The tappedinto.com
Unplugged Concert Experience
December 7th, 2000
Twin City Bible Church
Urbana, Illinois

Wouldn't it be great to hear the Jars in an intimate setting with just their acoustic guitars and a keyboard instrument or two? Kind of like their early days back at Greenville College, before they had a bass player or drummer. Maybe reminiscent of those early acoustic shows at Café Milano in Nashville when "Flood" was just starting to gain popularity. A unique Jars concert like this would have ticket prices through the roof, right? Of course it would be even better if it was free! I knew we had scored big when The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign won the Jars tappedinto.com free unplugged concert contest. We were going to play host to a very special Jars show right in our own backyard.

The Jars arrived in Urbana early morning the day of the show to hang out around town a little bit. If you were on campus that day, you might have seen them at Bagelman's for lunch. They walked from campustown to the church for the show, with Dan and Steve arriving early in the afternoon to start their soundcheck. We were decorating the church sanctuary with Christmas lights and a tree when they arrived, and they helped us unravel lights and chatted with us a little bit. I got to talk with Dan for a while before they started sounchecking, and he really is a very sincere guy. We talked a little about the Beach Boys, which is a favorite group of both of us apparently, and he mentioned a track that recorded that was very Beach Boys influenced named "The Breakup Song" which will probably appear on their next album. In the course of talking with Dan, I was introduced to Steve's dad who apparently lives very close to the church. Dan told me and Steve's dad that things were going great with his wife and baby, and that they were expecting sometime around Christmas or shortly thereafter. Dan is just a really cool guy, and you can tell from talking with him that he's a thinking man and that he has lots of years worth of incredible lyrics left in him.

After the Jars soundchecked lots of different songs that I hadn't heard them play in a while including "Portrait of an Apology" and "Tea and Sympathy", they headed off to Steve's dad's place to have supper (they had Papa Del's Chicago-style pan pizza, a local treasure).

The line outside to get into the general admission free show started forming around 5 o'clock or so, with the show starting at 9 PM. It was pretty cold that night, and lots of the faithful stood outside waiting to claim a good seat in the church. Fortunately, most seats in the church are good seats as the pews are multi-layered, so nobody's view is blocked by a tall person in front of them. The Jars decided that the chairs that were in front should be taken down so people could pull up a spot on the floor right next to the stage to make the atmosphere even more intimate. They also wanted some candles lit, so we got over 100 candles and put them in plastic cups on the back of the stage. The atmosphere was right for a fun, peaceful, unbelievable acoustic show.

The guys came out a little after 9, and Matt said "We thought we'd get our good-byes out of the way first" as they opened with "Goodbye, Goodnight." Charlie's accordion started things off, and then the soft acoustic guitar sounds and vocals kicked in that would be with us the rest of the night. One thing about this performance of the song that was very different from past performances was the Jars completely stopped playing and singing right before the 3rd verse. After a short pause, Dan asked "You guys know your part, right? Are you sure?" Most people in the audience, including myself, had no idea what Dan was talking about! I figured it out right before we got to "our part", when we all sang along with the band "Strike up the band and play a song..."

After the opening number, Dan said something very surprising (it was a good surprise): "We thought it would be really nice if we didn't really put together a setlist tonight." Then Matt said, "So if you don't say anything, we're out of here!" There was a resounding silence, and Matt said, "Alright, see ya, it's been fun!" and Charlie slyly remarked, "that was goodbye." I think we were all so shocked that they were taking requests that we weren't prepared to choose songs we wanted to hear. Finally someone requested the "Coffee Song", so they went into that with Dan setting up Matt for his famous cappuccino maker imitation. They also did their trademark karate kick at the appropriate moment in the song, and Dan threw in the "Tom's Diner" melody during the bridge which delighted the crowd.

After the song, Dan asked "So are alot of you college students here?" which resulted in cheers from almost everyone in the audience. Steve made a comment about the University of Illinois football game he attended last month against Ohio State. He wanted to know if anyone in the audience thought the hit our quarterback took for a concussion was illegal, which of course elicited cheers of "Yeah!" Everyone applauded Steve, and Dan said, with a very straight face, "Amen."

Steve decided that everyone needed to raise their hands to put their request in, and the first person he called on requested "He", which the Jars seem both impressed and perplexed by. They weren't sure if they even remembered it, but they did a great job with it nonetheless. They played it very much like the version on the Drummer Boy EP. Dan then told a neat story that I hadn't heard before about "He." His mentioning the book "Death by Child Abuse: the Story of Ursular Sunshine" in concerts in conjunction with playing "He" (which was the inspiration for that song) led to the book going back into print after a long hiatus from libraries and bookstores across the country. He even got a nice letter from the author thanking him for making sure the book and the story of Ursular Sunshine wasn't quickly forgotten.

