Cleveland, OH - January 26, 2002
2002 © Jimmy Larrick

And there we were. The lights have just now faded. The energy in the crowd’s screaming was intense. I could barely see the dark bodies moving around on stage, finally with a spark of an electric amp turned on, I started to hear the tunes of our national anthem "The Star Spangled Banner." The guitarist started off the show with a solo of playing it. After the last few chords that seemed so powerful yet true, the crowd couldn’t wait for out 3 guys to hit the stage. There was a pause for a moment. Then the silent fade-in keys of "Mind’s Eye" started to take shape, and behold... there was the 3 guys that change lives. DC TALK! After the smooth keys of "Mind’s Eye" they jumped into the colorful notes of "Colored People." After this dc Talk took a moment to welcome everyone to the show and saying that "we’re gonna do some old school dc Talk tonight.. as well as some new school dc talk." Shortly after this the guitar riffs of "Luv Is A Verb" took place. The song was cut short as the band changed the tunes into "Jesus Is Just Alright." The version they played of this was pretty similar to the one they did on the Supernatural Experience Tour. After this song, there was, what seemed a minute of silence. Then with a 4 count on the drummer’s hi-hat, we started to hear the bassy and rocky tunes of "Supernatural." The song went by pretty fast, but it ROCKED!!!

Once the song was done, DJ Form started up some funky beats and remixes on his turntables. He played for a bit while the crowd was dancing and grooving. Toby walked out and introduced his "chocolate brother and his band... TAIT." The guys started off the solo sets with "Loss For Words." An over all good song I must say. After Loss.. they changed into "Bonded" then following Michael’s speech. Mike was talking about his father. He said that after his father died, he was at home for Christmas and he heard a song from the album Tait on the radio. It caused him to weep. Tait then went into the soft keys of "All You Got." But knowing Mike, he had to end his set with some rock-n-roll, so the guys on stage finished their solo sets with "Spy."

Once again, DJ Form had the stage. His groove was makin’ the place move. Haha. Then in Kevin’s sparkly coat that he had on, he came out an introduced the next solo set to take place.. TOBYMAC!!! "Wonderin’ Why" was the first song they did mixed with the crowd involved thriller "Where My Freaks At." Following this Toby and his band went into a piece of "Get This Party Started" following "Somebody’s Watching" and "Love Is In The House." After playing half of the song, they jumped into "Extreme Days" which seemed to be the crowd getter. After the bridge of the song they moved quickly into "Yours" and then back and forth in between songs. Unfortunally, Tobymac’s set was finished.

dc Talk then reunited performing an acoustic set on the mini-stage that they had set up. Starting off softly with "Hardway" the peaceful notes of "Into Jesus" took place. This was a time of worship during the concert. People were singing along with their hands in the air. dc Talk’s very own worship song started soon after they finished "Into Jesus" it was "My Will" that broke God’s Spirit free in the convocation center. "Thy Word" was a new worship song that I’ve never heard yet.. but I really loved it. It was so beautiful. Once they finished the acoustics Toby announced that there was gonna be a 20 minute intermission.

DJ Form came back once again to start the second half of the show. Michael then walked out on stage and introduced the next band... KEVIN MAX!! Starting off with his pop-like tune of "Return Of The Singer" he did pretty good. Then Kevin went into "The Song Of David" which no one still knows what its real title is.. lol. Kevin then went into "Existence" then "Angel Without Wings" and following "We Are The Champions." Kevin did an A+ set.

Now the moment we’ve all been waiting for... dc Talk took the stage for the 3rd and final time. They started off with the danceable remix tune of "Say The Words (Now)." It had a good feel to the music. After this dc Talk took a moment to introduce their band. Following the Band’s moment on stage.. the bright "In The Light" song took place. They played the song upbeat. "Day By Day" was next on the hit list, which put the crowd into over drive. After the last banging notes of the song was played..... dc Talk said "Peace, God bless you... GOODNIGHT" but we wasn’t satisfied yet. The crowd started an encore chanting "Jesus Freak! Jesus Freak! Jesus Freak! Jesus Freak!" Toby then walked out on stage and calmed the place down. He started talking about messing up and how we all stumble and fall in our lives. He said that he has too messed up in the past cause we are not all perfect. "God loves us more than anything" he said. "Repentance means turning around 180 degrees and walking the other way and no matter how far we are from God, the very second when we turn around God meets us there, right in our face." God’s love was over-whelming in this place at the time. A few girls from my youth group started crying because they were reminded how much God loved them. After Toby’s speech it only made sense that they went into "What If I Stumble." The crowd once again fell into a heart of worship after this. "40" and "How Great Thou Art" was played very nicely, but the silence was soon over, and the energy started to rage like fire in the place as Tobymac, Michael Tait, and Kevin Max started singing in a-cappella "Jesus Freak." Soon the drums and overloaded guitars kicked in causing the place to get off their feet. Once everyone thought the song was done, they jumped right back into it for one more round in the chorus.. after a loud, power, and exciting music roar. Toby told the crowd "goodnight" for the real time this time.

Over all my thoughts on the concert was very good. Toby was my favorite out of all of the solo sets. Though I thought the music could have been louder, including the bass and vocals, it still was a good solid show. I encourage anyone reading this review that hasn’t gone yet to a dc Talk concert, to simply go to one. There is a lot of good worship mixed in with rock, rap, and crowd fun stuff. This is probably one of the better dc Talk show’s that I have seen. Sorry I didn’t take any pictures... my camera... well........ died! So maybe next time I’ll have some :)