Hola! On September 5, I had the opportunity to attend the final day of the Lifelight Music Festival, the largest free Christian music festival in the nation. It was definitely an awesome day and was a great chance to see some awesome bands. Let’s get started, shall we?
The festival is held in Worthing, South Dakota, and is a three-day festival. I went up with a group of about fifty people from my town for the final day on Sunday. It was a beautiful day weather-wise (except for it sprinkling a few minutes in the early evening). There were probably at least 100,000 people there, and it was awesome to be gathered with this many people on farmland that’s been turned into an area with six music stages and a bunch of cool stuff.
We arrived at the festival grounds at about 1:20 p.m., and I went off to the Souled Out Stage (the harder music stage) to see Listener. Listener was a band I had only heard a few things about beforehand, and I hadn’t heard any of their songs. They consist of two people, both of which play guitar along to a drum track, and one person speaks/sings along with plays the trumpet at some parts. The lyrics were mainly poems that the band had written, and though it was hard to understand the words at many times, it was definitely intriguing and something that I’ve looked more into. A song of theirs that I got off of iTunes is “I Don’t Want To Live Forever” and is pretty sweet lyrically and musically. Hopefully I can be exposed to them more as time goes on.
A pretty sweet highlight took place during this performance. I looked over to the left of the stage where there was VIP viewing, and I saw T.D. and Veronica Benton from White Collar Sideshow with the top hat, mask, and everything. They had performed at the festival Friday, and though I didn’t see them play, I can now say that I “saw” them. (White Collar Sideshow will definitely be featured on this blog soon).
I walked around a bit and then got back to the Souled Out Stage to see Family Force 5 play acoustic. For those who are unfamiliar with FF5, they’re a band that plays crunk and electronic rock, so to see them play acoustic was interesting. It was sweet though to see that they still basically sounded the same and had great energy. One could understand the lyrics clearly, and the banter between the band members in between songs was hilarious. Song highlights included “Kountry Gentlemen,” “Supersonic,” “Fever,” and “Love Addict.”
At the main stage around 3:10, Downhere, a rock band from Canada, played. Their music is pretty unique as they have two lead singers. They started the set with “Wide-Eyed and Mystified,” and then the guitarist did a cool trumpet solo. The band then played my favorite track from them, “My Last Amen,” which the band calls their ‘happy song about death.’ I urge you to check this song out since it’s extremely unique and has great meaning. The band then played several other songs inlcuding “Who Am I?,” “Here I Am,” and “How Many Kings.” The most emotional part of the set came when Jason Germain of the band talked about his recent struggles with panic attacks and how he overcame them. Downhere was definitely a great band, and I know a lot of my friends enjoyed them.
Up next came the full Family Force 5 set at the Main Stage. It was sweet to see them play with their huge drum machine, wild antics, and great music. They played a bunch of songs with some highlights being “Dance Or Die,” “Kountry Gentlemen,” “Fever,” “Love Addict,” and “Get Your Back Off The Wall.” The crowd was really into it; however I wasn’t able to fully participate since I literally had my back up against a wall (pretty ironic, isn’t it?). For an encore, the band came out with huge balloons with their faces on them strapped to their backs, which I heard that they used at all their encores at festivals this summer (apparently they glow in the dark too). Seeing the two extremes of acoustic and full sets gave me a great picture of Family Force 5, and I’ll definitely follow them in the future.
After Family Force 5's set finished, I had time to go over to the Souled Out Stage to see a bit of Manafest’s set. Manafest is a white rapper, and though I had only heard a few songs of his and wasn’t originally planning to see him, I was excited to have the opportunity to watch. After I walked up, he did a song that I knew, “No Plan B.” After this, he said that he was going to slow it down a bit and sang “Every Time You Run.” I hadn’t heard this song, but it was awesome, and you could see the emotion that Manafest poured into the performance. The lyrics are great too and describe a hopeless life that turns into a life filled with God, “Every time you run, every time you hide, every time it hurts, every time you cry, every time you run away, every time you hide your face, and it feels so far away, I’m right here with you.” It was an unexpected highlight of the day, and I’m glad I saw it. Manafest finished his set with “Fire In The Kitchen,” which was a really energetic song.
Up next on my schedule was Everfound at the G2 (gospel) stage. Everfound had come to my town twice before (including once two weeks before Lifelight), so I was hoping that they’d deliver a solid performance. When I arrived at the stage at 6:00, the time that they were scheduled to begin, a gospel group was still playing, and the band was backstage. I walked across the grounds to fill up my water bottle and check out the 360 Stage a bit, but when I came back the band was still setting up. They didn’t start until 6:40, but what happened was truly amazing. I don’t think anyone left the area during the long waiting period, and this enthusiasm from the crowd showed during the set. I won’t take too much time to describe their songs or style here since I’m planning to write a spotlight on them soon, but they truly shined during that performance. Afterward, almost everyone rushed to their merch table outside of the tent to buy things or get the band’s autograph. I got their latest album and had it autographed. Everfound’s performance was my biggest highlight, and I know that this band is going to become big very soon.
