All I can say is, "Wow." Last night (September 28th, 2000), my friend, Rachel, and her brother, Jon, and myself went to the state fair to see Jars of Clay, Jennifer Knapp, and Luna Halo. Jars is my favorite band, and I had gotten tickets the minute they came out, so we had second row seats, which made it more exciting.

We got there about 90 minutes before the concert (because they were supposed to open the gates then). The gates didn't open until 6:30, though, so we talked to the people selling merchandise. Come to find out, they were in a Christian band, and they were going to be opening for the secular band, Precious, on Saturday night. So, we got autographs and talked to them about Jars for about a half hour. All of a sudden, we noticed that the line by the door had gone down, so we went ahead and went into the concert.

Our seats were right down front in section B (the center section), and there was a security guard about ten feet away from us, so we went up and talked to him. We talked to him for about an hour before the concert, and we asked him if he knew where we could get a setlist, because we wanted to let people know what songs they were singing on this tour. He went and checked for us, and he said that they didn't have one available for the public. So, we decided to write down the songs in the order that they did them. It turned out that after the show he got us Jars' setlists from on the stage, plus a drumstick (we think it was actually Dan's!)...

At 7:30, Luna Halo came out, and they were awesome! They only played four songs, and that was disappointing. But they did play "Superman", which is one of my favorite songs on their album. They didn't play my absolute favorite, which is "Hang On To You," but they were still really good. They stopped after the second song to let everyone know that each one of them had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and everyone started cheering! They finished after about 20 minutes, and told everyone that they would be signing during the intermission, after Jennifer Knapp.

We had to wait a few minutes for Jennifer Knapp, and we happened to look backstage and see Charlie, Steve and Steve's wife and son. Steve started dancing with his little boy, and we tried to take pictures, but I don't think they will come out.

Jennifer came out with "Into You," then did "Lay It Down". She did "Romans", "A Little More", and then took requests, which were "Diamond in the Rough" and"When Nothing Satisfies". She finished with "Undo Me" and another song from her first album, never playing two of our favorites, "Usher Me Down" and "You Answer Me." But she was still incredible! When she was finished taking requests, everyone was kind of moaning, and she said "Don't 'aawwwwweeeee' me! I can take you all on, with the help of those two girls right there", and she pointed to Rachel and me! That was one of the more exciting parts of our evening... *grin* I don't think I forgot any of her songs, but she played for about 45 minutes.

Then... Richmond was blessed with something that no one else had seen before. Jennifer waited, and Steve, Charlie, and Aaron Sands came out with brass instruments. Jennifer had gotten her trumpet, and they played the beginning of "America The Beautiful" (we think!), after which they played something that "We should know", according to them. We went ahead and left our seats right before they finished, and we didn't miss anything, because we could hear them finishing up as we went out to the merchandise table to meet Luna Halo.

When we got there, almost no one was there, and Luna Halo hadn't made it out to the table yet, so we talked to the merchandise guys again. All of a sudden, we turned around and Luna Halo was suddenly there! We talked to the guitarist, and got pictures and autographs. Then, we looked around and found the bassist, so we talked to him for a little bit, got autographs and pictures, then found the lead singer. He was in the middle of a bunch of people, so we had to wait a few minutes for him. But we got pictures and autographs with him too, and started looking around for the drummer. We found him alone! No one was talking to him! So we talked to him for the rest of the intermission, and asked him if Jennifer Knapp was coming out. He said that she hadn't signed so far in the tour, but he didn't know. So we waited around until we heard someone testing the drums, then went back into the concert.

Jars finally came out, and they didn't have an explosive starting song like usual (Since they usually started with Unforgetful You or Liquid), and we were all trying to figure out what song it was. The lights slowly came up, and Dan was standing there stock still, singing "Come Out". It was River Constantine! They only sang "Come down, pour out, come out, pour down, on me", but they sang it slow, and it was beautiful!

