Third Day Weblog

Fourth Day: When the Rain Comes, signed

This is a group of Tennessee high schoolers who chose to sign "When the Rain Comes" for their communications class project.  Pretty cool results, if you ask me!

Ask Third Day: The answers, pt 1

If you could own any guitar in the world, what would it be?
- Kyle T

Honestly?  My Hollowbody.  Ever since I discovered that they made these hybrid guitars with electric and acoustic pickups, I knew that was the guitar for me.  It's pretty cool being able to play my "dream guitar" every night.

What is the best bit of wisdom that you've ever heard come from your kids?
- Sharon

That's a great question. I'll have to see what the other guys would say.  For me, I was trying to play a lullaby song to my daughter a few weeks ago and she said "Daddy, you need to practice."

Hey Mark Why was Brad taken out of the pictures on the new album even though he finished before he quit?
- Thomas H.

The photos that will appear on the album were taken this past March, after Brad's departure.  I haven't seen the final packaging, but it is quite possible that Brad will be in some of the candid studio type shots if we use those in the album booklet.

Hey Mark.  What is the hardest song/riff for you to play live?
- Joe

The slide part on "I've Always Loved You".

Who in the Band has the most annoying habit? How does the rest of the band handle it?
- mischief

We have a couple of snorers in the band (I won't mention any names!).  Earplugs are a popular accessory on the bus.  Also, most of us are kind of messy, and poor David Carr is a neat freak.  You just have to get used to each other's little quirks and give each other a wide swath.

Why do you change guitars for different songs? Are they tuned differently or is it just that the sound of that guitar is right for that song?

If you could only have one guitar on stage what would it be?

What's your favorite city to play in?

- David

It's mainly a sound thing.  Some songs require a 12 string and some require an acoustic pickup (the Hollowbody).  Adding a capo affects the tuning so it's easier and faster to just change guitars.

Hollowbody.  I could play that guitar on every song if I had to.

Atlanta.  I get to sleep at home :)

Ask Third Day

"Ask Third Day".  You like that?  It's kind of catchy isn't it?  I don't know, these things just come to me.

I started doing this "interview the band"/ask us anything feature during the tour and, well, kind of forgot.  So I answered a couple of the "old" questions.

BUT NOW, you have the opportunity to ask us anything.  Well, to ask me anything.  Since we're off the road right now it might be tricky to get a response from everyone.  But you never know!  If it's a good enough question, maybe I'll track it down! 

FIRE AT WILL*!

(* Please keep it clean, and be nice...)

Ask Third Day: A couple of gear questions

hey mark, a common subject in our band is gear so what gear/pedals are you guys diggin' on right now??...noticed the Dr. Z in some pics...nice.

- Joel Stapleton

One pedal that has been rockin' me lately is the H20/Liquid Chorus from Visual Sound.  I started using it on the Christmas tour to cover the bridge section of "Merry Christmas" and now I use it all the time!  It's one of those dual/2 switch pedals.  One side is echo, and the other is chorus.  You can use them together or independently.  I used to turn the chorus on and off, but I just dialed it back to where it's a little more subtle.  It's a great way to fatten up leads, esp. when you put just a tad of that echo on there.  Fun stuff...

what Gauge of string do all use?

- Caleb Sutton

For electrics I've used (and Brad mainly used as well) Ernie Ball .011's.  They hold tune much better than smaller gauged strings, and make you "work" a little harder when playing live.  The thicker strings also fatten up the tone. 

Fourth Day: Offering

For this installment of "Fourth Day", we've got a cover version of "Offering". If you know our fans, especially our Atlanta fans, the lead singer will be an extemely familiar face!

The Griffon!

It is my goal to keep you as informed as possible of the goings on of Third Day.  And it would be a disservice if I did not include this little gem.  I think most of us were really trying to make cool faces, but sheer gravity gave us the result below.  I've said it before and I'll say it again:  the Griffon just might be the coolest roller coaster out there...

BTW - thanks again to everyone at Busch Gardens for taking such great care of us!

05.04.08 - Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, VA

Today was a great day.  We had a great time in the park, riding rides until we (almost literally!) got sick.  The Griffon is my new favorite roller coaster.  OK, so that first drop might be a little excessive - they perch you over the edge of a precipice so that only your safety harness is holding you in - but it is the smoothest, fastest, trippiest roller coaster you'll ever ride.  You feel like you're flying.  Then we did the Alpengeist.  That about did me in - a good old fashioned dizzifying throw up ride.  It was fun, don't get me wrong, but I had to sit out the next couple of plays as a result.  You can see the results of our fun in that old timey photo below.

