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Mac Powell is either a bald-faced liar or has a better-developed sense of irony than has ever been apparent from any of his band's catalog. He opened Third Day's first Green Bay gig singing "I wanna be a rock star, but I ain't got what it takes." Let's see, Mac. . . enough scratch to afford a cloth backdrop depicting the NYC-looking skyline on your band's current album, _Wire_, not to mention the videos to three other songs you sang that night and the jumbotrons to show them, gold and platinum sales plaques earned by you and the combo behind you that excels at turning pastoral Southern boogie rock into hooky anthems to the Almighty and, apparently now, your own stardom impairment which just isn't true, eh Mac?

Powell and Third Day hit all the bases from just about every album on which they've made and in which they appeared. The latter qualification meant a lovely 'nuiff run through _City On a Hill's_ "God of Wonders" in a set heavy on the praise & worship tuneage that made the act an "evangelighetto" household word. Refreshingly, the P&W songs weren't segregated into a separate set, but, in a probable effort to establish themselves as a band itching to expand their popularity beyond the church-folks that looked to make up the majority of the Resch Center's half-full-at-best crowd (the center's an arena where the annual Power Of One youth event draws several thousand).

Newer works such as "It's a Shame," aided by a film depicting a family on the verge of breakdown, and "Wire" prove that the band has the songwriting chops to go beyond obvious God topics to achieve rock radio playing the rest of the world. Some of their most memorable work, however, comes from their earlier, more conscientiously theocentric songs. "Consuming Fire" remains monstrous in the best way (even if the accompanying film relied on a lot of--well--fire), and those Offerings P&W albums blew up for the good reason of standing ahead of the glut of similarly-themed albums of Jesus jingles for the modern church.

Third Day's broaching into broader subject matter doesn't, however, dispel the generic quality of their sound can generate after an hour or more. Their everyman rural earnestness has served them well for a decade or so, but their sonic pallet could stand to include some more nuanced hues, even as what they have already champs at the bit of VH1 worthiness.

TobyMac has been ready for his general market close-up for some time. No, his Seal-alike crossover hit with dc Talk back when doesn't quite count ("Godsend"). Mac's assuredness as a showman and party-starter were evident as he and a multi-culture band of musicians and background singers hit the stage as second on the bill. His recent (Christian) radio hit, "Gone," possibly the peppiest examination of spousal abuse ever sung, deserves to break him open as wide as anything he's recorded. It sounded to have been performed in a truncated version tonight, in part to make room for his medley-mad snippets of Mary Mary, K.C. & the Sunshine Band, Bob Marley, and others between a number of tunes from his two proper solo efforts and the odd dc Talk oldie. A soft touch on "Love Is In the House" ranks among the best of the former, while a re-configuring of Charlie Peacock's "In The Light" highlighted the latter.

Much buzzed about new Essential Records act Day of Fire, with Full Devil Jacket's old singer, opened with a sound that sounded like neo-grunge Creedishness cut with Matchbox 20's meat-'n'-taters poppiness, but in a better way than that cross-breeding may see, in print. I thought it funny that lead singer guy, shown in a testimonial video before DOF started playing, was the only one in the bands wearing long sleeves, just after the video showed his arms being worthy of a tattoo magazine's centerfold. Count on hearing more from this band. Surprising no one ever thought of taking that name by now, isn't it?

Jamie Rake    October 27, 2004