Review by Anna Woning
The Christian band Third Day rocked Mueller Performing Arts Centre last Friday night instead of the scheduled River Stage in Brisbane due to wet weather. The sold out show was supported by NEEDTOBREATHE from South Carolina and Melbourne based acoustic Australian singer-songwriter Levi McGrath.
NEEDTOBREATHE entertained the crowd with a few country rock melodies from their previous albums as well as some from their newest album Rivers in the Wasteland. They showed a diverse range of melodies from the quieter acoustic guitar tunes of “Brother” against the upbeat country rock n’ roll of “Difference Maker”. Whilst listening to NEEDTOBREATHE play you could forgive yourself for thinking you had just walked into a South Carolina pub with the lead singer ‘Bear’ William Stanley Rinehart III, having just the right amount of husky and rawness in his vocals to entertain any rough beer hall. NEEDTOBREATHE were an excellent country warm up for the following main act from Third Day.
Being the second last performance on a two-week tour Down Under, Georgia band Third Day left no one disappointed. It’s been 8 years since their last visit to Australia, which lead singer Mac Powell admitted had been too long.
During the set Powell and the lead guitarist Mark Lee joked about the story of the band forming 22 years ago under the name Nuclear Hoedown, clearly a reference to the country music aspirations of their young high school student days. Third Day referenced some great Aussie bands as inspiration as their teenage music idols, and thanked the crowd for such great talent as “Men At Work, ACDC…. and the Wiggles, but hey…” they said, “We gave you Brittany Spears and Barney the Dinosaur, so it evens out.” After performing a few set songs the band decided to take requests from the crowd, who demanded a trend of older songs. Among them were “Take Me To The Other Side”, “These 1000 Hills” and “Time” and “Consuming Fire”. Third Day started with a burst of southern rock excitement with the song “Kicking and Screaming” flowing onto sweet acoustic goodness of “When The Rain Comes”. The crowd thoroughly enjoyed the charisma and jovial persona of the band despite the wet weather disturbance, some even travelling from as far as Rockhampton to make it to the World Vision “Make A Difference” concert.
We look forward to seeing THIRD DAY, NEEDTOBREATHE and LEVI McGRATH again soon!
Bands: THIRD DAY – www.thirdday.com
NEEDTOBREATHE – www.needtobreathe.com
Levi McGrath – www.facebook.com/levi.mcgrath
Event: “Make A Difference” Tour
Venue: Mueller Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane – mpac-live.org
Date: February 20, 2015
World Vision Australia – worldvision.com.au
Click Here for photos of headliner on the night… THIRD DAY
Click Here for photos of supports on the night… NEEDTOBREATHE
