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.

FAVORITES LISTS, AND THE SONGS I LISTENED TO MOST ON SPOTIFY - TWO DIFFERENT VIEWS!

David Pataconi (with the red hair) and friends at Kingdom Come Festival, June 21, 2025. The singer at the moment is Monica Soe, who is Pataconi's co-laborer in TheoTerran.

Yes, I had recently posted my favorite songs, fiction, and non-fiction for 2025. It is interesting to compare my list with what Spotify calls my top songs of the year. I'll share why later, but let me start with some thoughts.

I'll go ahead and mention - there were songs I was excited to hear last year, like "Atonement" by I Am The Pendragon, "Enough" by TheoTerran, "Resistance" by Divine Martyr. None of those made the Spotify list, but the reason was simple - they came out at the end of the year and competed with songs out for at least six months. A related issue - I usually have a book I didn't read till the end of the year, and I don't get to reviewing it until after I list it as a favorite! 

So I'll start by telling you what I'm going to do: I'll make December 1st the cut-off, and put December's in with the new year. I did think of that this year, but Divine Martyr didn't release "Resistance" until December 19th, and I wanted to allow them to get a song on the list before the year ended. It was a little crazy. 

But now, what about my Spotify list? Well, it depends on if you're talking about the Spotify list on my computer, which is my long-time and typical usage, or if it is the one I have on my cell phone, a recent development, which is predominately used for listening to worship songs on the list, though I do listen to contemporary songs I'm trying to decide if they make my year's end favorites list.

I chuckle when I see my Spotify's "Top songs" list, because there are many I don't remember or thought I listened to that much. (I'm speaking of the computer list, not the worship driven phone list.) For example, I look at the artists that had the most on the list (three had 4, one had 5). I could correctly guess on the four songs of one artist, but the others I could only guess two each. 

Let me start with the worship list. By the way, 91 of the songs on that list were hymns, choruses, and other worship tunes. 46 of the 58 artists on the list had one song on that list. Another 9 had a pair. Matt Redman had 3, Keith and Kristin Getty and Chris Tomlin had 4 each, and Twila Paris and 2nd Chapter of Acts both had 5. Sovereign Grace had 7, and there were 10 Maranatha music Praise choruses. Top 10 on that list?

1. "All I Have is Christ" - Sovereign Grace Music.
2. "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" - Trace Balin
3. "Truth I'm Standing On" - Worshipwired. (I recently learned Leanne Crawford also does that song.)
4. "You Never Let Go" - Matt Redman
5. "Great is the Lord Almighty" by Dennis Jernigan
6. "Behold Our God" by Sovereign Grace Music
7. "Holy" by David Pataconi
8. "Glorify Thy Name" by Maranatha Music
9. "Morning Comes When You Call" by 2nd Chapter of Acts
10. "All Creatures of our God and King" by Sovereign Grace Music.

Now, to the laptop. This list had 67 artists, 50 of which only had one song. With two songs each were Southbound, Sovereign Grace Music, End of I, Cosmic Cathedral, Autumn Eve, and Trace Balin. The seven artists with three each were XIII Minutes, Tierra Vacia, Divided Me, Devin Williams, Amy Shreve, Hello Luna, and Counter. 

The Band JAREN, Filthy Rags, and Rosalie Hovencraft had four each. The ones by JAREN weren't a surprise, but I could only name two songs I expected for Filthy Rags, Rosalie, or the artist that led the pack with five entries; David Pataconi.

For this list, I'll make it a countdown. Ready?

10. "Holy" by David Pataconi (#8 on my favorites)

9. "Hope Found Hope" by Mad At The World (#15 on my favorites)

8. "Dear Martyr" by Behold the Beloved (#2 on my favorites)

7. "All Aboard" by Rusty Shipp (not on top 20)

6. "More" by Autumn's Descent with Meredith Dunkel of Undefeated (not on top 100)

5. "Hold Your Light Up" by Jenny Colquitt (not on top 20)

4. "Stay" by XIII Minutes (#1 on my favorites).

3. "Cult Leader" by XIII Minutes (not on top 20).

2. "It Wasn't For Nothing" by The Band JAREN (#10 on my favorites list).

And the song that Spotify identified as #1? "Laodicea (Unplugged)" by Tierra Vacia (11 on my favorites).

