The Rock & Worship Roadshow Review
The Rock & Worship Roadshow experiance has been super amazing. It has extended to just not the day of the concert, but also before and after with the live strams and chat. I hacve not been to a chat since 2002, but this one is unlike any one I ever went to before. There is amazing fellowship with amazing people. I just love it all. So, this is just the awesome experiance I had at the concert itself, so here we go....
So, Danny had originally said he wasn’t going to go to the Rock & Worship roadshow, so I went ahead and bought the donor pass. I was very exited to not have to get there at the crack of dawn, hehe. So, I was getting ready when Danny comes home and goes, “I want to go see J Camp.” Uh-oh, panic. How was I going to deal with this? Of course I told him he could come, I really wanted him to come, but now I was in a weird position. So, I finished getting ready, and we trotted on our way. On the drive I was trying to figure out what to do. I thought, maybe Danny could wait in line with Sylvia, and I would go in and save seats for us…hopefully.
We caught a bad traffic accident on the 605, but then got on our way. Neither Danny nor I had eaten, so we stopped at this little pizza place nearby the venue. We ate and then headed off. I called Sylvia and met up with her. I dropped Danny off and headed to the Donor Pass entrance. Was having fun chatting with all the other people there. As we were waiting someone from Mercy Me’s merch table came out with a table filled with all of MM’s CDs, including their new one to be released in April. The coolest part was that they were all only $5, so I bought “10” (the one out in April) and figured they could sign that.
Eventually Connor came out and checked us all in and handed us our passes. He gave us a tour of backstage (where you bet I was taking pix of all the sound equipment) then he showed us the seats he reserved for us.
<--This is probably where Brody or Kyle (or both) sit, lol
<--look at all the cables, AWESOME!!!
<---look at the board *drool*
They were off to the side, a bit high up. This younger girl, an older lady, & I were like, “Can we be in the front row?” Connor said we could move our seat to anywhere we wanted. So, we ran to front row center. We were the only ones that did this, so then I was able to save 2 extra seats next to me for Danny and Sylvia. Yay!!
So, we had time to hit the merch tables before anyone else got in. I checked out each of the artist’s tables. There was this kick butt awesome purple Hawk Nelson shirt that I wanted SOOO badly, but no money to buy it with. Sad day (next time, I swear). In fact, this is said shirt, courtesy of hawknelson.com
So, after I saw all the merch (don’t know why, not like I could buy any), I went to J Camp’s merch table to ask about the Camp Crew Meet & Great. Adam was there and he said he didn’t know what to do and he was going to call about it. I was waiting around for Adam when we got called to the Mercy Me M&G.
We got led to this supper nice room, I truly felt like a VIP. The room was super chic, it really was. So, I sat at the table with my new friends and we chatted up a storm. They brought us our t-shirts and goody bags. While I was there Danny called saying they were in, so I directed them on how to find our seats (not that hard, we were front row center after all, hehe) Eventually the Mercy Me guys came.
I got up and handed them their gift. They were like, “Oh, she knows the way to make us happy.” Hehe! They signed the “10” CD. The guys are really into Compassion International and sponsoring children, so it hit me to show them the pic of my mom and her sponsor. The guys were really glad that I showed it to them, it was awesome.
<---With Mercy Me
So, I went to our seats. Danny asked me if I had brought him earplugs. I said no, but I will go try and find him some. I, of course, was successful in getting him some. As I was walking back, I could hear Addison Road being announced and getting started. I knew their first song was “All That Matters”, so I RAN to my seat. As I was running to my seat, I saw matt, as if J’s manager. I waved at him, totally forgetting that although I may know who he is he hasn’t got a clue who I am, lol. He waved back, and then it hit me to ask about the camp Crew M&G. Addison Road was playing, so I help up my Camp Crew pass & asked him, “Where am I supposed to go?” He asked, “We just…wait, we’re you not there?” I replied, “No, I didn’t know where to go. I went to the merch table & asked Adam and he said he didn’t know. Oh, and my brother is in the front row and he has to come too.” Matt looked around and he said, “Come with me.” I replied, “Mo brother, he too…” he said, “Go get him & meet me by the stage.” I ran, got Danny, literally grabbed him and yelled, “COME WITH ME!!!” I tols Sylvia we would be right back. Danny was like, “Where are we going?’ I said, “With Jeremy, just come.”
