Youth Explosion 2009

I haven't been around this weekend because I was busy being a roadie with Luke's band, The One80 Band, at Youth Explosion! there were over 1,300 youth there this year, and The One80 Band led worship all weekend! I have tons of pictures and stories, so I thought the easiest way to share would be to post just some bulleted points and pictures from the weekend. I'll not to make it too long :-)

*They began the weekend leading worship on Friday night. Here they are! I didn't get too many pictures of them playing, because I was their videographer for the weekend :-) I will be sharing a video or two of them performing in the next few days. I'm so proud!
*We got to sit through a lot of sessions while we were there with some great speakers and performers. We also got to act goofy and pretend we were high school again. One of the speakers told everyone to hug their friends. there are actually 4 people involved in this hug! It made me laugh
*Um, did I mention that as a wife of a band member, I scored a backstage pass for the entire weekend?? This is definitely the first time I've had a backstage pass for anything :-)
*With the backstage pass, I was allowed to go to the green room anytime. This is the room where all the band members and speakers go to chill and to eat. And they had some amazing home-cooked food there all weekend, too! Here are some of the band members in the green room*And here I am with Luke in the green room. Can you tell I was absolutely giddy? There were lots of awesome bands in the green room throughout the course of the weekend. Remedy Drive hung out in there a lot, some members of Leeland were in there on Saturday, and so was Francesca Battistelli. More about all that in a minute.
*Friday night before we headed back to the hotel, we got to hear Remedy Drive and Run Kid Run perform. We had seen Remedy Drive before, but if you ever have the chance to see them in concert, don't pass it up! They put on a pretty good show :-)
*Before we left, a bunch of junior high girls ran up to the band giggling and asking for autographs. I thought this was absolutely adorable, and of course I captured about 80 pictures of the band signing their first autographs :-P
*Saturday morning after our delicious breakfast at the hotel, we headed back to the church, and the band played first thing in the morning. We listened to some speakers, and then ate lunch in the green room. And no big deal, but Phil, the bassist from Remedy Drive ate lunch with us! He sat right by me. I thought this was a huge deal :-P He had somehow strained his vocal chords and wasn't allowed to talk for six week. It was fun trying to read his lips and read what he scribbled on his iphone!

*After lunch, we headed out for an afternoon shopping trip in Beachwood. It's a pretty nice area around Cleveland. We don't have a whole lot of great shopping areas close to us since we live in the middle of nowhere, so it was fun to be able to shop at places like Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Sephora, etc. They were all completely decked out for Christmas. And it was 70 degrees and sunny. I think that might be the very first time that's ever happened in Ohio ;-)
*Saturday evening was so much fun! We had a delicious meal in the green room again, and then one80 really rocked out! They did such a good job :-) After that was the big concert: Francesca Battistelli, Leeland, and Brandon Heath.

*I have loved Fracesca Battistelli's music for a long time so I was really excited to see her in concert. She did really well! Her voice is so amazing. I decided to buy a CD right after her last song because she did so well!*Leeland was up next. I hadn't listened to them a lot before, but oh my...I am going to start! They were so amazing! It was great. (Even though my picture is aweful. :-P) They seemed really down to earth, too.
*After Leeland, we were all really tired. We decided to go in the green room and chill out for a little bit while Brandon Heath performed. I walked in with my purse and my new Francesca Battistelli CD in tow. As I walked in, a bunch of people kept whispering that I should have her sign it, because she was sitting exactly 2 feet behind me reading a Karen Kingsbury book. Everyone kept urging me to ask her, but I just couldn't do it. I didn't want to interrupt her reading because I thought she was probably trying to wind down after the concert and didn't want to be bothered by a fan in the green room. I actually felt like kind of a nerd holding her CD in my hand when she was in the room, so I shoved it in my purse and hoped she wouldn't notice! Anyway, I don't totally regret not getting her autograph on my CD. She seemed really quiet and reserved and like she didn't want to be bothered unlike a lot of the other performers. I still love her music, though!

*This morning the band had to play for the regular congregation at the church where the conference had been held. It was kind of funny, because the service was filled with older people, and The One80 Band plays lots of loud, rock music. I think the congregation still enjoyed it, though :-)

*We ate lunch at Damons, tore down, made the drive home, and unloaded the van. I am finally home, and ready for a serious nap. However, we have to go back to the church tonight for a meeting about our new building project. Yikes, we just can't get any free time this weekend! It's going to be hard to return to work tomorrow :-)

If you've made it all the way down here, thanks for reading! This was definitely a special weekend for the band and for myself! I hope we get to do it again :-)