Yes, there were surprises, but out of the top 10 on Spotify, 9 were NOT a surprise. (I'm not mentioning which one that is - this is my secret. Hint, though - it's not one that made it to the top 20. 

Hope that was interesting. I will say, though - I plan on the phone list to not be as much worship songs as last year, though I'll still be listening to worship in the morning.

TOP 20 FAVORITE SONGS OF 2025 (MY OPINION, OF COURSE)

XIII Minutes at Kingdom Come Festival, June 20, 2025. Lead vocalist Jerrod Cunningham also does vocals and guitar for I Am The Pendragon.

I am writing this on Sunday night, December 28th, for posting on Monday. Yes, that means 2025 is almost in the books, so it's time for me to give my year-ends posts. Year ends, because I'll not only be looking at my 20 favorite 2025 songs (posted on the 29th), favorite fiction and non-fiction (10 of each both posted on the 30th), and my look back at 2025 (31st), but also will give my thoughts on the new year (January 1st and 2nd).

This year, I debated on giving the list in alphabetic order plus revealing my number 1 (this refers both to songs and books), but decided to do something different, and give my favorites in order. 

I'll start by looking back. My previous favorite songs were "Truth" by Divine Martyr ('22), "WarCry" by TheoTerran ('23),  and "My Path To Walk by David Pataconi ('24). So you can say David, also being half of TheoTerran, has a two year streak going. Will he continue that streak? 

Like last year, I'll mark new artists to me from this year (marked with an asterisk). On the other side, there are groups I've followed for at least 20 years each: Amy Shreve (I met her and her husband Gary Wixtrom at a Voice of the Martyrs Conference in 2003), Mad at the World, and some obscure band called Petra - anybody heard of them? 

I'll include a link at the bottom for my Spotify list, in case you want to hear the songs on my list.  I would recommend that... but I'm biased.

Ready? Here we go.

20. "Summer Storm" by Rosalie Hovencamp.*

19. "Pain" by Sending68.*

18.  "King of Kings" by BibleWithLife*

17. "Deliver Us" by Petra.

16.  "The Storm" by End Of I.

15.  "Hope Found Hope" by Mad At The World.

14.  "How the Story Ends" by Amy Shreve.

13.  "All Things" by Sovereign Grace.

12.  "Reign Forever" by Citizen Crown.*

11.   "It Wasn't For Nothing" by The Band JAREN.*

10.  "Laodicea (Unplugged)" by Tierra Vacia.

9.   "Resistance" by Divine Martyr. 

8.  "Holy" by David Pataconi.

7.   "A Better Country" by Amy Shreve (though Gary Wixtrom sings lead on this one).

6.   "The Gospel" by Olivia Lane.*

5.   "Atonement" by I Am The Pendragon.

4.   "Enough" by TheoTerran.

3.   "War Cry" by The Band JAREN. 

2.   "Dear Martyr" by Behold the Beloved.

And now, may I have the drum roll? 

Any guess on who I put on top?

And my #1 song of 2025...

1.  "Stay" by XIII Minutes!

Here is the promised link in case you want to hear these songs.

Jeff's 2025 20 Favorites.

ALBUM REVIEW - "MODERN PSALMS II" BY DAVID PATACONI

Photo borrowed from David Pataconi

Last year, I took the 20 day challenge of posting covers of albums/CDs that influenced me. Not the first time: I did it before in 2020, and was surprised that the selected ones didn't change. One exception, though: TheoTerran's self-titled album made my list, the only recent album that had that honor.

Now if you're wondering what TheoTerran has to do with a review of "Modern Psalms II" by David Pataconi, then you aren't aware that Pataconi is half of TheoTerran. While there are differences in sound, both are heavily electronic projects. 

Included on this album is "My Path To Walk," a single that was released last year (2024), and was my favorite song of that year. There are a lot of other excellent songs on this project. My favorites included "Holy," "Psalm 18 (You Are My Light)," "Psalm 56 (My Shield)," Psalm 121 (Lift My Eyes Up)," "At Your Feet," and the fantastic closing instrumental "Hope in the Void."

My favorite song from '23 was TheoTerran's "WarCry." As mentioned above, my '24 favorite was Pataconi's "My Path to Walk." Even though this is only mid-March when I'm writing this, I would not be a bit surprised if my favorite song for '25 is from "Modern Psalms II."

