... Kutless came out!! I did immensely enjoy their performance, (of course!!) but it wasn't their best ever. I enjoyed the Sanger show more, but that one was more intimate and Kutless was headlining it, so they played more songs then. Anyway, Kutless was really good and I can't wait to see them again!

I think it was after Kutless that we were asked to make a donation to Winter Jam so that they could keep going like they do. I was amongst the people who donated, though I didn't give much. I don't have much money at all. *sigh* Can't wait until I get a job!!

So then the band headlining Winter Jam this year came out. The Newsboys! Wow, the Newsboys are epic live. I wish I could have been down closer for them. They all had these amazing rising platforms, and of course their was Duncan Phillips famous drum platform that turns sideways and spins! I never knew I'd get to see that live, but I did! And it was awesome! It blows my mind that he can play the drums like that.

The one time during the Newsboys show that really drove me insane was when they played "Something Beautiful", I love that song, but Micheal Tait was singing it all wrong! I was singing better than he was!

Oh, and it was during the Newsboys' performance that KJ-52 made one of his appearances. This one wasn't so random as he was doing the rap part of "Jesus Freak".

After the Newsboys finished up, the concert was over, so Daddy and I left to go get autographs. Unfortunately, the place was so packed that Daddy couldn't get the Newsboys authographs, but I got them from Kutless! When at the Kutless table I posed for a pic with the lead singer, Jon Micah, and James remembered me by name from earlier when I had won the T-shirt!! He remembered me! *Happiness*

I got an autograph from Chris August for my older brother, and then we had to leave or risk missing the train home. I really wanted to get autographs from Sidewalk Prophets, Red and Newsboys though... Oh well, It was after 11:00 PM when we left and I hadn't had dinner. I felt kinda yucky as a result. Maybe I can get their autographs at a later date.

We got home at about 12:30 AM, had something to eat, and got to bed at about 2:00 AM. Yikes.

Winter Jam was amazing. I'm soooo glad I went! You should go too if you can! I feel like I left out a lot about my experience at Winter Jam, but it would be hard to get every detail on here.

A post with pictures coming soon!!

God bless!

~Katie

Hey, Guess What!

FRIDAY IS WINTER JAM!!!

I'm excited. :)

I'm gonna get to see Kutless again! (Third time! Wooohooo!!) I'm also gonna see Sidewalk Prophets again! (Second time!) And I'll see the Newsboys! I'll get to see their spinning drum thingy! And I'll also see Red, and Chris August! Oh, and there are a few I'm not excited about, like KJ-52 (BLEEEH!!), David Crowder Band (Ehhh.) and Newsong. Then there are the two I know next to nothing about, Chris Sligh and Francesca Battistelli. I guess I ought to look 'em up and listen to a few songs, I might be pleasantly surprised.

I'm gonna see KUTLESS AGAIN!!!

God bless!

~Katie K.

Strange Things...

You know, it's odd, one day you'll be going around in short sleeves and seeing butterflies. The next you'll be bundling up like an Eskimo and trying to make you're way across ice. Those poor frozen butterflies... Watch out for penguins!

I created a snow alien, his name was Fred. He didn't live very long. I accidentally knocked his head off, then I got frustrated and kicked him into oblivion. I guess it was okay though, he didn't like kids much... He had a nice tail and cool hair though.

Last night I went to a movie with my older brother, and on the way there while we were sitting at an intersection waiting for the light to turn green, there was a strange and mysterious sight up in the nearly dark sky. 500 to 1,000 birds flying in these sort of circles over the intersection. They just kept going and going and going....

Movie reviewers don't always do a movie justice. I was led to believe by the reviews that Megamind would be only an okay movie. I came away loving it and wanting to own it. It was great!

When you go to the store to only buy a couple items, you leave with several. When you go to the store to buy lots of items, you forget a great deal of them. Usually.

I used to love monkeys. Blehhhhh.

Freedom of speech is slowly disappearing.

The post on this blog with the most comments is my very first post. It was a test post. It got six comments.

God bless!

~Katie K.

Red - Until We Have Faces (Review)

I've decided to start doing music reviews. Only for Christian rock though. For now at least. I might venture into other genres eventually, but I won't review secular music because I don't listen to it. If there are any albums you'd like me to review, let me know and I'll look into it.

