Casting Crowns, Kutless, and Caleb in concert

*If you’re a friend on Facebook, I loaded a TON of concert pictures up over there.

Ashley and I had an awesome time last night!  I want to give a big shout-out to Melanie Hall, who set us up with both the tickets and the Meet & Greet passes!  We had awesome seats – on the floor, in the center, 12 rows back (they would have been PERFECT, if not for the giant of a man in front of me!) 

We loved getting the chance to go “backstage” and meet the band members.  Caleb & Will Franklin Chapman came through first and they were just too cute!  I was excited to meet them, since we had gotten to meet their dad a few years ago in Lancaster (when we were volunteering at a Shaohannah’s Hope booth at one of his concerts).  They are just as down-to-earth and adorable as Steven is (I wasn’t surprised). 

Unfortunately, they only did 3 songs and we missed the first 2 because we were still “backstage” meeting Casting Crowns.  What we did hear, though, was great.  Ashley wants to get their cd.  I’m sure we’ll be hearing much more from these guys in the years to come!

It was lots of fun meeting the Kutless members in person.  They were great fun to interact with – very friendly and interesting to talk to.  Unfortunately, we were so wrapped up in chatting with them that we didn’t remember to take pictures.  Ashley did get her picture with Jon Micah (we took this picture especially for our friend Aaron, who is a huge Kutless fan!)

These guys are awesome in concert!  Ashley had seen them once before, but this was my first time and I was very impressed.  We just bought their newest album – It Is Well – last week.  Fortunately, the songs are very catchy and they put the lyrics up on the screens so it’s easy to sing along.  My personal favorite is What Faith Can Do – but, really, I liked them all!

It was especially fun getting the chance to meet all the members of Casting Crowns.  This was our third time seeing them in concert, so it was really neat to have a chance to meet and talk to each of them.  It’s nice to know that Mark & Melanie Hall are fellow homeschoolers.  Did you know that they subscribe to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine?  How cool is that?!  Seriously, though, I just love how down to earth they all are.  (We’ve found that to be true of all the Christian artists we’ve had opportunity to meet.)

They sang a great variety of their songs.  I enjoyed that it wasn’t only songs from their newest album (which we love), but a variety of new and old favorites.  Mark shared some great thoughts throughout the concert too.  Ashley said “oh, I wish he were my youth leader!”  I, too, think that would be awesome.  Wonder how Brian would feel about moving to Atlanta?! 

We loved the end of the concert, when both Jon Micah (from Kutless) and Caleb came out to help sing Lifesong!  I’m sure Ashley and I will both be talking about this concert for a long time to come.