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