Good Friday and Easter at Buckhead Church

These are my experiences from this weekend:

Friday:

We left at 5:30 because we thought traffic would be really bad... it wasn't. We got there at 5:50. We were so early the parking lot hadn't even opened. After sitting in Michael's car and watching videos on his iPhone, we went inside a little after 6. Once inside, we got our picture taken with a Polaroid camera... how cool is that? After standing around for a little over 30 minutes (hey, im tired after a long school day...) the doors finally opened. We calmly walked in and started looking for seats (i dont like those people who rush in so they can sit really close to the band/speaker). Suprisingly nobody was sitting on the front row... there were paper signs in the chairs saying:

"Because of the intensity of today's service, this row may not be suitable for those affected by sudden noises or those who are sensitive to dust."

Thank you

Oddly enough, on the front row in the center, it was us and an elderly couple (80+)... everyone else was in the 2nd row or farther back... Then the service started... 5 minutes into it, the power goes out... things start humming. Fortunately power comes back on. It took a while for all of the intelligent lights to warm up, but everything went back to normal. The worship was great, Casey Darnell is an amazing worship leader, and the guitarists were great.

I only had one problem: no words on the screen... I'm not a Super Christian... I don't know all of the church etiquette rules: Should I should sing/stand or sit/watch. Some of the songs I didn't know... I'm sitting in the front, so if I stand I block 10+ people's views... things like that.

The guitarists were different which made it even better. The guy on the left played some sort of vintage telecaster in a grey/arctic white. I got a glimpse of his pedalboard when I went to take communion (it wasnt sacrilegious, just a peek...) he had some classic analogue pedals. He also had a Les Paul goldtop with humbuckers. The guy on the right played a Gibson Les Paul (except for Phil Wickham's True Love, he played a telecaster). I didnt see his board, but I imagine it was more modern/digital. They both have amp heads on stage that are probably boosted to isolated cabinets.

Throughout the service, this girl painted Jesus on a large canvas in the middle of the stage. The service started with Creation and ended with the ressurection... and all in the space of ~20mins. At the end, they faded the lights until only the face of Jesus was lit. Then, 5 drummers (not including the kit) started playing a tom/snare combo, strobe lights flashed, and a couple guys violently destroyed the picture of Jesus... revealing a cross... with our pictures on it... my picture. Then they went into a haunting beat that started Phil Wickham's "True Love." 6 drummers, 2 electric, 1 acoustic 1 piano/synth/synth 1-2 backup singers all singing... it was incredible. here's a video made by Carlos Whittaker (Buckhead worship team leader):


Good Friday 2009 - Ending from buckheadchurch on Vimeo.

Sunday...

Sunday we got there at about 10:40 and the traffic was terrible after getting off GA 400. Fortunately we got a parking place... The greeting/service people were amazing as usual (didnt see the little kid though...) We got good seats in the balcony ( we normally sit in the balcony to sometimes watch the audio people work) The service started with Casey singing "True Love" again (yet again, no words = nobody (except me and Michael) singing or standing). We got Andy on the screen (as usual). When he mentioned scripture I looked it up in my bible and definitely "bible" pressured the girl next to me (she got hers out right after I did) she was pretty though... I lug my NLT study bible purely for context notes/cross reference stuff... At the end, Andy had a Prayer/Call and Response time. He then asked people to stand if they prayed the prayer. Unfortunately some guys thought they would beat the traffic, so they stood up and left. This kinda made it awkward when people clapped for them leaving. Fortunately several others stood which was amazing. I love Buckhead...

Then we ate at La Parilla...

John Mayer's Pedalboard

Yea, Im a John Mayer fan... Thats a view of his pedalboard, and another from his touring rack (with his POG)

its from his twitter...

(Hopefully) My Next Guitar:

the awesomest guitar pedalboard ever

So, in my "free" time I designed my "ultimate" pedalboard for guitar that I will slowly start to build:

Compressor:

1. Barber Tone Press
   

Overdrives:

1. Hermida Zendrive Overdrive
2. Fulltone Fulldrive 2 MOSFET Overdrive
3. Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive (Keeley Modified)
4. Ibanez Tubescreamer TS9 (Keeley Modified)
   

Delay:

1. Eventide TimeFactor
2. T.C. Electronics Nova Delay
3. Boss RE-20

Modulation/Reverb:

1. Eventide ModFactor
2. Line6 ToneCore Verbzilla
   
3. Boss RV-5
   

Misc Pedals:

1. Electro-Harmonix POG (Polyphonic Octave Generator)
2. Eventide PitchFactor
3. BBE Sonic Stomp
   

Expression Pedals (not sure about brand, but definitely 2, one for volume, one for exp control):

1. Boss FV-500H
2. Boss FV-500H
   

Tuner:

1. Boss TU-2

These are based on looking at Nigel Hendroff's pedalboard (Hillsong), Daniel Carson's pedalboard (Chris Tomlin) and Matt Adkin's pedalboard (Steve Fee).

Guitar

Since it's Christmas and I got a new effects processor for my guitar (a Boss GT-10), I thought I'd blog a little about my guitar adventure.

It all started April/May 2008 when I decided I wanted to play guitar. I've played the trumpet in various school/church/orchestral settings, and have liked music. My first guitar was an Epiphone Les Paul I bought with birthday money, and I now also have a seafoam green 50s Fender Stratocaster (MIM). I also got a VOX AD-15 amp (solid state, cheap) and a Korg AX-3000g effects unit (cheap, but works). I took lessons over the summer from a friend of my grandmother's who is an accomplished (read: very very good) classical guitarist, which wasn't the direction I initially wanted. Classical guitar is acoustic (I used my electric with no amp for lessons) and with fingers. Somehow, over that time I came to enjoy classical guitar and I miss it.

My love of music has now become an obsession. While I am not currently taking lessons (hopefully this will change in the next year or so) I spend a lot of time looking up tabs (guitar music) online and learning how to play riffs from songs. I'm not really into the whole "metal" or "hard-rock" genre, I usually play Christian (Hillsong, etc) or pop/rock with my biggest influence being U2's the Edge. Most of their songs are simple chords, but with delay and a little effects, they sound anthemic. The delay and shimmer make the songs sould alive

I do play in the freshman band for Freshmen City Groups at the Georgia Tech BCM, which I love. It gives me an opportunity to play with others (who are much better than me) for God. In a few weeks we are playing for everyone at Connector, so I gotta tweak my GT-10 and practice songs (which we haven't picked out yet) before hand.

One last note, my Church (Buckhead) has soo many amazing worship leaders and musicians that every Sunday I show up, I'm inspired....