Friday, May 9, 2003 | 8:39 a.m.
What: "Come Together and Worship" featuring Third Day, Michael W. Smith and Max Lucado.
When: 6 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Thomas & Mack Center.
Tickets: $28-$38.
Information: 739-3267.
A town often described as America's adult playground might not seem like the ideal setting for a Christian music revival.
But Third Day singer/guitarist Mac Powell isn't worried about playing Las Vegas for the first time Sunday, when his band's "Come Together and Worship" tour stops at the Thomas & Mack Center.
"They say Vegas is Sin City, but pretty much every city is Sin City," Powell said in a recent phone interview from his Atlanta home. "Every place has its pros and cons, its good and bad. We're just going to do what we normally do, and hopefully the people there will like it."
Along with Third Day, the show will feature singer/keyboardist Michael W. Smith and best-selling author Max Lucado, providing the 30-year-old Powell with an opportunity to team with two of his main influences.
"Michael's 'I 2 Eye' record was the very first Christian album that I ever heard, and it really encouraged me," Powell said. "When we started the band, I didn't even know what Christian music was. I'd heard of Petra and Amy Grant, but I'd never listened to it. Then my girlfriend at the time, who ended up becoming my wife, gave me Michael's record and I fell in love with it.
"Being onstage and singing music with him is really an honor."
Lucado, author of more than 200 Christian books, including September's "A Love Worth Giving," also played a major role in Powell's spiritual development.
"I can't tell you how many Max Lucado books I've been encouraged by over the years. They've helped me grow in my faith," Powell said. "A couple of days ago, Max called me on my cell phone and I got off the phone and went, 'Man, Max Lucado just called me.'
"I'm still a fan. I feel like Chris Farley around those guys, where I'm like, 'Remember when you ...' "
Powell grew up listening to his father's stash of classic rock records, albums by Jim Croce, James Taylor, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Beatles.
He and Third Day guitarist Mark Lee started a rock band of their own in high school, but that proved short-lived when a religious experience changed Powell's life forever.
"Not long after I joined that band, I felt a calling from God to make music for him, so I had to quit the band," Powell said. "It was kind of a tough thing. I was praying, saying, 'God, this is something I've always wanted to do and now I finally have it and you're asking me to quit doing this.'
"But it kind of taught me a lesson that when he asks us to give something up, he's got something better planned for us. And that turned into Third Day."
The five members of Third Day -- Powell, Lee, bassist Tai Anderson, guitarist Brad Avery and drummer David Carr -- have been together since 1992. The band has released six successful albums, played to packed arenas throughout the country and captured more than 20 of Christian music's annual "Dove Awards."
But it wasn't until Powell and his bandmates decided to tinker with a new sound on their fourth album, 2000's "Offerings: A Worship Album," that Third Day truly became a household name in Christian music circles.
The disc, a combination of live and studio songs, was a significant departure from the band's early poppy rock sound. Instead, "Offerings" featured "worship" material, more overtly religious music with an inspirational theme.
"It was honestly just a record we were making for our fans. The record company really didn't even want us to make it," Powell said. "So we put it out just hoping if we sold a third of what we normally sell on a record we'd do great. And we ended up selling three times as many records as we normally sell.
"I think because it had that 'worship' name on it, there were probably a lot of people who had never listened to Third Day before. They probably figured that we were just the rock band their kids listened to, but that album gained us a lot of new fans, and we've kept those fans."
Indeed, those new fans have continued buying Third Day albums. Though 2001's "Come Together" marked a return to the band's more straight-ahead rock style, it quickly joined "Offerings" and 1999 record "Time" in earning rapid gold certification.
"Come Together" also garnered Third Day's top honor to date, the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Gospel Album.
"It's pretty incredible. I never in my life thought I could be a Grammy Award winner. That's just not one of those things you think about," Powell said.
"When we were nominated the first couple of times and didn't win, and it was the old cliche: 'It's just an honor to be nominated.' Then the third time we were nominated and didn't win, we went, 'Come on. I thought third time was the charm.'
"And then the fourth time it was like, 'Forget the honor to be nominated. We want to win this thing.' "
Third Day released its sixth album, "Offerings II: All I Have to Give," in March. The disc features a similar makeup to the first "Offerings" CD: live tracks mixed with studio material, and a "worship" theme running through it all.
The band is already working on its next release, another rock album, slated for release early next year. With music that appeals to young fans, Third Day continues to debunk the notion that Christian music is an old-fashioned, outdated genre.
"I was the same way. I felt those stereotypes were there, that it was cheesy, outdated music, something that I wouldn't want to listen to," Powell said. "But the great thing about the Christian music scene is that any kind of music you're into, you can find that type of music within Christian music.
"And you can find a lyric that is uplifting and encourages you in your faith. We're proud to be part of that."
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