I did not spell Revolution wong. Next weekend we’ll be heading to Chicago to lead worship for the Rebelution Conference, which is part of the Do Hard Things Tour. Never heard of these things before? Check this out:
So the tour and conference was birthed out of a book these Harris twins wrote called “Do Hard Things”. I was first exposed to the book when Noele’s teen brother Stevie was reading through it. Last year Noele and Stevie’s parents would read a chapter after dinner each night out loud. (When not on tour Noele and I go over to her parent’s house, who live 1 minute away, often during dinner time… how convenient). I was impressed by what I heard and though the book was aimed toward teens, I was challenged myself. This was during a time where we were choosing between leaving the comforts of our homes, secure jobs, and trying to make music a full time career. A year later the band is moving forward in God’s strength and seeking to do what we feel He has called us to.
Have a wonderful weekend! Quite appropo given the courage and boldness of many lives that brought us Independence Day! Enjoy celebrating! Go Rebels!!!!!!
It’s the start of a new July tour. This time we’ll be focusing on the midwest states. Come see this cool band from Philadelphia take over your town!
Rockin at Alive Fest 09 - Photo by Jahred Schmidt
Special Request: If you live in the Twin Cities (aka Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota) or know someone who does, we’re still trying to setup a show in your town the week of July 12th to 17th. The Twin Cities are the home to my relatives and I’d love to see them on this next road trip and rock your world at the same time. Let me know if you’re interested in booking Reilly.
Here’s the current schedule:
Jul 3 – Discovery Church – Williamstown, New Jersey
Jul 4 – Lykens Camp – Millersburg, Pennsylvania
Jul 5 – Pinebrook – East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania
Jul 10 – LIFEST 09 – Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Jul 11 – Rebelution Tour 09 – Chicago, IL
July 12 – 17 – STILL BOOKING. Minneapolis? Iowa? Illinois? email reillytheband@gmail.com if interested
I know we’ve shared a lot about vans breaking down, tires being blown, as well as thousands of dollars of repairs on our van, but I did want to point out that through out all this, God has provided and has given us much faith to be on the road! He is so good and it is a fact that He will provide for all our needs. Here’s some examples…
- On Tuesday, someone felt compelled to donate a lot of money towards the band… The person had NO idea that we were just hit with a hefty bill to fix our van! He told us God had put it on his family’s heart to give and that he did. Wow. We were nearly in tears by the generosity!
- Thursday morning we arrive to Creation Festival 09 and played on the amazing Fringe Stage! First time playing there. It was a blast to play for a hometown festival where we attended many times! Here’s a pic from the show:
Reilly at the Fringe
Fringe!
Playing the Fringe was a highlight in itself. We loved meeting and hanging with so many new friends. This had been a dream for a long time to play here.
I’m in bed at home and see that some producers from Creation Festival have called me numerous times and texted me. We had just come home the night before after playing the Fringe Stage and enjoyed sleeping in our own bed. I quickly realize that all the calls can only mean ONE THING: Creation needs a band to fill in and they wanted Reilly!
I call up Creation and it’s true. Pillar can’t make their slot on the Main Stage at 2 PM. They want us to play… Note we are 3 1/2 hours away and we have 4 hours before the slot… it takes up a few seconds to decide and I call the band up and we get in our cars and DRIVE.
Each band member drove separately and we arrived at 1:35 PM. We load in, soundcheck from 1:45-2:00, and then play our first Creation Main STage slot ever… Talk about getting promoted from Fringe to Main Stage… That’s probably the fastest that’s ever happened!!
Reilly rocking at the Main Stage of Creation
God is good and we’re enjoying seeing Him open up doors for us. There’s no doubt about it. See you on the road!
Best
We made it safely to Atlanta, despite the overnight drive and our van starting to make strange noises (props to Jordan for taking the 12-5am shift!). We played at Atlantafest on Saturday at noon in the blistering 96+ degree heat (the kind of weather where you sweat about a pound of water per hour), and it went really well. The festival even showed our music video each night on the jumbotrons! Sunday morning, we worshiped with Sovereign Grace Church in Woodstock, GA. It was a great time of fellowship, and we made some great new friends.