So, we ran and caught up with Matt. He then led us backstage. He just RAN, so Danny & I we’re trying to run after him. As I was running I saw Jason from Hawk Nelson and I yelled to him, “I have a present for you.” He looked at me like, “What?” I yelled, “I have a present for you, I’ll give it to you later.” He looked at me like, “Okay…” LoL!
So, Danny & I are still running after Matt. It just so happened that J was walking towards us. So, matt yells, “Hey, Jeremy, have time for one more?” J turned and saw us and said, “Of course.” So, Matt introduced us. To J, and J said, “Hey, nice to meet you again.” Yes ladies & gents, I heard the again, lol.
So, I apologized to J and explained how I didn’t know where to go. Then I said, “So, I come bearing gifts for you and your girls.” J got all happy and turned back to call Addie, who was holding Ari (I say it was Ari, Danny says it was Bella). I hand over the gift bags. I bought Ari a princess little purse & Bella an Ariel little purse. I filled them up with goodies like stickers, pens, luggage tags (yes, from the travel company, hehe), a glass slipper with candy, and a Mickey Mouse headband. Addie was showing Ari, “Look honey, it’s Mickey.” Then I handed J and Addie their coffee mugs (a groggy Mickey for J and a groggy Minnie for Addie), a game of Disneyland Uno for the girls (or the band, I added), and 2 tins of the chocolate covered pretzels for the rest of his crew. The girls bags had these pens I bought that looked like food you can get in the park (popcorn, Disney pretzels, Mickey Mouse ice cream bars, ect). So this cutie little Camp takes the pen that was the Mickey Mouse ice cream bar and put it in her mouth and tries to chew on it. I saw her and quickly pulled it out of her mouth and said, “No sweetie, that’s not candy.” Addie saw that and took it away and I said, “If she does want candy, there is a Cinderella slipper that has hard candy in there. I left the tag on it w/ the ingredients. I’m paranoid about food allergies and such.”
So, Addie thanked me again. She excused herself saying she had to go. The venue did not have a will call so she herself had to go outside and meet her friends to let them in. Little Camp leaned over to J, stretched out her arms and said, “I want daddy, you hurt mommy.” J went over and grabbed her. It was such an AWWW moment. Addie then said that her stupid zipper has something that kept poking her and she was going to try and take care of it. Addie said they had to leave daddy alone for a little bit but would be right back, so Addie took her back and off they went, not before thanking me again for my gifts.
So, I started to pull all my stuff down when I saw the pic of my mom peek out from my purse. I thought there would be no better time than now to show it to him. So, I took it out and showed it to him. Once I started telling him my mom’s story he was like, “That’s right, I TOTALLY remember that now.” He said, “Thank you so much for showing me that.”
<---Me, Jeremy Camp, Danny
So, then somehow we started talking about Disneyland. Told him how Dan & I work there and explained what we did. We told him how were getting his tweets when he was in the park, and that I was in my office and Danny was hoping he would get on his boat. J was all cool, like he was bummed he missed us. He was like, “OH NO! Next time for sure.” Hehe! He’s so awesome.
So, then we took our picture & J asked us if there was anything else we wanted./ We told him no. Danny did ask him if he knew of or was a fan of the Gimmies. Jeremy said he didn’t know of them, and Danny said he asked because one of their songs was on one of his youtube video blog thingies. J said that Adam had made that particular video so he would know. Danny then explained that he had just written a report on them for music class.
So, we said our byes, and J thanked me once again for the gifts. As we were leaving we bumped into matt again who asked if we were all set. Told him yes, and then he asked if our seats were OK, and I also told him yes, and thanked him for doing this for us. As we were talking to Matt, Connor walked by and he looked at me very perplexed as to what I was doing back there. So, we thanked matt again, and went back to our seats.
Unfortunately, because of this ordeal, we totally missed Addison Road. Now, not that the J Camp backstage experience was not amazing, but it was just a bummer that we missed Addison Road because of it (but at least we were still hearing them backstage).