After Everfound’s set, I went over to the Souled Out Stage for a good night of music. First up was Seabird, a piano pop rock band. I was somewhat disappointed because I had heard that they take a full-sized piano on tour, but they just had a keyboard for the performance. However, the music was great. Some of their highlights were “Rescue,” “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful,” (a song that you should check out), and “Cottonmouth.” It was definitely a good performance to keep me satisfied.
Next up was Children 18:3, a punk rock band made up of three siblings from Minnesota. A unique thing about them is that they have two main vocalists, one male and one female (David and Lee Marie), and the trade-off between them was sweet to see (though I thought Lee Marie’s microphone could have been a bit louder). They played a bunch of their best songs, including “All My Balloons,” “Oh Bravo,” “Oh Honestly,” “Lost So Long,” “Cover Your Eyes,” and “Homemade Valentine.” The best part about the set for me, however, was seeing their drummer Seth. I had heard that he was a great drummer, but what I saw completely stunned me. Every so often, he would do another stick flip or flourish and had a lot of energy. The band also had great energy, even encouraging the crowd to form a mosh pit (which a few people did). The band said they were going to play one final song, which as “LCM,” but then Seth launched into a HUGE drum solo. Awesome fills, awesome stick tricks, awesome EVERYTHING. I am a drummer myself and was largely inspired by his performance to add more flourishes when playing. After his solo, the band came out to play “Even Sleeping” to end their set. I went over to the autograph tent, but after massive confusion about which line to be in and waiting a while, I decided to leave and see House of Heroes, who had started to play.
House of Heroes, in the opinion of many Christian rock fans out there, is possibly one of the top bands in Christian rock (if not THE top one.) They had released a new album about a month prior, “Suburba,” which is an awesome album and one that you should check out. Their vocalist, Tim Skipper, is extremely impressive with a large range, and the rest of the band does awesome harmonies that are sweet to see in person. Highlights were “Code Name: Raven,” “God Save The Foolish Kings,” “Serial Sleepers,” “So Far Away” (which might be my favorite song of the summer), “Lose Control,” and “If.” I wanted to stay for their closer “In The Valley Of The Dying Sun,” but I received a text from one of my friends that MercyMe had started playing, so I decided to leave for the Main Stage.
When I got there, MercyMe was playing their third songand rocking the crowd. MercyMe is one of the best known bands in Christian bands, especially with their hit “I Can Only Imagine.” The stage was set up well with lighting, two TV monitors on stage that were used for lyrics and visuals, and a large backdrop with the album cover for their latest album, “The Generous Mr. Lovewell.” I had downloaded a live album (which had their largest hits) that the band had offered for free last December, so I was excited to hear them truly live. Two things really amazed me during the set: 1. how worshipful and awesome the environment was - I was with probably about 100,000 others during that set! 2. how common the band was, especially the lead singer Bart Millard – they are just normal guys who were called to do awesome things for God. There were a bunch of highlights during the set, but here’s just a few. The most worshipful song was “Word of God” speak with was easily over ten minutes long and had a great speech by Bart. A song that I particularly enjoyed was “This Life” as it is a great rock song and has an awesome message. And, of course, “I Can Only Imagine” was truly awesome and left me speechless. The band came out for a two song encore which included “All of Creation,” one of their latest singles. When I woke up about a week ago and turned on the radio, this song was on, which brought back great memories with its catchy chorus.
The night ended with a short fireworks display, and my experience with Lifelight was complete. And so is this review. For those of you who made it this far, I congratulate you, and here’s a gift. I made this list of free songs of artists who performed at the Lifelight festival for the group I went up with, and here it is for you. Thanks!
Family Force 5 - “Get Your Back Off The Wall (3oh!3 Remix)” http://www.purevolume.com/familyforce5
Everfound - “Bring Me Back” (in a sampler with 50+ other bands)
http://www.indievisionmusic.com/2009/03/11/fighting-from-the-ground-up-vol-2/
NEEDTOBREATHE - “You Are Here,” “More Time,” “Washed By The Water” (all live) http://www.relevantmagazine.com/media.php
Seabird - “Let Me Go On” http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcmcat155400050004&type=category
“Rescue” http://www.purevolume.com/seabird
"Don't You Know You're Beautiful" http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/The-Free-Christian-Music-Blog/20726432803
Children 18:3 and The Almost - “Cover Your Eyes” and “Hands”
(With 18 other bands) http://www.freetoothandnail.com
Children 18:3 - “All My Balloons” http://www.toothandnail.com/free/ (With 12 other bands)
“LCM” http://www.absolutepunk.net/artists/showlink.php?do=showdetails&l=5139
The Almost - “I Mostly Copy Other People,” “Say This Sooner (No One Will Ever See Things The Way I Do,” “Free Fallin” http://www.spin.com/artists/almost
House of Heroes - “Independence Day For a Petty Thief” (requires Twitter) http://freehoh.com/
“The End Is Not The End EP” (3 songs, might require Amazon account) http://www.amazon.com/End-Not-EP/dp/B001U7WVW2
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