Enter Monday…. we took the van to a shop, and (as the mechanic put it), “I can’t stop you from driving your van, but I wouldn’t let my son drive it [until it's fixed].” I guess that noise that we heard was serious, since according to them there’s some kind of problem with our power steering and we’re leaking both steering and brake fluid. Now we just have to figure out how to get to our show in Greenville, SC tonight! We are trying to rent a van until we can get back to pick up our van. Luckily, we are enjoying good food, comfortable quarters and great company staying with John’s sister and one of her friends. Update soon!
As you saw in our last blog, Alive Fest 09 got poured upon by some heavy rains. This details our experience the night and morning following the downpour. The Beast, aka our van, was a goner…
Kentucky is very rainy — we got to the festival, only to find out that a ‘red cell’ storm was hovering over the area and people were being encouraged to take cover at their cars. The (giant) merchandise tent had also blown over the night before, and was still being set up. So with not much to do (we were there to promote; we weren’t playing a show until Friday), we made a shelter out of our tarp and had a good time eating a leisurely lunch. It’s also fun to run into so many familiar faces from The Psalters, Finding Favour, our friend’s from To Write Love On Her Arms, and our buddies over at Centricity. It’s like a big reunion! The day looked up quickly, - hold on -
..sorry, Katy and I just lost the dog at the house we’re staying at when the cable guys showed up and let him out. but we got him back. Furious scramble across the yard in our pjs, we must have been a sight!
So the day looked up quickly, as a band didn’t show up for their set and the sound guys offered us a slot to play at one of the side stages. We jumped at the chance, and it went really well. It also offered us a chance to work out some kinks in our set, since we’d be playing at a much bigger stage on Friday.
We ended the day by watching House of Heroes, Fireflight, and Family Force Five concerts, and we got our merch table set up after all. Our drummer Jordan, actually was in high school marching band with Fireflight’s drummer so it was a good chance for them to catch up.
Also, believe it or not, our trailer got ANOTHER flat, so THANK YOU, DAVE for that spare!
Dan Huie here checking in from Lexington KY. We’re going to setup at Ichthus Festival today. We left yesterday and captured a little “mishap” that occured on the way down… Please enjoy…
Suffice to say, Reilly is off to a bang! We’re really blowing up! (ding ding ding ding!)
We are one day away from heading out onto the Sunlight Summer Tour! We’re packing the van and trailer tonight and then will be hitting sites across this fine country. We have the pleasure of playing some major music festivals along the way (Creation, Ichthus, AtlantaFest, etc…) It’s exciting and also a step of faith as some members are quitting their jobs or taking unpaid leave of absence from their “full time job” in hopes to make this musical career the “full time job.” Success isn’t based on numbers for us though; it is based on doing what God calls us to do and to walk through it in faith. We’re hoping to reach brand new audiences with our music and show and share what many of you already know.
Here’s the run down of our June schedule. Continually check our www.myspace.com/reillytheband for the most up to date schedule and concert details…
6.12.09 ICHTHUS Festival 09 – Wilmore KY
6.13.09 Faith and Family Fest – Moundsville, WV
6.14.09 Richmond, VA ??
6.16.09 Church of the Open Door – York, PA
6.18.09 ALIVE Festival 09 – Canal Fulton, OH
6.19.09 The BIG Ticket Festival 09 – Gaylord, MI
6.20.09 ATLANTA FEST 09 – Atlanta, GA
6.22.09 The Channel – Greensville, SC
6.25.09 CREATION Festival 09 – Mt. Union, PA
6.27.09 Covenant Fellowship Church – Glen Mills, PA
6.28.09 Covenant Fellowship Church – Glen Mills, PA
We will be blogging, twittering (www.twitter.com/RE1LLY) from the road, so keep us bookmarked.
And as promised, here’s a fun new photo from our shoot on Sunday…
REILLY - How to have fun in a field
P.S. Thanks for all who voted and are spreading the word on our MusikFest Competition… Yesterday you single handedly pushed us into the top 4 slots! Now let’s keep the pressure on and finish the race strong! You can keep up to date the standings right here: http://musikfest.tumblr.com & you can of course vote here: http://www.musikfest.org/lineup/mabc_vote.asp
Next weekend we’ll be heading to Chicago to lead worship for the Rebelution Conference, which is part of the Do Hard Things Tour. Never heard of these things before? Check this out:
