Okay, on Thursday I got the best birthday present I have ever received. (It was an early present, my birthday isn't until December 2nd.) I got to see my favorite band live! KUTLESS!!! (I also saw Above The Golden State and Sidewalk Prophets!!) First though, I got to go meet them! :-D They were signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans at a nearby bookstore, so my mom took me and a couple of my brothers. Sidewalk Prophets was also there. They set up and did a mini acoustic concert before they and Kutless got around and signed autographs. It was all very laid back. I found out there that i actually really like Sidewalk Prophets. And they were so nice, and passionate and fun! While Sidewalk Prophets was performing, I was standing like right next to/right behind Jon Micah (lead singer for Kutless) and his adorable son, Caleb. And in the aisle ahead of us, the other members of Kutless (Except Lucky, he wasn't there at all for some reason...) were there. And they were having a lot of fun singing along with Sidewalk Prophets.
After Sidewalk Prophets finished their little mini concert, both bands set up to sign autographs. While waiting in line, I smiled and waved at Caleb. He smiled and waved back. HE WAS SO CUTE! Too bad I can't take the little guy home. lol.
So I got myself autographs from both Kutless and Sidewalk Prophets. I also got autographs for some friends. The ones for friends I had done on some cool papers, each had a cross and a verse on it. James, (Guitarist for Kutless.) had apparently been reading one of those verses that morning! Then we got pictures!
(Note, all pictures are unedited. And decided to post in the opposite order in which they were taken... Hmmm. :-P)
Me and Flash with Sidewalk Prophets! (Notice the lead singer is wearing a Batman shirt? lol)
Me and Flash with Kutless!
Me with Kutless!
See Caleb waving off to the side? Isn't he just adorable?
Sidewalk Prophets performing their mini acoustic concert!
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Their drummer. It's like the only picture of him that came out all that day!
Okay, so now onto the concert! My actual present.
IT WAS AMAZING!!! Daddy and I got there a few minutes before the doors were opened for the people to come in, so we ended up at first getting front row seats. Then we had to wait like 45 minutes for the concert to begin. There were some stereos playing music at least, so at least there were sounds other than a bunch of strangers chatting away. I recognized some of it, I heard some Disciple, Sanctus Real and then one of like five songs that I like by FM Static.
Finally, Above The Golden State came out. Fun, but definitely an opening performance. The most fun with them came when they sang "I'll Fly Away" (You've been living under a rock if you never heard that song!) and got everyone one singing.
"And when I die, hallelujah, by and bye, I'll fly away." :-D
Oh, and I spotted Lucky and Nick from Kutless playing bass guitar and guitar for them. Couldn't help but wonder if they lost members maybe?? While Above The Golden State was playing, Daddy had gotten up to get a better angle on some pictures, and I had strayed a few steps away from our seats for a better view. An elderly couple took our seats. (I'm sure they had no idea that those seats were ours!) Daddy and I just kind of overlooked it and moved into the "mosh pit". (Very civilized mosh pit!)
Lead singer for Above The Golden State
Lucky from Kutless playing bass for Above The Golden State
Unfortunately none of the pics of their drummer came out... So you can just stare at their lead singer. lol
Nick from Kutless playing guitar for Above The Golden State
Then came Sidewalk Prophets. I'm thinking I really, really must've gotten a poor sampling of their music before, because they were anything but boring. They may not have exactly been a rock band, but they were so passionate and the music was really good. And the lyrics! Ah, amazing. In fact, they put on such a good/fun/passionate show that I was actually thinking that Kutless was gonna have to put on their very best to beat that performance. o.O lol. When they sang, "You Love Me Anyway", they had this really touching video playing. I nearly cried. It was beautiful... And "The Words I Would Say" was awesome! (Look that song up! Seriously!) And at one point, I don't remember what song was going on at the time, but Dave, the lead singer, met my eyes. I think he was probably having a moment of, "Hey, I remember her! I shook her hand and signed her jeans! Hi!" lol. Or maybe he didn't remember me and was just randomly looking me in the eyes. :-P
Me really enjoying Sidewalk Prophets.
I love this picture. When I took it I was really hoping it'd come out, and it did! They were having so much fun up there. They were fun to watch.
This one is almost as fun as the last. That guitarist over to the side looks like he's about to fall over...
They were so passionate... :-)
He's a good guitarist.
After Sidewalk Prophets left the stage, Jon Micah from Kutless came out and talked about Compassion International. (Which is a really good child sponsorship organization.) He had with him a packet on a little boy from Africa, he struggled a bit to pronounce the kid's first name then said, "I'm not even gonna try to pronounce his last name. Can we just call him Billy?" Everyone laughed, but I think I'll forever remember that kid as Billy! lol.
