Like many of you, I’m excited about the release of MuteMath’s new album, Armistice, today. I haven’t made it all the way through yet, but I really like what I’ve heard so far.
In honor of this momentuous occasion, I thought I’d point you to a few cool videos on Youtube.
The very cool video for Spotlight:
175 BPM:
Performing Typical on David Letterman:
2 Comments | 
Music | 
Permalink
Posted by Ronnie
It’s been a crazy, but good week here at the Burgess household, and I thought I would fill you in on some of the goings-on. I’ve been meaning all week to do this, but have just never got around to it… Oh well.
Tuesday night:
Our lifegroup went to a fire station for a tour instead of our regular routine. It had never occurred to me do this, but it was a blast. We brought them lots of homemade cookies. The five firefighters were very excited to show us around and answer our questions. They let the kids climb all of the trucks, and spent a lot of time talking to them about fire safety.
The best part was when they let all of the kids put on a helmet and spray the hose. I highly recommend giving your local station a call, and getting a tour. I think the firefighters had as much fun as we did. My only regret was that we didn’t take a few minutes to pray for them before we left…
Wednesday night:
This was the big Ferocious Mary/Edge of Grace gig at The Donut Whole. What a great time! The Donut Whole made for an awesome venue, although I don’t think they were expecting the huge crowd. :) They told Carmen that it was the biggest crowd ever for a music gig! We played a 9-song acoustic set before Ferocious Mary took the stage - Mike Snow on guitar/vocals, Christina Wark on guitar/vocals, Jim Wark on upright bass, and me on mandolin/guitar/vocals.
The Setlist:
I can’t wait to do it again!
Thursday Night:
This was the Meet the Teachers night at school. It was exciting to meet Jett’s kindergarten teacher. Jada was also very excited to learn that she had gotten the 3rd grade teacher that she wanted.
Alert: Proud Father Time! In case you don’t know, Jada is skipping the 2nd grade and going straight to 3rd. She’s so smart!
Friday Night:
Fantasy Football Draft with some old friends. I lucked out and got the #1 pick!
Saturday:
The kids have been bugging me all year to teach them to play tennis, so I finally bought some tennis rackets for them. We had a blast playing at Buffalo Park on Saturday, and again today. It’s occured to me though, that I have no idea how to teach them to play…
2 Comments | Family, Mandolin, Music | Permalink
Posted by Ronnie
Hello blogosphere!
I’ve only got one word to describe church this morning, “Incredibleawesomefantabulousamazing”! “Wow” works too.
This was the last week of the “Awakening” series at GracePoint, and the second week of spontaneous baptisms. (If you’re interested, you can watch last week’s service and baptisms here. Kevin Brown also has some great photos from last week on his website.)
Today, there were approximately 10 baptisms in the first service and 58 in the second service. But the official numbers aren’t out yet. There were 36 total last week. Plus they baptized more kids this afternoon. (Edit: @ednewby is saying there were 134+ total for both weeks! Yea God!)
The second service ran nearly an hour over, because it took more than an hour to perform all of the baptisms. More on that later.
The music:
My Redeemer Lives is always fun. Rod funks it up quite a bit with some Stevie Wonder’ish keys and reed organ. I tried out a Crybaby Wah for the first time with my electric mandolin for some added spice. I’m going to have to play with it some. The sweep is all different than my Digitech multi-pedal. But I digress… I really enjoyed seeing the people jumping around in the second service.
See His Love is a powerful tune. We also played this acoustic at the Donut Whole Wednesday which worked pretty well. Tommy ended this one with a tasty little guitar solo.
We cut the worship set short to allow plenty of time for baptisms.
If Today Was Your Last Day is one we’ve used a few times with several different vocalists. The message works very well in a church setting. I switched over to acoustic guitar for this song.
