Copious Notes

Dawn Michele sang under the blazing heat with Fireflight Friday afternoon at Ichthus. Copyrighted photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

The last time Fireflight visited Ichthus, they were riding on the success of one of the biggest songs in Christian rock, but they showed up on the Deep End stage.

But that hit, Unbreakable, set the stage for a triumphant return closing out the afternoon card on the main stage Friday.

Lead singer Dawn Michele said being on the Winter Jam tour, which stopped by Rupp Arena in March, helped prepare her for playing to festival main stage crowds.

“We never played an arena tour before,” Michele said, backstage at Ichthus. “Playing in a venue that size definitely makes you concentrate on your communication.”

Even more daunting a task than playing to the big houses was following a big hit.

“We felt like Unbreakable was a miracle,” Michele said. “How do you follow a miracle?”

She said a tradition of personal upheaval in band members’ lives continued with the new offering, For Those Who Wait, “and it gave us a lot to draw from.”

And the impact of now being viewed as hitmakers showed when For Those Who Wait came out: It tripled the sales of its predecessor. Friday’s show was another case of Fireflight living up to its new status.

Third Day’s Mac Powell walked into enemy territory Saturday night.

Stepping up to the microphone in the home of the University of Kentucky Wildcats, he admitted, “I’m a big Alabama Crimson Tide fan,” to a hearty round of boos.

“How can you boo me when you destroyed my team?” he asked, referring to Friday’s 73-67 UK victory over ‘Bama in the SEC Tournament. “You gotta admit we drained y’all. You barely beat Tennessee,” he added, to laughs from a crowd well aware the Cats pasted the Vols by 29 points Saturday afternoon.

Powell moved toward common ground saying, “Can we all agree that Tennessee orange is just nasty? Well tonight, everybody’s on the same team. We all love Jesus, right?”

With that, the Christian Southern rockers launched into Born Again from Revelation, the Georgia band’s latest chart topper. And Third Day topped the bill at Winter Jam 2010 which rolled into Rupp Arena Saturday night for the third straight year.

This year’s edition attracted 14,756 fans to Rupp for a show that featured Central Kentucky’s first chance to see Newsboys with Michael Tait as the lead singer. The band’s set featured Tait working all sides of the stage and a catwalk that took him to the center of the arena, where he briefly took flight on Jesus Freak, a monster hit for his old band, dc talk. The new Newsboys’ set included the hit Something Beautiful, new material from the band’s forthcoming album Born Again and classics like Shine.

Both Tait and Newsboys, now nearly a year into their partnership, seemed to be invigorated by the new act. At the end of their set, Tait introduced his bandmates ending by saying somewhat emphatically, “My name is Michael, and we are the Newsboys.”

Rounding out the lineup were Fireflight, delivering their smash, Unbreakable, and stuff from their new album, For Those Who Wait; Tenth Avenue North setting the stage for Third Day with a set from their debut album Over and Underneath, and Newsong once again playing host to the event.

Winter Jam has one more Kentucky stop in Louisville March 28, which will close the tour.