Derek Webb's 'Black Eye' Tour

So, this is a little late, but here goes:

Thursday the 24th of September was a small but momentous occasion for me: the first concert I have been to in quite some time. I remembered why I love to go to them.

The performer was Derek Webb, accompanied by his former Caedmon's Call bandmate Josh Moore (who partnered with him for the album), and the drummer Chris Kimmerer. Having listened to the CD heavily, and knowing it was laced with heavy electronic melodies and beats, I was very interested to see how Derek would go about performing it.

I was not disappointed in the least. He performed the entire album, including his controversial song "What Matters More," in it's full, explicit glory. Having Josh their doing the electronic work live was absolutely amazing, and Chris on the drums just added a powerful, beefed-up sense to the songs.

Derek let Josh and Chris have a break halfway through and performed several requests from his older stuff, including a cover I didn't know existed, of Bob Dylan's "The Times Are A-Changin'"

While I was there I picked up some new music as well.

I particularly enjoyed the use of three bass drums, each being kicked by the three performers during "The Spirit vs. The Kick Drum," a song that (unbeknownst to me) includes the voice of Bert. Derek is apparently being sued over his use of Bert's audio. He said that Sesame Street didn't want to be associated with the kinds of things his CD contained, and "Apparently the letter 'L' on Sesame Street stands for 'Litigation'."

Finally, and almost importantly, one of the coolest parts of the show was the backdrop they had behind Chris on the drums, it displayed an assortment of colors that coincided with the songs.