A Cemetery Stroll and Rocking Out with a Youth Group

Yesterday, some friends - Josh & Theresa - told us they had gotten tickets to see Skillet at the Bi-Lo Center. Justin and I have liked Skillet for years, so we were pretty excited! Theresa had mentioned to me how the tickets were extras from a guy Josh knows, and something about a youth group. I didn't think much of it.. all I really cared about, was that we would get to go!

Josh and Theresa picked us up and we had to rush downtown for the show. With only 30 minutes before showtime, we arrived at a church (a few blocks from the Bi-Lo Center) where we were meeting the guy with the tickets. Parking was pretty confusing, since we had never been there and we didn't exactly know where we were supposed to meet the guy. We found a parking spot and started walking. Before we knew it, we were senselessly walking around in a dark cemetery, trying to locate the the man with our tickets. We wandered around and around, opening random doors in the freezing cold, before we finally got a hold of him. Of course, he was on the complete opposite side of where we were, so we mazed our way back through the cemetery and finally connected with him. I never thought I'd spend an evening roaming through a cemetery in search for concert tickets..

As we entered the building, there was clearly a big extravaganza going on.. some sort of potluck-Christmas-gathering, with a Michael McDonald sing-a-like leading some Christmas songs. With 10 minutes to showtime, we finally track the man down. He came out to greet us and let us know that he had just sat down to eat, and if we wouldn't mind waiting...? Uhhmm.. Ok! If anyone knows Justin and me and our obsession with music, we have never been late to a show. In fact, we are usually HOURS early to score a good spot! I was trying not to panic, but we really had to get going. Even though the tickets were free and we had seats, we still had to walk 3-4 freezing blocks to get there. While we were standing in the church lobby, checking out their countless basketball league trophies and experiencing the strong, lingering smell of goulosh, I was trying to pinpoint who Ticket Guy reminded me of. Bingo. He looked just like Fonzie.. but the now-days version, Harry Winkler (oh what a name.) and with braces. Finally, Fonzie came out, along with about TEN Jr. Highers trailing behind. Uhmm..

So we, along with a Jr. High youth group, trooped through the cold to the Bi-Lo Center. I knew the show had obviously begun, since we were a good 25 minutes late. Our newfound youth group filed our way into our seats (which were pretty decent!) and by the second we put our coats down, the music started. We made it JUST in time. The show was pretty good! Very entertaining, the chick-drummer was amazing and John Cooper totally rocked out.

Josh & Justin

Josh & Theresa

Skillet opened for tobyMac - who we really weren't excited about at all. For crying out loud, I was so confused when tobyMac came out. This whole time I had Michael Tait (dcTalk) and tobyMac completely confused. I had no idea Toby was the short, little white guy with the triangle soul-patch on his chin. Regardless, it was pretty bad. There were too many people singing and jiving around and being all chaotic. He even broke out in dcTalk's "I Wanna Be in the Light" from 1995! The whole show was oh-so cheesy. Skillet should have been the one's headlining, but oh well! We were far more entertained while watching some guy getting REALLY into the music, dancing all crazy and waving his arms around.. Too funny!

After the show, we managed to skip out of further youth group festivities and headed for some late-night apps at Applebee's. It was a really fun night.. Super cool to find out that Josh (who's a drummer) is actually pretty good friends with P.O.D.'s Sonny Sandoval. Crazy! It was a good, spontaneous event-filled night with friends. Trudging through a cemetery and hanging with a youth group was totally worth it!!

xo

I'm listening to:
Skillet