Joyful Noise

I expressed to my church family yesterday that the concert my friends and I attended Saturday night was filled with music that many would likely consider "just a bunch of noise."  I am here to testify that Skillet and TobyMac make incredibly joyful noise.  The Vines Center at Liberty University has officially been rocked.
The concert was great and I left only wishing (a) that Rebecca could've come, (b) that we got there sooner because (c) our seats left much to be desired (vision, sound... oy!), and (d) that Kirk Franklin was there to sing his part of Lose My Soul.  A concert like this is not meant to be experienced in general admission seats.  I mean, I could still hear when I left.  That won't happen again.
What was awesome was (a) the company (Wilson, Matt, Catherine, and thousands of others); (b) Skillet busted out the pyrotechnics... yes, enormous burst of flames that may have claimed a few eyebrows before the night was over; (c) Tobymac opened on a small platform at the back end of the floor (right where my seats for his previous concert were... doh!) and then proceeded through the crowd, eventually body surfing to the stage; (d) Skillet's girl drummer/back-up singer -- who banged out a solid solo at one point; (e) Toby's participation in the crowd; (f) the acoustic set also done from the small platform; (g) that we were able to move over to some better seats for the last 4 songs, including the Jesus Freak finale; (h) Skillet playing Monster; (i) TobyMac mixing in some familiar secular sounds (i.e. We Are Family by Sister Sledge and Imma Be by the Black Eyed Peas) and medleys of tracks from prior albums including... (j) J? J Train, of course.
There is likely much more that I'm leaving out that I might have caught if I had better seats.  Regardless, it was a good time, and in the end I realized that there were a bunch of young people there (college students, high school students that were also there for Liberty's "College for a Weekend" program, and kids even younger than that) that all likely also listen to a lot of music/noise that isn't as good for the soul as Skillet and TobyMac.  And I praise God that there are some solids artists out there looking to praise Him with a bunch of really cool noise. 

Today's Good Read: Psalm 100