Being home for 5 days before I return to the USA for the final 2 weekends of Third Day’s current ‘Make Your Move’ tour, gives me an opportunity to reflect on the most recent couple of weekends of the tour which took us to the North-East of America. Hitting some of the big cities, we played in New York, Baltimore, just outside Boston, Augusta in Maine, and Rochester in upstate New York. The difference between these and our more regular venues in the Southern ‘Bible Belt’ is fascinating. Most of the shows in the North-East were sold out, were in atmospheric theatre venues, and with audiences that seemed hungry and thirsty for an authentic encounter with the Lord. Christian faith in this region is less cultural and more authentic than the South, with church attendance considerably lower. There was a genuine gratitude that the tour had come to their city, and a real generosity with regard to sponsoring World Vision children and towards the paintings we are auctioning for the Gateway School in India. 2 weekends ago we were astounded by a $900 bid for a painting, but that paled into comparison with a bid last weekend of $5,000!!!
An interesting footnote to our time in New York (along with some of the crew I stayed 3 nights in Secaucus, New Jersey, and was able to spend some time in Manhattan)- After our concert in a downtown New York club, which was attended by 900 people (a good number for the club but probably the smallest crowd on our tour), I joined most of the guys in Third Day, Trevor Morgan, and Lott Shudde our road manager, and caught the end of a concert by the band Blackberry Smoke, in the basement of a barbecue restaurant. We watched the band’s performance at a festival on TV recently and became instant fans, so it was great to see them live. We were reminded what a fortunate position Third Day have in Christian music- Blackberry Smoke have a current single on country radio, a good selling album, are tipped to be the next big thing, yet had only around 100 people watching them in this little venue in New York. They would have been amazed to discover that this other band from Atlanta, who they hadn’t heard of, had just played to 9 times the size of their own audience!
Here's a picture of me on the ferry from Manhattan to New Jersey, taken by Brendan McCarthy, our World Vision rep on this tour-he has become a good friend.
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