Rock concert brings in thousands

Mac Powell, lead vocalist of Third Day, leads the crowd in song Saturday night on the Main Stage.

Mac Powell, lead vocalist of Third Day, leads the crowd in song Saturday night on the Main Stage.

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It’s true-on the bus ride up to Kansas City’s Starlight Theatre all my friends could manage to say, “Man, Jeremy Camp’s guns are huge.”

Yes, as you can see from the pictures, his arms are rather large, but that’s not the only thing that was large at Kansas City’s Rock the Light VI music festival.

With thousands of people in attendance and over 50 bands performing, Rock the Light held its title as the Midwest’s largest contemporary Christian music festival.

Friday night’s headliner and my most anticipated performance of the weekend, MercyMe, did an amazing job preparing the way for an all-day-rock-saturated Saturday.

The band also ended the night with an excellent performance during the candle-light service by focusing the crowd on Christ. I walked away feeling blessed, knowing that I had been ushered into the presence of God with thousands of other people.

Now, for me, it was no question that Jeremy Camp took the show Saturday night.

Camp had the most energetic and fan-devoted performance of the main stage either night.

The whole band went above and beyond what it needed to do to get the crowd riled up.

The majority of the performance was riddled with little acts by Camp and the band truly showed its passion for what it does.

Not only did the band go the extra mile for the fans, but Camp and company also made it evident that they were performing for an audience of one just as much as for a multi-thousand people crowd of fans.

They were so into it, like during “Lay Down My Pride” Camp had to catch his breath before he could go on to the next song.

It was unmistakable that raw, unashamed passion for the Lord was what drove him to his knees on stage in front for his Savior in front of thousands. I could tell that it wasn’t one of those staged or faked acts groups pull to get the crowd wired.

The next band that came up was Kainos, which sounds like a rougher version of Ashlee Simpson and really didn’t fit in the line up very well. I knew even before the band came up that it would be incredibly hard to follow Jeremy Camp.

While the masses had been standing for most, if not all, of Camp’s performance, they sat down for most of Kainos’ set, which was short.

The group I was sitting with, including myself, couldn’t even understand Kainos’ lyrics.

It was short, and then Third Day came.

The last time I saw Third Day play was at the Billy Graham crusade at Arrowhead Stadium.

I was pleasantly surprised by the bands’ energy and excitement this time.

While Third Day did get the chair-pounding applauses nearly every song, I think some of the hype came due to the band’s big name.

However, after those warm-ups, the band once again led the crowd in worship.

With a voice like Mac Powell’s and songs about the truths of faith, you can’t go wrong.

When the band left the stage the first time, the chair-pounding ovation that had become the norm for the night lasted so long that it interrupted a video the band was trying to show.

Third Day finally came back out and played “Your Love, Oh Lord” among other songs finally closing the night at the candlelight service with “Cry Out to Jesus” which it has never performed live before. I did feel quite privileged to have heard it live, but a little empty not knowing the song to actually feel like it was as bonding as a group than it was another performance.

The cake-taker for the night came when Ty, one of the members of Third Day, suggested the band donate $10,000 to WorldVision, a nonprofit organization providing aid for the relief efforts in New Orleans.

The band challenged the crowd to raise just as much as it was donating. The challenge was met and beat with an amazing total of $15,300 in donations from the fans. In total that was $25,300 raised at Rock the Light.

I walked away being encouraged and challenged by the people around me and I wouldn’t have ended an event any other way.