The November tour leg got off to an unofficial early start this weekend. The band, minus Tom Booth, joined JMT in Little Rock for the Diocesan Eucharistic Congress. Don't worry, Tom will be backwith us for the tour dates. He was off at
NCYC this weekend. A while back Bishop Sartain asked John Michael to write a song for the congress and the year of the Eucharist in the diocese. That song, One Body in Christ, made it onto the Monk Rock album too.
JMT and the boys did One Body for the closing Mass and a short set at a youth event earlier in the day. The band was received well by the kids at the youth event. The set was capped of with an onstage interview of John Michael. The interview conlcluded with JMT sheepishly reading a Lettermanesque top ten list. The list topic? Top ten Catholic pickup lines! "Hey baby, wanna' go to adoration? Your parish or mine?"
For me things went reasonably well too, despite some challenges. I had a nice drive down and back. We rented a larger, heavier truck for this leg. After having to switch out trucks in the middle of no where last trip we wanted a little safety room. I had the challenge this weekend of having to be set up for both the youth event and the final Mass simultaneously. Special thanks go to Jeff, Paul, & all the boys from SB Pro Audio. They provided a nice little system and plenty of hands on attention for the youth event. Would that I could say the same for the Mass. Unfortunately, claiming budgetary reasons, the event's planners did not hire a sound company for the main liturgy in the 8000 seat Barton Coliseum. We were left to fend for ourselves using the abominable arena PA and our front end. The clergy and musicians involved celebrated a wonderful liturgy. It's unfortunate that the congregation's ability to hear it was severely compromised by poor planning and misguided financial concerns. Such is the way of the world I suppose. This world at any rate.
JTC
