Photos: Caleb, Kutless, Casting Crowns and Mom

The Casting Crowns “Until The Whole World Hears” Tour rolled into town in Feb., but due to some mix-ups I didn’t get the credentials to cover the show (it happens sometimes).

As the date got closer, I ended up wining a couple of tickets and Meet&Greet passes. If you don’t know what a Meet & Greet is, it’s actually kinda cool.. In the Christian Music Community these passes allow the fans to meet the bands backstage before the show, get some autographs, & chat for a few.. It’s a really nice deal.

I was going to take my wife and asked her.. she said she’d seen Crowns 3 times so why don’t I ask my mom this time since she’s a big Crowns fan.. my wife is really cool like that!

I thought no way was my mom gonna say yes.. I was wrong! She said she’d love to as long as I promise to provide a set of earplugs no, problem there, I have some really good ones that I use when I cover shows.. Unless you’ve been in the front row, you just can’t imagine how loud it is.. and I do like my hearing..

(mom hanging with the guys from Kutless, above)

So we get to the show and go backstage for the Meet and Greet. Casting Crowns was running a little late so we were introduced to the guys from Kutless.. I thought this will be interesting. Most of the guys from Kutless have tons of tat’s and piercings and their music is pretty hard.. and having never met them myself, I had no idea what they’d be like..

before I knew it the guys all started talking to my mom, they just as nice as could be.. I told them this was her first ever rock show and they just keep telling mom just how honored they were that she picked this as her at her first show.. I was blown away, they just made her feel so special. They were so gentle and kind to her.. I was telling my pastor about it and he made a very astute observation which I think applies to all people.. that what’s inside a person really makes whats on the outside a person seem insignificant.. and how true it was of Kutless!

Crowns finally came by and we got to meet them, but there were so many people, and they were already running late so we didn’t have but a moment to talk to them..But  I did get a chance to introduce mom to my most favorite road manager, Melanie Hall, she’s just a gem (and Crowns manager)!

Before I knew it she & mom are deep in conversation just having a wonderful time. As the Meet & Greet wrapped up Melanie pulled us aside and took us back stage.. this really blew my mom’s mind at this point..(she was having a blast!)..

Melanie ended up handing me a photo pass.. we said our goodbye’s and went to our seats.

Needless to say I didn’t shoot as much I would’ve normally, since it was a “date” night with mom and I wanted her to have a great time. I didn’t really want to leave her to run off and shoot ’cause I thought that would be pretty rude..would it not? …

Shooters Notebook:
I was only permitted to shoot from the sides of the stage or anywhere else in the house.. 3 songs for each band and that was it..Truth is I didn’t even shoot that many songs due to the fact that I was there to spend the evening with my mom..

The lighting was actually really nice so I was able to stay around 800ISO, which is highest ISO that my camera can really handle effectively, 2.8f and around 1/80.