Opening for Casting Crowns

Yesterday, I had a fun day playing with a bunch of great guys opening up for Casting Crowns at a benefit concert hosted by Wings As Eagles Ministries.  My pastor, Brent Parker, was on keys and leading, Ken Verheecke on electric guitar, new found friend, Mike Morgan, on bass (he’s really good), and I was on drums.  So fun!  I wanted to share some pics from the day…

First of all, the stage blew me away!  I totally wasn’t expecting a “big festival stage” like this – whoa!

Mike and Brent just after arriving on site… waiting to get our gear unloaded.  “We’re here!”

“Ken’s Frurtrated!” — that’s the tag line I put on this pic when I initially posted to TwitPic via my cell phone.

My perspective from the drum throne…

Cynthia’s in awe with the whole experience (grin)…

After our set, we figured out that both sets of keys that were brought for the van were locked inside.  Oops!  No fear – Lloyd Bruce to the rescue!  He got inside in no time.

I took a few TwitPics during the day, but the service was really sketchy… this one I called “the Pic pic” (sigh).

We came up with a new stage name for Verk… wait for it… wait for it… (anticipation building)… it’s “X-emo!”

This pic was taken during a surprise encore song after Casting Crown’s lead singer, Mark Hall, was given a Native American quilt in honor of their performance.  If you look close enough, you can see the quilt draped on Mark’s back.  Hearing the stories the band shared about ministering in Pine Ridge earlier in the day, listening to Mark share his heart between songs, and hearing the band pray for the region and the Dream Center was inspiring.

I took more pics, too.  You can see them all here.

Read Mark Hall’s post about his day in Pine Ridge.

0 thoughts on “Opening for Casting Crowns

  1. Brian Downing
    Brian Downing says:

    Hey Shawn,

    I stumbled onto this site. What a wonderful day it was. We didn’t know any other bands were playing, but hear me say, you guys were outstanding. If you look close from your drum’s eye view pic, that is my daughter in the front row. You can see my elbow on the right, but thats pushing it. haha Your music was truly a blessing to my family. I have some outstanding pics of CC. Let me know if you need any. ( some really good pics w/ the blanket)

    peace and love

    Brian Downing and family

  2. Shawn M. S.

    thanx for stopping by and for your kind words, Brian! where are you from?

  3. Brian Downing
    Brian Downing says:

    Baker MT. We are about 3 hrs from anywhere. How about you guys.

  4. Shawn M. S.

    We’re in Rapid City, SD.

  5. Brian Downing
    Brian Downing says:

    The bass player was good. You hadn’t played with him before? Have you played with him since?

  6. Shawn M. S.

    Yes, he’s on regular rotation on our worship team at Destiny Foursquare now (http://destiny4square.org). He had just moved from New York right before this gig. Him and Ken (who was playing electric on this day) are old friends from way back – used to play together lots from what they tell me.

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