I LOVE Jars of Clay. Tonight was the fifth time that I've seen them in concert, and oh man, they get better every time I see them. Tonight they performed at the BB King's Bar and Grill in NYC. I thought it was a great venue for them, at least size wise. I would say that I was standing about 10 to 15 feet away from the stage. Anyway, they did some awsome songs from their new CD of hymns, along with some of their classics like "Faith Like A Child" and "Flood." They also fused some of their old songs with their new ones, like tacking part of "Worlds Apart" onto the end of a song off of their Redemption CD. (Which I totally have to buy now.) The guys (read: Dan and Steve) were hilarious as usual. At one point they talked about how a lot of hymns used to be sung to the tunes of old drinking songs and what not... so Dan concluded, "If you're going to raise a pint, you might as well do it in praise." Haha, that got an Amen out of a lot of people. :)

The guy that opened for Jars was also really great. His name Christopher Williams, and from what I gathered, he's pretty new to the scene. He really gave an awsome set though. He accompanied himself for all songs either on drum (the bongo type, which he played sometime with a dishwashing brush... it was awsome) or guitar... and at one point, harmonica. He also did a few songs with Steve, which was really great. I'm definitely going to have to check out his songs and website. I such a sucker for acoustic guitar, what can I say?

Besides all of the great music, I also ran into some people that I knew at the concert, which really made my night. The first person was this guy named Peter that I sat next to my senior year of all-state. It's quite funny actually, because I ran into him last summer at a SonicFlood concert that I went to. I was supposed to IM him after that concert last summer, but I didn't have his screename when I thought that I did, so that idea went out the window. But it looks like we were destined to meet again, so we exchanged screenames again. Haha, we said that we'll go to another Jars concert together or something.

I also ran into a few people from Tufts, (Matt Dysart, Jack Grimes and Erica Cruz to be exact) which was really strange. Matt and Jack graduated last year (2004), so it was pretty strange to see them. It was funny actually, I definitely recognized them, since they were senior leaders for TCF and all, and aparently they recognized me too. My mom said that she heard them say something about that girl (me) going to Tufts. I guess I did spend a good amount of time in James' suite prepping for skitzos when they were seniors. It's always fun to be recognized. :)

Soooo, next Jars of Clay concert, August 8th in New Hampshire... who's up for it!?!?

Give to the wind your fear
Hope and be undismayed
God hears your sighs and counts your tears
God will lift up, God will lift up, lift up your head

God will lift up your head...