THEN came Liquid! I finally recognize when they do "Like a Child" now, because they've changed the music to the song, and during the two concerts of the Colliding Rhino's tour, we couldn't figure out what song it was! But I guessed it this time... then came Crazy Times and Unforgetful You! They were mixed pretty much the same as the Colliding Rhinos Tour, but still awesome. Then they played "Can't Erase It" (which they dragged out for a long time!), then talked a little bit about "Grace". Most of the talk was about the new album. After Grace, they played "Famous Last Words", which was one of the best songs of the concert (especially since it's one of my absolute favorites)!!!

After that, Charlie and Matt walked offstage, and we all knew what song was coming, so we sat down. Sure enough, one of the guys from the merch table brought Dan out a stool, and switched Steve's guitar to an acoustic one. Speaking of Steve's guitars... he switched almost every time! Back to Worlds Apart.. Dan talked about Vietnam, and why they went. He added some new stuff to it, because he was also talking about it during the end of the Colliding Rhinos Tour. So we heard some new things about the trip, and then they started playing. Every time I hear this song live, I start crying... and it wasn't different this time! Towards the end of the song, everyone started standing up and praising God, and it was really incredible to see! A new thing that I noticed was that towards the end of the song, Charlie and Matt came back on and started playing with Steve, which was cool.

After Worlds Apart, they jumped right back into Collide, which was INCREDIBLE! I stopped crying, and started jumping, and by the end of that song, my leg muscles were ready to sit down! But I don't have enough common sense to, and now I can hardly walk.

But after Collide, they started the same ol' "We need your help" with the clapping over the head, and Steve and Dan started cracking jokes about how it takes a couple hours to get warmed up, but they were thinking that, for such an incredible crowd, we would only need to do it 'till midnight. Dan sang the first verse of I'm Alright, with everyone clapping, and then went back and started playing the drums. He stuck to his own drumset this time, no hitting Joe's! Steve sang the rest, and intro'ed the band, starting with "The original Scandinavian", Matt Odmark, then going to "The PHD," Dr. Charlie Lowell. Then he went to "The Reverend" Joe Porter, and then went into this whole thing about Aaron and the FBI. Then he finally got around to Dan, who was still beating away on the drums, and he ended with "And I'm Steve". They finished the song *finally*!!!

Then they played "Fade to Grey", which was different from the other times they played it live. Then, they started playing another song, and everyone looked at each other. We were thinking "This sounds like Flood, but it can't be! They play Flood for the encore!" But sure enough, "Rain, rain on my face"!!!!!! The crowd was unusually calm, and I think it took some people half of the song to figure it out! I wish they had played it in the encore though, but they had something else planned. They finished Flood, took a bow, and left.

Of course, they stopped by the edge of the stage, and waited for us to call them back. They came back out with "Love Song", and it was incredible! It almost made me cry! Dan had the audience sing most of it, and one of the times HE was singing, his voice cracked. :( He doesn't give himself enough credit! He started shaking his head... It's ok Dan!) Then they talked more about Vietnam, and how they didn't bring instruments, and how they ended up writing "This Road...And then they played it. But the first note they played, the state fair started fireworks, and it was incredible how the timing of it was so perfect...I don't think Dan was too thrilled, because I told him after the show that it was been a neat effect, even if he didn't plan it that way, and he kind of rolled his eyes... But everyone else enjoyed it!

Which brings me to one more thing.... after the show, we ended up getting backstage into the meet and greet. We talked to Jars and got autographs and everything. Aaron and Joe didn't come out though. We asked Steve if that really was his son with him earlier backstage, and he looked at us very strangely, and then after about 15 seconds he said "oh yeah!"! I don't think he knew how we saw him... And Charlie and Matt remembered us from the concert part, since we were in the second row. So it was an awesome night, and I can't wait 'till Jars comes back!

Grace and peace,
*Morgo Angel Iggle* (jrsofclay1@juno.com)