KINGDOM COME FESTIVAL 26 REPORT PART 2 (SATURDAY JUNE 20, 2026)

Photo of the late David Pataconi, in the Subculture Stage area.

Saturday, June 20, was my seventh day of going to Kingdom Come Festival (KCF), but the first day I was not planning on volunteering. A friend from church was going to go, but it didn't work out. While I love to volunteer, the schedule was full of people I wanted to hear, so I kept busy without  helping out. 

Starting at 10:00am, the Main Stage has a rotation where the band plays for 30 minutes, tear down and set up lasts 15 minutes, and repeat. For me, it makes it easy to think of the performances as blocks of four in a three hour period. This year, the first four included True Revival, Melanie Waldman, Natural Grace, and Angel Machine. True Revival started off the Saturday line up the last three years, and I look forward to that tradition. Melanie Waldman performed solo, and was one of the few quiet times (not counting the Acoustic Stage). I enjoy a lot of Natural Grace's songs, such as "Paper Tigers." On that song, she tossed out tiger striped beach balls. She was joined on stage with Kevin Young from Disciple. First time I was able to say. As for Angel Machine, they became my #1 bucket list band after hearing Daniel Band the previous night. 2 bucket list bands fulfilled in two days. 

True Revival on KCF Main Stage

Melanie Waldman

Natural State with Kevin Young of Disciple

Wayde and Apryll of Angel Machine, with D.Z. of Fervor My Dear in the shade on the right.

From 1:00 to 2:30, I went to the Acoustic Stage where I had the honor of hearing another band I had yet to hear in person: Chaotic Resemblance. Considering I wrote a term paper on the Nazirite vow, how can I not be a fan of a group that has an album called "The Nazirite?" I thoroughly enjoyed that acoustic set. Then, I went back to the main stage area where I heard a couple of songs by the rapper Saint Rockstar, had lunch, and enjoyed Tricord, whose set included an appearance by B Wayde, joining them on the song "Liar," a tune that spent multiple weeks at number one on Rock 4 Him's countdown. From there, I went to the Subculture stage for an event I had been looking forward to since they announced the line-up. 

There were two sets I couldn't miss at this year's KCF. The previous blog mentined The Daniel Band being on the stage Friday, which was a time of joy. The other was the David Pataconi Tribute at 2:30, a time  to mourn. David Pataconi and a couple of other people involved with KCF and Always 1 Ministries went home to be with the Lord. I had the honor of hearing David Pataconi twice last year.

Believe it or not, I don't often run across conflicts between two artists I want to hear, so it can be traumatic when it does happen. One band I wanted to hear was Drive Thru Society, who was scheduled for 2:30 at the Main Stage. Some might say, "But wait! Isn't that when the David Pataconi Tribute was scheduled for 2:30 on the Subculture stage? Yep. And the decision was a no-brainer. But then, they announced the schedule for the acoustic stage, and Drive Thru Society had a 6:00pm set. 

However, there are inevitablity changes, and some artists last minute aren't able to make it. One of those artists were the one schedule for 8pm. How did they fill the slot? Well, they moved the 7pm artist to fill that spot. And the 6:15 artist to fill 7pm. And so on, up to... you guessed it. Until the 3:15 slot, so there was no bands performing on other stages when the Memorial Tribute took place.

I needed that time of mourning.The band members and the guest singers (including Asche Relesser, Fyrebrand, Jermaine Nixon of Tricord, Jerrod Cunningham of I Am The Pendragon and XIII Minutes, and Jeremy Brown of the Rock 4 Him Podcast) wore shirts similar to the one David Pataconi has on in the above photo ("I'm Dave Doing Dave Things"), with the first "Dave" replaced by the singer's first name. I had tears when I heard Jeremy sing my favorite David Pataconi song, "My Path To Walk," a song that moved me since I first heard it in '24. I needed to be there.

Chaotic  Resemblance, Acoustic stage.
 

Tricord, including Jermaine Nixon second from left and Charles Martin on right. I was able to hear both their full power set and their acoustic set. Jermaine and Meg Hudson of Drive Thru Society had joined Reclaim the Day. In like manner, rapper B Wayde joined Tricord on "Liar."

Asche Relesser and the members of Autumn's Descent at the David Pataconi tribute.

Drive Thru Society

Matt Moore at acoustic stage.

I mentioned the one conflict that was resolved, but a lesser conflict took it's place. I mentioned I wanted to hear was Drive Thru Society, who had been moved to the 3:15 slot on the Main Stage so they didn't conflict with the tribute. Another artist I wanted to hear was Autumn's Descent, who were scheduled for the Subculture Stage at 3:30, overlapping with Drive Thru Society. So I did what anybody else in their right mind would do: Go to hear Drive Thru Society at 3:15, then after two songs run over to hear Autumn's Descent and then ... you get the picture.