Then we waiting about fifteen minutes for Kutless to come out and put on their show. A very boring fifteen minutes of standing around doing nothing...
And then we heard church bells! And a choir! lol. It was pre-recorded stuff, it would be hard to do those things live. Then Kutless ran out onto stage and the concert began with "It Is Well". And it was amazing live!! Actually, everything was amazing! They started it out with a set of worship songs, mostly off of their newest album and then did an acoustic set, starting with "Sea Of Faces". The acoustic set was great, I had no idea "Sea Of Faces" sounded so good acoustic! My only disappointment with that was that right as they were about to sing the bridge, like one of my favorite parts out of any of their songs ever, they switched to a song I had no idea they even did! "Mighty To Save". It was good though, a very good version of "Mighty To Save". And then a bit after the acoustic set, they picked it up with "To Know That You're Alive." The video for it was playing in the background. I remember they also played "The Feeling" instead of "Tonight". I don't think I could possibly forget their performance of "Pride Away". First off they riled us up and seriously got us jumping. (I was afraid that Daddy would have an asthma attack from all of that jumping!) The jumping was fun, but um, I don't recommend wearing high heals to a concert... At the point in the song where there would have been a rap segment, they kind of paused the song, and Jon Micah introduced Jeff and Jeff did a drum solo. Jeff doesn't like loud cheering for his drum solos, no, loud isn't good enough, it must be deafening. After finishing one piece, he'll sit there and look at us, kind of disappointed, and put his hand behind his ear as though he couldn't hear us. Once satisfied at our volume, he gets this big grin, nods and starts beating those drums again. Once he's done, we're expected to be louder! Ha. It was fun. Then Jon Micah introduced Lucky (His name is actually Dave Leutkenhoelter, Lucky is just his nickname.) and Lucky joined Jeff in playing, then James was introduced. (Great guitarist!!) and then Nick, and finally Jon Micah introduced himself. And then they got back to "Pride Away", which was actually a bit startling, because I had forgotten the song. lol. Did you know that when they song, Jon Micah tells you to jump by singing, "Jump, jump, jump!"? They really have a unique way of getting their fans jumping! :-D And then I don't remember if it was before or after "Pride Away" was over, they started trying to get a drummer from the crowd to come up on stage with them to play Jeff's drums. (At first I misheard and thought he was saying "jumper", not "drummer." lol. Concerts can be so loud it's hard to hear what they're saying.) A guy came up on stage, but before he could go over to the drums, Jon Micah stopped him and was like, "Hey, not only are we gonna let you play Jeff's drums, but you can also play James' guitar!" James was handing over the guitar and the guy looked near panic. lol. He still took the guitar and pretended to play, ha! He ended up not getting to play the drums, but he got Jeff's drumsticks, which was cool enough!
Really, like I said, the entire concert was awesome, but I think that the best part was right before they sang "Remember Me" and then when they did sing it. It was amazing, I think Jon Micah is as good a preacher as singer! He really has the ability to make it sink it just exactly what Jesus, our
God, did for us filthy, sinful lowlifes... Made it sink in just how much He loves us, it was amazing. And then when he sang "Remember Me", the song seemed even more powerful than it had before, and I already loved that song. I think I love it more now... Although, it kind of stole some of the thunder from "What Faith Can Do", which they played right after it.
Jon Micah talking about Compassion International. He and his wife have been sponsoring a girl for about ten years, and he recently got to meet her. He talked about that experience. Said he hadn't expected to come out of that feeling like he had an adopted daughter.
"IT IS WEEEEEELLL, WITH MY SOUL!!" :-D
Hey, all of them are at least "sort of" in this pic! :-D
The lights were kewl.
That's my Daddy. I loved how he was getting into the music so much. :-D
That's Jeff during the acoustic set. I couldn't tell what he was playing through all of those heads. Bummer...
Acoustic set. I love their guitars.
Having the time of my life!
I like this pic for some reason...
Drum solo! He's such an amaaaaazing drummer!
Beat them drum, Jeff! That's some talent you got there, dude!
Lucky's so cool. I wish I could've gotten his autograph!
Daddy got this pic. I think it might be the awesomest picture from the entire concert!
Why is it so hard to get a good picture of Nick?
He never broke a sweat! How does he do that? Everyone else was all sweaty and exhausted, but he looked like he could have kept going for a few more hours... Oh well, that's what you get when you've got an athlete for a favorite singer. All his energy made me feel like a lazy slug. I think I'm gonna start working out... ;-)
It'd go into more detail, but this post is taking forever and a half to write, and I haven't had much time on the computer the past few days to finish it, so here y'all go! If you get a chance to see Kutless in concert, I highly, highly recommend going!!!
God bless!
~Katie K.
