Electric 94.9 with Jinger and Izzy along with some help from Grindstaff Kia gave the community an early Christmas present with this year’s Acoustic Christmas show at the Meadowview Convention Center in Kingsport last Thursday.The lineup this year included Hot Chelle Ray, We the Kings, Shontelle, Sick Puppies, The Ready Set and 3oh!3.

For an acoustic Christmas show, I can’t help but notice that not all of it was acoustic, nor all that Christmassy. The doors were scheduled to open at 5:30 p.m., with the show starting at 6:30 p.m. I’m not sure what time the doors officially opened, but all I know is that I arrived at about 6:30 p.m., and still had to wait in line outside in the freezing cold, wondering why concerts are not restricted to summer-only activities.

Even though the songs weren’t Christmas related, the message was. In the middle of the performances, a check was presented to Toys for Tots for the Tri-Cities amounting to $10,000 so that kids in the area will have a better Christmas.

As far as the performers, I must give props to Shontelle. Admittedly, I have never heard of her before. Sure, she has a couple of hit singles on the radio, “T-Shirt” and “Impossible.”

It isn’t really my style of preferred music, after seeing her perform acoustically, I actually have more appreciation for her.

Not only that, but she seemed genuinely excited to be there, and had a likeable personality. She was also the only performer to attempt any kind of Christmas song, and even did a cover to Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” – to which my only complaint is that she only did the first verse and chorus.

Hot Chelle Ray and We the Kings also performed acoustically. Not that I’m necessarily trying to criticize these bands, but I simply don’t have much to say about them. Seeing them live didn’t make me like them any less, but it didn’t really make me like them any more, either. Their hit songs, “Bleed” (Hot Shell Rae) and “We’ll Be a Dream,” (We the Kings) are catchy and I enjoyed them, but I give credit to the mere exposure effect on this.

I was curious to see Sick Puppies perform acoustically, since I consider them to be the most “hard-core” band of the lineup. I had a hard time imaging hard rock songs like “You’re Going Down” acoustic, but they performed it, and I thought it was great.

The Ready Set and 3oh!3 performed regular concerts – – as in, not acoustic. Maybe they just didn’t get the memo. Anyway, this seemed to change the crowd’s demeanor from calm and chill and sitting on the floor, to excited and on their feet -like a real concert is supposed to be.

The Ready Set did a pretty good job of working up the crowd and performed their singles, but nobody got the crowd (and myself) more responsive and excited than 3oh!3.

Collectively, the crowd jumped around, sang every chorus, and soaked in every moment of great sound that 3oh!3 produced.

Seeing the band live was not disappointing at all, and if anything, was even better than when I had seen them before in Atlanta. Plus, the crowd at this Christmas show was a little less intimidating than most concert going experiences I’ve had.

This combination made the whole experience well worth the $24 ticket, and knowing that the money went to a good cause made it that much infinitely better.

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