So, Tenth Avenue North was about ready to come out. Was glad I got to see their full performance. Danny didn’t know them and was amazed I knew all their songs, hehe. The guys were awesome.
<---This is a GREAT shot.
I really enjoyed their performance. I’m horrible with song titles, but their song where God is singing to you, you know, “And I’ll be by your side, wherever you are…” I ADORE that song. Especially the beginning, that song is SOOO amazing!! I can’t repeat enough how much I enjoyed these guys.
After tenth avenue north, I believe it was when they came out and talked about Compassionate and volunteers came out to give sponsor children packets. Well, one of them was Kendra. She came over and gave us a hug. Cool to see her there. The lady next to me was saying she wanted to sponsor but didn’t know if she could afford it. I told her, “I just think about it this way, I spent $1 less a day on something I don’t really need so a child can get the basic necessities.” She said, “I never thought of it that way.” At that point Nathan from MM said he had one in his hand and if anyone wanted to come and take it from him, and she did, hehge.
Alright, so, up next was HAWK NELSON!! I was SOO exited. The guys hit the stage and ROCKED IT!!! With all the fog and everything, LOVE!! Danny and I started like moshing in the front. LoL! It was awesome. Everyone around us kept looking and smiling. We wanted to mosh, hehe.
<---Justin hit the stage first, getting us pumped for the rest.
<---AWESOME shot
<---Rocking oput to smog
Oh, the guys were a blast. I was dancing, jumping, rocking out, and singing along to every single song (except for that new one that no one knew), hehe. Oh, it was WAY too much fun. Those guys seriously know how to put on a show. I know it has a lot to do with Jason’s never ending energy, but all the guys just BRING IT every single time, hehe.
<----Jason is crazy, but he knows how to BRING IT
<---Daniel rocking the bass
<---Best shot I got of Jon, all the other attemps came out blury. But this is a cool shot of both him and Jason.
<--- Jason told us to put up our cell phone during "One Little Miracle" because he said it "Looks so pretty." Agree with him? Hehe.
During, “Friend like that,” well, Danny and I have this thing about certain song lyrics that almost sound redundant but not really. (Some examples, “I wanna be happy, but I can’t be happy…” “Everybody wants me to be what they want me to be…” ect.) Of course, Hawk has one, “I’m not a wannabe, just who I wanna be…” So, during that song, Danny turned to look at each & sang it SOO loud, laughed, and then continued moshing, hehe.
<---Really good shot of Jason
<---Jon and Daniel
<--Having fun with the fog mashine, hehe.
So, at one point Jason like basically walked towards me, gave me a high five, then went into the audience. Everyone was freaking out, hehe. When he came back, he gave me another high five, yelled something at me, (“_______ awesome” is all I heard, lol), and went backstage.
<---walking towards me
<---Jason in the audience, hehe.
So, I took some pix for Twitpic and sent them over. During the whole time Brody kept direct messaging me via Twitter, hehe. That was a blast too.
So, I was sitting there, supper exhausted from Hawk, trying to gain back my energy for J (and you knew it was going to come, hehe). Now, the place was sold out, so they took down Jeremy’s backdrop so people could sit back there, so we didn’t get the full effect, but it was still good.
So, J hit the stage. AWESOMENESS!! I love him and his entire band. During the songs that Danny liked, we moshed again, hehe. Especially during “Tonight”, we were moshing like mad crazy. Even the security guard was laughing at the fun we were having, hehe.
<---Yay for Jeremy
<---Leif
<---Andy
You just love J because he is so passionate. When he’s singing, you know he is worshiping and means every single word, and that is in a trace with God. You see it, and you feel it with him. Dude, it’s just so powerful, there’s a reason why he’s my favorite (shhh, don’t tell anyone, hehe!)
So, he didn’t sing any of my absolute faves of sing, but I knew and loved every single song. The 2 that probably touched me the most were “Let It Fade” & “This Man.” *sigh* so powerful. “This Man,” always gets to me, and this night was no exception.
