one of the best crowds. ever.

this weekend we did a show in columbus, ga - home of fort benning. here's a view of the crowd from stage right


in a crowd of 547, the soldiers made up 312 of them. that's more guys in uniform than civilians. these guys were all in the middle of basic training, and the night was their first off base in several weeks. they ran a couple of minutes late, so i held the show for them. there's nothing quite as distracting as 300 people showing up in the middle of the show! it's a good thing i did too, because as soon as they started walking in, the rest of the crowd was on its feet cheering. after they were all in, we started the show, and when the emcee acknowledged them, they stood in unison and recited the soldiers creed. and not another single person spoke or made any noise through the whole thing. it was just that impressive.

the soldiers sat through our first acts with very polite cheering. at intermission, the soldiers got to go through their own, separate concession stand where they were able to get their first refined sugar since they entered basic training a few weeks earlier. that sugar, combined with some rock from rush of fools had the soldiers looking like this


unfortunately, since they were still in basic training, the soldiers had a curfew of 10:30pm, which meant they had to leave the show a little bit early. during intermission, i was talking with the chaplain, when a private stopped and requested to speak with him. when the chaplain asked him if his matter was urgent the private replied "actually sir, my battle buddy was hoping to request a song." well that's when i stepped in. i asked what song he was hoping for, and he told me "awesome God." that's definitely not part of our set, but the chaplain explained to me that it was the soldiers favorite, and they do it almost every sunday at chapel. i figured playing their favorite song would be a great way to acknowledge them, make them feel like a big part of the show, and put the focus on them so that when they got up to leave, it wasn't as big a distraction. i went and told the band, only to find out that they didn't know it, but they told me to remind them after a certain song in the set. when the time came, i shouted a reminder in their ears. since they didn't know it as a band, wes just started the chorus accapella. as soon as he did, the soldier were on their feet singing along and after the line "he reigns", the soldiers shouted "HE REIGNS" army style. after two times through the chorus, wes pointed at the soldiers and they took a time through the chorus by themselves. i'm not sure about the rest of the crowd, but i was moved almost to the point of tears. it was one of the moments that keeps me doing what i do. it was truly a great night.

yay hockey

definition of a good friend... they call you when they have get free tickets to a hockey game and there's an extra. tonight i got to enjoy a game with my friends farns, nicole, and a new friend (who was actually the source of tickets) david.


there is a cheer here in nashville, and other places i'm sure, where as the opposing team is introduced, their names are followed by an enthusiastic "SUCKS" from the preds fans. tonight's intro was a bit different. when the announcer said, "and the coyotes are coached by..." there were far less "SUCKS"...


cause their coach was non other than the legendary wayne gretzky... who is pretty much the opposite of suckage.


oh, and then there was a fight.

can never be too organized

i've set up a giant check list to keep me on track as i prepare for my next tour. hopefully a bit of uber-organization will help make my transition back into tour managing a smooth one. thanks to everyone who was involved in my "learning year", especially farns and mel. honarable mention goes to carter, snooch, darren, francey pants, and the rest of the crowns family. i'll miss y'all!

where's the water?

hey bossier city louisiana, you forgot to hook the pipes into the faucet. i'm no plumber, but i'm pretty sure it's not going to work.

europe was fun

here's a few pictures

checking in for our flight to europe

it was too cold for haze in ireland

church in stoke-on-trent, england

the glamorous life of a traveling band

airport in copenhagen, denmark

rest stop somewhere in germany

heidelberg, germany

stuttgart, germany

stuttgart, germany

frauenfeld, switzerland

sunrise in karlsruhe, germany

no matter where we are

so i'm in arhus, denmark tonight, doing show 3 of my european tour with casting crowns. i've been working with them for almost a year now, and a good portion of that time i spent the whole show staring at a screen, pressing space bar, and reading the lyrics to the entire show, so it's not like i haven't heard these words before. but tonight i am having the chance to walk around a bit. i walked back to the lighting console to ask snooch to do me a favor while the band was playing "praise You in this storm." on my to the console there were several people in the audience with their lighters in the air, which I thought was cool in an 80's rock sort of way; then, on my way back, there were a lot of people with their hands in the air singing, "for You are who You are, no matter where i am." in that moment, God, being who He is, took the opportunity to smack me upside the head with some truth. this God, who i love and serve, is the same God who all these people in denmark love and serve. this God is bigger than our towns, or our countries, or what language, or even what side of the road we drive on. God is God, no matter where we are; and that is rocking my world tonight (from another part of the world).

atlanta to belfast

so yesterday, and a little of the day before that, i was flying from atlanta to belfast, ireland. in between we stopped in frankfurt, germany, and london england. along the way, funny things happened and, since i couldn't blog immediately, i wrote them down. so here they go:

i started the day with multi-grain griddle cakes, lots of coffee, and chick-fil-a, not a good idea when about to get on a plane for 12 hours or so show. just if you're wondering - the bad outcome, the one you would expect, did not happen. i'm quite proud of that.

in the course of the day i went through airport security about a dozen times. one of them i need to write about. we were going through to get on the plane in frankfurt and, after emptying my pockets (i am quite a pro at airports these days), i set off the detector... so i'm asked to step to the side so the guard can wand me. he asked me if i spoke german or english. i told him english, but (in german) a little german too. he laughed and asked "you know enough to order a beer?" after that he had me raise my hands and spread my feet a bit and starting waving the wand around me. i couldn't help but laugh when the it went off as it passed over my crotch. for those of you who haven't seen spinal tap this isn't as funny, but still... oh, and it wasn't a cucumber. it was the button and zipper. the guard didn't understand when i started laughing, but i couldn't help it.

the last i'll tell you about was going through london heathrow airport. as you go through now, they take your picture so they can confirm it's the same person using the passport when you go to board your next plane. i had mine taken, and the guy said it was fine, and when i got to the place where they checked my picture, the guy started laughing. apparently in my sleep deprivation i had closed my eyes and made a funny face. glad i could provide some entertainment in just passing though the airport.

thanks to mini-snooch for helping us load up before leaving out