Since it had been almost exactly 3 years since the guys had played in Central Illinois, I was excited when I heard the news that Champaign-Urbana was going to be treated to some long-overdue Jars music live this Fall. Since this Fall was the West Coast leg of the Thinking Man's Pop Tour, I didn't think we'd see them here in 2003. St. Louis is the "gateway to the west," but Champaign must have at least temporarily snatched that title, as we were the city the farthest to the east to be included on this tour run.

Champaign-Urbana, which is home to the University of Illinois, isn't a major market like Chicago, so we usually only get concerts on weekdays, and this show was no exception, as it happened on a Tuesday night. This show also happened right before finals, so I know quite a Jars fans who were students that couldn't make it to the show because they had to finish up projects and pack in their last minute finals studying.

Early in the day, I was hanging around the venue waiting for a friend of mine to arrive. While waiting, I managed to sneak a listen to a few minutes of the soundcheck, which to my delight yeilded a Christmas surprise: they were soundchecking "Little Drummer Boy!" I also met Aaron Sands' dad while waiting, which means I've now met 2 Jars dads (I met Steve's dad at a concert in Urbana 3 years ago.)

After Jars finished up their soundcheck, they gave a Blood:Water symposium in one of the classroom buildings on the quad. I worked hard at getting the word out about the symposium in any and every way possible, and I was expecting at least 100 people, but only about 25 ended up showing up, possibly due to the factors mentioned above. No matter, as the folks who showed up were genuinely interested in learning about the issue and engaged in a good conversation both during and after the symposium with the guys.

After hearing Dan of Jars of Clay talk about some of his personal experiences in Africa during a concert earlier this year, I was convinced that this issue was something that I at least needed to start thinking about more. When I heard that they wanted to host a symposium about this issue on our campus, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for me to get personally involved in helping out with the HIV/AIDS issue. I also thought it would be a great opportunity for me to learn more about both the issues and also how Jars of Clay's blood:water mission is addressing those issues.

The symposium started off with an introduction by Dan, followed by a short video about the harrowing HIV/ AIDS statistics in Africa. Dan then told lots of stories about his visit to Africa, and he explained how Blood:Water works with World Vision. After that, Aaron, Matt, and Charlie talked about some other organizations that are helping out in Africa, and how to get involved with them. Finally, they entertained questions, and showed one last short video that featured a boy in Africa reciting an original poem about AIDS which was very touching.

The guys hung around for a while afterwards to talk with people one-to-one about World Vision and about other HIV/AIDS organizations. I had a nice conversation with Aaron Sands and a professor friend of mine about the politics of AIDS, and how things such as pushing the governments of Africa to provide low-cost or even free AIDS medications like Brazil has done can do a lot to improve and prolong the lives of those who are already infected.

I came away from the symposium with conflicting emotions: in one sense, I felt the problem was so complex and large that it's hard to know where to even begin. At the same time, I also felt that I could make an impact in at least one person's life in Africa, which gave me some hope about a seemingly hopeless situation.

We arrived at the venue shorly before the show started, as the symposium went fairly long. This led to the pre-show meet and greet starting late. The crowd for the meet and greet was unbelievably huge, there were at least 100 people waiting to meet the guys. For the meet and greet, we were all escorted by venue security down to the bowels of the UFO-shaped Assembly Hall into a "catering room." They had everyone sit at round tables, and about 5 minutes later a woman introduced the band as they walked in: "Ladies and gentlemen, Jars of Clay." As they walked in, the "audience" started cheering, which marks the first time I've ever seen that happen at a meet and greet. Since Steve and Aaron where on their home turf, there were lots of friends and family on hand for the show, and some of their friends, including Steve's old R.A., were at the meet and greet.

Since the meet and greet started later than expected, and there were so many people there, we were not even allowed to take individual photos with the guys, and each person got to talk with them for about 2 minutes max. I wasn't really that disappointed with the abruptness of the meet and greet, as I got to talk with everyone but Steve for a few minutes earlier in the day at the symposium. As we were being quickly escorted out of the meet and greet, Charlie pulled me off to the side as and apologized for the short meet and greet and expressed his disappointment that we didn't have more time to talk. Charlie is a very geniune and extremely nice guy, which I knew before that comment, but that was icing on the cake.

We missed most of Steve Delopoulos' set due to the delayed meet and greet, but the last few songs of his set that we did catch were very impressive. He sounds at times like an early Bob Dylan, but with a better voice.

