Thoughts on the Third Day/Zach Williams Tour
On Wednesday, June 18, Third Day announced they were going on their first tour since the Farewell Tour in 2018 and that they would be joined by Zach Williams. Here are some thoughts of mine.
Obviously, I’m excited. When Third Day announced they were disbanding, I was devastated. I never thought I would have chance to see them in concert again. I saw them in concert with Steven Curtis Chapman in April of 2016 (I mentioned 2015 in a previous post, but my memory failed me; I have pictures of the concert on my phone). As a longtime Third Day fan, I could not be more excited.
In my view, the only thing that would make the tour better is if Third Day was doing this tour with Casting Crowns. I haven’t had a chance to see Casting Crowns live yet (Casting Crowns doesn’t have any tour dates scheduled as of now; I’ve listened to every Casting Crows studio album with the exception of their last three). It would great to get these Atlanta area-based bands together for a tour. The shows would sell out fast.
Getting Zach Williams to join the tour is awesome. He’s one of the biggest names right now in Christian music. I’ve wanted to see him live for a few months now. He’s coming to Shreveport in August (Shreveport is about two hours away from me; I live about 60 miles from the Louisiana border), but I’ll wait to see him on the tour he’s doing with Third Day.
The worst part about the whole thing is the wait. I have a ticket for the show in Sugar Land, Texas, which is a suburb of Houston. I have to wait until March 28 of next year for the concert. I feel like a woman who just found out she’s pregnant. She’s excited but she also knows it will be a long time before she sees her baby. That’s exactly how I feel. I’m excited, but I have a long wait. I bought my ticket Thursday which is when the Gomer presale started (Third Day fans are called Gomers after the 1997 song “Gomer’s Theme”).
There are three songs I want to hear played and they are “Blackbird”, “Consuming Fire”, and Zach Williams’ breakout hit “Chain Breaker”. I would love nothing more than to experience “Blackbird” played live. “Blackbird” is not just one of my favorite Third Day songs, it is one of my favorite songs of all time. That song is amazing. It’s a Third Day classic. “Chain Breaker” by Zach Williams is a great song. It’s one of the best Christian songs of the last decade. Jesus is a chain breaker. He is a wonderful Savior.
I’m disappointed that Brad Avery won’t be rejoining Third Day for the tour. It would great if he was. He left the band during the recording of the Revelation album back in 2008. Mark Lee has done a terrific job of replacing Brad Avery.
What I’m most excited about is hearing some good Christian music and meeting fellow Third Day fans. We have been waiting for another opportunity to see Third Day in person and now we have another chance. It’s one I won’t miss for much of anything.
Hopefully, what Third Day is doing is what Petra did. Petra did a farewell tour and came back. I would love nothing more than to have more and more chances to see Third Day live. By the way, I’m seeing Petra Sunday in The Woodlands. Without Petra, there’s no Third Day. Petra is the most influential band in Christian music history.
Tickets for the general public go on sale this coming Friday. If you are wanting to go to one of these concerts, you need to go to either Third Day’s website or Zach Williams’ website and you’ll be able to find the tour dates and the cities and get the tickets there.
I will end this post with a live performance Third Day did of the song “Consuming Fire” during the Wire tour. This performance comes from the Live Wire DVD. “Consuming Fire” just like “Blackbird” is a Third Day classic. That’s Brad Avery (left) and Mark Lee (right) on the electric guitars and Mac Powell playing the acoustic and singing with David Carr on the drums and Tai Anderson on the bass.
I will also post a live performance Zach Williams did of his breakout hit “Chain Breaker”. This performance comes from the 2017 Dove Awards.
Be looking for posts in which I do album reviews of the Third Day albums Wherever You Are, Move, and Lead Us Back: Songs of Worship later this year. Wherever You Are came out 20 years ago this year, Move come out 15 years ago this year and Lead Us Back: Songs of Worship came out 10 years ago this year.