Jars Of Clay - Concert Review [D1 Music]

Jars of Clay – Blacksburg, VA – 12/6/02

When me and Nad saw JoC at Liberty University back in May, they had Jennifer Knapp open, who I really like. So I was a little disappointed when I saw that it was The Elms this time.

But only a little disappointed. The Elms played a really well done set, and I was very impressed with their lead guitarist especially. But to top off their performance, they came out into the lobby area after the show to talk to the fans, which I always think is a big plus for bands. Though I didn't get a lot of time to talk to them, they seem to be really down to earth guys, and I enjoyed both them and their music.

And then, it was Jars of Clay! JoC has always had great stage presence, and this concert was no exeption. Dan is great singer and speaker, and he has a great way to keep the audience's attention. About 6 or 7 songs into the set, they stop for an introduction into what they said they considered their most powerful song. As they talked, I got more and more excited, anticipating (hopefully) 'Worlds Apart', which is one of the most beautiful and inspiring songs...and...and...

They start playing their slow rock rendition of 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun'. Ask Nad, it was hilarious. This concert especially, JoC really was on top of the humor that night, and it was a really enjoyable evening. Being that it was the last concert of the year for them, they made it a kind of "Sing-along" night, which was just fine with me. (Yes, I am 'that guy' who sings at the top of my lungs at concerts - sue me.)
The eventually got into deeper waters as the night went on, including a wonderfully executed and soul jumping performance of 'Flood', and my all-time favorite, 'Worlds Apart'.

Conceptually and artistically, the production aspect just was not there. At Liberty, they did some nice, though simple, rear projections that really added a lot to the songs, but we didn't get that this time around. It was more like "Let's see how many Par Cans we can put up for Backlight, and run it off a 2-scene preset manual console", which would have been fine, except the lights were just enough off focus that they were in much of the audience's faces as well, throughout the show. But I blame this on our student union, that really just can't handle these size shows that professionally.

Overall, I give this show 3.5 stars.