Last night I went to see the David Crowder Band over at Woodside. It had been about 4 years since I last saw the band. They were much better than the last time I saw them. Since this wasn’t part of their tour the kind of just played what they wanted.
Some things I really liked about Crowder. He clearly doesn’t like applause or accolades. The crowd would cheer when he finished a song and you could see he was uncomfortable with it, so he would just launch a new song. I loved that he didn’t talk much. When he did, it was not introducing a song or telling a story, it was just something like, "Really, we’re enjoying ourselves. Thank you." I also liked his playful spirit as he’d stop a song to give the audience instructions. I also liked the "dorkiness" of some of his stuff. The key-tar was memorable. Stuff like that is clearly why he is popular with college kids.
It was my first time in the infamous Woodside Bible. It’s a nice place. A lot smaller than I had imagined. I felt like the hosts did a good job, though they tried way too hard to be a Woodside event instead of allowing the place to be a venue for a concert. They shouldn’t have plugged their stuff and putting their staff people on stage for a giveaway was really awkward for non-Woodside types. (Though giveaways are always nice.) I left feeling like I had visited a Woodside event instead of feeling as though I’d gone to something open to the public. Two "worst parts" as far as I could tell… and Woodside will work this out as they do more concerts.
First, the person who got up about 10 minutes before the concert started and "laid down the law." This, while memorable, made it clear that the church was nervous about the concert. I have no doubt that that part was the result of a staff meeting. I can just hear it, "Now you tell those young people we don’t want any monkey business. Make sure they don’t break anything." Blech! I thought I was at a fundamentalist concert there for a minute. "Young people, this is a church, act appropriately." Next time, just have your security guys be present and trust the people at the front.
Second, the intermission was terribly timed. Josh and the worship band from Lighthouse did a great job "warming the crowd up" for Crowder. I’ve just never seen or noticed a 15 minute intermission after a warm-up band. It was like, get pumped up… get excited…. now wait for 15 minutes. There just has to be a better way to do that.
OK, bonus "worst part." The radio personality they put on stage was terrible! He was like all smart and inspiring… then he plugged his radio station. That just all kinds of sucks.
Boy, hope no one thinks I didn’t like this show. Those "worst parts" would be number 8, 9, and 10 of the top 10 list for the night. Overall, I’d give the night a B.
Leave a Reply