Born Again was used for the first time last week during the baptisms. We dropped it down to the key of D to better fit the two female vocalists - Carmen and Christina. To decrease stage volume, we played it acoustic - Carmen on piano/vocals, Christina on guitar/vocals, Eron on bass, Denny on the egg shaker, me on mandolin. I think we played it through 4 times in the first service, but I lost count in the second service. We played it over and over for more than an hour. It was an awesome time in the life of the church, and the song fit perfectly. But I think I’ll recommend an mp3 next time.
Awakening was the theme song for the series. Great song by Switchfoot. And I was very excited that Tommy didn’t walk off the stage like he did two weeks ago…
That’s all I’ve got. Be sure to check out Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Setlist blog carnival for links to many more setlists.
Please leave a comment with your thoughts on the baptism service. Have an awesome week!
1 Comment | Mandolin, Music, My Faith Journey, Sunday Setlists | Permalink
Posted by Ronnie
It’s getting close to being late notice, but I wanted to make sure you knew about an opportunity for some live acoustic music this Wednesday.
Ferocious Mary had a gig lined up at The Donut Whole, and was kind enough to invite Edge of Grace from GracePoint to play an opening set. So of course, we said yes.
I’m excited. It’s been at least a year and half since we played an acoustic gig, and that’s way too long.
What can you expect if you show up?
Here’s the vitals: The Donut Whole. Wednesday, August 12. 8:00 pm. 1720 E. Douglas. Wichita, KS. (Directions, if you want ‘em.)
Hopefully, we’ll see you there!
(Edge of Grace at Got Coffee 11-30-07)
3 Comments | Mandolin, Music | Permalink
Posted by Ronnie
Welcome to the Monday edition of Sunday Setlists.
Yesterday was week 2 of the “Awakening” series at GracePoint. The focus was on baptism, and after the sermon, people were invited to come up and be baptized on the spot. To help eliminate excuses, there was an army of volunteers assisting and they’d brought everything someone might need to be baptized: t-shirts, shorts, sandals, underwear, hair dryers, hair product, makeup, etc…
I believe 35 people were baptized! It was awesome. We did the same thing back in 2007, and saw over 100 people baptized over two weeks. The spontaneous baptisms will be offered again next week.
How about the music… Due to time, there were several changes made for second service so I’ll just list both separately.
9:30 Service:
11:00 Service:
All Fired Up is one we learned a year or two ago. It’s a fun song to kick things off with and get everyone’s flowing. The 9:30 people took a bit longer to warm up…
Awakening wasn’t originally on the setlist, but the staff decided last week that we should play it every week since the sermon series title is inspired by the song. Great song!
My Glorious has only been used a few times. Awesome song by Delirious. Makes me want to find more songs by them use. I have to say that I was very disappointed that this got cut from the second service, because it was such an awesome time of worship in the first service. Even band practice Saturday was very moving… Kevin played an incredible slide guitar solo. Very cool!
Bless the Lord also hasn’t been used in a while. Ditto the comments from My Glorious… Powerful worship song that second service missed out on. More on that later.
Set Me Free is a band and GP favorite. I love watching Deric go to town on the drums during this one.
Born Again was new this week and fit perfectly with the baptisms. The band played it acoustic to keep the stage volume down during the baptisms, and I faded the vocals in and out between baptisms. Incredible song! Kevin laid down some incredible finger-style guitar on this one.
Bring Me to Life is another band/GP favorite. This was Nash’s last week playing with the band before he moves to LA, so he stepped in on the male vocals and did an awesome job. Nash’s rap/screamo and Jamie’s vocals made a nice contrast. We’ll miss you Nash.
About the changes… After band practice this week, I was so excited for Sunday. I knew it was going to be an awesome time of worship thru music and baptisms. And the 9:30 service was exactly that. I felt like the 11:00 service missed out on part of the equation. With the omission of My Glorious and Bless the Lord, there weren’t any real sing-along, worship songs. Awakening and Bring Me to Life are fun (and meaningful), but we missed out on the corporate singing… Just my 2 cents. God definitely moved anyway, and we all got to experience an incredible time of baptism.
See you next week!
3 Comments | Music, My Faith Journey, Sunday Setlists | Permalink
Posted by Ronnie