Practical .NET

When Jars of Clay first came out, I was a fanboy.  I liked them.  They had a fresh sound, creative lyrics, and a genuine show.  I saw them 3 or 4 times from '97 to '99. 

Then, I lost track of them.  I'm not sure I quit caring, but I heard a few songs from Much Afraid, etc, and the songs didn't strike me the way the first album did.  (How often is that the case?).  So, I quit paying attention to them. 

This summer, I went to a concert in Waukesha (outside Milwaukee), and Jars was there.  They had the core group of musicians, and played an accoustic set.  It lacked a drum set, which really hurt their performance.  They relied on the Acoustic guitars to drive the rhythm of the set, and as good as it sounded, it lacked the typical "Jars" energy.  Somewhat disappointed by the performance, I kind of let Jars sink into obscurity in my mind.  They had a couple more shows in my area, but I didn't make any huge effort to go and see them. 

Well, it turns out that back in '97 they released The Little Drummer Boy, a single on the "Drummer Boy EP".  I had never really heard it until The Fish started playing Christmas music this year.  The radio station also played a version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel by Third Day.  Third Day, in my opinion, is by far the best Christian band out there.  But, I'll leave that for another post.  As I was in Wal-Mart the other day, I was looking for a CD with the Third Day tune on it, and I found it. 

The CD also contained the Little Drummer Boy by Jars.  That song turned out to be the surprise offering of the entire CD.  It has the style of the original album, driving rhythm, creative arrangement.  I like it.

So, I just wanted to put it out there.  Despite my lack of enthusiasm about Jars in the past 8 years, they're starting to grow on me again, and Drummer Boy is a driving force behind that!