Last weekend, I went to Oklahoma City with Lindsey, Shelby, Hayley, & Kelly.  The reason we went to OKC was to attend Winter Jam 2010 at the Ford Center.  Winter Jam featured mini-concerts by Revive, Sidewalk Prophets, Robert Pierre, Tenth Avenue North, Fireflight, Newsong, Newsboys, and a grand finale by Third Day.  It also featured a message by Tony Nolan.  Admission to the event was $10 and was paid at the door.  I read comments on Twitter & Facebook from the performers and organizers after the show.  From what I can tell, the OKC crowd was the largest crowd to date on the Winter Jam 2010 tour!

Of the musical performers, I have only heard Newsboys in concert before.  I first saw them probably 10-15 years ago when they were here in Springdale at First Baptist.  I saw them in Tulsa my freshman year in college when they were on their Love Liberty Disco tent tour (which featured the rotating drum set).  Tony Nolan spoke back in the fall at FBC Springdale.  Lindsey, Shelby, & I were pretty excited about hearing him again.  Other than the Newsboys & Tony Nolan, getting to finally see Third Day in concert was exciting.

I really enjoyed the event as a whole.  There were a few performances that really stuck out.  I think the song that spoke to me most during the evening was Sidewalk Prophets’ The Words I Would Say.  The following is an acoustic version of the song.

So, as I mentioned, I’d seen Newsboys a couple of times in concert prior to OKC.  It had been a while.  Last year, Michael Tait (formerly of the band DC Talk) replaced Peter Furler as the lead singer of the band.  I hadn’t heard a Tait led song on the radio yet so I was curious (but, yet, skeptical) of how he would sound singing traditional Newsboys hits like Shine and Breakfast.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The Newsboys closed their set with DC Talk’s hit Jesus Freak.  I loved it!  It wasn’t DC Talk but it was a DC Talk song live which I hadn’t heard since I saw them in concert in 7th grade.  I also kind of found it amusing that Kelly & I were the only ones around us it seemed that knew every single word (including the rap-like portion in the middle) of the song.  Here’s a video from the Winter Jam 2010 tour of Newsboys performing Jesus Freak.

Finally…Third Day…Amazing!  Mac Powell is an awesome songwriter and has such a distinctive voice.  Here is an official video of Third Day singing their recent hit Revelation.

All of the performances were almost teasers of full sets by some of the performers like Newsboys & Third Day.  I left the event wanting to look up their tour schedule so I could see a full show by each of them in the near future.  I definitely recommend seeing any of these artists in concert!

I did take a few pictures at Winter Jam.  Check out my slide show.