YO! Hey, that’s just Toby Mac having an influence on me … this is a review of Thursday night’s Toby Mac / Skillet show at Giant Center that’s set to run in Saturday’s newspaper.
It was a great show all around. Toby said to the crowd, “Thank you for spending your hard-earned money tonight … so we’re going to give you everything we got!” Ditto for Skillet … I didn’t have room to mention the nice addition that Tate Olsen on cello, Jonathan Chu on violin and Scotty Rock, filling in on bass when John Cooper grabbed the mike, were to the band’s already-terrific sound.
It would have been hard to find anyone looking for a refund at the end of the night … dave o’c)
HERSHEY — Some music fans were overheard talking here Thursday night during a break in the Toby Mac / Skillet concert.
Whaddya think, one guy was heard asking another.
Good show, the other one said — but too bad it wasn’t more high-energy, he added, and everyone in their small group laughed.
They laughed because the show, long circled on the calendar for many Christian music fans, was nothing but energy.
It also was filled with playing and singing as good as any show, mainstream or religious, that will roll through central Pennsylvania this year.
Combine hip-hop headliner Toby Mac, the former DC Talk member who has carved out quite a career for himself as a chart-topping solo artist, and hard-rockers-with-a-message Skillet, and you have the ingredients for a great concert.
And Thursday night, for three-plus hours in the Giant Center, in one of the better lineups ever in contemporary Christian music, the “chefs” delivered.
They delivered what one fan, Kim Pennington of York, called “great rock and roll … and it (included) the true meaning of why we were here, and that’s for God.”
Co-headliner Toby Mac closed out the show in style, showing there is life after age 40 (he’s 45) by beginning his set crowd-surfing part of the way from the sound board to the stage.
He then energized the 5,000-plus people on hand (not a sellout, but with the cheers it sounded like one) with a maximum-intensity, hit-packed hour-plus show.
This came after Skillet, the band fronted by powerful- and raspy-voiced frontman John Cooper and his wife Korey, had delivered its own pyrotechnics-filled, power-packed show.
Mr. Mac delivered many of the hits from his decade as a top-of-the-charts Christian solo artist, including “J Train,” “Made To Love” (everyone knew when to sing the “I was made to LOVE …” part), “I’m For You” (ditto, a singalong blanketed the hockey arena on “whatever you need from me / to see you through”) and the funk-filled “Hush Little Baby (Irene).”
But for all his cool rap and hip-hop, Toby Mac’s best song might’ve been the more ballad-like “Lose My Soul,” with seemingly the whole Giant Center crowd singing along on the “I don’t want to gain the whole world, and lose my soul” chorus.
The tune also got a great boost from backup singer Nirva Dorsaint-Ready, who excellently added an interlude to the tune.
She was one part of the excellent backup “Diverse City Band,” which also included guitar/trumpet player Tim Rosenau and the appropriately-named Toddie Funk, a thumb-slapping powerhouse of a bass player.
But the real message of the evening was delivered by Toby himself when he said, “All of us, every one of us in this arena … we’re going to fall and lose our way, but we don’t have to lose our souls.
Humans “make some mistakes, do some foolish things, but we ask for forgiveness (from God) and get back on the road,” he said, and the youngish crowd whooped its approval.
Skillet let everyone know what kind of show it was planning from the fireworks of the opening song, “Hero,” the first hit from its newest CD, the 2009 chart-topper “Awake.”
Just like Toby Mac, Skillet’s Cooper (or was that Rod Stewart from his more-rocking Faces days?) was an attention-grabbing dynamo at center stage.
Glistening with sweat, he powerfully delivered power-rock tunes like “Awake and Alive” and “Monster” from the new CD, and what seemed like everyone’s favorite anthem of the evening, “The Last Night,” the teen anthem from 2006’s “Comatose” CD.
The rest of Skillet also was tremendous. Drummer Jen Ledger (or was that John Bonham of Led Zeppelin back from the departed as a 20-year-old blonde female?) was booming, while guitarists Ben Kasica and Cooper’s wife Korey (or was that Joan Jett?) delivered powerful guitar riffs all night.
Toby Mac and Skillet are now shooting about the eastern U.S. for the “Awake Tonight Tour,” combining the names of the two acts’ newest CDs.
Toby Mac’s own “Tonight,” released last month, also is near the top of Christian-music charts.
Thursday’s opening act was the band House of Heroes, a hard-rocking four-man outfit.
Its best song from its 15-minute set was “Leave You Now.”
There are great moments from concerts that stick with you a long, long time.
One that comes to mind is when Tenth Avenue North, made up of three young guys with a rare power and insight in their music, did their song “Hold My Heart” in Reading recently.
It was at Winter Jam 2010, and there were plenty of people visibly moved when Tenth Avenue North frontman Mike Donehey sang, “Could the Maker of the stars / hear the sound of my breaking heart?”
