Robin and I were invited to a Third Day concert at the Augusta Civic Center in Augusta, Maine today by our new friends. Despite a "large" snow storm estimated to head our way that evening, we set out to Augusta for the concert, stopping at Red Robin for dinner.
Once we arrived at the Civic Center, we picked up our tickets and were also given "tour guests" wrist bands- something that neither of us expected or knew what they were as our friends friend had purchased the tickets. We arrived an hour early, which turned out to be a good thing as we discovered that the bands playing tonight were participating in a Q&A for VIP and tour guests. We sat in the back and waited with anticipation of getting to see the bands up close. As they entered the room and took their seats up front we were handed cards to write down our questions for the band- none of us had questions but I was looking forward to listening to their answers for the others questions. The Q&A lasted for about 20 minutes; I really enjoyed getting to know the bands (Third Day, Tenth Avenue North and Trevor Morgan). After the bands left, the announcer asked the VIP guests to leave and to take their seats in the stadium- he then asked the "tour guests" to stay seated while they re-arrange the room for Third Day to come back and pose for a picture with the fans. Needless to say we were pretty excited about being able to meet, shake hands and get our photo taken with the band. I asked if it was alright for me to run out into the hallway and purchase their latest CD for them to sign. The booths were packed with incoming guests getting ready for be seated but I made my way quickly to the front and purchased their latest album "Move". When I returned, Robin had someone else get us each a concert poster to sign as well.
Second half of the entry:
All four of us got to say hello, shake their hands and have them autograph whatever we had and our photo was taken. It very nice experience and great thing to do by the band. All of the members seemed to be very down-to-earth and sincere despite their very busy tour schedule.
Once we got into the nearly-full stadium I couldn't help but think that despite my excitement to meet a band as popular as Third Day I thought to myself how much more exciting it will be to meet Christ and what a great feeling it was to know that the majority of the people in the stadium felt the same way. Over the course of the evening we took several photos of the band playing while enjoying great music.
I told Robin later on that I didn't think that I would enjoy going to a concert but despite the extremely loud music, I had a really good time. The snow storm did hit Maine, and was bad enough to only drive 35MPH on the highway the entire way ride home but that gave us all time to let our ears heal and to talk about the good evening we spent together.