Alive and Transported

Over the past few years Faith and I have become huge tobyMac fans, especially of his live performances. There is just an energy and a vibe in the room that is usually not there with any other Christian artist. We saw tobyMac open for Stephen Curtis Chapman a couple of years ago and it was a pretty interesting experience. Casting Crowns was the scheduled opener for the tour but for whatever reason they were not able to play the Atlanta date. So the promoters called in tobyMac to open for Chapman. It was an amazing show, but you could tell that a lot of the audience was not quite sure how to take it. Faith and I were sitting on the front row at what was Lakewood Amphitheater specifically to see tobyMac and we could see Chris Tomlin (who opened for tobyMac), his band, Stephen Curtis Chapman, his band, and some members of Casting Crowns on the wings of the stage taking in the show. There was a total look of amazement on their faces through the entire 45 minute set. It was clear that no one on the tour outside of tobyMac's crew had seen a show like this. It was a great show even with a fairly unresponsive audience.

In total Faith and I have seen tobyMac five times and it's always great. So yesterday when I noticed that there was a new tobyMac live album on sale on iTunes I jumped to buy it. All in all it is a great CD. Twenty-one songs and 3 live music videos for $12.99. Its pretty much a good representation of the concert but there are moments when a poor audio mix can kill the mood and energy. This disk also suffers from the problem of the engineers trying to cram everything into a set period of time. This is a gapless album, since most of the songs in the actual concert flow into each other, but at a few instances there are VERY noticeable breaks where you can tell that the engineers made a splice to make the transitions shorter. Over all these are minor issues with what is otherwise a great album. If you are a tobyMac fan or even if you just enjoy heavy rock with a rap/hip-hop edge, I would pick this album up. All in all it gets a solid Thumbs-Up!

Track List

1. "Intro"
2. "Ignition"
3. "Catchafire (Whoopsi-Daisy)"
4. "Boomin' "
5. "No Ordinary Love"
6. "J Train"
7. "Gone"
8. "Irene"
9. "I'm For You"
10. "In the Light"
11. "Yours"
12. "The Slam"
13. "Love is in the House"
14. "Atmosphere"
15. "Lose My Soul"
16. "Diverse City"
17. "Made to Love"
18. "Burn for You"
19. "Jesus Freak"
20. "Extreme Days"
21. "Made to Love (Reprise)"