Retreat Recap

Remember the video confessionals I used to do? It sure would be cool if I did one on my weekend gig...

But I'm not. We're getting "texty" with this one, gang.

THE SETUP
Blake and were schedule to meet at 1pm to load up and head to Grapeland. At some point Thursday night, Blake got extremely sick, ran high, hallucination-inducing fever and ended up crashing at his mom's house rather than do a preliminary load-in. Through a series of circumstances beyond our control, Blake and I didn't leave town until 3. (It was fine. Kids weren't scheduled to arrive until 8:30.) On the road, we discover that the camp is working under an either/or policy regarding sound. They thought we were bringing a whole sound system and thereby weren't too hip on letting us hook up our stuff with theirs. However, once we arrived, we worked it out. It took us forever to setup, mostly due to the camp's sound system, but I'm sure Blake's fever wasn't helping. We still had plenty of time to rehearse, eat, shower and dress accordingly for the night's event.

THE SETS
Friday Night
How Great Thou Art (New Baloche version; rocked nicely, but the kids weren't digging it.)
O Praise Him (Jackpot. They knew it and loved it, despite the fact that we dared do it different from how Mr. Crowder intended.)
Dancing Generation (Great song that I'm destined to hate. I spent 6 months trying to kill "Promises" from our set only to find that "Dancing Generation" is the rocker that will not die. It's probably a good thing that it's a well-written tune.)
Sermon by Runks. (I've worked with Runks before, but I have to say his teaching this past weekend was excellent. He preached with a new passion and refreshing humility.)
You Gave Sight (The boys had yet to play Ross King's weird attempt at alt-country worship, but it came off really nice. Never got to big, but worked.)
All The Freed (A TWB song. Don't think they dug it.)

Saturday Morning
Salvation Is Here (I love playing United's only good song.)
All The Freed (Another try. No go.)
Dancing Generation (Loved it.)
Unchanging (This song was made for the delay wizardy for Adam Fischer. We owned this jam.)

Saturday Night
Our God Saves (Baloche who? Another jam succinctly pwned by Todd's posse.) Why am I getting increasingly arrogant?
Unchanging (Beautiful drum transition by Blake. Worked, worked, worked.)
Part of Your Story (Came off without a hitch, although I was a bit concerned at how loud they sang right off the bat. Has someone been playing this song in the Houston area? I swear they knew it already.)
Salvation Is Here, slow jam. (My, my, my. We did this thing slow last month at a gig and it was the most fun thing I've played in a while. I'm not crazy about recording covers, but the slowed version of this one just might make it on the next Todd Wright record.)

Sunday Morning
Dancing Generation (Dancing and shouting on Sunday morning...I love this job.)
Our God Saves (2nd time, they knew it cold and were all about it.)
Part of Your Story (They seemed to dig it. Personally, I thought the arrangement should have been different, but I hated to mess with it on the 2nd time they were hearing it.)
Tasting Forgiveness (The best Robbie Seay song that nobody knows about. Little more alt-country flair from Adam and nice backing vocals by Kyle Grimes.)

NOTES:
1. Frontier Camp - great food, great recreation / horrible showers.
2. From here on out, Blake goes as either drums or sound. Not both. never again. I nearly killed this kid.
3. I don't care how cool hoodies are, wearing them in East Texas humidity is just plain foolish.
4. The lack of merch was killing me. I could have moved some discs...
5. I'm old and not nearly as cool as I tend to think.