My original plan for Saturday after the Memorial was the above mentioned Autumn's Descent at 3:30, Tricord acoustic set at 4, either a few minutes of XIII Minutes (maybe watching XIII Minutes for 13 minutes?) or wandering around the merchandise tent and talk to artists. At 5, I would have the honor of watching my first Matt Moore set at the acoustic tent, killing more time till 6 to hear Drive Thru Society's acoustic set, and closing out my time with Graverobber. That is a band that I'm curious if it's just a rock band in a horror getup, or if they put on a unique, memorable show. 

Well, I did watch Autumn's Descent, and I did hear Tricord  at the acoustic stage (a real blessing), but that was where plans were changed. After a round trip and a half from home and a lot of standing at concerts and moving from location to location, I realized I was running out of gas. So I did spend some time at the tent and listened to a couple of Matt Moore songs, and then headed to the car to get home while I had my second wind. (Yes, I obviously made it home okay.)  So I'll be hoping to get to hear Drive Thru Society's full set and maybe Graverobber next year. 

So now I'm counting the days until they reveal the KCF 27 lineup.

David Pataconi Memorial with (from left) Asche Relesser of Relesser/Autumn's Descent, 
Jeremy Brown of Rock 4 Him Podcast, Jermaine Nixon of Tricord, Jason Brand (aka Fyrebrand)
Jerrod Cunningham of I Am The Pendragon,  and DZ of Fervor, My Dear.
Jacob Mars is represented by the elbow poking out on the right.

KINGDOM COME FESTIVAL 26 REPORT, PART 1 (FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2026)

 

What was my dream? Seeing The Daniel Band at KCF What was the dream of Concert Foto's photographer Chad Fenner (red hair, lower center)? Photographing The Daniel Band at KCF. 

Last weekend (June 19-20, '26) was my fourth consecutive Kingdom Come Festival (referred to subsequently as KCF, not to be confused with KFC, though both include drumsticks). In '23, Becky suggested I go on Saturday but not use time off. The following three years, she said, "Go to both days. Enjoy yourself." (Note - technically, it gets started on Thursday, but I don't like driving at night, so I only go during the day on Friday and Saturday.

If you've been reading this blog awhile, you'll notice I usually have a follow-up where I cover both days. This year, I'm going to have a separate blog for each days. Several reasons. 

1. It makes each blog shorter for the readers.
2. The more I go, the fuller the days are, so I have more to include.
3. Both days this year have a special activity, and as a result both days and thus I'm separating them.

I started off Friday volunteering at the welcome booth from opening at 10:00am to 2:30. There's an internal conflict - at 10am, there's a prayer and worship time, allotted two hours, While I want to do both, on Fridays I hear a couple of the worship songs led by the , share any requests with The Subculture Pastor Dale Vaughn, and run off to the welcome booth. During that time, I snuck into the Subculture Stage to hear a little of Brightstar, then grabbed lunch from the concession stand, which I ate while listening to rapper B-Wayde, and manage to get back to my post early (that shocked me!),

A year old picture from last year of me at the Welcome station. 

Jay, worship leader of The Subculture in Illinois.

Rapper B Wayde on the main stage.

Brightstar on the Subculture Stage at Kingdom Come Festival with photographer Chad Fenner

When I finished my shift, I did something not typical. From 2:30 to 4:00 I bounced back and forth between the main stage to The Subculture Stage to the Acoustic Stage and Coffee House (also sponsored by The Subculture), catching one song at one, two at the other, and having a visit or two to the Merch tent. It wasn't as frantic for the following couple of hours. During that time, I found a couple of new favorite band (Oak & Linden, and Jason Wayne from Drown The Planet). Of course, there were other already favorite bands I heard such as Reclaim the Day, Becca Sugg (singer of Reclaim the Day, who also did an acoustic set), I Am The Pendragon, and Chris Bousum. 

Oh, I'm talking about the music. But is the Gospel preached? Yes. Trevor Heyd of xstaytruex Ministries had a set where he shared the gospel. Others did so as well. I mentied Dale Vaughn above? He's pastor of The Subculture in Illinois, which has several ministries in the area as well as church. He brought along a group that he hear called the Castros, and asked them to share. In the above photo, you'll notice photographer (Flash Mob) has red hair. There's a reason, ministry related, which I'll share in Part 2.

