The Official Life Support Blog

ROAR TOUR: Closing Words

2008-07-26T16:58:00.000-07:00

Hello friends. Yes it's been a while since the last NFLD blog... probably sometime in the middle of the tour actually. The truth is, I didn't keep up on the blogging everyday and fell a little behind. I am sorry. Therefore I don't have the details about each remaining day of the tour, BUT, the final summary of the tour is this - it was amazing. The folks in NFLD are so hospitable. They really know how to feed people. I think we each gained about 10 pounds on this trip. All of the shows were fun... although I think Victoria was the main NFLD favorite. It was also great to be back in Hare Bay to see our friends from down there. (Hollers to Robert, Henry, and Randall family.)
Other random memories: break dancing at the back of the church and making Chelsey laugh during her set, bowling at the Hare Bay church, watching Buddy Wassisname and the Other fellers with Bice and May, driving back and forth across the province 4 times, talking to Quintin in Deer Lake, and Chelsey's spontaneous "Ferry ride Concert" - yes she did a random concert on the ferry ride home.
For more on the NFLD tour, be sure to check out podcast #12, which teaches you how to "Newfie Nod" (no Chris' were hurt) and also features an important message from a group of rockers that we are very excited to have in a podcast... you may have heard of them. They are kind of huge. Who? Go watch the podcast and find out!
More to come... from Ecuador.
Blessings,

-Jordan

ROAR TOUR: Victoria, NFLD June 10 2008

2008-06-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

Before I start this one, I must mention our first stop in NFLD, which was actually our good friend Wally's pizza shop. Wally is always so generous and blessed us once again with some tasty pizza and garlic fingers to prep us for our 10 hour drive across the island. Now on to Victoria...
Oh boy. I don't think any of us have been to Victoria NFLD before, and we didn't know exactly what to expect, but this had to be one of the best, if not the best stop in NFLD. As soon as we got there people from the church were welcoming us and helping carry and set up all of the gear. Then we were brought over to a house where 10-15 people from the church were waiting with the biggest spread of sea food I've ever seen. This was a true Newfoundland experience if I've ever seen one.
When we got to the gig the love increased even more. Everybody there was really excited for both us and Chelsea and even gave her a standing ovation. The whole thing was so much fun. The church members were hilarious. I even got a picture of one woman trying to put lip stick on one of the guys. Funny, funny people.
Tonight was also a bit different for Chris and I because we were trying something totally new to us - running the lights while we were playing! Oh man, this was quite the challenge but really fun too. We tried to nail all the big hits, which may have resulted in a few flat notes, but at least the lights were good!
The church folk all helped us pack up afterwards and then took us home to each of our billets for the night before getting up at 5:30am to leave for the next town. Thank God for Tim Horton's... and thanks to everyone in Victoria for taking care of us so well and giving us one of the most enjoyable experiences of the whole tour. We will definitely be back in the future!

-Jordan

ROAR TOUR: Sydney, NS June 7-8 2008

2008-06-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

This morning we drove from Truro to Sydney and set up in the gym of a beautiful United church building. Everything went pretty smooth. We found a set of old school colored lights that ran across the front of the entire stage, which we considered turning on, but voted against it since it's awesomeness might be too distracting. Chelsea sounded great and we had a lot of fun. I think we played 6 or 7 off of the new album tonight. And thanks to Emily for more choice pictures.
While in Cape Breton we also got to play at an event called Prayer of Hope the following night held at the Membertou Trade and Convention Center. A lot of people came out to get together and pray for Cape Breton. It went very well. When we played Deanna go to share about Compassion Canada and I think we saw the most kids sponsored on this night than any other - 19 kids in one night! Chooooice.
After the event was done we packed up and made our way over to the NFLD ferry... which we missed. Apparently we were about 15 minutes late and now it was too full. Thankfully we didn't have a gig booked the next day, so we caught it the next morning, drove all day and half the night, got a hotel, and then drove some more until we reached Victoria. Oh and we saw one moose, which was far away. More on Victoria soon!
-Jordan

