The Office – Halloween

OK here’s what I was looking for! However, embedding is not allowed so you’ll have to click through Don’t know what’s up with that but 3-hole punch Conner won ‘Funniest Costume’ at our Halloween Party on Saturday night!!

3-hole punch Jim click here

3-hole punch Conner see below

Square Pumpkins

Well that’d be cool. I figured if the Japanese could do it with watermelons they could do it with pumpkins maybe too???

Sadly no

The Office Halloween Trailer

Ok so this isn’t what I was looking for but I’m glad I found it!

Movie Tombstones

 Deep Blue Sea:

 Dr. Strangelove:

Appetite for Construction Tour Pt. 2 – Relient K

So, I really could have cared less about Relient K going into this concert (I’m sure there’s a teenager crying because I said that.) But it’s true. I have one song of theirs, In Love with the 80s I think is the name of it. I honestly have never given them much of a listening to but for some reason I was never inclined to either.
HOWEVER, let me set the record straight: THESE GUYS KILL!! Rae and I were totally surprised! Seriously, lyrics like “sadie hawkins dance in my khaki pants” just don’t really do it for me, but a quality show with crowd interaction and talented musicians totally does! I’ll get long winded if I don’t watch myself but let me throw this out there for all the would be high school wanna be punk rock pop bands out there that want to make a go for it:

6 Things I Will Learn From Relient K (in no particular order)

1. Variety – Front man Matt played the piano, played the guitar, had 2 different mics at the piano, & 2 different mics at the guitar stand. Crazy guitarist Jon played guitar, played banjo, & some crazy xylophone instrument! The cool thing too is that they didn’t just do it for one song. I think he soloed on the banjo for at least 2 tunes! I now want a banjo BAD! And the same thing for the xylophone thingy! Broadening your band to be able to do this is wildly entertaining!! 
2. Variety – It’s worth saying again! About 20 minutes into their piece I leaned over to Rae and even said, “This is cool but I can’t take an hour of this!” I was dead wrong! It got incredibly creative! There were songs that were ripped straight from the 80s! In fact, the set up for In Love With the 80s was Head Over Heels by Tears for Fears! Rae and I wet ourselves! It was done so great! Then there were times when I felt like this could have been Papa Roach we were listening to! I felt a little of the Fray popping out and then some just great fun pop/rock!
   
3. Vocals – You’ve got at least 3 people in your band (5 if your Relient K) give everyone mics! It’s such a huge difference. Its the biggest downer when I go to a concert and a band has these incredible choruses or anthem bridges and the lead man tries to pull it off by himself. Having the other members of the band chant out or yell out or sing out is HUGE!
   
4. Snow – Yeah bring artificial snow to a city that only sees snow like every few years. I’m your biggest fan now
   
5. Crowd Connection – 1st off this was done with Matt’s candid conversations and interactions with the crowd. I like it when a song sentimental to an artist is talked about. I like it when he points out the crazy sign and tries to make sense of it. I like him talking to me!
   2ndly this was done with stomp boxes. I don’t know what to call these but I’m seeing them more and more now. I don’t know if they house monitors underneath or what but they’re about the size of a stage wedge and the band uses them to jump on top of and make the crowd go buck wild. It’s a visual that totally works!
   
6. Practice- KNOW YOUR MUSIC! I was horrible at this gigging in college. But man, if you don’t know your music and aren’t able to lay it all out there then how in the world do  you expect to have that Crowd Connection?!?! This just isn’t for the lead singer, this is for every member of the band! That band chemistry is invaluable and can not only be seen but felt by a crowd. 

 

Appetite for Construction Tour Pt. 1 – Ruth

Ruth was the opening openers. It’s actually the lead singer’s last name and there’s not a girl in the bunch of them. I thought that Reliant K was the opener opener so it was a surprise seeing a 3rd name on our tickets but it was a good surprise. Just what you want from an opening opening band: fun, music you’ve never heard before in the style of your favorite band who you’ve come to see.

Nothing extremely special about this band, they’re a 4 piece rock group but they really were good! I was excited to see someone with crazy long hair in a red flannel shirt, brought back memories of my grunge days But the tight pants and cool guitar tones brought a different slice to the mix. They honestly did remind me of some bands that I’d seen back in the 90s like Silverchair and such with some grunge roots that have blended with the Rock/Pop genres. I see Secondhand Dreaming is available on iTunes and I’m thinking of getting it.