Dale Vaughn, of the band As We Are and pastor of The Subculture, at The Subculture Stage at KCF 

Reclaim The Day on the Main Stage.

Me with Jason Wayne from Drown The Planet, in the Merchandise Tent. 
 

Oak & Linden at the Subculture Coffee House & Acoustic Stage

Trevor Heyd of xstaytruex Ministries. He did an excellent job sharing the Gospel (as did other artists).

The Castros at the Subculture Stage.

  

 

Me with Matt Moore. Besides being a great artist, Moore is the emcee for the Main Stage every year.

Becca Sugg, lead singer of Reclaim The Day (l) and her sister Miranda Brown at  the Acoustic Stage.

Kevin (Moose) Bush (white hat, pink jacket) and Jerrod Cunningham (mask) of
I Am The Pendragon on the Subculture Stage at Kingdom Come Festival..

Chris Bousum at the Coffee House and Acoustic Stage.

And then came the highlight of the day.

On the top of my bucket list was to hear The Daniel Band in person. I discovered them when they were in concert twice at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in the early '80's, but never had a chance to see catch a concert. That bucket list item was fulfilled Friday at 6pm, when Daniel Band took the main stage. It was the blessing I expected it to be. That set had several favorites such as "He's The Creator," "Run From The Darkness," "I'm Sorry," "Never Again," "Two Roads," and "Somebody Loves You." I had the honor of hearing the riffs and solos and melodies and the lyrics I've heard on pre-recorded material for over four decades.

The highlight: I was able to take a few seconds to thank Bassist/Vocalist Dan McCabe for blessing me for years with the songs "Spiritual Game" and "Here I Am." 

Tony Rossi of The Daniel Band, on the Main Stage.

There was a voice in my head talking about feeling entitled. But another voice told me that the real reason I'm a Daniel Band fan is not because of Tony Rossi's great guitar (though it is great) or Dan McCabe's vocals (though they also were great), but because the band had a heart for evangelism and also edified fellow believers as well.

Daniel McCabe of the Daniel Band.

ALBUM REVIEW - "RUNNING OUT OF TIME" BY THE DANIEL BAND

 

"Running Out of Time" is the last of the Daniel Band's five studio albums, and it's as strong as the others. The opening song, "Black and White," is one of the hardest songs in their roster: I first heard it as part of the compiliation "Heavy Righteous Metal." 

Once again, there are several strong songs on the album, such as "Hold On," "Long Time," "Party In Heaven," before getting to a double whammy to end things up, with the title track and the bonus track "One."

It's a Daniel Band album, so of course I'm recommending it. 

By the way, this is scheduled to post at 7:00 pm on June 20th, 2026. 24.5 hours ago, the Daniel Band finished up their set for their first appearance at the Kingdom Come Festilval, with me finally getting to hear my all time favorite band live, almost 45 years since I heard them on the radio.

BOOK REVIEW - "THE GOD ASK: A FRESH, BIBLICAL APPROACH TO PERSONAL SUPPORT RAISING" BY STEVE SHADRACH

 A lot of the Christian ministries I'm familiar with fall in the category of faith-supported missions, where the missionaries are responsible for raising (or, as the Conservative Baptist movement puts it, discovering) their support. This can become a joyful training for the missionaries to trust in God even when they are stuck at a percentage of their support. But then, it can be discouraging and the missionaries may give up. 

One resource for those who need to raise support is "The God Ask: A Fresh, Biblical, Approach to Personal Support Raising" by Steve Shadrach. This book has a lot of great ideas. One is seeing support-raising as a triangle, with God at the top, the ministry-worker looking to God for support on one corner, and the supporter seeking God's supply and blessing in the other. 

The strongest point is to see this as a partnership. Shadrach encourages those who receive support to pray for the donors, have regular communication with them, learn their birthdays and anniversaries, and develop your relationship with them. This is what I despise about multi-level direct sales: That approach makes it seem like that getting you to buy into their business is more important than cultivating a friendship.

However, there were many things in this book that made me cringe. It took me three months to get through "The God Ask," because Shadrach's aggressive "The Wrong Way or My Way" approach consistently made me uncomfortable. Early on, he gives the impression that it's possible to raise 100% of your support in 100 days, but by the time I ended, he made it sound like the reality is it's a never-ending process. 

Two impressions he gave is his approach is 1) Biblical and 2) not high pressure sales. Unfortunately, he didn't convince me on either point.

