Chris August kicked things off and his song Starry Night is fantastic. He is definately an up-and-comer. I could listen to his voice for hours and his style is all his own.
Sidewalk Prophets are great too. They sang their big hit The Words I Would Say along with a few other songs and their lead vocalist David Frey has some serious pipes. On more of a side note, I love that Christian music is ok with a heavy set singer.
KJ-52 can get a room full of soccer moms waving their arms gangsta rap style... no need to say more. He is a ton of fun.
Francesca Battisteli was a performer that I was really looking forward to seeing because I love her stuff on the radio. Sadly, that is the only place she is talented... on the radio. It apparently takes a lot of editing to make her sound good and her performance was totally "blah".
Red scared the crap out of me. I absolutely do not understand the genre of death metal in the name of Jesus. Their backdrop had red spandex stretched over the shapes of faces that lead me to believe they were the faces coming out of the gates of hell and the Christian eyeliner wearing band was going to save me from them. They had a pretty neat fire show. I'll give 'em that. I am also still processing the couple in front of me in their 40's totally freaking out to the band Red. I'm with the soccer mom who sat next to me that said "I can't understand them at all" and left.
Next up was Newsong. I have been a quasi-fan of Newsong for a while now, but I'll be darned if I am not totally dissappointed and am now cosidering deleting their albums from my I-tunes library. The song Arise my Love is sort of like today's Christian answer to the Gaither's, yet I like it... I have no shame. The real turn off come's in the form of their new song One True God, sung after a description of their recent trip to India and the horror of what they witnessed in the expression of "other religions" there. These guy's are apparently real cultural genius's.
David Crowder played a short version of their standard concert set. They havn't changed it since the last concert of theirs I went to in '04. However, Crowder is still awesome and stands alone as an authentic Christian band. They are so much fun and I'll pay money to watch them twang out to "I'll Fly Away" again and again!
Kutless all this time I thought was Skillet (show's how credible I really am). I have discovered that Kutless sounds totally like secular pop on the market and their frontman has a handsome baby face and rocks a fedora and skinny jeans regardless of how big his butt is just like the rest of 'em. However, they are totally pleasant.
Last up was Newsboys. They are awesome now with Michael Tait of DC Talk as their hero. Their show was high energy and reminded me totally of the Black Eyed Peas (oddly enough a friend critiqued him as a Michael Jackson wannabe). The coolest thing of all was their complete ecumenism and the drummer spinning around and still playing. Very cool.
A room full of 11,000 Christians rocking out should leave me feeling recharged, energized, blessed... yet I can't shake the sour taste in my mouth. I can totally appreciate that Christian music has always been a one-off of pop culture and that different bands appeal to different styles. The burn comes in the form of their Giglio wannabe speaker Tony Nolan. He shares his hard knocks testimony and then encourages his book sales (of course with the caveat that he only takes a meager salary for his family). I am also totally amazed that we good Christians are willing to pay $10 bucks a pop for this propaganda. It doesn't matter that we don't like Red and we do like Newsboys... we'll still pay to sit through it because we are ministering to our neighbor and the non-Christian's in the room (who are you kidding... there are very few if any non-Christians in the room). Not only that, but we are then willing to put our cash in the offering bucket that get's passed to keep the concert going because we appreciate the low ticket cost. Did you know that a free -will offering vs. a standard charge always earns more... can you imagine what funds are brought in in a room filled with 11,000 people... and just how much of that money do think actually makes it to the bands, the road crew, or the Holt International orphans?
Which brings me to the most appalling thing of all... Newsong lead singer Russ Lee pushing support for Holt adoption services was a complete turn-off. Not only did Lee push support (an ok thing in it's basic form... brand awareness and encouragement of) he went so far as to state (after ONLY 250 people purchased pictures of kids at the cost of a cup of coffee a day... i.e. like 600 bucks...i.e. like $150,000) "you are not a Christian if you are not supporting orphan's". I would really like to see them stand at the back of the room with pictures of widows and say the same thing. Better yet, "Love your neighbor as yourself"... I'd like to see them pin down exactly who my neighbor is and then accuse me of not being a good Christian for not loving them properly.
Christian music is great at times. I like being able to flick on the radio and have a moment to worship while I rush from A to Z. I love to worship my Lord and savior. I don't like to be told what makes for a "good Christian" in your narrow worldview and I won't be shamed into giving you my money. I am thankful that I don't go to a church that pushes this kind of garbage.
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