Last Saturday night, Christian music fans saw the best edition of Winter Jam to visit Rupp Arena thus far.
The annual tour, which has visited Lexington the past three years, has streamlined itself for a quicker, more hit-filled evening.
But audiences saw something else: a pair of headlining bands in transition.
It's something that happens to almost any group that lasts a decent amount of time. For a variety of reasons, be they shifting personal priorities or artistic differences or straight-up loathing, lineups change. A member moves on and is, or sometimes is not, replaced.
Rare are the U2s of the rock world that keep their initial lineups together for more than three decades.
The most dramatic example of change was Newsboys, which replaced lead singer Peter Furler with former dc talk member Michael Tait. Changing out a frontman is the most delicate piece of surgery a band can do because that voice and that personality are the voice and personality of the act.
I always use Van Halen, which I know is not big with a lot of Christian music fans, as an example when talking about this. For many, freakishly talented guitar virtuoso Eddie Van Halen was the centerpiece of that band.
But in the beginning, singer David Lee Roth was the outsized personality of that band, and many of us contend the group never completely recovered from his departure. (Others, who thought Roth was obnoxious, would beg to differ.)
And Furler was certainly a big part of Newsboys' personality, especially with his cheeky turns of phrase in songs like Breakfast and Shine. Tait was a much different experience, showing off some Michael Jackson moves, putting a big dose of soul into Newsboys' sound and in general making the band's short set into a big show.
It was a refreshing pose for a group that seemed to be like an aging rock band grinding it out the past few times I've seen them live. Time will tell whether this transplant ultimately takes on record and on stage. But Newsboys has survived numerous lineup changes over the years — Furler was actually the band's second lead singer — and it looked and sounded good last weekend.
Third Day's change was more subtle, but it still showed up last September when the Georgia rockers played Questapalooza. Once a quintet, the band parted with guitarist Brad Avery early last year.
At Questapalooza, the change seemed to make Third Day more stagnant. Guitarist Mark Lee no longer had his sparring partner, and lead singer Mac Powell appeared to be holding down more guitar duties.
But Saturday night, that weight seemed to have lifted.
Powell was his old self, particularly on rockers such as Otherside. And while Lee still didn't have someone to spar with, his playing was muscular, and he even played a little pedal steel, possibly inspired by recent Third Day collaborator Robert Randolph.
Longtime touring keyboard player Scotty Wilbanks also continues to make bigger contributions, particularly as Third Day's sound grows deeper roots in Southern rock.
Both Third Day and Newsboys are established acts, but Winter Jam gave the Rupp Arena crowd of 14,756 a fresh look at them.
