By Grace Hooley | Echo
Have you ever felt time stand still? The clock slows as a feeling of significance courses through your veins. You and the people around you experience it: a little bit of magic in real time.
Taylor students have the opportunity to experience this firsthand Friday, Feb. 24at 8:45 p.m., during a Josh Garrels and John Mark McMillan concert. This concert is a part of The Revelators Tour, during which Garrels and McMillan will be performing 11 concerts throughout the East and Midwest. The duo will be splitting the night as they perform a combination of old and new songs.
"We've got some things up our sleeves," McMillan said. "It's fun, just celebrating the gift of life. We enjoy one another."
Garrels was born in Detroit, Michigan, grew up in South Bend, Indiana, and graduated just a few miles down the road from Taylor at Ball State University in 2002. He now lives in Portland, Oregon, where he has been for the last eight years. McMillan is from Charlotte, North Carolina.
Garrels' father was a high school band and orchestra teacher, so music was a way of life for him. Growing up, he was more into skateboarding and visual arts than music. It was in his room at Ball State University that Garrels really started making music. He played one of his first performances in the DC at Taylor and realized that songs were inside him; he just had to pursue them. Playing this concert at Taylor feels like a homecoming to Garrels.
McMillan didn't pursue music by going to college. He picked up a few chords from an older man at his church and ran with the passion he discovered in music.
"I started playing music because I wasn't very good at sports and I wanted to impress girls," McMillan said. "I didn't impress a lot of girls, but I did fall in love with music."
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McMillan expressed that his favorite part of performing is the people. He enjoys forming relationships with fans, the band and those he encounters along the way. Garrels enjoys the pure feeling he gets when performing live.
"There's something in the show when those songs are happening in real time," Garrels said. "On the best nights, there's an energy that can happen. You all know that we are present for something unique. Even though it's the same material, we go in with our eyes wide open. There's troubleshooting, but the other side of that is that there's a magic that happens."
Travel snags and issues that happen onstage are the hardest parts of this process for these two musicians. In the end, all the time away from home, long hours spent setting up, playing, recording and tearing down are all worth it just to play live and feel some of that magic.
Tickets are on sale online through Feb. 23. Prices are $15.00 for Taylor students and students attending NSLC, $22.00 for faculty and staff and $25.00 for the general public. Remaining tickets will be sold at the door the night of the concert, with all prices increasing by $5.00. For more information, contact staustin@taylor.edu.
