Copious Notes

Third Day in concert. Photo by Dale Manning | Essential Records.

There is probably more video footage of Third Day out on the market than any other band in Christian rock.

The guys popped out one of the first really noteworthy Christian concert DVDs back in 2001 with Third Day Live: The Offerings Experience, and the band has offered numerous DVDs since, including the video accompaniments to the their 2007 two-disc greatest hits package. If this were just a bunch of concert videos, it could get a bit stale. What has made the band’s videos fresh is they are not “just concert videos,” and we don’t get the same things twice.

That is true on the band’s latest DVD Live Revelations, which comes packaged with a concise live CD, including several concert versions of songs from last year’s Revelation album and a cover of U2 and B.B. King’s When Love Comes to Town, performed by Third Day, Jars of Clay, Switchfoot and Robert Randolph.

The footage for the DVD was shot during a Southeastern swing of the Music Builds tour with that mind-blowing quartet of acts, though the focus is squarely on the quartet of musicians who make up Third Day.

Yes, there is concert footage, and if you set this DVD next to that 2001 effort, you’d say, they’ve come a long way, baby. That first disc was great, but it was a few fairly static cameras, including one set behind David Carr’s drumkit that kind of bounced to the beat. This footage is sharp, sweeping and up-close, like an early shot from the foot of the stage of guitarist Mark Lee and bassist Tai Anderson jamming. It’s great concert videography.

But the two things you will remember about Live Revelations are the trip home to the band’s home in Atlanta and the trip to Houston after the devastation of Hurricane Ike, last Fall. The Atlanta footage is striking in how its takes the guys out of the spotlight and really puts them at home with their families. Driving from the tour bus to see his family, Carr talks to his wife in a disjointed cell phone call trying to figure out if he should head home or to his kid’s soccer game. We see Lee at the park with his children and feeding his eight-week-old daughter a bottle.

They are scenes any overworked mom or dad who’s come home from work not to a hug but an equally overworked spouse holding out the baby and saying, “take this,” could appreciate. And you appreciate that these wives are left at home alone for days and weeks at a time while their rock-star husbands are on the road. It takes a little effort to feel sorry for rock stars, but Jonathan and Andrew Erwin’s homecoming footage definitely stirs up some empathy.

The Erwin Brothers also capture some of the intent of the tour, and the fact the band considers its work a ministry, following the musicians as well as their tour mates to a Habitat for Humanity build in Nashville and then through the struggle to figure out how to handle that theme in devastated Houston. We see a conversation between Carr and Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman as they discuss how its hard to tell someone who just lost their home they need to go build homes for other people. That story comes back into the arena as the concert is dubbed Music Rebuilds, with all proceeds going to rebuilding efforts, and frontman Mac Powell sings the Hurricane Katrina anthem Cry Out to Jesus for America’s latest natural disaster victims.

It’s all a lot more extra-musical emotion than you’d ever expect from a concert video, and there are also insights into a band struggling to figure out how to present its newest music on tour.

Yes, there is also some levity and great music, so don’t avoid this thinking it’s a video of lamentations. But it is also an insightful documentary. When The Offerings Experience came out, Third Day was still a band on the rise, not yet established at the upper echelon of Christian rock. Now, they are there, and Live Revelations unveils the artistry, skill and sacrifices it took to get there.

Note: This being Good Friday, I should mention there is a wonderful rendition of Thief, the band’s great account of the crucifixion of Jesus told from the point of view of the thief who declared faith in Christ while dying next to him, on the DVD. I also always think of Jars of Clay’s Liquid as a great Easter-time Christian rock song.

Bluetree is (l-r) Andy McCann (bass), Aaron Boyd (lead vocals/guitar), Pete Kernoghan (DJ) and Johnny Hobson (drums).

Review: Bluetree, God of This City

The rest of this story will not come from Paul Harvey, the Irish band in question is not U2, and you know the song, but it is not Sunday, Bloody Sunday.