It’s funny now going to these concerts. I notice the opening openers mix is always poorest. Their portion of the stage is always smallest. The amount of lights are always fewest. And it gets bigger and better as the night goes on

He Spat in My Food

I know he did.

I apologized but I don’t think it did me any good. I mean I was on the 3rd row for a freakin’ rock and roll concert for like 3 hours! We were hungry afterwards and popped into the Jack in the Box and I was trying to be polite and ‘Yes Maam’ just came out. Then it came out again. I didn’t even realize I did it.

Then I hear snickering. I still haven’t a clue.

He begins throwing ‘Maam’ at the end of all of his sentences now. I’m still clueless.

He must have called me ‘Maam’ like twice in ordering me to drive around and that’s when it hit. Rae was just laughing.

I tried apologizing but I don’t think he had any of it…I’m sure I ate his spit…

But if that didn’t wet your appetite for my Switchfoot review, hopefully this pic will Pun intended! Heehee

Worship Textfessional Oct 28th

So this weekend’s worship was…interesting. For the songs see my Pre-textfessional here.

Two things I found…interesting:

1. As soon as you question the ease of using 2 guitars in your favorite worship forum, it’ll all of a sudden be wildly difficult for you on Sunday morning HAHAHA. I regularly swap electric and acoustic in guitars without having a problem. This week however, I wanted to use Your Grace is Enough with Amazing Grace to create this nice lil set of grace. Well in doing so, it made it to where I had to swap guitars for every song! That wasn’t quite so smart. I changed things up a bit and in the second service I just stuck with the electric while playing Amazing Grace because it was being led by the piano player and I was really only adding accents.
2. Even though I am considered the Lead Worshipper or Worship Pastor or what have you, our Pastor is as much a worship leader as I am! Our Pastor and Communications Director (along with an elder) were in California for our first Presbytery meeting of the EPC. Which meant I had alot of work that morning! That wasn’t so difficult, however, not having our Pastor up front worshipping seemed to truly make a difference in the congregation’s response in worship. It made my “job” harder! Hahaha.
   I have the great privilege of a Pastor who is expressive in his worship and I’m not sure I really recognized how fortunate I am to have him! He sings! He claps! He lifts his hands! He closes his eyes, but I don’t think the congregation sees that Seriously, though his presence really is a wonderful thing to have in our worship service.

One of the best moments for me though was when we played O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing! It was amazing. That song is so big! I really recommend you trying it. Crowder has SO MUCH happening in that song that it seems overwhelming but when you break it down it truly is doable! Here’s what we had:

• Drums - well I have the best drummer in the South so I can’t help you there!
• Bass - a big heavy bass will move this song along really well
• Electric - there are only a few lil licks throughout the verses but the bigness of the choruses are truly where the electric makes it mark!
• Acoustic - easy man version of this is capoing up 5 and playing a D formation. Its really really simple. Your hitting the middle strings and then hammering on your D and Dsus to make the lick happen in the intro and instrumental portions. Crowder plays it in his Crowder tuning of an open A. You can see how he does it here.
• Keys - they really helped and I’m really glad we had Calvin. He added a ton with his big strings patch to do the lick that carries the instrumental vamps. I actually hesitated to try this song without him but after trying it out I really believe even a basic band could pull it off and I don’t think it would be missed. I’m confident we could do it again without the keys!
• Vocals - I did have a backup vocalist who provided a great harmony piece for this song!

Man, I can’t tell you how big and boisterous the choruses of this song is! It’s just high enough to where you HAVE to sing out but it’s not uncomfortable! It’s pushed All Creatures and Come Thou Fount down a peg each to become my favorite hymn to sing!

We Are One Tonight!!

Wow, I almost forgot! I’ll have a flippin’ sweet review of the Switchfoot & Reliant K concert for ya’ll tomorrow!! Woohoo!!
I was hoping more of our Youth would be able to come but not so much. Rae and I will have a blast though. I’ve only seen them once before and it was at an outdoor venue. It should be great to see all the new material from the last 2 CDs!

5 Things Better Than Mon Oct 29

My weekend was incredible! Posts, posts, and more posts to come!

5. Great Danes – There’s a reason they’re not called Good Danes!

4. O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing – We pulled it off yesterday and it was hair raising!

3. Three Hole Punch Conner – Because you can have me regular or 3 hole punched!

2. Friday Night Guys Night – Laughs, steaks, laughs, drinks, laughs, 30 Days of Night…laughs!

1. Falling asleep in Rae’s lap on the sofa on a Sunday afternoon!