Amazing crowd.  I'm told there were about 5,000 people packed in the amphitheater.  Revive did a great job in the opening slot, getting the crowd going.  Matthew West shared the bill with us as well, and he was awesome.   "You Are Everything" is just unbelievable.  Even better live than on the record.  We've known Matthew for years, so it was great to see him and his family at the show.

We had a special guest in the audience tonight.  Captain Peter Fisher was the main guy who made our USO visit happen.  He and his family were at the show.  Tai led the audience in a massive ovation for Captain Fisher right before we played "I'll Always Be True".  Of course, in classic Tai fashion, he told the crowd not to get too carried away.  Since Captain Fisher is a chaplain, he's got to stay humble.  It was pretty hilarious.  And it was a cool moment, considering the huge number of military families who live in the vicinity.

It was just a great night.  Huge crowd, everything firing on all cylinders. Mac changed things up when he spoke before "Revelation", challenging everyone to be strong in their faith as there are so many other competing voices out there.  Really powerful stuff.

This was the first Christian show they've had at Busch Gardens in 12 years.  If tonight was any indication, it will not be the last.  We hope to make this a regular thing!

Well, hang the banner.  Mission accomplished.  Our spring, um, thing was a massive success...

We've got a long time off before our next show.  Record done, no touring.  Should be a good time to chillax for awhile.  But look for the blog updates to keep coming!

September 19, 1863 - Chickamauga, GA

Great show tonight, 'cept for we had to stop playing to take part in a little battle.  Cookie made up some great beans tonight, and Mac killed a coupla possums that we skint and cooked right o'r the far.  Thought we rocked pretty hard on Battle Hymn of the Republic but Tai's bugle kept goin' outta tune.  The stagecoach takes us back to Atlanta tonight for some R and R.

That just happened

05.03.08 - Johnson City, NY

You know what's really cool about this blog?  Well, one of the cool things of this blog, anyway.  It's an easy way to look back and go, when were we here last?  I thought we'd never been to Johnson City before.  We've never done a show here before, but we've been in this area a lot.  We played in Binghamton (next town over) on October 1, 2006, and again on June 9, 2007.  See?  This blog helps me have a great memory!

When I first got off the bus today, I'll admit, I laughed, almost uncontrollably.  This venue was just so, um, different than the shows we've been doing recently.  Think about it:  we played at a massive church in Louisville on Thursday.  What would be the exact opposite of that?  You guessed it - a little bar.  The Magic City Music Hall is a cool little no-frills rock club in Johnson City.  It reminds me a ton of places we used to play in Atlanta like the Miracle Theatre and the Pterodactyl.  Kickin' it old school in a lot of ways.

We spent our afternoon going to Pizzeria Uno and then a little Barnes and Noble action.  A bunch of movies were watched on the bus as well.  Tai, Scotty and myself had a little Bus Jam action as we got out some little amps and guitars and keyboards and got our Billy Joel on.  You know why I like playing music?  'Cause it's fun.

We will not have a problem remembering this show, simply because it was just so different for us.  We didn't do anything different.  Same setlist as the last couple of nights.  But everything clicked.  It was just a good old fashioned sweaty rock show.  There's nothing like it.  I wish I could say the crowd was awesome.  I'm sure they were, don't get me wrong.  But we really couldn't see anybody from the stage the way the lights were hitting us.  But that's cool - from the feedback we got in the Wired meet and greet it sounds like people had a good time.

You see a lot about somebody's personality by little things they do.  One funny thing Mac did tonight that is so Mac was when he bent down DURING A SONG and fixed a rug on the stage.  No, he's not a neat freak.  Mac likes to look out for people.  I'm sure he was thinking "Man, somebody's gonna trip on that.  I'd better fix it."  That's just how Mac is.

Well, I gotta split.  We're watching Across the Universe on the bus tonight.  Just finished watching the end of the NASCAR race.  It was awesome...

Tomorrow we're in Williamsburg.  Maybe I can get somebody to churn me some butter or something!

TONIGHT'S SETLIST