Date: 22 Nov 1998
To: RichMailList
Subject: [RichMailList 230c]: South Bend, IN 10/25 review

From: Joel Thomas
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 10:37:28
Subject: TT well, here goes.....

well, last nite, i saw the South Bend stop of the Homeless Man 
Tour.  kudos to all of them, the show was great.  and it raised 
money for a good cause, a local Down's Syndrome foundation.  
because of some work selling the tickets and such, i had 
backstage passes and was able to hang out with some of the Rags 
for awhile before the show, and it was a lot of fun.  please do keep 
these guys in prayers, whomever posted earlier wasn't kidding 
when they said that Jimmy Abegg is high on Theraflu.  my buddy 
walker was along, and appreciates all the music of those there but 
didn't really know much about it/them until last nite.  well, walker's 
an art student, and before i know it i'm standing there while he and 
JimmyA (of whom even i don't know all he's done, but i know it's a 
heck of a lot) are discussing painting and various other art forms.  
then Mark comes up and i mention that i'm on the list, and he's like 
"oops, i think i'm unsubscribed or something from aol."  apparently 
when he moved from chicago to nashville they totally unsubscribed 
the account, from what i could gather.  just thought i'd throw that in 
in case anyone's been trying desperately to email and hasn't 
gotten through, that would be why.
the other guys i met, Rick, Aaron, and Mitch, were also extremely 
friendly, down to earth, and really were totally humbled to be there.  
that sort of set the tone for the whole show for me.  This Train 
played first, not much more to say there.  awesome stuff.  then 
mitch played, and i'd heard him before at an outdoor show earlier 
this summer, but this time i was really blown away.  wow.  poor 
guy broke a string during one song so had to steal rick's guitar to 
play "the lemonade song."  then of course the Ragamuffins played, 
and it was just an incredible time of worship.  Rick's voice kinda 
went on the fritz towards the end, but it was so much a church 
atmosphere the second half of their set.  the first half was songs of 
the Jesus Record, which was incredible itself, then they took a 
break and started the second half with "Submarine" which included 
Mark, Aaron, Mitch, and one other of them (help me out here, 
Patti) playing the notorious Cup Game, of which i got several 
pictures.  actually i got some pretty good pictures all through the 
nite, i think, we'll see for sure when they develop.  then they did a 
song or two more and then just totally went into "one big church 
worship service" mode.  i needed this.  just a very moving 
experience.
if you are anywhere near one of the stops of the Homeless Man 
Tour, GO!  i don't care if or how many times you've seen any of 
these guys, it is so so incredible and lifting.

Joel Thomas

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