ROAR TOUR: Truro, NS June 6 2008

2008-06-09T10:15:00.000-07:00

Ok. I'm going to be honest. When we were setting up for this gig, I really wasn't expecting a whole lot of people to show up. I think we were all kind of anticipating a bit of a weak night - that it would be more like a practice than an amazing gig. BUT - it was exactly the opposite. Oh man. I would even say that this was my favorite gig so far, and I think the rest of the guys would agree. Even though the numbers were a bit low at the start, it got a bit more lively when another group of young guns showed up during Chelsea's set (thanks to Jason and Drew). Chelsea shared her testimony tonight during her set, which is very powerful to listen to, and Al and Dee both spoke very well. Before we went on some of us prayed for freedom in worship. I think this had a huge impact on the music. It honestly seemed like on of the funnest times we ever played. Every once in a while during the music, Chris would come over to me and say, I think that was the funnest time we've ever played that song! We also tried something new tonight by getting Chelsea to come up on stage and join us in playing Hosanna. I think this was my favorite part... that song is so amazing. And to have everyone up on the stage together was such a great feeling. Hopefully we'll do it every night from now on. A big thanks to Emily part time Life Support photographer Hunter, Russel spider-man Wile, Holly merch girl Medeiros, MC April, and Roy banner stand expert/admission man Medeiros. Oh and thanks to Jason Leil for his rich podcast footage (coming soon...) Blessings, -Jordan

ROAR TOUR: Halifax, NS June 5 2008

2008-06-07T12:51:00.000-07:00

Today was such a nice day. Perfect weather outside, we were in downtown Halifax at the Salvation Army Church on Barrington Street. Set up is going a little faster now that we've done it a few times and we're getting the routine down. Rolls of duct tape are going like hot cakes. I think that Red Green would be proud.
Chelsea had a guest harmonizer with her tonight that only added to her usual angelic sounds. I'm not even sure of her name, but she did awesome - great job mystery guest! We pulled out "Hallelujah" tonight for the first time since we kind of re-wrote it in the studio, and it went very well. It might even be one of the funnest songs to play. We've been working on the harmony parts too, so we are trying to start this one with some acapella harmonies. Very choice.
It was nice to have Finlay back at the sound board tonight, as well as fellow Halifax musician Cory Chaisson who came out and helped us with tare-down. He also made us laugh a lot. Thanks to those guys along with tonight's wonderful merch girls Andrea and Divya.
Oh and Rob said the best nachos he ever tasted were from the Economy Shoe Shop in downtown Halifax. Thus concludes our night in Halifax. See you next time.
-Jordan

ROAR TOUR: Kentville, NS June 4 2008

2008-06-06T21:30:00.000-07:00

Tonight is in Kentville. Very nice church, and awesome people to go along with it. This time it was my (Jordan's) turn to see one of my previous pastors - Pastor Terry Penney, who used to be at my church in Antigonish. It was good seeing him again and chatting about the band and ministry and whatnot.

We got there around 1pm as usual, and set up until around 7pm when it's all supposed to start. We had a special treat tonight. Not only did we have the fabulous opening act known as Chelsea Nisbett, we also got to see the youth band from the church play - Conspiracy Theory. Oh man, I was honestly very impressed with these guys. Three young dudes, Jayden, James, and Issac, a very tight band. And mean vocals. They did a cover, and one of their own tunes that sounds like a christian radio hit. And as you can see most of the pictures I took that night were of these rockers. Great job guys.

And thanks to all the extra hands tonight: Bill, Issac, Jason, Divya, and Andrew. We appreciate your help very much. See ya next time!

-Jordan

ROAR TOUR: Fredericton and Moncton, NB May 31-April 1 2008

2008-06-06T20:27:00.001-07:00

Well we started the tour this week with Fredericton, NB on Saturday and Moncton, NB on Sunday night. Both went very well. Fredericton was the first night of the tour which meant taking a little longer to set up... like all day. But it's good. We figured out how to keep our fancy new back drop and lights from falling over during the night, and even got a few banners with the album cover printed on them to hang behind us, not to mention new merch with sweet new t-shirt deigns. In the words of our temporary merch girl Natalie, it's looking very "profesh."
That reminds me, for these two gigs we had our very own super amazing road crew! These guys helped out so much. Mad props go out to Nat - lights/powerpoints, Natalie - merch girl/pipe-fitter, Tim - guitar-tech/lights/spare battery guy, and Ryan - admission doorman/roadie/superman. These guys helped so much. Anytime we needed anything fixed or plugged in or figured out they were there and ready to help out with much enthusiasm. I think they're even going to featured in the next podcast for a little comedy moment...so watch out.
Overall both gigs went well. I think did around 5 or 6 songs off the album in Fredericton, and around 7 in Moncton. It feels so good to finally play them. And they'll only get better as the tour goes on. Oh, and before I forget, our opening act - Chelsea Nisbett, is killing it! She is sounding so good. As Rob likes to say, she's got some pipes on her. It's just her and her guitar up there on a little stool, and she lets it rip every night with all she's got. If you haven't heard her yet, now is your chance!
We've got two days off now for some practicing and then we're off to Kentville for some more touring. More to come soon...
-Jordan

