Show Recap: Phil Wickham / Leeland @ Crossroads Church

I could get used to this! Nothing against my homie Aaron Britton but a "Night of Worship" led by Phil Wickham, Leeland and Matt Maher is pretty sweet!
The Mercer's and the Boyle's trekked down to Wheat Ridge to catch the A Night of Worship Tour co-headlined by Leeland and Phil Wickham. Wickham is amazing live, i've only seen him once before where he did an acoustic set so i was excited to see him with a full band. I've been a fan of Leeland since their first album but somehow have not managed to catch them live. The tour info indicated this was a "co-headline" tour which meant either could be the main act, it turned out to be Leeland this night.

We found our seats in this average size sanctuary of Crossroads Christian Church, actually it was 3 different section of General Admission, which i can't stand personally but whatever. The house-lights dimmed and we were greeted with 3 dudes on guitar and a piano player, playing common worship songs the typical church-goer would recognize (songs made popular by Chris Tomlin like Your Grace Is Enough). Expecting Matt Maher who i didn't know much about, i was surprised to see all three performers on stage, Leeland, Wickham, and Matt Maher, and Leeland's piano player Jack Mooring. The vocals were impressive, each having their own unique sound; Maher was strong and lower than the other three, Leeland has a higher range and some indie-sounding raspy tone, and Wickham is all over the place, crazy vocals as Randy Jackson might claim. I could get used to this team leading worship, incredible!

After 3-4 worship songs there was a smooth transition in Matt Maher, accompanied by Leeland's band. I was not super impressed with Maher's original stuff, his voice was cool but his lyrics were a little corny / elementary for my liking. he did however bust into Bob Marley's Everything Is Alright for a few minutes which was pretty cool. He only played about 3-4 songs before Phil Wickham was on.

Phil Wickham is currently supporting his latest album, Heaven & Earth, his third full-length album. It was a little different to see Wickham rocking an electric guitar, and with a band, but he pulled it off no problem. He opened the show with Eden off his latest record and then continued to move effortlessly into his collection of great worship songs like Cannons, True Love, Divine Romance, and In Your City. Wickham does a great job of mending songs together, leading into the next song usually with an insightful explanation of his lyrics.

After this group of songs Wickham brought out his acoustic guitar and let the band take a break. He lead into Safe, his latest "single" off of Heaven & Earth, my favorite track. Without the band you could really see that Wickham is most comfortable just playing his guitar and singing, his voice is spectacular. Unfortunately Safe was the only acoustic track we got to hear as the band made their way out and played a new track that according to Wickham he just wrote. he played probably 2-3 more songs and then it was intermission.

During the intermission Leeland, Phil Wickham, and Jack Mooring (Leeland) came out to make a presentation, showing a video of LEeland's recent missions trip with Food For The Hungry and presenting the case for FFTH. We were given the chance to sponsor a child right then, through Food For The Hungry, in either Cambodia or Haiti.

After the intermission Leeland was set to play. His sound is different than Wickhams in the sense that Leeland isn't so much congregational worship songs, but just rock songs that have lyrics about everything. It was a little harder to sing along with since Leeland's vocal range is higher than most people, and despite having the words displayed on the wall (same for Phil Wickham) a lot of people didn't know most of Leeland's material. We saw a handful of people leave during Leeland's set as well, i think a lot of people were there for Phil Wickham, i wish he would have headlined because Leeland is a great band if you give them a chance.

Anyway, they rocked on through Carry Me Through, Pure Bride, Yes You Have, Beautiful Lord, New Creation and my favorite track of the night; Sound of Melodies. Unfortunately i was waiting to take a video of Tears Of The Saints and they never played it, so i didn't get any video. I was hoping for more of a rocking set with songs like Opposite Way and Count Me In but i'm thinking that since the tour was billed as "Night of Worship" they skipped out on the rock songs and stuck with the corporate worship songs.

Show Recap: Jay-Z @ Pepsi Center

Yes! Last night Kassie, Isaac and I went down to the Pepsi Center in Denver to catch the Blue Print 3 tour featuring Jay-Z and Young Jeezy. We weren’t interested in the opening acts, STS9 or Trey Songz, so we arrived about 830p, anticipating Jay-Z going on at 9p. We got there about half-way through Trey Songz, and we were glad we missed most of his set, and after we regained our seats from some poachers, we sat back and started to get excited.

