Winter Jam is Jammin' !
Every year NewSong sponsors the Winter Jam tour and every year I look forward to it coming to the Hampton Roads area. And every year - I attend. In fact, when you're filling out your CCM Reader's Choice Awards votes this year, I hope you'll consider Winter Jam for the best tour of the year. This is what the Tour offers for a meager $10 admission charge:
Tobymac
Hawk Nelson
Brandon Heath
Francesca Battistelli
PureNRG
Stephanie Smith
NEWSONG
Speaker: Tony Nolan
About 3 weeks ago I received a Facebook notice that the Tour was looking for volunteers. My children had already signed up to attend with their Bible Study Class so I was free to help out for the night. I volunteered. I arrived at the venue, the Norfolk Scope Arena, around 3PM with the doors sked to open at 4:30PM. The Tour had been playing at the Old Dominion University Ted Constance Convocation Center for the past 5 years but last year they sold out and had to turn people away so they moved to a larger venue this year. The TED hold about 8K, the Scope can hold up to 12K. It's worth mentioning that the venue was originally setup with the seats behind the stage closed and curtained off, but because of the draw they had to drop the curtains and allow those seats to be used. I don't think they were close to the 12K capacity, but I'd guesstimate somewhere between 9K - 10K.
The volunteers met with the Tour Promoter and had prayer and then received our assignments. I was assigned to collect the admission at one of the main entrance doors. It was pretty neat because I had the opportunity to see some kids that I had taught in Bible Study (6th Grade) that I hadn't seen in years. I worked the doors from 4:30PM until around 7PM. I could have left earlier but after the initial rush came through, I offered to stay and hand out programs so 3 of the teen volunteers could leave and watch the show. So this year I missed seeing most of the artists, but I was still able to hear most of them.
Listening from the door, Stephanie Smith kicked things off with Not Afraid followed by 2 more songs off her debut album. Second up was PureNRG who played a 5 song set that included a cover of Nicole C. Mullen's When I Call On Jesus as well as Kenny Loggins' Footloose! Rookie artist Francesca Battistelli played third and wooed the crowd with a 3 song set that featured I'm Letting Go and Free To Be Me.
Up next were the Tour sponsors and my personal favorite - NewSong. I've been following these guys since All Around the World came out in the early 1980's and they are still crowd pleasers. With a huge reportoire to choose from, NewSong played a 6 song set that included trademark songs I Need You Jesus and Arise, My Love. The set closed out with secular ice-breakers Shout and Sweet Home Alabama.
I made it into the arena and found my kids toward the end of the Hawk Nelson set. Their playlist:
You Have What I Need, Bring 'Em Out, The Show, Everything You Ever Wanted, One Little Miracle, Friend Like That, Ancient History and Let's Dance. Without a doubt, Hawk Nelson represented what the fans had come for and HN did not disappoint, leaving the stage on more than one occasion to trade high fives and handclasps with the crowd.
At this point there was a break in the music and Tony Nolan took the stage to deliver the Gospel. Very humorous at the start, Tony soon took a serious turn and spoke about the reality of having to make a choice between God and Satan, heaven and hell. He shared a few stories from the tour that did not include happy endings and then offered an old fashioned invitation. The result was approximately 1500 salvation decisions, including one teen from the Student Ministry at my church. AWESOME!
Brandon Heath took the stage and played a 4 song set that included Christian Radio favorites I'm Not Who I Was and Give Me Your Eyes. While not a big fan of Brandon, I have to admit that I liked him much better live than on the radio :-)
The night then quieted for an intermission and Eddie Carswell of NewSong spoke about the important work that Holt International is doing in the area of Foster Care and Adoption. A South Koren orphan gave his testimony and then the crowd learned that Tony Nolan, the tour speaker, had also been an orphan when he gave his testimony. Following the intermission 115 children had been "sponsored". Tony also shared how he was flying to China in May of this year to unite with the baby he is in the process of adopting. Of course, this made a special connection with me as we made that same trip 2 years ago to get our baby girl from Chongqing.
The crowd was more than ready when Eddie introduced the final act of the night - Tobymac and the Diverse City Band. 100% pure energy, they went non-stop for what was supposed to be a 45 minute set but ended up closer to an hour. Too many hits to name them all, the set included Made To Love, The Slam, Boomin', Gone, Jesus Freak, Diverse City, I'm For You, Burn For You, J-Train and Lose My Soul. It also included a nostalgic cover medley of We Are Family (Sister Sledge), That's The Way I Like It (KC & Sunshine Band) and NaNaHeyHeyGoodbye. The night ended with a running, trampoline propelled flip into the crowd and a surf ride back to the stage through an arena filled with confetti.
How cool is Toby? 2 years ago he played the Winter Jam Tour and after the Winter Jam concert was over, he packed his gear and drug his band across town to Virginia Beach and played a 2nd concert at my church at no cost to anyone who wanted to attend.
