Columbia County Performing Arts Center

Love to get some acoustic versions and a chance to hear the short stories again! I’ve been to 11 shows just this year and as always, can’t wait for the next in Durham.

Great performance! Thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

I’m a big fan of live music and this was my first time seeing Casting Crowns, I was blown away! OUTSTANDING

It was top notch !!!!

She was great I loved her and she has an amazing voice and she waves at all of her fans when they wave at her

Incredible band. I'm officially a follower!

The best experience I’ve ever had in my life

Night Ranger: 12/1/23 “With the Christmas season rapidly approaching I set out for Evans Georgia for my last regularly scheduled concert of the year (but you never know). The venue which is quickly becoming my favorite was the 2,062 seat Columbia County Performing Arts Center. Both the sound and view were perfect! Choosing my tickets wisely for both view and pricing on Ticketmaster’s map during the presale back in October I landed the exact center seat front row in the balcony. The evening prior I was informed that my seat would be upgraded and I ended up being seated eighteen rows back from the stage, orchestra level center, near the soundboard. Back in 1982 I had purchased Night Ranger’s first album ‘Dawn Patrol’ on vinyl when it first came out but to my chagrin hadn’t really followed the band much after that aside from their radio play favorites. The band originally formed in San Francisco in ’79 as ‘’Stereo’ and ‘Ranger’ has proven to naysayers throughout the years that yes, we can still rock in America despite the shifting of times and musical genres. Night Ranger still features its original members Jack Blades 69 (vocals, bass), Brad Gillis 66 (guitar), and Kelly Keagy 71 (drums, vocals) since the very beginning, plus Kerri Keli (guitars since 2014 who has played with a number of major artists including Alice Coper and Slash), and Eric Levy (‘The All-nighter’) on keyboards since 2011. Billed as ‘An Evening With Night Ranger’ the show was the first of a mini-15 date tour and hence there was no set list to follow along with. However with 13 studio albums producing 13 charted singles the evening was sure to be a winner no matter how it turned out! Arriving early I made made my way down to the open-concept stage for a close up revealing keyboards on a riser stage right and drums stage left separated by four stairs on each side leading up to an elevated walkway between the two. The dual drum heads each portrayed the classic logo as well as a large 40TH ANNIVERSARY logo backdrop positioned above the walkway center stage. There were no video screens. At 8:11 p.m. the lights went down to the sounds of Elvis Costello’s ‘Pump It Up’ as the American hard rock band took the stage for a one hour and 55 minute / 18 song set. Once the final member had taken their position on stage, the lighting turned to all red, white, and blue with the opening notes of ‘You Can Still Rock In America’ played over the sound system in a symphony arrangement. The spotlight then shown on Blades standing on the walkway under the logo holding his bass guitar up in the air. The rock anthem Blades wrote after reading an article about rock being dead in lieu of new wave back in 1983 began an evening filled with big hits, some covers, and many surprises. The sound quality in the venue itself was unparalleled considering it was pretty loud in there! Next on the set were ‘Four In The Morning’ 1985’s #13, and ‘Sing Me Away’ which cracked the top 40 and featured drummer Kelly on vocals and ended in a tri-guitar solo (there were plenty of them throughout the evening). Blades addressed the audience, ‘Well would you look at this, Night Ranger’s back in the great state of Georgia, how ‘bout that. I’ll tell you what, we’re just getting warmed up right now. We haven’t played in about ten days, you know, been eating turkey.’ Blades dove right into his supergroup ‘Damn Yankees’ catalogue with ‘Coming Of Age’ a #1 from the debut self titled release back in 1990. Blades switched up the lyrics skillfully from ‘I asked her her name, she said her name was Maybe’ to ‘She said her name was Georgia’ to the delight of the crowd. That wasn’t the only Damn Yankees song inserted in the set, ‘High Enough’ was featured in the second half of the show Blades introducing it by stating, ‘We’re gonna do a song I wrote with my buddy Tommy Shaw.’ ‘Sentimental Street’ a #3 single followed with perfect harmonies from the band backing up Kelly once again taking lead. Next came the surprises, the first being ‘The Secret To My Success’, Blades explaining how Michael J Fox had called up the band on the phone saying ‘I’m doing a movie called The Secret Of My Success and I want Night Ranger to play the title track.’ The song ended up being a #12 hit for the band back in 1987. ‘We’re gonna pull something right out of the back pocket from our second album okay?’, Blades announced, as a pair of unreleased as singles ensued, ‘Rumors In The Air’ the 2nd track from the ‘Midnight Madness’ album, then ‘Hey you remember ‘Call My Name’, you remember that song Eric?’ The Dawn Patrol deep cut was a great bonus, something I wasn’t expecting to hear. Covering his eyes from the spotlight to peer out towards the soundboard Jack apologized to Brian their sound man, ‘We are playing songs that were not on the setlist tonight!’. Then remarked, ‘He’s walking off the set right now. Oh, that’s another guy!’ With the spotlight now on Kerri, he played the opening riff to ’Sweet Child O Mine’ which ended abruptly as he surmised, ‘That’s all we know!’, then he busted out into a full rendering of ‘Schools Out For Summer’ from back in his Alice Cooper days. Next the spotlight was on Brad who had taken a hiatus from the band to fill in on guitar for Ozzy Osbourne after Randy Rhodes untimely passing for a full band performance of ‘Crazy Train’. For me it was a meaningful experience as I had seen Ozzy LIVE exactly 14 days after Rhodes died with Robert Sarzo filling in on guitar, he only played a handful of dates. Brad had not onboarded until later on in November of the same year —1982. The guitar solo was played with perfection, almost better LIVE than on the studio album. I know that could be considered sacrilege, but think about how many times Brad has played it LIVE so it’s really kind of an unfair comparison. ‘Who’s seen Ozzy play before raise your hand?’, Jack asked. I got to raise my hand as well as a number of folks in attendance. ‘Who has never seen Night Ranger play before raise your hand?’ I got to raise my hand again. ‘No s**t, where’ve you been, we’ve been doing this for forty years, come on!’ ’Night Ranger’, Dawn Patrol’s last track followed with a full blown drum solo occurring mid song. Jack began with a mini-bass/drum intro prior to Kelly taking over. One by one each member of the band joined in on the drum riser each with sticks in hand beginning with Kelli wearing a wolf head mask suited just for such the occasion. A surprise cover of Don Henley’s ‘Boys Of Summer’ followed with Brad and Kerri each on acoustic, Brad taking the lead solo. Blades called out, ‘Check it out, we’re doing crazy stuff for you so check this one out’. It was about time that things were starting to wind up toward a grand conclusion with a barrage of hits. First was ‘Goodbye’, a band favorite written by Blades addressing the topic of drug overdose and introducing it by saying how the song has ‘helped a lot of people out through a lot of hard times.’ Kelly left the kit with tambourine in hand for the #16 song from the ‘7 Wishes’ album. ‘When You Close Your Eyes’, ‘Don't Tell Me You Love Me’, and ‘Sister Christian’ were played in tandem completing the set. On ‘Don’t Tell Me’ Brad took the first part of the guitar solo and Kerri the second, both performed perfectly in addition to Blades spot on vocals. For ‘Sister Christian’, the band’s highest charted single, #2 in the U.S. and #1 in Canada, every cell phone flashlight was on, illuminating the auditorium! The band took their final bows to a recording of ’Sweet Caroline’ played over the sound system as the guitarists each took to the front of the stage with red solo cups full of guitar picks tossing out dozens as far as they could throw them. I overheard the sound operators remarking how the show lasted longer than they had anticipated, much to my delight. The show itself was by far one of the best of the year for me simply because the band captured entirely everything their genre of music stands for. I’ve been to rock shows where everyone keeps to their place and position on stage, not so with Night Ranger. They moved around the stage all evening long, keeping the energy levels to a ten, interacting with each other and with the audience unlike one would think for individual members in their 60’s and 70’s. One additional thing that may have made it so special for me was the fact that the I could identify completely with the demographics of the audience, just about everyone was my age. I suppose we we’re all reliving our high school years in our own kind of way. Long Live Rock!” Review and photo by DAve (Concert #841)

