EVERETT – A crowd of nearly 8,000 filled the Everett Events Center on Saturday night rocking to the music of Third Day, Toby Mac and Warren Barfield – three very different Christian rock bands.
Ashley Swanson, 15, came to the concert from Lake Stevens with her church youth group from Zion Lutheran.
“It’s good to have a concert nearby to go to that has a variety of music that’s Christian,” Swanson said.
Jessica Walker, 22, came from Bellingham to meet her brother, Michael from Whidbey Island, at the concert.
“It’s great music in a positive environment,” she said. “It shows how being Christian can also be fun and exciting.”
Warren Barfield opened the concert, with several solo guitar songs to get the crowd going.
Then Toby Mac hit the stage with a mixture of reggae and rap sounds backed with a funky groove. The audience went wild with enthusiasm as band members danced and did back flips on stage.
Third Day bass player Tai Anderson took time to share with the audience about an important issue to his band – the AIDS crisis in Africa. He recently traveled to the continent and said he was devastated by what he saw.
“It was the biggest Third World wake-up call to see everywhere, orphaned children, due to their parents dying of AIDS,” Anderson said.
He urged the crowd to sponsor a child through the organization World Vision and help make a difference in the plight. World Vision reps walked through the crowd with information.
Finally, Third Day took the stage. Its mixture of Southern rock-style Christian music got the crowd singing along.
This is the fifth concert at the Everett Events Center since it opened and the turnout rivaled that for Rod Stewart.
“Christian concerts are a very niche crowd, so it’s great to see a niche concert do so exceptionally well,” said Eric Blankenship, the centers director of marketing and sales.
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