Several churches in the 100 Mile House area banned together to bring the Juno-Award winning band Tim and the Glory Boys to 100 Mile House on March 7 at the Peter Skene Ogden (PSO) Secondary School’s gym.
“I think it was really successful. I think everybody had a great time,” said Rick Barker, the lead pastor of CCLF, of the free concert. “The band has a very fun-type of family show so it seemed there was a lot of good feedback.”
Guests could get tickets for the event on the band’s website, but because they were free and weren’t checked at the door it was hard to make out how many people were actually attending the concert. However, Barker guessed there was between 400 and 500 at the concert due to ticket “sales” and additional walk-ins.
There was a road bump though. An important part of the band’s show is using a smoke machine. Prior to the show, the machine was tested and set off the high school’s fire alarms, causing 100 Mile Fire Rescue to show up. This rendered the machine to be sidelined for the show.
“They did have a severed buffalo head. That was pretty good,” said a laughing Barker.
The head is a prop they bought on eBay and have hauled around the country on tour as part of their stage design. It’s hung above a fake fireplace and is rigged to breathe smoke and fire.
This is the third time the church community of 100 Mile House has brought the band to 100 Mile House. The first time the band played at one of the local churches. The venue was packed so it was decided it would be held at the 100 Mile House Community Hall. However, that time there was also too many people. According to Barker, this is why they settled on holding it a the PSO’s gymnasium.
“We’d love to do it again. They’re [Tim and the Glory Boys] a great bunch. Maybe a summer outdoor concert or something like that,” said Barker. “It’s nice when a band like that is very cross-denominational, so to speak, like all the churches are like: ‘yeah, let’s bring them in.’ That’s one of the reasons they work for everybody.”
The band also did a presentation on behalf of World Vision about sponsoring orphans in South Sudan, which has suffered through several conflicts as part of Sudan and as a sovereign state, including a current civil war.