He is amazing 💞wish I could have been there, 🥰 attended the “guitar pull”really enjoyable performance 💞🥇🎇🎆

Incredible night! Mav City is a must see for anyone who gets the chance!! Venue was beautiful. Parking was easy. Definitely recommend.

One of the best concerts I’ve been too

Please invite Celtic Thunder back to the CCPAC. It is a wonderful venue and much more convenient than going to Atlanta. The show was great, as it always has been over these past many years at other venues. One little tweak would make it even better: the base guitarist should be hidden behind the drummer or keyboardist. His spastic antics and exaggerated facial contortions, more appropriate for a heavy metal lead performer, were a distraction. Background band members should stay in the background and not draw attention to themselves. Otherwise, the guys were great, including Ryan's sub.

Riley has a voice for the Lord!

Zach was in full praise & worship form as always. His music reaches people from all walks of life! The venue was excellent.

Zach Williams: 10/21/23 “With anticipation I made my way down Route 28 into Evans Georgia Saturday evening for my first time visiting the Columbia County Performing Arts Center and my first time seeing Christian rock singer/songwriter Zach Williams LIVE. I had heard raving reports about the venue from firsthand sources —most notably an usher who worked a different venue, on how it’s just like Greenville’s Peace Center, only newer, i.e. the sound and view from every seat IS really THAT good. A $27 Insider promo ticket solidified the decision to check it out for myself. In all transparency I wasn’t familiar with much from the Grammy and Dove award winning artist from Jonesboro Arkansas but an unplanned and uncontrollable month-long period of my Sirius XM being stuck on The Message fixed that somewhat. The concert itself fell towards the tail end of the third leg of Zach’s ‘A Hundred Highways Tour’ which wraps up on the 28th in Rochester New York. The 2,062 capacity venue was full and anticipation was in the air. My wife and I were seated left orchestra, 14 rows from the stage, but arriving early I was able to walk down to take in a close-up view. The stage was set for his ten piece band, a riser in the background held the positions of the keyboardist to the left, bass player in the middle, and drummer on the right. The B3 had an open face exposing all the innards in straight view towards the audience and the drum head had an image of a buffalo’s head. Behind the riser there were 6 light bars in descending size from the center with beacons on top. Eight hexagon shaped snowflake patterns of seven individual lights each completed the background. There were no video screens. In the forefront from left to right were two female background singers, a guitarist on either side of Zach positioned direct center, pedal steel, and a three piece horn section (trumpet, trombone and saxophone). At 7 p.m. 23 year old opener Riley Clemmons from Nashville TN (contemporary Christian pop) took the stage for a 35 minute / 8 song set beginning with ‘Fear Not’ from her new album ‘Church Pew’ released less than a month ago. ‘Evans Georgia how we feeling tonight Ladies and Gentlemen? My name is Riley Clemmons, we’re so excited to be here tonight, “Come on y’all.”’ Up next was a number 5 single from 2021 ‘For The Good’, and other than that and ‘Fighting For Me’ a number 4 single, the balance of the six songs were all from her new album to the neglect of other of her other charted singles. The songs all held true to a common theme of relationship and faith, and her three person band of guitar, drums, and keyboards were complimentary and not overwhelming. Mid set, I noticed that I had failed to put in my ear plugs as they were hardly necessary, an indicator of just how good the sound in the venue actually was. Her final song, ‘Loved By You’ currently at number 34 on the charts (and moving up) brought the loudest cheers from the audience. After what felt like a rather lengthy stage turn time the lights finally went down at 8:10 to all flashing red lights and a banjo backing track as Zachary Stephen Williams 45 took the stage for an hour and forty minute / 17 song set. Opening with ‘Big Tent Revival’, the first track from his latest release, the set leaned heavily on the new album from which the tour was named after with a prodigious nine song total. A pair of number ones ‘Less Like Me’ and ‘Old Church Choir’ followed with a pause in between for old fashioned meet and greet. To the background chords of an old church organ Zach led the charge, ‘How bout we have a little Church in here tonight? You guys do me a favor if you can, stand up and find somebody to shake hands with, hug somebody’s neck, let’s have some old fashioned Church!’ A friend of Zach’s just happened to be in town from American Idol Season 21 and he brought him on stage for a duet of ‘Sunday’s Comin’. ‘You guys give it up for Mr. Warren Peay’. One of the best performances of the evening, the outlaw styled ‘Jesus’ Fault’, a song Zach had just performed days earlier on the Dove Awards, featured Zach Ingle (the other Zach) on pedal steel guitar. As great as the music was, the message was even greater and things were about to get real as Williams began to share his story. ‘Over the years God allowed me to live through some dark days and walk through some messy times in my life.’ Zach had run to drugs, alcohol, money and material things to fill his void, but ‘the first place you find something is always the last place you look for’ he assured us speaking of Jesus. After emotional performances of a pair of number two singles ‘Rescue Story’ and ‘Fear Is A Liar’ (with Riley Clemmons brought back up on stage) he took a full fifteen minutes to recall his darkest moment and the breakthrough that immediately followed. Tired of living the lifestyle of a rock star and all that entailed with his Southern Rock band ‘The Reformed’, one evening as his tour bus driver was scanning the dial he came across the song ‘Redeemed’ by Big Daddy Weave which changed his life forever. Zach realized that even in spite of the state he was in he could still be saved. Thank you Big Daddy Weave! Next up were a pair of #1’s 2022’s ‘Heart Of God’ and 2019’s ‘There Was Jesus’ featuring one of his background vocalists singing the ‘Dolly Parton’ portion in a strong and moving vocal performance. Zach commented how that a lady had recently interviewed him, ‘If you had to describe your sound and your genre, who would you say you sound like?’ His response, ‘You know for the first time in my life I could say I sound like Zach Williams!’ The music experience we were treated to was diverse, the artist remaining true to his roots, a mixture of country, gospel, rock, and blues. During a reflective moment someone in the orchestra yelled out ‘Chain Breaker’ to which Zach replied, ‘It’s comin’, and it did! With everyone on their feet for the #1 song and band introductions following, the regular set concluded with an all stirring ending. All was not finished as Williams left and reentered the stage for an encore performance of ‘Praise Open’s Prisons’ with every cell phone in the air lighting up the entire Performing Art Center! Growing up in church and walking away Zach finally came home thanks to the power of a praying father who believed in him. He told us that one day while working construction with his father his dad shared a story that he had never heard before. When he was dedicated in church as a child Zach began screaming and the Pastor said, ‘Man this kid’s got a strong set of lungs, he’ll probably be a singer some day’ then spoke life over him pronouncing, ‘This child will be a voice for his generation!’ Who knows how music and message can shape or rather reshape a life, the two thousand person audience got a taste of what that kind of transformation can do!” Review and photo by DAve (Concert #834)

Outstanding show! He is 88 years old and still going strong. Have always loved his music.

Boz was great! Wonderful show. The Columbia Co Performing Arts Center made it even better.

Amazing!!! Sound was great and he put on an awesome show!! His band was great!!

Great show. Excellent acoustics in venue.

Wow!! When are they coming back??!!