 

FAVORITE SONGS - 2024

Hello Luna at Kingdom Come Festival

 This is the third song list I have, and like last year I'm making it a top 20. A lot of good songs. Once again, I'm putting them in alphabetic order.

Before I start, I will comment that I've discovered a lot of good bands and singers I was unaware of until 2024 - ten of them, to be exact. A couple were introduced to me on Glenn Remsen's Lithoscry broadcast, and several more via my connections with Always 1 Ministries which puts on Kingdom Come Festival. However, there's also one "old-timer" who made it on the list. I'll let you figure out who that iconic band that's joining more recent groups on this list.

Allow me to mention some highlights with the performances. I had the honor of seeing two of my favorite drummers to watch on Saturday morning: Mark McKowen of Divine Martyr and Christian Dunkel of Undefeated. These two bands and I Am The Pendragon, Reclaim the Day, and True Revival put on a great show as usual. There were great times of worship led by With Lifted Veils and BRVVE, But the show that blew me away was Hello Luna.

So here's the list of songs that blessed me this year. I'll put asterisks by the artists I've just been introduced to this year. I'll also include a link to my list on Spotify.

• "Above All Names" by Mr. Weaverface.*
• "Absolution" by Divine Martyr
• "Buried On The Inside" by Hello Luna*
• "Come To Forever" by Counter*
• "Cost Me Nothing" by Steph Andrews*
• "Enter The Light" by Counter
• "Fight, Fight, Fight" by Worhol
• "Help Us See Jesus" by Sovereign Grace Music
• "Life Inauthentic" by Worshipwired*
• "Lighthouse" by Crystoria
• "My Path To Walk" by David Pataconi. This one is my favorite of the year. The more I hear it, the more I'm moved, especially knowing the challenges Pataconi is facing. By the way, while this is the first time you've seen Pataconi's name on the list, I'm not including an asterisk because he's part of a band that made last year's list, and coincidentally (I promise) that band is the next entry on the list.
• "Overthrow" by TheoTerran
• "Paper Kingdoms" by Steph Andrews
• "Rise" by Undefeated
• "Rumble" by Tierra Vacia;* They also have an unplugged version; I'm including both on the playlist link.
• "The Declaration" by End of I,* featuring Deshiel Lynn*
• "Time To Go" by McKenna*
• "When We Were Kings" by Stryper
• "You Raise Me Up" - AL-TIRAH*
• "You Won't Ever Abandon Me" by Allie Crummy*

As said, here is the link to the playlist if you want to be blessed... I mean, if you want to hear the songs on my list.. Also, I'm waiting to see which songs I listened to the most this past year, and will be sharing that early next year.

A MONTH OF SELFLESSNESS? THAT'S A MONTH I'D GLADLY CELEBRATE!

Courtesy of David Pataconi

I had a friend who had the idea of creating a Christian calendar. It included changing the names of the days of the week and the months, reflecting, if I remember correctly, Christian virtues with at least the days. 

The biggest flaw was his months, in my opinion, is that it completely departed from our Gregorian calendar. Why is that a flaw? Because it separates those who use this calendar from the rest of the world and makes it harder to communicate. 

The Jews have an answer. They number their years the same, except instead of using B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (The year of the Lord), they refer to those designations as B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (The Common Era.) They have created an effective alternative that works in the real world.

Those who read my blog know that I have an alternative to Halloween that either coincidentally or providentially  (take your pick; you can guess which one I picked) happens to be the same day of the year as Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the Wittenberg door (otherwise known as Reformation Day).

In our culture, the focus has moved from days to months. We have Black History Month (February). We have Women's History Month (March). I don't know if they expanded Earth Day to the entire month of April, but it wouldn't surprise me. And many know what some designate the month of June as.

Well, my musician friend David Pataconi, member of the band TheoTerran as well as a solo artist, has proposed a wonderful alternative. He has designated June as "Selflessness" month. I think that's an excellent alternative.

The best thing is that it's not confrontational. Rather, it is how I choose to see that month. If someone want to encourage me to celebrate their month, sorry, but I've got other plans. 

When I was a member of an Assembly of God church in the mid-80's, I noticed that the denominational magazine had a designation for each week. For example, one week was to recognize their version of the Scouts. I've thought for years of doing the same, especially in this blog. Maybe I should just simplify and make it a month. 

And celebrating June as the month of Selflessness a great start..