I'd heard the advertising for months on the radio: two nights, four stages and over 30 bands. My wife, who manages our money (I figure it's for spending) said, "If you buy the tickets, I'll get the motel." Hmm. $35 a-piece for tickets, great band line-up? I thought about it for a while. I like to buy CDs which I can listen to over and over. Going to a concert requires expenditure of at least the cost of a new CD, gas money, time, and fitting it into your schedule --and that's only to hear a band once. It's also good to be able to control the volume. In a couple days, I decided to go for it. Of course, I ordered my tickets from my favorite radio station (1030 The Light, "Your unofficial sponsor for Rock the Light V"), who, by the way, sent a free t-shirt with each ticket.
Despite my misgivings about purchasing concert tickets, I always have a great time when I get there.
The Rock the Light V program listed 47 artists and two speakers for the event. That I know of, only one artist was a no-show.
Friday night, we heard five artists and a speaker. We arrived as John Reuben was finishing up his show, and we missed all the younger bands. I didn't feel too bad about missing most of John Reuben, BUT, on being surprised a few times during the rest of the concert, I guess I might have enjoyed John Reuben's rap, too.
Mission Road played some great praise and worship, which was followed by Marilyn Laszlo, who'd been working with Bible translation with Wycliffe, in Papua New Guinea, just like my sister's family. The audience didn't give the attention she deserved, likely because her sound wasn't coming through all that good.
I recognized some of Chris Tomlin's music, but, he's played more on AC stations, which I don't hear all that much anymore. He had us all hand-in-hand, even across the aisle, for "Dance in the River". I was fully prepared to go shop the vendors during Plus One. Plus One started playing, and I decided to stay. They gave me quite a surprise! Plus One rocked pretty hard. I actually liked 'em, though the vocalist and keyboardist had some rather effeminate mannerisms. I expected soft and mushy boy-band, but got hard rock. I'm going to check out their new CD at the library.