1. I will admit - I do not consider his views unbiblical (condemned by Scripture), but I don't see a strong in-context and consistent mandate. There are two points where his theory is at odds with Scripture. First, 3 John 7 applauds workers who take nothing from the Gentiles (unbelievers), while Shadrach says there's times to ask non-Christians to support a Christian ministry. Second, Shadrach discourages working to help provide for your support (like the tent-maker model, following the example of Paul) but to put all your time in fundraising.
2. As far as resembling the high pressure direct sales impression, he suggests asking for specific amounts. With a professional double income family, he strongly suggests the monthly amount asked for should be at least $100, and Shadrach stated he felt insulted when a person seeking support  asked for only $35 a month. It sounds like he's promoting asking everybody you know to be a supporter, and if you have a person who has been giving a large amount regularly, ask him to give more.

I'm giving this book a 3 star review. I would without hesitation recommend this book for anyone who needs to raise financial support for their ministry, but I also would emphasize it's one person's theory, and encourage them to modify their application to their personal convictions. 

ALBUM REVIEW - "RISE UP" BY THE DANIEL BAND

 "Rise Up" is the fourth of Daniel Band's five studio albums. As you'd expect if you listened to their other projects, there is a lot of good hard rock songs with straight forward Christian lyrics.

Any song that calls us back to our relationship with Christ - our Bethel - gets my approval, and that's how this album starts. It works its way through several good songs before getting to the equally powerful "Right Heart." Normally, I'd identify all the good songs, but they're all good songs.

One note if you're looking at the Spotify list instead of having the product in front of you: you'll see "Rise Up" listed as both the second and fourth songs on the project. Nope, they goofed - the fourth song is actually "Paradise."

This version of the product has a bonus track - "That's Alright," originally written and recorded by Darrell Mansfield. The Daniel Band has a few minor tweaks to the song instrumentally, and includes the third verse which deals with evolution: Darrell performs that verse live wearing a monkey mask, but it's not on the original recording.

As you'd expect, I highly recommend this project.

BOOK REVIEW - "IS THE CHURCH STILL RELEVANT?" BY JODY BURKEEN

 

Can a person live a strong Christian life without the Church? Or does the failures of the Church justify an isolated Christian life without other believers helping?

Pardon for me spoiling the end of the book - In "Is the Church Still Relevant?" author Jody Burkeen says yes. This book traces the church's history from Pentecost, and point out that while the Church has hurt a lot of people and give its parishoners ample reason to withdraw, the Church also has an important place in other people's lives.

In "Already Gone: Why Your Kids Will Quit Church and What You Can Do To Stop It" by Answers in Genesis' Ken Ham, pollist Ken Beemer with  Todd Hillard, the authors make the case that the youth who abandon the church do so for two reasons: Either the Bible is believed irrelevant or the Church is believed irrelevant. Burkeen's book focuses heavily on the latter.

One nice thing about this book is it's a quick, easy read. The text is written in mostly one or two sentence paragraphs, with a very poetic style, and enough repition to drive its points home.

I do have a couple of problems with this book. In the first chapter, Burkeen states that Pentecost included literal fire on each head. Technically, no. Acts 2:3 reads, "Then there appeared to them divided tongues, AS OF FIRE..." This is a minor point, but to me, that weakens his point, and it's weakened early. Another is that it doesn't really deal with repentance: it's more like people leave church because one or more people in the church failed them, with nary a message that the person might have left church because they are engaged in an activity either the Bible or the Church (or both) calls sin.

That being said, this book is an encouraging book. As said, it's a simple read, with short paragraphs. I would recommend it for a person who has been hurt by either an individual believer or by a church. It is written with admonitions both for the person who left church and for the church that wants to bring them back. 

ALBUM REVIEW - "RUN FROM THE DARKNESS" BY THE DANIEL BAND

 

A friend of mine, Concert Fotos photographer Chad Fenner, told me this was his third favorite album. Ever.

As a fan of the Daniel Band, and hearing some of the songs in isolation, I wasn't surprised. But a couple of weeks ago, I finally listened to the complete project, and concur that this is a great album.

I can talk about all the great songs on this project. It's easier to say they all fit that category. One song, however, stands out, which is the title track. That song has joined "He's The Creator" (from On Rock), "Spiritual Game" (also On Rock), and "Here I Am" (from Straight Ahead) as my favorite Daniel Band songs.

In other words, I really enjoyed it.

One other note - the final two tracks on this version were originally on other projects. "My Children" was the finale on the fourth album, "Rise Up," while "In The Sky" was originally on  their dubut project, "On Rock." Listening to the latter on Spotify, it gives the time as being 6 minutes, about twice as long as the "On Rock" version, but on Spotify, the extra time is silent.