Tobymac
Hawk Nelson
Brandon Heath
Francesca Battistelli
PureNRG
Stephanie Smith
NEWSONG
Speaker: Tony Nolan
About 3 weeks ago I received a Facebook notice that the Tour was looking for volunteers. My children had already signed up to attend with their Bible Study Class so I was free to help out for the night. I volunteered. I arrived at the venue, the Norfolk Scope Arena, around 3PM with the doors sked to open at 4:30PM. The Tour had been playing at the Old Dominion University Ted Constance Convocation Center for the past 5 years but last year they sold out and had to turn people away so they moved to a larger venue this year. The TED hold about 8K, the Scope can hold up to 12K. It's worth mentioning that the venue was originally setup with the seats behind the stage closed and curtained off, but because of the draw they had to drop the curtains and allow those seats to be used. I don't think they were close to the 12K capacity, but I'd guesstimate somewhere between 9K - 10K.
The volunteers met with the Tour Promoter and had prayer and then received our assignments. I was assigned to collect the admission at one of the main entrance doors. It was pretty neat because I had the opportunity to see some kids that I had taught in Bible Study (6th Grade) that I hadn't seen in years. I worked the doors from 4:30PM until around 7PM. I could have left earlier but after the initial rush came through, I offered to stay and hand out programs so 3 of the teen volunteers could leave and watch the show. So this year I missed seeing most of the artists, but I was still able to hear most of them.
Listening from the door, Stephanie Smith kicked things off with Not Afraid followed by 2 more songs off her debut album. Second up was PureNRG who played a 5 song set that included a cover of Nicole C. Mullen's When I Call On Jesus as well as Kenny Loggins' Footloose! Rookie artist Francesca Battistelli played third and wooed the crowd with a 3 song set that featured I'm Letting Go and Free To Be Me.
Up next were the Tour sponsors and my personal favorite - NewSong. I've been following these guys since All Around the World came out in the early 1980's and they are still crowd pleasers. With a huge reportoire to choose from, NewSong played a 6 song set that included trademark songs I Need You Jesus and Arise, My Love. The set closed out with secular ice-breakers Shout and Sweet Home Alabama.
I made it into the arena and found my kids toward the end of the Hawk Nelson set. Their playlist:
You Have What I Need, Bring 'Em Out, The Show, Everything You Ever Wanted, One Little Miracle, Friend Like That, Ancient History and Let's Dance. Without a doubt, Hawk Nelson represented what the fans had come for and HN did not disappoint, leaving the stage on more than one occasion to trade high fives and handclasps with the crowd.
At this point there was a break in the music and Tony Nolan took the stage to deliver the Gospel. Very humorous at the start, Tony soon took a serious turn and spoke about the reality of having to make a choice between God and Satan, heaven and hell. He shared a few stories from the tour that did not include happy endings and then offered an old fashioned invitation. The result was approximately 1500 salvation decisions, including one teen from the Student Ministry at my church. AWESOME!
Brandon Heath took the stage and played a 4 song set that included Christian Radio favorites I'm Not Who I Was and Give Me Your Eyes. While not a big fan of Brandon, I have to admit that I liked him much better live than on the radio :-)
The night then quieted for an intermission and Eddie Carswell of NewSong spoke about the important work that Holt International is doing in the area of Foster Care and Adoption. A South Koren orphan gave his testimony and then the crowd learned that Tony Nolan, the tour speaker, had also been an orphan when he gave his testimony. Following the intermission 115 children had been "sponsored". Tony also shared how he was flying to China in May of this year to unite with the baby he is in the process of adopting. Of course, this made a special connection with me as we made that same trip 2 years ago to get our baby girl from Chongqing.
The crowd was more than ready when Eddie introduced the final act of the night - Tobymac and the Diverse City Band. 100% pure energy, they went non-stop for what was supposed to be a 45 minute set but ended up closer to an hour. Too many hits to name them all, the set included Made To Love, The Slam, Boomin', Gone, Jesus Freak, Diverse City, I'm For You, Burn For You, J-Train and Lose My Soul. It also included a nostalgic cover medley of We Are Family (Sister Sledge), That's The Way I Like It (KC & Sunshine Band) and NaNaHeyHeyGoodbye. The night ended with a running, trampoline propelled flip into the crowd and a surf ride back to the stage through an arena filled with confetti.
How cool is Toby? 2 years ago he played the Winter Jam Tour and after the Winter Jam concert was over, he packed his gear and drug his band across town to Virginia Beach and played a 2nd concert at my church at no cost to anyone who wanted to attend.
Tags: brandon heath, ccm, concert, francesca battistellli, hawk nelson, newsong, purenrg, stephanie smith, tobymac, winter jam
Comment
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Comment by tobymacfan on February 24, 2009 at 2:03am - Wow it looks like Winter Jam is real awesome this year. I wish they had the Winter Jam Tour in Canada as I would love to see it. It seems it was great concerts from all of the artists including tobyMac. God bless you.
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