The next song requested was "Frail", which Steve told a very long and winding story about. Steve said that "Frail" was a "mantra" that he played over and over during his high-school days. He mentioned that he attended Greenville college, and that he received a $300 scholarship to Greenville for "Frail", which didn't make much of a dent in the tuition of about "$16,000" (he confirmed that with his Dad in the audience). Steve also mentioned being from Decatur, Illinois, and then the rest of the band started in with the Decatur jokes. The crowd cheered in recognition of Decatur, which is about an hour from Urbana, and Dan said kind of sarcastically, "You've heard of Decatur!" Matt, in reference to Decatur being somewhat of a depressed area said "Straight Outta Decatur." Steve then "thanked" "Uncle Jesse" (Jesse Jackson) for his "help" at Decatur Eisenhower high school (if you remember, this high school was in the national news this year for expelling two students for fighting at a football game, and Jesse Jackson stepped in to try and get them back in school).

So they played "Frail", which Dan ended by whispering the word "Frail." It was a shortened version of the song, "the radio edit" as Steve quipped. "Like a Child" was requested next, with Steve comparing the switching of guitars required between songs to the 30-seconds between each play of an NFL game. They played "Like a Child" without the funky keyboard solo that they've recently used at the beginning of the song. Charlie switched off between Accordion and Wurlitzer electric piano throughout the song. During the bridge, Dan, in his very best little girl imitation, said "I've got... joy like... a fountain", capturing the spirit of their self-titled album version of the song.

After patiently waiting for my chance, Steve finally called on me and I asked for "Blame", which unfortunately was shot down by Steve and Dan, with Dan saying "they're asking for a song which doesn't exist called Blame." Ah well, I tried. Someone else requested "Hymn", which they tried to figure out if they remembered how to play for a couple of minutes. In that time, some other requests were shouted out, including a loud request from the back for "Coca-Cola." They played a few bars of their Coke jingle to humor the crowd. They also got requests for "Grace", to which Charlie said "there's lots of grace in this song", and "Worlds Apart" which they said they'd definitely play later. Matt kept saying "Hymn... He... Blame", like our requests were forming sentences, to which Steve added, in his best Native-American voice, "How."

Dan then told yet another story! He told of how his wife's father's girlfriend's 5-year old daughter (the audience laughed at that complicated relation, to which Dan replied, "I know, it's a crazy world") had memorized all of the words to "Hymn" and preferred it to Barney and Veggie Tales. He was very flattered and proud of that.

They played "Hymn", and the next request was for "Much Afraid." Matt got a kick out of the fact that everyone was request all of their slow songs. He said, "everyone always says you gotta have more fast songs!" Steve joked that "Much Afraid" was about the Presidential election that was still ongoing at the time. They started the song with uncertainty as to what the chords were, and Dan forgot the lyrics to the 2nd verse, making reference to the fact that all of the NutraSweet he's had in his lifetime was kicking in. They kept going, though, with a little help from a fan in the audience who knew the words.

The inevitable request of "Freebird" followed, to which Dan said he had just purchased Lynrd Skynrd's Greatest Hits. Dan jokingly said he was going to go out to the tour bus and play all 12-minutes of the song and force us to listen to it if we kept requesting "Freebird"!

The fan who helped Dan finish "Much Afraid" got to request the next song, "Art in Me." Dan told of how they had to break into the Greenville College recording studio to add Steve's harmonica part to their demo version of "Art in Me" because they were there working on their demo during a school break. It was neat to hear this one live since they don't play it very often.

As "Art in Me" ended, the crowd cheered and "Freebird" faded in over the sound system! Dan had made good on his threat. Apparently, somebody ran out to the tour bus and got his Lynrd Skynrd CD for him. Fortunately, only the very beginning of the song played before the soundman faded it out. Matt commented, "that's probably the first time that's ever happened in a church before."

After all of the commotion died down a little, someone requested "Weighed Down." The Jars didn't seem to remember this one very well, and Dan even completely forgot the lyrics toward the end of the first verse! In keeping with the laid-back attitude to the evening, this was no big deal to the fans in attendance, and a lady in the audience shouted out "I have the lyrics with me!" So Dan told her to "come on down", and she handed Dan the liner notes from Much Afraid. She mentioned that she had the other two albums also if he needed them! That was probably the funniest thing that happened that night!

