Year 4, March 29th, 2019: WinterJam 2019

Oh wow!  So much fun! But for such different reasons than last year!  First of all, WinterJam itself was good, but not as great as last year, despite the 360 degree stage.  We had great seats, but something was lacking.  No big deal, I'm used to concerts not always being "wow" all the time.  But what made this concert super special was that JARED WAS WITH ME!  Oh my goodness, if you didn't know, Jared has never, ever attended a concert with me before.  Why? Money and interest.  He liked the same Christian music I did back in the day, but he didn't see any sense in spending money to see it in person.  He's always allowed me to spend money for great seats to go with friends that would actually appreciate sitting in a concert hall for hours.  In fact, one time in college, I went to see a Michael W. Smith concert on the north side of Indy.  Jared was my only transportation, so he picked me up at my college and drove me to the concert.  But, only I had a ticket and went in.  He stayed in the parking lot and slept! (He had driven from his college many hours away to do this).  That's how practical we are.  Have I wanted him to go with me to events?  Absolutely!  I've definitely been jealous of other couples enjoying concerts together.  But the practical side of us always wins.  And with kids, somebody has to stay home.  But, because WinterJam has a variety of Christian artists in different genres and it's only $15 and it's local, I knew that even if he only enjoyed a bit of it, it would be worth it.  Plus, I was taking 4 kids with me, and wanted someone else to drive and chaperone with me.  So, he reluctantly agreed.  I told him that I didn't expect him to be terribly excited or wowed, but just don't grumble and make negative comments.  And he was perfect.

The kids we brought were Benaiah and Ava, and Justin and Wolf.  It was both Ava's and Wolf's first concert!  Sweet!  And they both LOVED it!  We left at 3pm so we could be in line by 3:30 to get good seats.  It's a general admission/first come/first serve kind of concert.  We got there just in time to be one of the first ones in line inside the arena, and although it wasn't raining or terribly cold, it was nice to be inside and sit on the floor to wait for the next 2 hrs.  We had fun conversation and Jared was a good sport about it.  I was able to talk to Ava a bit more or at least observe Benaiah and Ava joking around.  Wolf is a very respectful young man, so no worries there either.  When we got in, Benaiah pushed through to get some great seats and they were perfect!  He and Ava sat in front of us, I was on the end so I could get pics and vids, Jared sat next to me and the young boys were next to him.  We were able to let Benaiah/Ava, Justin/Wolf go in pairs to the bathroom, merch tables, and concessions because we were close to one of the stairs/doors.  I missed the first two artists because the concessions were packed and we desperately needed something to drink.  We didn't drink much while standing in line because we really couldn't leave to find a restroom.  I had paid for everyone to get in and then the other kids had money to spend on concessions and merch.  It worked out well.  Everyone budgeted themselves (the younger boys had cash).

Benaiah bought a hoodie, and then Ava wanted it, so he bought another one.  They will be wearing them at school on Monday and at lunch shouting "Oh, you look HOT!" Bwahahaha.  But I have to say, it was so precious sitting behind them, watching Benaiah run his fingers up and down Ava's arm with his arm around her shoulders and her leaning into him.  At one point she got overwhelmed by the lights and noise, so he took her out for a bit.  I think they sat at a table nearby our entrance.  But they got up and enjoyed the music, too.  While were waiting to enter the arena, they played on their phones, tied each other's shoelaces together, shared with us the "prom proposal," and Ava even shared with me her prom dress WITHOUT letting Benaiah see it!  Awwww......I feel so special that she would share that with me.  I love being their chaperone because I don't know, well, I feel like it's Jared and me all over again and what a special time that was and still is.  Because they have allowed us all to be part of their lives and have shared with us the details, we can see that they are keeping the boundaries and looking to us to help keep them within them.  They really care about each other as best friends should, not just "I want to kiss you" and all the romantic stuff, which I'm sure they want too.  It's just precious and special and I love it as I've said before.  We are blessed.

Back to Jared then.  At one point, he did finally stand up with me and put his arm around me and we enjoyed a song together like that.  I tried not to hold back my normal concert excitement because I wanted him to experience seeing me and why I love going.  It's just a different side of me that he doens't get to see often.  He did appreciate some of the bands, and noticed the lights and sound and such.  Like I said, he's not oblivious to CCM.  He just doesn't get into it like I do.  In fact, after the concert when we were looking at merch, he bought the Rend Collective cd (Irish worship/pop type band) and told me I could pre buy the new Newsboys United worship CD, which was $10 for 2, because it only has two songs on it now with a code to download it in May because he saw my excitement.  Awww.....and this is all I expected out of him.  I want him to see me in my element and for us to experience something together for once.  Same thing goes for the John Crist show in May.  We've done so much of our "fun" experiences separately, like Mom's night out, or pastor's breakfasts, or homeschool field trips, or e2 event.  I just want to experience together even more with my Man, even when it's not one spouse's absolutely favorite thing to do.  So the evening went better than I expected.  I left wiggly room for him to growl about having to be there so early and stand in line, or to growl at the price of parking in the garage or the traffic later on.  I left room in my mind to let me do my thing and he can just sit there and tolerate it.  And I think that's what really helped: my expectations were right on the money.  It was such a wonderful experience with him, but I told him that I do not expect him to come with me to other concerts and I thanked him many times over the weekend and couldn't stop smiling and snuggling him for the sacrifice he made by keeping his negative comments to himself and just being there with me for once.  I'm so happy!

