Fair Jam brings two Christian rock acts

By Matt Echelberry

Inquirer Reporter

Fair Jam 2012 brought two bands to the Craw­ford County Fair on July 19 for an evening of Chris­t­ian rock. The enter­tain­ment began at 7:30 p.m. with Aban­don, which opened for Big Daddy Weave.

Aban­don is a three-piece band from San Anto­nio, Texas fea­tur­ing the tal­ent of Justin Engler on vocals, Ste­van Vela on lead gui­tar and David Vela on drums. The music that the band played could be described as a cross between U2 and The Killers. It deliv­ered a high energy per­for­mance for a size­able crowd.

The band has been tour­ing for six years and has released two EP’s and two albums, “Search­lights” (2009) and “Con­trol” (2011). Cur­rently Aban­don is work­ing on its third album and has a head­lin­ing tour that starts this Octo­ber called “Live it Out.”

It per­forms at high schools as well, which is part of a pro­gram in coor­di­na­tion with moti­va­tional speaker Keith Robin­son. “It’s all about encour­ag­ing the kids using words and music together,” Engler explained. For more infor­ma­tion about Aban­don, visit its Face­book page (www.facebook.com/Abandon) or splash page (www.abandonrock.com).

Big Daddy Weave hit the stage just as the sun went down behind the Grand­stand. Broth­ers Mike and Jay Weaver are two of the mem­bers; Mike sings and plays acoustic gui­tar while Jay plays bass. The other mem­bers are: Jeremy Red­mon on lead gui­tar, Joe Shirk on key­boards and sax­o­phone, and Jeff Jones on drums.

They had a dif­fer­ent sound than Aban­don, going for more of a mel­low vibe rem­i­nis­cent of 90’s alter­na­tive out­fits like Dave Matthews Band. Big Daddy Weave has been around for over a decade and has nine albums under its belt. It played some of its hit sin­gles like “Every Time I Breathe,” “In Christ,” “With­out You” and “What Life Would Be Like.”

For more infor­ma­tion, visit the band web­site (www.bigdaddyweave.com) or on Face­book (www.facebook.com/BigDaddyWeave).

Sev­eral local churches were involved in orga­niz­ing and spon­sor­ing Fair Jam 2012, includ­ing Bucyrus Methodist Church, First Alliance (Bucyrus), First United Methodist (Crest­line), Gospel Bap­tist Church (Galion) and Vic­tory in Truth Min­istries (Bucyrus).