This Past Weekend in MD & VA
Mon., Jun. 9. 2008 11:24pm EDT
Our concerts this past weekend in Columbia MD, Waldorf MD, and Burke VA were so important that one man flew the whole way from California ... just so he could drive to them.
Randy Hyde from Riverside flew to PIttsburgh last Thursday specifically to spend the weekend driving the ApologetiX bus. Randy's an old friend who has seen us many times over the years and has even coordinated ApologetiX concerts in California and has run sound and light for concerts we've done in both California and Arizona. A real renaissance man, he also took some of the photos featured in our Keep the Change and Future Tense CD booklets.
Amazingly, Randy Hyde isn't our first bus driver from California. In fact, he's not even our first bus driver named Randy from California. That would be Randy Starbuck, who drove the bus for us two weekends in a row last July and August. However, Randy Starbuck lives in Pittsburg CA (near San Francisco), whereas Riverside is near Los Angeles. That means Randy Hyde can at least lay claim to being the first Randy from Southern California to drive the ApologetiX bus.
Neither of those Randy's from California are to be confused with Randy California, the late guitarist for the group Spirit, best known for their 1968 hit, "I Got a Line on You," a song ApologetiX lead singer J. Jackson used to perform with his last secular group, Nice Piranha. Spirit also had two other songs that still get played on classic-rock radio, "Mr. Skin" and "Nature's Way."
Nature's way in Maryland and Virginia this past weekend was hot and humid. Thankfully we have the coolest fans in the world. Here's an email excerpt from a fan who attended Sunday's show:Thank God we were able to come to your concert tonight in Burke VA! My daughter, two of her children, a friend, my niece, and I were so excited to see you in person. I've been a fan for about five years and they had all heard some of your music.
What a great experience. I thank God for your talent and the way you are showing Jesus through that talent. You are all wonderful! I hope I can come to another one and bring more fans, including my husband next time.
Janine Easterwood
Fairfax VA Pastor Keith Myer of Harvest Baptist Church, who hosted our concert in Salisbury, kept his comments short and sweet:Man, it was great to have you guys. Pastor Keith also added that the people at his church found something very valuable after our concert, and it was lost by somebody who attended that concert. If you know what we're talking about, please see the news item elsewhere in this newsletter:
Special thanks to:
Our concert coordinators: Chris Maroney (Columbia); Dan Peters (Salisbury); and Randy Lee (Burke).
Our concert volunteers: Jenn "The Superchick" and Nikki (Columbia, Salisbury, and Burke); Cece and Theresa (Columbia); and Natalie and Thomas (Burke).
Our roadies: Nathan Jones and the Brothers Gross (Brandon & Evan), who were there for all three concerts, and Rich "Aquaman" Polick, who came to Saturday's concert in Salisbury.
Honorable mention to: Jenn "The Superchick" Kipp and Nikki "The Real" Diehl, who attended all three concerts for the weekend -- their second such weekend in the past two months. As usual, they were a huge help at the merchandise table as well. Jenn has now seen ApologetiX play 88 times in 12 states/provinces.
|