Let's see, I think I'll save my comments about all the artists for their pictures below.  One other thing to note is that Grandma, then Ali, then Grandma babysat the other two.  Grandma had a wedding to go to that evening so Ali helped with babysitting and it was rough.  When Grandma picked up the youngest two, Abishai cried and kicked and screamed.  He wanted to stay home and be with Daddy and Mommy.  It was very hard letting him go.  He quieted down quickly I heard.  And was ok when Mrs. Ali came.  However, when he was sleepy, he put himself to bed.  Then he crawled down the hallway later and actually fell asleep in the bathroom.  When Ali tried to move him to his bed, he woke up and started kicking and screaming saying he wanted to stay up until Mommy and Daddy came home.  Eek!  Poor Ali! Grandma said that Ali said it took Abishai another 1 1/2 hrs to go to bed!  Oh no! Poor Ali!  Grandma relieved Ali about 10:30pm.  Then we didn't get home until nearly 1am because we had to drop off Wolf and Ava at their respective houses and Wolf lives 15 minutes northeast of us and we were downtown.  Poor Grandma! She was always going to babysit the next day because Jared and I had a prayer event for our Rooted group from 10am-2pm.  I'm sure she was exhausted and took a nap on Saturday afternoon, too.  That's just how it goes sometimes.  Now we have to go back and apologize to Ali for Abishai's misbehavior and apologize to the moms of the kids we took with us because of how late it was.  I didn't think it got out that late and didn't think about the timing.  Whoops!  But we had a blast. That's all that matters, right?  We are very grateful that we have the privilege to do things like this.  What fun!

P.S. It's now nearly a week later and I so don't want to take the time to decide which photos to post and to caption them.  So, we'll see how much I actually do.  When I have a big event, I'll keep making new blog posts so that those fresher memories aren't lost and then come back to the big work to work on when I have more time.  Then those finished blogs will all post at once. So, I hope you enjoy the next few blogs!  Again, I apologize if this gets a bit jumbled, but I think some of the pictures speak for themselves.  Thanks!

WinterJam 2019 Playlist

Thanks for always coming back!  I love not having to travel more than 20-30 minutes!  One of the biggest advantages of living in a med to large city is that you still get some awesome tours, right in your own backyard.  Woot!  Woot!  In fact, I keep dismissing the concerts that are more than 2 hrs away (like in Chicago, blech) because I just don't have the time and energy.  So thanks for being here on your last weekend of the tour!  Third to last concert of WinterJam 2019!

The line up is right there in the middle where this person Kelli posted.

"Mommy, a new friend came to play pew pew with me!"

Don't show Grandma, but apparently the back of the couch is a perfect spot to perch and play video games from.

Awww, aren't they the sweetest?!  She's just as tall as him and wears the same size hoodie so they swap all the time.  Adorableness!  Benaiah + Ava 2019  You're welcome!

So many buses! Plus all the semi trailers they have that I've seen on Instagram.  These tours are massive!  It takes 100's of people to coordinate them all.  Eek!

Can you tell my guy doesn't like pictures?  Actually, he's such a dork with that silly rain hat on and we weren't even outside.  Oh well.

Justin and Wolf

The dating couple.

Michael Tait came out to get the VIP crowd excited.  Last year we were sung to by Mallory Hope, but this year, nada.

Waiting, waiting, waiting.  We got there at about 3:30 and went in about 5:30.

Ava tied Benaiah's shoelaces together.  And he was able to get down and back up without untying them.  And they both like converse shoes.  Lol.

VIP crowd, and WinterJam banner.  And to that Jared says, "I'm jealous of their bladders because I need a restroom." Well, it's hard to get out of line to go to a restaurant two blocks away.  There's actually not many restaurants around this block.

The man child and I.

Man child has a big head!  Seriously, this hat fits Jared perfectly and Benaiah had to squish his head into it.

Our seats!  I wanted to be in front of the drums, but Benaiah had gone ahead and found these, which were much better.  We were a bit further away, but had a clearer view between the gigantic screens and I was able to get both Newsboys drumsets in one shot.  The only bad part was that stage gear on the right blocking the end of the platform closest to us.  Bummer.

