Well, the night ended up not so bad, but the morning of the concert had hurricane type conditions, which ended the original plans of holding the outdoor festival style tour at Assiniboia Downs. The outdoor stage which was assembled the night before, sat unused in a heavy downpour.

The new venue about 50 km away was in Selkirk Manitoba, north of Winnipeg, in the Selkirk Recreational Complex. Selkirk's new arena was a good choice as an indoor location that easily held the 3000+ crowd assembled to witness one of Christian Music's biggest names - The Newsboys.

Canadians Thousand Foot Krutch (Ontario) and Jake (Alberta) warmed the crowd up.

Rap-core TFK opened up with some of their favourite tunes heard regularly on local 'alternative' station Freq 107, and of course CHVN's broadcasts of Sound of Light, and Z-Jam. For the uninitiated, Hard-Core and Rap combined equal rap-core. By the looks of some viewers of this concert, with fingers in the ears and quizzical looks, it appeared as if this was their introduction to moshing, body-surfing, and a state of the art outdoor sound system in a medium sized hockey arena.

Canadian boy-band Jake slowed things down a bit with a good variety of songs from their sophmore release, Army of Love, and their debut self-titled album. The beachball, which was provided by JesusManitoba.com, also served to lighten the mood and get the crowd involved in a jovial and beach party atmosphere. A surprise for most was the un-boy band type vibe emanating from them. While playing their own instruments, singing and generally carrying on like a genuine rock band, they surpassed expectations of another song and syncronized dance forumula group. The Penner brothers are the real deal, and in spite of a stinging 'documentary' broadcast nationally on CBC's 'Witness', they will go far.

Most audience members, came to see the headliners The Newsboys, and they opened with some material from their new album THRIVE, and continued a steady stream of hits from their large repetoire. Of course, the best lights and effects were saved for the headliners, and their experience and musicianship were in full force, throughout the evening.

Thanks go to CHVN, River City Ventures, and JAM productions for continuing to bring big name bands to the River City or nearby, even in the most adverse conditions.

View Our Photos

Official Newsboys Site not your regular site. Be prepared for a pop-up experience.

Listing of Newsboys Websites

Newsboys Wallpaper at ChristianWallpaper.ca

Official Jake Site at Reunion Records

Official Thousand Foot Krutch Site includes a huge forum section