My first review will be for the new album by RED, "Until We Have Faces". I don't really listen to Red previous to their latest album, but I like this album, so I'm going to review it.

Red is a Christian hard rock/metal band.

(For each song I'm giving a link to a youtube video so you can listen to the song. Note: the videos that contain lyrics may not have 100% accurate lyrics.)

Track #1 "Feed The Machine". As I first started listening to the song, I found myself a bit disturbed. The lyrics seemed to be a call to give in to sin and just "give up, give up and feed the machine". I was at the point of wondering why on earth a Christian band would release such a song when at the end, the lyrics changed from "give up, give up and feed the machine" to "wake up, wake up and kill the machine".

So, I think in the end, "Feed The Machine" was not about giving in to sin, but about how easy it is to give in to sin, but you need to still fight it.

Musically, "Feed The Machine" was very hard, probably the hardest on the album. Heavy guitar and drums and a good deal of screaming, but it fades at the end into something with softer music, something like you might expect to hear after the climax in a movie, so "Feed The Machine" had a somewhat dramatic affect.

Track #2. "Faceless". Not nearly as hard or dramatic as "Feed The Machine" but still pretty hard, and it had a good message, about how we we are nothing without God. A very solid song, and it's the one that got me interested in the album in the first place.

Track #3 is "Lie To Me (Denial)". This song is about as hard as "Faceless", but without any screaming. "Lie To Me" seems to be one of those songs that's meaning is best left to be interpreted by the listener. For me personally it hit a place rather close to home.

Track #4, "Let it Burn". Not as hard as "Lie To Me", but still a good solid rock song. The music is almost sad, but that goes with the lyrics.

"(How long) Can you stand the pain?
(How long) How long will you hide your face?
(How long) How long will you be afraid?
Are you afraid?"

Track #5, "Buried Beneath". The song seems to be taken from the perspective of someone who has been running from God for a long time and is now calling out for God to save him before he is "buried beneath". It's a good rock song, and pretty decent lyrics.

Track #6, "Not Alone" is the first slower song on the album. It builds nicely, and sounds kinda pretty. The song is taken from the perspective of God calling out to one of His children who is hurting inside and letting them know that they're never alone, He's always there.

Track #7, "Watch You Crawl". This song sounds good musically, nice hard rock, although the scream in the bridge gets on my nerves... It mostly sounds good though. My problem with this song is the lyrics. They can be interpreted in more ways than one, but the most glaring interpretation is very hateful and vengeful. And considering that Red is a Christian band, I was having a hard time believing that they'd write and release such a song. So I've analyzed the lyrics. One person said that they thought this song was taking the perspective of God getting His revenge on Satan or something, but that doesn't make much sense to me, as the lyrics seem to involve rising above someone or something oppressive and watching them/it "crawl". Finally, I came to a conclusion on what the song probably means. I think it might be about rising above your old sinful self and killing it. I don't know for sure though... I'd love the chance to ask Red themselves.

"The Outside" is track #8. This song like "Watch You Crawl" is pretty open to interpretation. To me, the song seems a bit angry. My interpretation of the lyrics depicts someone who has been used by another and is now basically saying "no more!". A pretty hard song, fairly good sound, I just wish it wasn't as angry sounding.

Track #9 "Who We Are". Another harder song. This one has some pretty prominent percussion. The percussion paired with the lyrics make this a song to really get pumped to. "Who We Are" seems to be about being ourselves and stepping out for God.

Track #10 "The Best is Yet to Come". Finally another softer song, but this one isn't exactly a ballad. The music is good and the lyrics optimistic. And having optimistic lyrics is nice, because most of the rest of the album seems a tad dark.

Track #11 "Hymn For The Missing". The final song on the album and this one really is a ballad, with piano being the most prominent instrument in the song. As the title leads you to believe, this is a sad and mysterious song. In spite of the sadness, it is oddly rather pretty.

Conclusion: Red has never been, and probably never will be one of my favorite bands, but they managed to release a pretty solid album this time. Vocals have improved for "Until We Have Faces", where they seemed to be lacking a bit in previous albums. The musical style is very good. I do however think that the lyrics for this album could have been better. I'd give "Until We Have Faces" a good three and a half stars. An album perhaps worth owning, but not the best out there.

Personal favorites: "Lie To Me (Denial)", "Let it Burn", "Best is Yet to Come", "Not Alone" and "Faceless".