I missed the first two bands because Justin and I were desperate for a drink and the lines were long for concessions.  That's because most hadn't eaten since lunch because of how early they got in line.  This is probably Dan Bremmes, who I think was there last year or on another tour or maybe I've heard his name around the CCM circuit a bit.

Awesome lights! Although, I think a lot of the effects were lost because of the empty space around them.  I think I do prefer the stage to be on one end of the arena.  I didn't really like not seeing the artists' front sides at all times.  I ended up watching the screens (and taking pictures and videos of the screens) sometimes.

Awww....

??

Newsong?

Not sure what the point of the choir was, but ok.

Newsong

Ledger, who is the drummer for Skillet, but she has her own solo project, so she came this year.  She also was touring with Skillet at the time, so lots of plane rides.

Gospel message

Mandisa!  I wish she could have sang more than 4 songs!  She did dance up a storm though!  And all I could think of was her Instagram story where she said that her acrylic nails lasted through most of the tour and today she painted them over with red without fixing the acrylics so don't look too closely, lol.

Eek! Getting closer to Newboys!  Danny Gokey!

Sneaking a selfie.

Rend Collective!  Another Irish band! With tons of cool instruments, including a banjo, trumpet, and fidle!

And Irish dancers!  Brought me right back to PEI, which by the way, I was wearing my PEI shirt, and Laura Peric who is learning this kind of step dancing.  Ah!  Céilidh is what I think they called it on PEI, but the internet seems to think that means a social call.  I think I'm getting some terms mixed up, but I know that there's a word similar to that that indicated a step dancing performance.

So cool!

The arm was a constantly around her it seemed, but here they are wearing their matching hoodies.

Similar intro to their own concert showing the band members' silhouette.  Eeek!

Jody Davis

Unlike some crews, they didn't switch positions as much so Jeff Frankenstein stayed in the same direction, yeah! They did turn the drum set a bit, BUT this isn't the infamous spinning drumset.

Love the cell phone lights.

There ya go! Proof we were there and he liked it!

The arena is near the City County building and the downtown market, so they were asking where to eat at the market.  Sweet!

They practice court can be seen from the walkways going in to the arena from the garage.

Ready set go!

Ah, remember the picture of TobyMac's drive underground?  Yup, they did it again!

Too bad we were on the opposite side of the arena, but we all know how it works, right?

Mandisa is ready to sing for the crowds.  This was on the opposite side that we were on, the VIP side.

The pics above were from my phone, and the pics below are from Leah's camera with the better zoom/clearer pictures, so there might be some repeats.  It's always hard to pick my favorites because I get really decent shots sometimes!  Here goes!

Dan Bremmes!  One man band, with his guitar, drums, and background tracks.

First concert for Jared, Wolf, and Ava!

Hollyn, our "hip hop" artist of the evening.

She was pretty good, I have to admit.  I just kept thinking though, isn't she so hot in that hat under the lights?  And isn't her knee cold?  I dn't understand the ripped jean thing.  I could totally pull it off with my jeans that have holes in the knees if they weren't so uniform.

Former Audio Adrenaline member singing a song and talking about Child Fund.  I'm pretty sure he shared at the Newsboys concert as well, because the video he shared and the story he told were the same ones at the Newsboys concert.

Newsong.

They had 4 big screens and then had lots of camera doing close up shots.  However, the camera people weren't as smooth as I thought they should be, and switching between the cameras also wasn't smooth.  Hm,...

Sharing some merch with a lady that does a lot of the organizing behind the scenes.

And of course she had to make a grand entrance, Ledger from Skillet!!!  She basically "rode in on a chariot" looking movable stage piece, lol.

Yeah for Jen Ledger!  Sweet girl!  Similar, but not quite the same rock music as Skillet.  She had different band members though.

It's so funny because I watch the artists' Instagrams throughout the whole tour, so I know exactly what they will be wearing.  And I wonder to myself, how do they get their clothes clean in between shows because their outfits are the same from night to night.  And how does she sing with her hair in her face?

"I'm Not Done Yet"

My girl Mandisa!  She can dance when she wants to!  Plus she had other professional dancers and backup singer with her.

Aww, I love how she dancers despite her size (which she has always struggled with, along with anxiety and depression).

Praising, Jesus, that's all you need.  I love the red!  "We all bleed the same..." is one of the songs she DID sing, yeah! But her set was way too short for me.  I'll have to catch her again on a normal tour.  She's the sweetest person ever.  And a ton of fun.

Danny Gokey, the epitome of millennial music/worship/dress.  Bwahahaha!  The jean jacket and hoodie thing totally fits the bill.

