Crabb Jam
     I made a last-minute decision last night to take my boys to the Crabb Jam concert in Smithfiel.  It’d been maybe 3 years since they had seen the Crabbs, so the boys (6, 10 and 13) were excited.  (That, and the fact they would get to stay up late on a school night.)

     For the uninitiated, Crabb Jam is a sub-set (or super-set, I don’t know which) of the Crabbs normal concert circuit.  They travel with Crossway and the McCraes, and the focus is on a somewhat younger consumer than the “traditional” Crabb concert (itself focused on a somewhat younger consumer than other SG groups.)  

    We arrived about 20 minutes late.  Went to the box office and tickets were $15 each, even the kids.  A prudent man would have checked that before traveling, eh?  So $60 bucks to get in.  Digging through my pockets revealed $58.  As embarrassment set in, the lady at the window just said “That’ll be fine”, took it without comment and in we went.  Obviously we had the worst seats since we were so late, but that’s what happens, I guess.

     The McCraes had mostly finished when we arrived; they were on “There Is A Remedy”.  They milked it pretty well, and the crowd responded well.  Two more songs and they were done.  Despite the shortened exposure, my 13 year old decided afterwards they were his favorite.  I don’t know if it was their singing, or the fact that he’s 13 and they’re cute.  I do know, though, why I loved the Hemphills back in the 80’s when I was a teenager….draw your own conclusions.

     Crossway came up next.  Only three guys?  I thought they were a quartet.  Oh well.  Then they started singing….ok, there are three guys up there, but I only hear one.  The other mics were working a minute ago for the McRaes…. What’s up?  Actually, it all made sense once they got to the introductions and explained everything.  Yes, they’re a quartet, but the tenor had just had triplets and was with mom and kids.  So they made a last minute adjustment, having the baritone move to the tenor spot, and the bass take over baritone.  If you haven’t been in a quartet before, you can’t appreciate how difficult that would be.  Kudos for the effort and you get a pass for not being as up-front and in the mix as would normally be expected.  I can only imagine the train wreck if I had to move up to the baritone part on demand…<shudder> These guys were my 10 year olds favorite.  I think mainly because the baritone-turned-tenor had long hair and looked cool.

     The Crabb set was well done, just as you would expect.  They’ve obviously made an effort to steer from the “Jason and his siblings” show that some media have tried to make them out to be, giving ample face and mic time to Aaron and Adam.  And, truth be told, they came off more than capable of carrying their own weight.  The sisters didn’t get much spotlight during the first set, but that may very well be because you can only do so much in 45 minutes.  

     By now it was past 9:00, and with over 2 hours left to drive home, we decided to leave and skip the 2nd set that each group had.  We picked up CDs in the lobby (Thank goodness they take Visa) and headed home.  Had fun, boys liked it, and would do it again if I have the chance.

     Oh, and the obligatory stats:  I guess about 850 people were there, auditorium 90% full.  Average age not really meaningful, as there was a pretty evenly mixed spectrum from 20’s to 60’s it looked like.

     Biggest annoyance was the repeated clap-prodding.  For a long while, it seemed like every song, whoever was singing would yell out “Ya’ll help us out, now!”  The audience always obliged, usually with gusto, so I guess most people liked it.  They also seemed to have a lot of issues with the wireless mics going out, but they always recovered respectfully and professionally.  Whenever a featured Crabb started dropping out, the nearest sibling with a working mic would discreetly swap.  Pretty classy.

    Biggest delight was maybe the effort all the artists went to give the impression (not to say it wasn’t genuine, mind you) that they really liked being there and enjoyed the concert as if it was the only one they did all month.  (In fact, it wasn’t even the only one they had done that day…)  Smiles, singing along, and general playfulness abounded.  That was a nice touch.
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