Caedmon's Call started off their show with a very nice a capella rendition of "I Will Sing," and then followed with a rocking, but seemingly slowed down version of "Hope to Carry On." For a minute, I thought they were going to play an entire Rich Mullins set, but then quickly settled in with some of their worship songs. Their set seemed to drag as it went on, but there were a few high-points. They did a high-energy cover of "Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes," which I felt was even better than the original. After some more worship music, some more energy was injected into their set with a guest appearance by the hyped-up-on -coffee Steve Delopolous. Caedmon's and Steve ran through his old song "Chop Chop" from Burlap to Cashmere days. Cliff from Caedmon's said that Steve wrote that song in its entirety when he was 11 years old, which is pretty impressive.

I was disappointed that Caedmon's Call entirely left out all of their Derek Webb-penned songs, but I expected as much since they did the same when I saw them open for Jars back in February. They were much more entertaining than when I saw them in February, but it seemed strange to me that the best songs they played were cover songs. I never got the chance to see them in their "glory days," which in my opinion would be right after the release of their self-titled album, but they did a good job of warming up the crowd for Jars.

After a short intermission, a neo-classical instrumental piece that I wasn't familiar with started playing to set the mood. The guys walked on stage as the music played and opened up with a nice rendition of "I Need You." Next, they surprised everyone with the one-two punch of "Flood" and "Crazy Times." During the part of the bridge on "Crazy Times" where everything stops and feedback usually reigns, Steve kind of looked confused to have an acoustic guitar and his hands and started checking his watch and waited for a few seconds for all of the sound to completely die down and then started playing again.

Before playing "Amazing Grace," Dan told a fairly long story about his dad dragging him to Bluegrass festivals when he was a kid, which he said in general he really hated. He noticed that sometimes at these festivals someone would come up and sing an old gospel song, and those storytelling old gospel songs really touched him. He said that all of the many characters with their different personalities in those gospel songs were up against each other like they were in a "cage-match."

The hat made some great choices that night, at least in my opinion, as I was hoping for "Lonely People," " Redemption," and "All I Want is You." I got 2 out of 3, as the hat swapped "Redemption" for "Frail," but left everything else exactly how I wanted it. Before playing "Frail," Dan told a story about the first time he met Steve Delepolous. He said that the he saw this crazy man (Steve Delopolus) running at him from down the street. Dan just froze, and Steve said "Blessed are the shallow, depth they'll never find... What were you thinking?" Dan just thought it was a harmless lyric, and was amused by the whole episode.

To my surprise, "Frail" ended up being the highlight of the entire evening, as Steve and Matt were spot on with their acoustic interplay, Charlie's piano touches were very ethereal, and Dan's voice conveyed the perfect amount of emotion to show off the song in all of its understated glory. I've heard that song played live many times in many different ways, but that was by far the best performance yet of that song that I've witnessed.

The set closed with "Worlds Apart," and I noticed some significant differences in this performance versus the original recording of the song. The melody of the song is considerably different, especially toward the ends of the verses, as it is much higher and conveys even more urgency than the original. The chorus has really undergone a transformation, as the "take my world apart" line has been replaced by the "to love you" 's that Mancy A'lan Kane sang on the record, but they are singing four-part harmony there rather than one- part melody. Also, they snuck a bit of "Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet" into the end of the song, and the lighting went entirely red when they sung a line from that song which was a nice touch. There are lots of other differences I noticed, but suffice it to say they really reworked this one, and I loved it.

For the encore, they came back out to play "Love Song for a Savior," and then brought Steve Delopoulos back out for a beautiful rendition of "I'll Fly Away." I thought for sure that "Like a Child" would end the show, but instead we were treated to a rousing performance of "Little Drummer Boy," featuring added percussion from Caedmon's Call. Dan ended the song by leading the audience in singing a snippet of "O Come All Ye Faithful" while the band continued to jam on "Little Drummer Boy." It was a festive conclusion to a great show, and we left the Hall as Gene Autry's "Back in the Saddle Again" came on as the closing house music.

Many of the folks in my group at the show were seeing Jars live for the first time, and they were very impressed with the musicianship of the group, and also found their banter humorous. I thought that this was one of the best performances I've seen by the guys, and the day was extra special for me because of the Blood:Water symposium. My only complaint about the show is that they didn't get play longer. It seems that each new album, they play fewer and fewer songs from their latest project live, and there are still songs that they have never played live from their last few albums such as "River Constantine," "Whatever She Wants," "Scarlet," "These Ordinary Days," and "Dig" that would be a treat to hear. And what happened to the promise of "The Chair" live this tour? Maybe someday we'll get an all-request Jars acoustic tour just for the fans. Until then, we'll have to be happy with "who they are instead."