We had the pleasure of catching the 2011 version of the Jars
Of Clay Christmas tour, as it stopped at Community Reformed Church in Zeeland,
Michigan.
The show opened with a few songs from the resident church
praise team. While I normally get
frustrated with “house bands” opening the show, the group did stick to only a few
songs. They kept to the Christmas
theme, and I believe their lead guy was named Curt Dykema.
Next up was Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors. Drew and his wife are the main vocalists,
with Drew also providing rhythm guitar duties.
His wife also handled some mandolin and keyboard. They were accompanied by a lead guitar,
bass, and drums. The style was very much
in Americana/country/folk, but in a “fun” sort of way – sometimes approaching
rockabilly. Drew and his band played
about 40 minutes of original songs, and some Christmas classics (White
Christmas, Baby Its Cold Outside, etc).
Overall, not a bad set, but probably went a couple songs too long.
Jars Of Clay came out next, with the 4 key members being
augmented by the drummer and bass player from Drew’s band. They opened with “Wonderful Christmastime”,
and played a couple more numbers before the drummer and bass player left the
stage. The next hour was spent with
just two acoustic guitars, piano, and vocals with some light percussion. The band played a combination set of tracks
from their Christmas releases, as well as some of the hits. This was different from the last time we
saw the Christmas show, when they stuck to all Christmas songs. But, the band sounded great, and they seemed
to enjoy the scaled down arrangements.
Towards the end of the set, the drummer and bass player came back for a
couple more “less acoustic” songs.
Our seats were up in the balcony, on the right side, and the
sound mix quality wasn’t great for us.
It appeared the main speakers were pointing towards the main floor
center, and we found it hard to clearly understand anything said from the
stage. I talked to a friend who was on
the main floor, and he said it was great down there. We also noticed the subwoofers seemed too
loud, as any low frequency sounds (kick drum, bass guitar, etc.) seemed to
overwhelm everything else (very boomy mix).
So, that created some frustration, but I’m sure they must have done
their best with what they had.
Overall, it was a nice evening, but not the “best” concert I’ve
seen from Jars Of Clay, and the issues weren’t all in control by the band. Still, a nice Christmas concert, from a
band that created one of my favorite Christmas releases.