We had really good seats, Row 1 of the upper deck, side stage, so our view was never obstructed and we got to put our feet up comfortably. A countdown clock appeared on the big screen letting us know that the show was starting in 10 minutes. When the timer hit 0:00 the lights dimmed and intro music for Run This Town started. Jay-Z rose up out of the stage and it was on!

The energy for the opener was amazing, Run This Town was crazy with the whole building standing and singing along. Jay-Z was supported by a full band; 2 drummers, a guitarist, keyboards, horn section, and his DJ. The sound was so loud, but still clear and you could hear most of the pieces of the band pretty well. After Run This Town Jay went right into On To The Next One and then D.O.A. (Death of Auto-tune). The hits just kept coming.

After DOA, Jay introduced Memphis Bleek and for the rest of the night either Bleek or Young Jeezy was alongside Jigga-man. They started off with U Don’t Know, then 99 Problems and Show Me What You Got. From there Jay just started pumping out songs, which is great because with so many albums out now it’s almost like any song he does is a hit. The best of that group was Public Service Announcement, it had so much energy, it’s such a great song. Bleek left after that song and Trey Songz showed up to sing the hook for Heart of the City and help with Already Home.

After Trey Songz left, Bridget Kelly came about to sing Alicia Key’s part on Empire State of Mind. This song was amazing, and Bridget’s voice was great. Jay was switching up lyrics all night, for example, “I make that Yankee Jacket more famous than a Yankee can…” as he pointed out a dude in the crowd. After this song Young Jeezy came out to help with Real As I Gets.

From there Jay-Z left the stage for Young Jeezy’s set, about 30 minutes long.

I’m not a fan of Jeezy, and his performance definitely didn’t change that, cliché thug rap. You could really tell a contrast between Jeezy and Jay, and the clarity of their vocals, Jay-Z really speaks clearly for a rapper!

After about 30 minutes Jay-Z showed up again, and they both sang My President (is black) which was a little awkward for us white folk! Anyway, everyone loved that, and as the song ended a clip of President Obama was played on the big screen, the clip where he dusts off his shoulders, a prelude into Dirt Off Your Shoulder, reinvigorating the crowd.

After that Jay went into a medley of verses from songs he’s featured on, like Swagga Like Us and Bonnie & Clyde. From there he played some old stuff from Reasonable Doubt and other older albums. Just when I was starting to get dis-interested Jay busted into 3 of his most famous hits; Can I Get A … / Big Pimpin’ / Hard Knock Life. For Big Pimpin’ he instructed the crowd to wave their towels / shirts which made for a pretty sweet visual effect. Then for Hard Knock Life the music was cut out several times to let the crowd sing the hook, there are reasons why we in the crowd are fans and not singers, and our section was exceptionally horrible at singing!

For the end of the show Jay-Z played a jazzy version of Thank You, very toned down, and pretty genuine sounding as he thanked everyone for coming out. As the song played out Jay begin pointing out people in the crowd, commenting (positive) on their cool shirts or hats. He pointed people out the entire arena, upper level and lower, getting really close to getting our group on the screen (we would have been the only 3 people in the place still sitting down, and I didn’t want to be called out by Jay-Z!). It was a cool way to bridge the show to the encore, especially since I’m not a fan of the PLANNED exit from stage then return for encore.

After about 10 minutes of crowd appreciation, Jay-Z played the most fitting song for his encore, Encore. I really love this song and it was a great way to end the night on a high note!

Probably one of the best shows I’ve ever been to, great sound and a solid set. At first I was a little nervous about his 2 hour set, thinking Kassie might lose interest like she has at other shows I’ve dragged her to (she fell asleep at AFI and Anberlin) but she had a great time all the way through!