The Valley/Lockport May 16-18 2008

2008-06-05T14:12:00.000-07:00

So a little while ago we went to the Valley/greenwood area and then down to Lockport for some gigs. We had a great time. But to start off - we got our very first copies of the new album this weekend! Finally... wow. What a feeling to actually hold the album in our hands. Thank You God. Anyway, when we got to the Greenwood Army base (where the church we were playing at was) we found out that the pastor of the church was Chris' old pastor from a previous church Chris attended. I think it was actually the one where he got saved years earlier. Very cool. The pastor, who's name was Fawns (maybe spelt wrong but still a cool name) was very happy to see Chris years later still serving God and even pointing others to Jesus with his rockin' bass skills. I guess that was a little reminder for us of how God can be using us to further His kingdom in ways that we may remain unaware of until years down the road. Very choice. That night we stayed over at the massive, beautiful home of a wonderful woman named Helen. She fed us well and made us laugh. Thanks Helen! After Greenwood we went down to Lockport - the place where we are always treated better than we deserve. We had an amazing home cooked meal, and then checked into the seaside cottage that they put us up in for the weekend. It's almost like we were on a relaxation vacation but were really just going to a gig. There was food in the fridge and everything. That night we played across the street in the high school gym. It went well. I think we got our first sign made too. It said "I love Life Support" and it was made by a young girl who will probably become a great artist. The following morning we played at the Sunday morning church service and then went down to the park for an afternoon BBQ/outreach event. There hot dogs, hamburgers, rice crispy square, pops, apples, a playground, you name it. There was even a van like the one off a Scobby Doo, so the guys had to get a picture with it. After that we took off, stopped for some ice cream in Bridgewater, and then home. So thank you Greenwood and Lockport for all of the hospitality. It was awesome. We should do it again sometime!More to come...
-Jordan

Cape Breton April 17-20 2008

2008-04-24T15:25:00.001-07:00

Greetings!

Well we were in Cape Breton last weekend for a few gigs, all of which were fun and rockin'. We got to play for a packed out high school gymnasium on Thursday morning, and we were then followed by the testimony from the last person to make it out of the world trade center - Janelle McMullen. She talked about being trapped in the ruble for 27 hours until a man named Paul found her, held her hand and spoke to her until the rescue team arrived. She tried to find this Paul afterwards b speaking on Oprah and CNN but couldn't. (Yes, it was an angel.)

We actually got to play again with Janelle on Friday night at a different high school gym. Eastlink Television was also there to do a few interview clips of the band before we played. That's always interesting... pretty fun though. After that we went over to another church to play at a 30 Hour Famine that a bunch of youth were putting on. They weren't allowed to eat so we kept our Tim Horton's to ourselves behind the stage. We were there till about 2am before going to Rob's house and then coming back in the morning for more rockin' with the kids. I don't think anyone passed out from lack of nourishment so I'd say the event was a success. They raised a lot of money too. Sunday morning we were at Grace Fellowship in Sydney... where I think 5 or 6 Compassion kids were sponsored! Very choice. The whole weekend was a lot of fun. Now we look forward to the Roar of Heaven Tour coming up in June... see you there.

-Jordan

Monday April 7 2008

2008-04-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Official Life Support Blog!

We are pumped to finally have this running, along with the new website and especially the new album on it's way (or already here for those who got a dropcard.) We will try to update this blog as much as possible, with hopefully a post and a few pictures per gig. But as for now, we just played at the Keswick Convention held at the Rock Church in Lower Sackville, with LatterRain. It went very well! We played a few of the new tunes off of the record... I think 4 were played live so far. It's so fun to play those songs live.Eventually I hope that we'll be playing them all live... rocking them out with everyone singing along. That would be amazing.

After the gig we went to eat at this chinese restaurant that we always go to, and it was fantastic as always. I forget the name of it, but the lemon chicken is choice. We got to chat with the LatterRain guys too, and ECMA award winning artist Chelsey Nesbit! Holler!We also played at Jesus to the Nations last week, which was also a fun gig. That's where the pictures are from.
We'll be in Cape Breton in a few weeks for some gigs - hope to see some of you guys there!

Blessings,

-Jordan