Rose busts me in the comments to today's other post about a recap of the Hillsong concert on Sunday. By way of short response, I didn't make it out to the concert. I made it out to Lakewood with plenty of time to spare, mind you. But didn't make it to the concert. Lengthier response now follows ...

I had two things on my to-do list for Sunday afternoon. Take in a movie and get to the Hillsong concert early. I got about half of each done. Needing to make a 4pm movie, I headed out with just enough time to accomplish that task, but managed to get snarled by Metro's bus schedule. I was coming from downtown on a day when traffic out of town is rather relaxed and uneven.

No biggie, I conclude. I'm just super-early for Hillsong and might debate catching the movie afterwards. That's when I noticed a massive horde of teenagers waiting to beat down the doors of the Lakewood sanctuary. I figured there might be an early crowd since the whole event was slated for 30 minutes later than the Newsboys concert. I've overheard countless conversations of people who weren't sure whether the show started at 7 or 7:30 ... I'm willing to bet they all planned on getting there earlier rather than later based on that uncertainty.

Anyways, I hate crowds. Loathe them, actually. I'll take care of Christmas shopping this month just to avoid the lines in retail stores after Thanksgiving. So I hung back in the lobby (what little open space there was) and propped open a book to pass some quality time. By the time the doors finally did open, I waited out the crowd to see what was left of seating. I had previously resigned myself to the upper deck. Upon inspection the seats were about 90% full within minutes of opening the doors. To get an even fuller idea of what a madhouse we had, this guy drove down 50 teenagers and ended up sitting behind the stage in the upper deck. I can't help but relate to his mention of the acoustics there ... there are a few other spots in front of the stage I don't find helpful for absorbing loud music from. Still, he enjoyed the show and seemed impressed with his first visit to Lakewood. So that's good.

As much as I love the whole concept of the summer concert series, I can't help but think we're not far off from selling tickets just to manage traffic at Hillsong concerts. It'd be a shame if they can't hit our little venue because a meager 16,000 seat arena won't hold enough people ;-) The first indication of max capacity might well have been the fact that the ushers atop the escalators were doing their darndest to keep people moving so as not to cause a backlog at the still-moving escalators. Those ushers were giving it their all Sunday. The lines for seating downstairs was almost out the main entrance, as well.

Anyways, upon realizing that my best bet for a seat would be about the same place I paid a ton of money to see the Rockets win their first NBA title, I got to calculating. I'd seen Hillsong before. They're great ... don't get me wrong. But I'd seen 'em before. What was I going to see new that I might not have seen last year? Would they blow up something on stage? Would I be any more impressed with their version of songs I already enjoy more from the Lakewood band? Would it be worth standing up for two hours for? And wouldn't there be some preaching intermingled with the show, thereby cutting down on praise & worship time? ... preaching that was aimed at people more than half my age?

So it's not for a great deal of pride that I say I headed out to catch a movie. I may be an introvert and I may travel on my own to outtings such as this, but I generally have no qualms with doing that. In fact, I tend to take great pride in knowing I can get a better seat flying solo than I can with a pack of fellow travelers.

So yeah ... I skipped out on Hillsong this year. If anyone else was there and wants to leave a comment about how they blew stuff up on stage or they kicked off "The Freedom We Know" with a faster tempo, by all means make me regret the move more than I already do. I trust the band did well, the kids enjoyed it, and a fun time was had by all.