Last Sunday I found myself waiting in a line outside Elmhurst Christian Reformed Church with 25 other kids and leaders from our Youth Group. We were waiting to see Jars of Clay in concert. When I first heard our youth group was going to be attending this event I was pretty excited. I remembered being in High School and listening to Jars of Clay quite a bit. In fact their debut cd was the first Christian music cd I regularly listened to. My high school band actually covered their song Faith Like A Child and were invited to play it during a special service at this very church, granted it was their old building, but the same congregation. Talk about nostalgic. I was excited to go see them but I also wondered if the kids from the youth group shared that enthusiasm. Did they listen to Jars of Clay like we did in High School? Would I even recognize any of their songs? I confess I haven’t kept up with their discography, in fact I couldn’t even tell you the name of their recent cd.
Turns out the band was celebrating the 15 year anniversary from when they released their self titled album. As a result a large part of their set was earmarked for the most popular songs from the very cd that I spent countless hours enjoying in my high school days. I was in for a treat, as I looked around I saw the same look of contentment on the faces of the generation Y concert goers. I couldn’t tell if the high schoolers really knew the old songs, but they seemed to enjoy the show just as well.
This was my first time seeing Jars of Clay in concert, although I was excited, I expected it to be a mellow show. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Sure they had their mellow moments, but overall they put on an excellent, energetic show. I found myself clapping, bouncing and singing along to every song I knew and their new material was just as good. They also used this opportunity to raise awareness for some charity partnerships they are affiliated with - Bloodwater Mission and Food for the Hungry. This concert rekindled my interest in the band and I’m sure they gained new fans as well. Whether you are an old fan like I was or have recently heard about the band you should do yourself a favor and check out their material and try to catch a show if possible.