Show Me What You Got:


Jay-Z - Big Pimpin'

Song Rating: David Crowder - Church Music

David Crowder*Band - Church Music

worship / Christian / rock

Church Music is the fifth full-length studio album by David Crowder Band recorded for sixstepsrecords, released September 22, 2009. It reached #1 on the Billboard Christian albums chart, and debuted at #11 on the Billboard 200. -wikipedia

1. "Phos Hilaron [Hail Gladdening Light]" - ***
2. "Alleluia, Sing" - ****
3. "The Nearness" - ***
4. "Shadows" - ****
5. "Eastern Hymn" - ***
6. "SMS (Shine)" - *****
7. "The Veil" - ****
8. "We Are Loved" - ****
9. "All Around Me" (Flyleaf cover) - ***
10. "How He Loves" (John Mark McMillan cover) - ****
11. "Can I Lie Here" - ***
12. "Birmingham (We Are Safe)" - ***
13. "Church Music - Dance [!]" - ***
14. "What A Miracle" - ***
15. "Oh, Happiness" - ***
16. "God Almighty, None Compares" - *****
17. "In The End [O Resplendent Light!]" - ***

I don't really like this album all that much, i actually listed it as one of my most disappointing albums of 2009, and after further review i still don't really like it much. Crowder is very creative, but sometimes he gets too gimmicky. I like the more simple songs that Crowder has written, the worship songs and this album really lacks those. This record is too dance/pop for me, the drum beats are pointless here, BWack is an incredible musician but his talent seems to be replaced with electric drums.

*****(5) great song, best on album, awesome
****(4) good song, better than most
***(3) average, filler, not memorable
**(2) intro, skit, interlude
*(1) bad, remove from ipod

Song Rating: Kid Cudi - Man On The Moon

Kid Cudi – Man On The Moon

rap / hip-hop

Man on the Moon: The End of Day is a concept album and the debut by Cleveland alternative hip hop artist Kid Cudi, released on September 15, 2009 on GOOD Music. -wikipedia

1. In My Dreams ***
2. 2. Soundtrack To My Life ****
3. Simple As… ***
4. Solo Dolo (Nightmare) ****
5. Heart of a Lion ****
6. My World ***
7. Day ‘n’ Night *****
8. Sky Might Fall ****
9. Enter Galactic *****
10. Alive ****
11. Cudi Zone ***
12. Make Her Say *
13. Pursuit of Happiness ***
14. Hyyerr ***
15. Up Up & Away ****

I did not like this album at first, but i kept listening to it in my car and now its the album i go to when i want some chill rap/hip-hop. A lot of story telling and a great vibe with the music, not your typical cheap sounding beats. The lyrics can be a little vulgar at times, but for the most part they're pretty good.

My system:

*****(5) great song, best on album, awesome
****(4) good song, better than most
***(3) average, filler, not memorable
**(2) intro, skit, interlude
*(1) bad, remove from ipod

Song Ratings (Not Just Show Recaps) / Underoath

So for awhile i've tried to think of something else i could bring to this blog besides Show Recaps. I tried Album Reviews a few times but i really don't bring anything new to the table, plus i fail to dissect an album at the level that actually brings new information to anyone. I have random questions or ideas here and there but not often enough.

So here's my new idea, i'm going to start posting quick Album Ratings for the different albums i listen to. I'm one of the few people who actually use the star-rating system in iTunes, i use it a lot. I listen through an album a few times and then i start applying my rating system to it, so that i can come back and either put the better songs into playlists or mixtapes, and take the bad songs off my ipod. I've used the same system for years so i have plenty of music rated, and i often fill my little shuffle with music from my Top Rated playlist, all good stuff!

Anyway, i'll post the album, maybe a little info, the tracks and my ratings for each track (1-5 stars) then maybe a little recap. i'd love to discuss any album with anyone, or tracks, why or why not they're good or bad. I show an example here of an album that most of my readers have probably listened to, but i'll do albums from all genre's, and i'm no expert, its more of my personal opinion of the music.

I recommend rating your songs too, an easy place to start is with samplers / compilations like the PASTE Magazine sampler. listen through the sampler and give a 4/5-star rating for songs you like, then a 3 for everything else. now you have a few tracks/artists to check out and the rest of the stuff you can take off your ipod (or leave it there for "filler"!).

