ASNN

swc 2007: day 2

After a short night filled with the frustrating inability to sleep too much, we were ready to hit day 2 of Spirit West Coast. But first, a visit into town for coffee and earplugs.

After collecting an English Breakfast Latte from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, as well as earplugs to protect what is left of my poor hearing, we headed over to the fairgrounds to catch the day's shows. In our quest for caffeine, we missed the first group and devotions, but made it to see Masada on the main stage. We were excited to see a jazzy, latin Christian band; a question I have always had is, "Why aren't there any Christian jazz artists?" Maybe I just don't know about any of them. In any case, they were not what we expected, focusing heavily on the latin stuff (of which neither Vanessa nor I am a huge fan). They also didn't seem quite on the same page, and the sound problems on the main stage continued. I can imagine it was frustrating for them because it was pretty uninspiring for us.

After wandering around the vendor booths for a while, we headed back to camp to eat PB&Js for lunch and relax a bit. We came back to catch a little of Margaret Becker's second show; it was a lot of the same stuff as her late-night show the previous night, but came off a little better. Both of her shows really showcased her rich voice and (unfortunately?) in-your-face attitude. Meh.

We took the long trek over to the C28 Arena Stage to see our next act, RAE (nothing online?) and Red. The latter was really the band I wanted to see that afternoon, as they are good ol' fashioned chunky mosh metal. But we didn't know what time they were supposed to go on, so we had to forego a "Worship Q&A with Delirious?", which happens to be Vanessa's favorite (?) Christian band. That turned out to be a dumb idea, as RAE was about 20 minutes late in coming on and they were pretty forgettable once they did actually take the stage. So we missed a relevant session with a tremendous band to stand around trying to avoid listening to a mediocre one... bummer.

Red, however, was really good. They had tremendous energy, played to the crowd (which was largely 15-year-old boys wearing bandanas around their faces and moshing), and sounded awesome. They saved "Breathe Into Me" until their final song, but the rest of their set introduced me to their other songs, all of which were pretty solid. I'll definitely be grabbing their album.

We hustled back to the main stage, but given the lateness of RAE, we missed Todd Agnew. Yet another bummer, but the night was young. Delirious? was playing early that evening, so Vanessa and I grabbed some polish sausage corn dogs and plopped ourselves in the standing-room-only area just in front of the stage. We were not going to be able to sit for the evening's festivities...

When Delirious? came on, they were all dressed in white jump suits. The bassist was even working the wings and all. Their set was unimaginably good — "Majesty (Here I Am)", "History Maker", "Rain Down", "Here I Am, Send Me", "Paint the Town Red"... every song was passionate and gorgeous. Martin Smith does a wonderful job as the frontman; his carefree enthusiasm was infectious and his interaction with the crowd was just cool and unforced. They had a slideshow showing on the screens during their songs, which made the whole thing feel more like worship than a concert. However, unlike the other acts that did this (during explicit worship time), Delirious? integrated their words into street signs and billboards (a la All Your Base Are Belong To Us) or designed complex animated slides. The whole thing was the most creative and the slickest thing I think I've ever seen in a worship-style setting; it just lends more weight to the idea that some people really take this stuff seriously and are interested in making something great, not just making something good.

After Delirious?, Josh McDowell gave a message... and I missed a good portion of it making a run back to camp. Vanessa said it was good; she remained behind to save our spots so that we could see Newsboys up close and personal. :-)

So... Newsboys. They are a band about which I am most conflicted. Their new album, Go, is very, very good. Their worship music tends to be good (with the exception of "It Is You", which is beyond superb). Some of their old music is pretty good. And then they have some music that, lyrically, is just embarrassing. (I'm looking at YOU, "Breakfast" and "Take Me to Your Leader".) They've always struck me as a band that's largely useful for showing fifth through seventh graders that it's okay to be silly and Christian. But on the strength of their new album and their worship stuff, and the fact that Vanessa grew up loving them (hi baby!), and the fact that the energy on the floor was so much higher than the energy in the stands, we decided to see them on the floor.

The Newsboys made me a believer. They're still goofy and they inspired an eye-rolling or two from time to time, but darned if they don't put on a good show. All of the older songs they played reflected a more mature sound, even if the content was still silly. They did a great mix of old and new, worship and straightahead rock, and the place was bouncing. The high point in energy was definitely "Breakfast". There's a line in there that mentions Cap'n Crunch (yeah, the cereal); seeing all of the various Cap'n Crunch boxes that people were toting around all day, I could imagine what would happen. It was like Rocky Horror Picture Show, but with the cereal instead of rice (or toilet paper or the myriad other things thrown on-stage at RHPS). Newsboys were totally cool with all of the flying crunch, even when a couple of boxes flew up on stage mid-verse. It was everywhere; I was picking it out of my hair for two days following the show. Really a lot of fun.

After the big concert, we mosied around for a bit before settling on a bit of an acoustic show with Paul Coleman, the guitarist for Newsboys. Before too long, though, we were nodding off, having spent all of our energy (and not really having a bunch to begin with, thanks to the camping arrangements). So we headed back to camp, content in knowing that Sunday would be another big day with great acts.

Posted by pcg at June 1, 2007 1:08 PM