Love the brass though.  Brings me back to the Michael W. Smith Change Your World days in the early 1990's. 

Rend Collective!  The second Irish band I've heard this year!  I had to look them up to make sure they weren't the same band.  The other band I heard with TobyMac was We Are Messengers.

A fiddle player!

Rend Collective has a pretty large band because they use all kinds of instruments and sound like a little bit of Irish, bluegrass, pop/worship, and southern gospel depending on the song.

Oh yeah, an accordion, too!

Saxophone and big drum.

I could have mistaken the drummer as a trucker.  He looked a lot older than the rest of them and reminds of a guy on TV show, played by Luke Perry (who actually died recently, he was only 50 and played in Beverly Hills 90210). 

Crazy bluegrass/applachia type musical instrument made from scraps? I'm not really sure.

The bummer about a 360 degree stage is that you don't always get the right angle.  Whoops!

Final chorus of their final song and they bring out the Panda heads!  Say what?!  I have no idea why this is a thing, but I'm glad it was fun for them.

Newsboys

Michael Tait started everything off of course.  They did make the switch mid song during the 2nd or 3rd song to Peter Furler, and then he did a song or two, but it was definitely a very shortened version of their normal concerts.  It was just a "taste" in my opinion.

Mr. Jeff Frankenstein.  I'm glad his keyboard was facing my direction.

Duncan Phillips, of course.  This is the drumset that several bands used and you'll see the Newsboys' drumset in a little bit.

Jody Davis was able to move around a bit.  They all had special white and red mics and more than one mic per person.  Interesting!

Here come the old members, Peter and Phil Joel.  Phil has some new pants that I haven't seen in any social media.  But still, the widest bell bottoms on the planet.  Not sure why he thinks that's a style, but it's just his style.

The 'Boys

Two lead singers, and the bassist.

Sweet set up.

Hugs!

Phil Joel and Jody Davis

Oh shoot, I forget which song they do this in, but they did it at our concert, too.  They pulled some girls from the audience when the song talked about "daddy giving her away."

I still love Tait's cool jackets!

Saluting, just because he can.  Duncan has such a stage presence/extroverted personality.  He is the party animal of the group!

Jeff, he's the quietest one, the most serious, running all the gear behind his little keyboard there, the manager type of "kid."  He hardly ever talks.

Cell phone lights.

It was sort of hard to see, but if you watch the long video about this, you'll know there was a drum war between Duncan, who is now on the Newboys' regular spinning drumset at the opposite side of the arena, and Peter, who is on the drumset in the middle.  I don't think I've seen that before because they usually don't have two drum sets on one stage at the same time.

There, now you can see Duncan way up on the left side.

And there he goes....I'm so glad Jared got to finally see this in person.  He's heard me talk about it for nearly 20 years!

Meanwhile, Tait was backstage and came down one of the section of the seats serenading the crowd.  I had wanted to sit in those seats!  Bummers!

Newsboys United although I still keep calling them the Newsboys because to me, they are the Newsboys, but to any new fans, Peter and Phil are new and Tait has always been with them.

And his signature move, throw his open water bottle out in the audience.  Crowd player!

Justin met his new favorite band, Manic Drive.  And at this writing, Dude Perfect (a really famous YouTube trick shot channel) used one of their songs "Drop the Mic" as their background music for playing card trick shots.  Cool! (a couple of the guys at Dude Perfect are Christians).  This is one of the bands I totally missed.  I swear, I will never do that again! I want to see the new guys!

Justin's emo hairstyle matches the band's!

Phew!  Done!  Then we tried to get in a line to meet Danny Gokey but only to get few CD's.  A woman gave Wolf some paper bracelets that she had gotten because she had sponsored a child.  Thankfully, a merch person went down the line giving out the free cd's and because we didn't care if we met Danny Gokey or not, we were able to take our merch and leave.  Traffic wasn't bad because we had waited, but it took us forever to get home because we dropped off Wolf at his house in New Pal and then dropped off Ava.  I think we got home at 1am.  Eek!  Long, but wonderful, memorable night.

P.S. It's now 8 days later and Jared played Rend Collective's newest CD in the car when we drove home from a restaurant.  He had bought it at WinterJam.  He and I still don't use mp3 music that often.  Plus our cars still take CD's.  We held hands and just listened for the 10 minutes ride.  It was so sweet.  I don't know if he's really into the music or knew that I was enjoying it.  It's great music, but I'm not a huge fan, yet.  Lol.  See, I'm glad we can experience things together.  That was the whole point.  I love to do things as a family.  I didn't have that growing up.  No vacations, not many field trips, and my parents never spent money on themselves, so they didn't go out on dates.  I loved that we had this sweet time together.  Yeah!