My system:

*****(5) great song, best on album, awesome
****(4) good song, better than most
***(3) average, filler, not memorable
**(2) intro, skit, interlude
*(1) bad, remove from ipod

so with that, here's how i rated underOATH's Only Chasing Safety:

metal / scremo / Christian

1. Young and Aspiring - *****
2. Boy Brushed Red - ****
3. Impact of Reason - ****
4. reinventing your exit - *****
5. bluenote **
6. Dangerous Business - *****
7. Down Set Go - *****
8. i don't feel receptive - ***
9. i'm content ***
10. some will seek **

This was UnderOATH's fourth album, but their 1st with the current lineup they have now. It was also my first experience with(Christian) metalcore and forever changed the way i listen to metal and hardcore. The album starts off amazing with the first 4 songs, but starts to fade a little after that. overall i love most of this album.

Show Recap: We Came As Romans / Of Mice & Men / A Skylit Drive

Another sold out show at the Marquis Theater, crazy! I'm not used to so many people in this small venue, and while it makes for great energy, i'm short and can't see the band or the stage since the stage is only 2' high. times like these i think about asking Tahoe if i can sit on this shoulders, but well, that would just be awkward!

Anyway, last night was another sold out show, The Emptiness Tour featuring Alesana, supported by A Skylit Drive, The Word Alive, Of Mice & Men, and We Came As Romans. The order of the bands was really confusing to me since We Came As Romans was the opener. They had their first full-length album released last year and it was solid, one of my favorites. Of Mice & Men are releasing their first full-length in March so they don't even have (legal) music out yet, but yet they were playing after We Came As Romans . Then there's A Skylit Drive, a band that has been around for the last few years, but you could that they don't have a great following yet they played fourth. I would have had that all switched around.

Anyway, whatever, i can't change that although it did require me to leave early to get to the show since the one band, We Came As Romans , was playing first. I also got to leave early and get home before 10p since i don't really like Alesana.

The place was packed, with probably 90% of the crowd under 21 years old. Tahoe and I stayed in the fenced-off "adult" area so we could drink PBR and not deal with the little kids. We Came As Romans came on first and the crowd was totally into them. They opened with To Plant A Seed and the place went nuts. It’s always fun to feel the floor at the Marquis totally dipping due to tons of kids jumping up and down! Anyway, We Came As Romans have a great blend of screaming vocals contrasted with clean, in fact they have 2 lead singers, one is the screamer and the other does the clean. They write songs that are positive and fun to sing along with, super catchy choruses and they were in good form this night.

I think they had some of the best crowd support of the night, kids were singing the words very loudly and on To Plant A Seed the crowd kept singing the hook line “The first note that I ever sang” over and over even after the lead singer had stopped. I still can’t believe they were the opener this night.

It would have been a crowded stage with 2 singers, 2 guitars and a bass player and a drummer, but we were informed that their bass player had broken his toe so he played bass from off the stage. I have no idea why he couldn’t stand on stage but whatever, more room for the rest of the band to move around. We Came As Romans have one full-length released, which I felt was a top release from 2009 and they played To Plant A Seed, Roads That Don’t End, Broken Statues, Intentions, We Came As Romans Are The Reasons, and closed with Dreams. Tahoe said that he thought they lost steam through their set, but nonetheless he was impressed and I think he’s a fan now.





After We Came As Romans played it was Of Mice & Men’s turn. I’ve just recently starting checked these guys out, they’re a pretty new band which just released their debut full-length album a week ago. The story with Of Mice & Men is that the band was started by Austin, who was originally the lead singer with Attack Attack!, singing on their only full-length album and doing a pretty awesome job. For some reason he left the band and started Of Mice & Men, which is one of the reasons I checked them out, I enjoyed that Attack Attack! Record.

Unfortunately, before this tour started Austin had heart surgery and missed the whole tour, so the former front man from Sky Eats Plane, Jerry, was fronting Of Mice & Men. He was pretty entertaining, Tahoe and I both enjoyed his presence, he was very energetic and his voice was solid. After reading the message boards about the tour it turns out that Jerry doesn’t know the words to many of the Of Mice & Men songs, I couldn’t tell since I don’t know them either.

Anyway, they played most of the songs off their recent release. You tell this was a party band, with their A Milli intro and a cover of Lady Gaga’s Pokerface that had the whole place singing. The clean vocals were exceptionally good for a live performance; I think this band has some potential, they are currently signed to Rise Records.