So "Weighed Down" kind of fell apart, and they moved on. I was really hoping to hear them play "Smells Like Rudolph", so my wife and I yelled out "Rudolph!" which Steve heard and seemed to like the idea of playing. Charlie said "this is our request to ourselves" and Steve said that they played that song first at Greenville college, and that is was probably the reason they only went to school there a couple of years. They played "Smells Like Rudolph", and they really seemed to be enjoying themselves. Most of the audience hadn't heard them play this one (even though a really nice guy I met that night named Keith went to school with the Jars and was there for the first performance of that song back in 1993 at Greenville), so the crowd was having lots of fun. Steve broke down laughing a few times during the song, and Charlie mixed in some "Meows" with Dan and Steve's "Yeahs", making it the craziest and funniest song they played that night.

They wanted to do another Christmas song, and someone requested "Crazy Times" to which Dan said, "Crazy Times isn't a Christmas song!", and Matt added "you can't fool us!" I had never seen the guys play "Drummer Boy" live, and I really enjoyed the acoustic treatment it received. I didn't realize that at the beginning of the song that Steve and Matt used a slap technique to play the harmonics and bass part. Another thing I noticed was that you could really hear Matt sing on this one! He took the high harmony on the first set of "on my's", and he sounded great.

I heard a request for "Flood" next, which I figured was inevitable. Somebody else requested "Truce", to which Steve kind of laughed in reply. They decided to play "Love Song", which Steve mentioned was written right before Thanksgiving and was the 2nd song they ever wrote. Dan explained how writing "Fade to Grey" with it's doubting main character, they wrote "Love Song" with it's worshipful lyrics to kind of balance out their repertoire. I'd heard "Love song" acoustic many times, but it's always nice to hear it again. The harmonies stood out a little more this time, and once again I could hear Matt singing very clearly, this time he was taking the lowest part on the "Na Na Na"'s.

As an introduction to their next song, "Worlds Apart", Dan once again told the story about their trip to China and Vietnam. His story was very similar to the way he told it during the 3 o'clock parade tour with one new and particularly touching detail: many Christmas lights that we purchase in the U.S. (of which we were surrounded by that night) were made by imprisoned Chinese Christians. Dan and Steve proceeded to play "Worlds Apart", with Charlie and Matt joining in at the end. It was very beautifully done.

I could sense the set coming to an end, as the Jars were pulling out the "Greatest Hits" now. They said they only had time for one more, to which the crowd replied with various requests including "Sinking", "If I Stand", and even "Coca-Cola." I was impressed throughout the evening by the caliber of the requests by the audience, I couldn't have picked the setlist better myself. Of course, "Flood" ended up being the last song in the regular set. Steve took a turn at storytelling, talking about a show they played for Vibe magazine in Los Angeles. They were able to get on the set of The Price Is Right (apparently they're big fans of the show) and they all spun the big wheel. Dan then told a drawn-out story about how someone they met in Decorah, Iowa who actually won the showcase showdown. Dan's story kind of bombed, but then self-deprecation is one of the Jars favorite brands of humor so they didn't really mind.

So they played "Flood", and Steve got crazy, playing his acoustic guitar over his head. Instead of singing the second verse, Dan did a dramatic spoken-word interpretation of it which was very funny. During the bridge, Steve took some time to demonstrate one of his breakdancing moves (the wave). He eventually even got the rest of the band to do it with him in a wave fashion, starting with Dan, then Steve, then Charlie (I didn't see Matt doing it).

After the last strains of "Flood" were heard, the band was ushered out by a standing ovation. Steve ran to the back of the stage and got his crazy looking winter hat that you can see him wearing in the Front Yard Luge pictures, and they all took a bow. The crowd starting chanting, "We want more!", somewhat reminiscent of the end of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and the guys came out for one last song.

Before the last song, they told some more college stories that revolved around Byron Keith, the guy who arranged the rendition they play of "O Little Town of Bethlehem." Steve managed to sneak in a completely unrelated story about attending Engineering Day at the U of I in high school. He related how something went wrong with the experiment, and a huge explosion ensued, setting people in the audience's hair on fire (including one of Steve's high school teachers). The long "Byron story" that Dan told I'll leave as one of the few secrets from this show. Let's just say it was an interesting college prank, definitely all in fun. After all of the stories, they wrapped up the night with their acoustic version of "Little Town." As they received another standing ovation, Dan wished everyone a Merry Christmas, Steve tossed his pick, and they walked backstage as Bing Crosby Christmas songs faded in over the sound system.

Even though they only planned to play for an hour, they ended up playing for almost two hours, so they really gave it their all for their fans that night. They also stayed after the show to sign autographs, take pictures, and hang out with everyone for quite a while. Then the band boarded the bus back to Nashville in the cold of a central Illinois winter, leaving behind an almost unbeliving crowd grateful for witnessing an amazing show. I'm sure this is an event we'll all look back on later in life with fondness and lots of memories.