It was especially super touching when he sat on the stage and talked about how we need to read the Bible. I seriously wished that was taped & could buy a copy and play it for our youth kids. I loved how passionate he got when he talked about. “We need to read the Bible not because it’s the Christian thing to do, not because it is our duty, but because He gave us his word to get to know him, we should want to get to know him.” *sigh* He got it, he totally got it. I really want a copy of that (or at east an outline of what he said).
<---Sitting down and getting intimate with us
<---telling us to take a stand
It was funny, because during J I sent a tweet with a pic, and Brody was like, “Dang girl, you’re right up front.” I replied, “Yup, front row, that’s how I roll.” LoL!
<---J drinking his hot tea, hehe
<---He really starts to worship
<---So exited about reading scripture
<---The word is close to his heart
<---Really, SOOO passionate
So, after J it was Mercy Me time. First, we prayed and collected donations. As we did this, Jen came back out and sang:
Then MM hit the stage.
<---RED PANTS!!! (RAWRS chat inside joke, hehe)
Dude, at this point, it was like 9:30, where had the time gone? We saw about 3 songs when we decided to leave. No, not leave the concert, but leave to wait in line to meet Hawk. We knew that would be the “worse” line, so to speak.
So, we were all line up at the merch table. Then they told us to line up in 5 different areas before they decided where to have the signing. It was hilarious; this mob of people wondering from place to place. It was funny because at this point, I was probably the oldest person in line (no shame there), so I put my awesome Disneyland guest control skills to use. I am not kidding; I controlled that mob and kept them in order, and even managed to keep them in a strait line. The S.E.R.V.I.C.E. model does indeed work people, hehe. This one girl told me she was embarrassed for not behaving and was glad I was there to keep them all in check. People asked me how I could handle that so well, I said, “I’m a youth leader, I do guest control at Disneyland, what can I say? I’m an expert.” LoL!
So, I was talking with all those around me. I told them I was a late fan, explained how from the first time I saw them live I because obsessed. We discussed all our fave CCM artists and other Hawk encounters, and also how we became Hawk fans. The girl in front of me was saying how she always gets weird stuff signed. For example, she got a fan blade signed one time, and another time, she got a rock, lol. What was she going to get signed this night? Her Twilight book, lol! We were joking that she would meet Stephanie Myers and she would be all like, “Stephanie Myers, will you sign my twilight book? Oh, wait, you can’t, Hawk Nelson already signed it.” LoL!
So, the concert eventually ended. The Hawk Nelson guys came out, and there was small pandemonium going on, especially when Jason jumped on the table.
<---Jason on top of the table, lol
So, there couldn’t have been any more than like 15 or so peeps in front of me.
<---I must show this picture…Daniel supper confused at the fact that he is signing a Twilight book, lol.
So, at the R&W road show stream & chat, both Jon and Justin had come on & I asked them what they wanted us to bring them. Both of them said, “Just your A-GAME!” So, I did, I brought them A AGME….a game of Disneyland themed Uno cards. So, the way they were seated on the table was Daniel, Justin, Jason, and Jon. I handed my pic to Daniel & he signed it. Then, when I went to Justin, I explained to him. “So, at the RAWRS chat you asked me to bring you my A GAME, so I did, here you go.”
<---showing them that I broght them A GAME like they asked
Justin saw it and he was SOOOO amused. He started cracking and was like, “THAT’S AWESOME!!!!” and gave me a high five. Then I said I also brought them chocolate covered pretzels. Justin was seriously so amused by the Uno cards, and that I brought them A GAME, it was seriously awesome.
So, then, over to Jason. As soon as he saw me he was like, “There she is!!!” I kid you not, he said, “THERE SHE IS!!” and gave me a high five.
<---Danny captured the "THERE SHE IS!!" moment as it occured, hehe.
LoL! I don’t know if that in reference to the earlier backstage encounter, to the front row high five, or if he even remembered backstage at SWC Monterey and he was referring to that. I must admit, I was a little stunned at his reaction towards me, lol. I told him also about the game (which Justin was still fussing over) & the chocolate covered pretzels. He thanked me for everything. He was telling me something else but I couldn’t understand him. I didn’t realize I was hogging them, so the people asked me to move along. I hadn’t notice but all 4 guys had already signed my picture. I didn’t even get a chance to talk to Jon because they scooted me away. I just yelled back at him, “Enjoy your pretzels and the fact that I brought you A GAME.” I wanted to talk to Jon because he was also one of the ones who had said to bring my A GAME, lol.