God of This City became a Christian worship anthem last year through a compelling performance by Chris Tomlin on the 2008 Passion CD named after the tune and later on his Hello Love album. It became a logical chorus for churches seeking change the world around them:

Greater things have yet to come
Great things are still to be done
In this city

But learning the story of the song’s authors illuminates the lyrics. These were not just writers hoping to transform towns that struggle with crime, poverty and other problems. The song was inspired by the home of Irish worship leaders Bluetree: Belfast, a city used to almost casual violence in its ongoing civil strife. It was also inspired by and mostly written in Pattaya, Thailand, a notorious city with a flourishing prostitution industry. It was inspired by dark, dark places.

Writing the song brought Bluetree to the attention of Tomlin, and brought the band a recording contract that culminates with the release of the Bluetree’s U.S. debut today. God of This City doesn’t contain anything else quite as instantly catchy as the title song, but it is an extremely well thought out album from the opening about God’s voice breaking through the noise of our world, and the album grows on you with songs such as Each Day and Your Love.

Bluetree were clearly ready for their moment of discovery, and hearing the group for the first time, it sounds like it may be positioned to take up the mantle for Delirious as the longtime British worship leaders prepare to disband. Like those guys, and another band from Ireland that releases an album today, Bluetree is inspired and inspiring.

About that other Irish quartet: As always, though for the first time in blog format, I’ll weigh in on the faith side of U2’s new album soon. But for now, I commend Walter Tunis’ review of No Line on the Horizon to you.

Winter Jam: Watch later this week for a feature on Winter Jam headliner Tobymac and then Sunday for some photo-heavy coverage of the event at Rupp.

Sir Paul McCartney performs the Beatles classic "I Saw Her Standing There" with Foo Fighters at the Grammy Awards. AP Photo by Mark J. Terrill.

So, what if they had an awards ceremony and didn’t hand out any awards?

OK, the Grammy Awards didn’t go quite that far. But there were vast expanses of airtime last night in which we did not see any little victrolas handed out. This is not necessarily a complaint.

For years, the Grammy Awards have been known for great performances and interesting pairings of artists. This year, in particular, it seemed like the recording academy decided to throw a concert and, when the show stopped to take a breath, hand out occasional awards.

If only the Oscars were honoring people who specialized in live performances, that might solve some of the Academy Awards’ ratings woes.

Like the Oscars, the Grammys have also been leaning more toward critically as opposed to popularly acclaimed fare to honor. The big winner last night was Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand, big with the adult rock crowd, but not so much with the Top 40 audience. There were live awards given to Coldplay and Lil’ Wayne too, so it’s not like this was a bust for hitmakers.

But regardless of who won, the selling point of the Grammys is the show, and this was a pretty hot one starting with U2 playing Get on Your Boots, the first single from the Irish quartet’s forthcoming album. Then, we got an unexpectedly sweet pairing of Justin Timberlake and Rev. Al Green, doing, among other things, Let’s Stay Together. Other standouts included Sugarland showing the power of one voice and one guitar, Jennifer Hudson triumphant for the second Sunday in a row, Radiohead and the USC Marching Band and Sir Paul McCartney showing the amazing longevity of that little pop song, I Saw Her Standing There.

Yes, there were misses: The set for Katy Perry’s I Kissed a Girl was as bright as Vegas, but her voice was as flat as the desert. And I am still waiting for Chris Martin to deliver a competent performance of Viva la Vida on TV. And the energy did seem to evaporate from the show in the last hour or so.

But this year’s Grammys emphasized the show in awards show, and that made it a pretty good night of television.

Further reading:

More about Sunday night’s Grammy Awards.

For not even being at the show, Chris Brown created plenty of drama.

My Twitter feed from last night’s show.

Read Walter Tunis’ review of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ July concert at Rupp Arena.

Watching U2’s performance of Pride (In the Name of Love) at the inaugural celebration Sunday afternoon, I was reminded that while the powerful anthem was the band’s huge hit, they also penned the gorgeous MLK. It’s a simple tribute:

Sleep, sleep tonight

And may your dreams be realized

It may be stretching it a bit to say “The Dream” is being realized by the events of the next few days. But certainly the vision of the man we celebrate today will take a huge step toward reality with the inauguration we will witness tomorrow.

Highly recommended: Performance Today has its annual broadcast of the King Memorial Concert in Atlanta, featuring the Atlanta Symphony. It’s always a stirring performance. Locally, it airs at noon and 8 p.m. on WEKU FM-88.9.