The last band I went to see was A Skylit Drive out of Sacramento. They played fourth, which surprised me because they don’t have the following that some of the other bands had. They aren’t a great band, their albums are good but nothing special in my opinion. They are unique because their lead singer has a super-high voice, and he wears in-ear monitors live. But you can tell by my videos that the monitors weren’t helping him, he was terrible. In fact, the whole band was pretty bad, and the crowd had noticeably thinned out for their set. We left after their fifth song.








The other bands that played were Alesana, the headliner, and The Word Alive who played third. We were not impressed The Word Alive at all, their singer was weak. However we were impressed with their lead guitarist and his head-band, he was intense!

Show Recap: Street Dogs @ Marquis

Good o' Punk Rawk! what a night it was for punks in Denver with the mighty Street Dogs coming to town. According to lead singer, Mike McColgan, the Street Dogs were up in Fort Collins (Blasting Room) to record their 5th full-length record. They decided to play a few shows while in town and joined up with local punk band Reno Divorce and a sellout crowd at the Marquis Theater.

I personally have seen the Street Dogs a few times and didn't think they had that great of a following out here so i was expecting a small turnout, but i was wrong. I dragged my buddy Thomas to the show, he's never really been to any shows let alone punk or hardcore so that was a fun experience for both of us. We drank some PBR, and headed into the pit to get the best view of the band (since we're both under 6'). Street Dogs did not disappoint.

If you don't know the Street Dogs i'll give you a little history lesson. Back in the 90's street punk / oi punk / gutter punk was starting to get really popular lead by bands like Rancid, Swingin' Utters, One Man Army, The Business and so on. Around 1998 the Dropkick Murphys arrived on Hellcat Records with their brand of Irish punk including bag-pipes and everything irish. They played punk songs and beer drinking songs, folk songs and everything you'd expect from an Irish band. Their lead singer was Mike McColgan, who grew up in Boston, and he was responsible for some of the best Dropkick Murphys songs ever written. Unfortunately Mike left the band to be a fire fighter in Boston, and was replaced with Al Barr (Bruisers). The Murphys went on to major success, playing huge shows, headlining Warped Tour, playing with the Red Sox at the World Series, being on MTV and whatnot.

The Murphys were still good, but not as authentic feeling as they were when Mike was the lead singer. AFter a few years Mike apparently wanted to get back to music and started a new band, Street Dogs, with the same middle-class, hard working, feel as the Murphys but no bag-pipes. Since their inception in 2002 the Street Dogs have released 4 full-length records and have toured almost non-stop.

I was really excited to bring along Thomas to this show because it would be entertaining even for someone who had never really listened to the band. the songs are catchy and easy to sing along with, and the energy from both the band and the crowd is unmatched by a lot of hardcore bands these days. The show started pretty late so it was 11p by the time the Dogs got started, opening with Not Without a Purpose, Not Without a Fight. They played most of the "hits" like You Alone, In Defense of Dorchester, Back To the World and even played some of the slower sing along songs like Tobey's Got a Drinking Problem, and 2 Angry Kids. Final Transmission was probably the song of the night. I was expecting to hear Strike a Blow and Fading American Dream but i think they were holding those for the encore, which we didn't stay for since it was after midnight.

Mike was great, getting the kids to sing along on most of the sings, passing the mic, and at one point he "crowd-surfed" his way back to some of the tables in the venue. From there he preached a little, starting off with "there's a lot to be angry about these days...". a typical punk rock message of uniting together to help each other out. after his speech he "surfed" his way back to the stage. No fights broke out which was impressive considering the amount of people there and the cheap beer. At one point Rick Barton joined the band on stage. Rick was also a member of the original Murphys and wrote a lot of the great songs on Do or Die. He's up in Fort Collins writing with the Street Dogs. All in all it was a great set from Street Dogs, even Thomas was impressed and could understand some of the words.

The other bands that played were Kill City Rebels and Reno Divorce. KCR was good, but just not my style. Reno Divorce is a punk rock band from Denver and i've seen them play a few times as well. They're solid, a band that i could listen to, but never one that i would consider a favorite. The crowd was with them on this night though and it was great to see the support.

Street Dogs performing Not Without a Purpose:

Street Dogs