<--Look in the back at Justin, he is still SOOO amused
<---Danny got one good pic of Jon, hehe
So, after the Hawk Nelson guys, I wanted to go over to the Addison Road table since they were the next closest table. This part was kinda funny. There was this mob still leaving the concert (yeah, I got done w/ hawk before most people even left their seat). So, we got caugh in this mob. I was like, “Were do we go to the Addison Road line. Next thing I know, we’re IN the Addison Road line, lol.
We got to the front of the table and I only saw the guys. I asked, “Is Jen here?” They told me, “No, we sent her back to the hotel room so she could rest since she is pregnant and all.” I said, “Aww, bummer. Well, could you give her this for me please?” So, they called her husband over (who was signing an autograph for someone) and I gave him the gift. He pulled out the gift and said, “Awww, thank you.” He asked if I had a card with my name & info on it & I said no, so he wrote down my name & Twitter name, hehe.” Then I said, “And I brought the rest of you guys chocolate covered pretzels from Disneyland.” They like opened the tin & started eating. I then asked for a pic, but Danny took a horrible pic of us, hehe. Like, 1 of the guys is missing and I’m not even looking at the camera. Oh, Danny and his horrible photography.
<---Kinda, sorta with Addison Road, hehe
So, after Addison Road, I went over to the Tenth Avenue North table. While I was waiting in line, I saw Tim Cox on the other side of the table. So, I ran over to see him. As I was running over there, one of the security guards told me, “Hey, long time no see.” It was one of the security guards that was in the front row. He kept saying how he never forgets a face and blab la bla. He had some sort of accent, lol, that was interesting.
So, I went over to Tim. We greeted each other and hugged. He then told me, “Tenth Avenue North are my boys.” Apparently, Tim is like best friends with the Tenth Avenue North guys; they went to college together. I told him how I loved Tenth Avenue North and brought them presents. He was like, “Oh, they are going to LOVE that.” So, I chatted with Tim for a bit. This one lady that also had a donor pass asked me why I left the concert early, and if it was to go meet Jeremy. I told her I met Jeremy before the show and that we had left to get in line for Hawk. Apparently, Danny told me that as we were leaving this same lady grabbed onto Danny and had asked him why we were leaving. Then, Tim and I talked to this lady about our church and about Newsboys. Yeah, interesting.
So, I said bye to Tim & got back in line with Danny. So, we got to the front, and that security wouldn’t stop talking about how he never forgets a face and we were in the front row, lol!
So, I get to Mike. We shake hands and introduce each other. I hand over my CD and he sings it. So I go, “So, apparently you know my church’s director of music Tim.” He goes, “Yeah, Tim Cox, one of my best friends. He’s even in our CD thank yous.” So, we look over and wave at Tim together and he waved back, it was very funny. So, we take a pic and I tell him I had a gift. So, I had over the chocolate covered pretzels. Dude, Mike took then, opened it, and started eating them. LoL, he was adorable when he did that, lol. I was like, “Share, they’re for the whole band.” So, he passed them down and each of the guys ate some, hehe.
<---Posing with Mike
<---Diving into the chocolate covered pretzels
Then, went back to Tim and introduced him to Danny. We chatted for a bit. Then Danny and I went to look at J Camp’s merch and Hawk’s merch. I really wanted the Hawk shirt, I will get it eventually because it RAWKS!!
So, this whole time Brody and I kept sending each other DMs via Twitter. I had a gift for him. Well, I had stopped getting them from him, I figured he got busy, and Dan and I had to leave because it really was late and I had work the next day. So, Danny suggested since we can’t get a hold of Brody, I should give the gift to Adam. So, I did (shhh, don’t tell him).
So, then Danny and I trotted back home. It was seriously such an amazing night and time.
P.S. Here are the rest of my pix, all 160 of them, hehe:
http://tinyurl.com/R-Wpix