It was just a moment, but it showed the promise of one of the most exciting and inspiring bands to hit the Christian-music world in recent years.
Now, the three-man group, which won a Dove Award as best new artist of the year based on its first CD, is about to release a much-anticipated follow-up.
It’s called “The Light Meets the Dark,” and it’s due in stores May 11.
Rarely has a new band delivered an album with more emotional punch than Tenth Avenue North’s 2008 debut “Over and Underneath.”
The group, made up of frontman and acoustic guitarist Donehey, drummer Jason Jamison and guitar / keyboard player Jeff Owen, is one of the few debut bands to headline its own tour based only on one album.
The upcoming release, “The Light Meets the Dark,” has already delivered an impressive first single “Healing Begins,” which is getting lots of airplay on Christian-music stations.
Someone smarter than me once said, writing a good song is just getting listeners to hear it and say, Yeah, that’s it … that song says what it’s about!
And few groups can do that as well as Tenth Avenue North, who look young enough to be the worship leaders for their youth group, but in fact have a maturity about their music and lyrics that spells lots of promise for the future of Christian music.
(This is the newest “Christian Music Update” that will be running on WJTL-FM this weekend. Mark Hall, frontman and songwriter of Casting Crowns, was nice enough to sit down with us before their recent show in Hershey. It was still chilly here that day, and I had just apologized to Hall, who’s from Atlanta, for the Pennsylvania weather … d o’c)
I can vouch personally for the excitement that Stellar Kart packs in concert, having seen them several times in just a few short years.
But I wanted to share what others are saying about the band as it gets ready to come to Lancaster this weekend.
Stellar Kart, which plays this Saturday at Lancaster’s Calvary Church, this week released its newest CD, “Everything Is Different Now,” and some band publicists sent us what some music-critic types are saying about it:
It’s “the most grown-up album of their still young career,” says ChristianityToday.com.
“This is a must-have album for 2010,” adds NewReleaseTuesday.com.
“Their [Stellar Kart’s] first radio single is ‘We Shine,’ and on this album, they most certainly do,” rhapsodizes rhapsody.com.
Not bad, but it is in keeping with what I saw and heard each time I saw them in concert.
The band’s fourth studio recording, “Everything Is Different Now” released this past Tuesday, March 9, and is said to have a more worshipful sound and vertical lyrics.
It was produced by Dove Award-winning producer (and singer, remember All Star United and his solo work?) Ian Eskelin.
Stellar Kart songs like the catchy opening track “All My Heart,” and the congregational-friendly “Rescue,” which band frontman Adam Agee wrote with some friends from Hillsong United, keep the praise-focused theme front and center, the band’s reps say.
If it captures the band’s live intensity on CD, whoa …
Also playing Saturday is up-and-coming national act Reilly, from Philadelphia, which came to Calvary last March for the same event, which is called the “Vision Conference.”
Visit www.creationconcerts.com for details.
Unless they reunite some day and I’m in the area and lucky enough to snag a ticket, I will never get to see Delirious? in concert.
But there’s a pretty good substitute for seeing and hearing the excellent, guitar-fueled, U2-ish praise-and-worship band that called it a day in late 2009.
It’s called “Live & in the Can,” which I would hereby vote for as the best live album, CD, package or whatever you want to call it, ever in Christian music.
And it was even made long before Martin Smith and Co. recorded one of the best slower songs of all time, “I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever,” which always seems to win awards for best praise song of all time, and one of the best rockers, the driving “Rain Down.”
“Live & in the Can,” from the first song, “I’m Not Ashamed” and its piercing-guitar-carried “I’m not ashamed of the Gospel / I’m not ashamed of the One I love” refrain and on through its 17 songs, is a rock-solid, terrific piece of work.
Want to hear a wonderful slow ballad while you’re mellow and looking for inspiration? How about “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?”
Want a terrific driving number? Just one of them is the relatively unheralded “Come Like You Promise,” fueled by a great walking, harmonics-packed bass from Jon Thatcher and bright guitar from The Edge … I mean, Stuart Garrard (also known as Stu G).
There’s also enough jamming to make you think this was the Dave Matthews Band.
And throughout it all is Smith’s distinctive, very-English-sounding lead vocals, perfect frontman’s timing and, best of all, clear passion for God.
And to think, if the son of a friend of mine who’s a missionary hadn’t heard that Delirious? was playing a CD release party in a nearby music store while they were in London, I might have never gotten into them.
Or at least it may have taken longer. The son loaned me “Live & in the Can” for a few days, I loved it and bought it, and … I heard a great live CD.
My vote for second-best live Christian music CD, btw, would probably be “Houston, We Are Go” from the newsboys.
You couldn’t go wrong with either one, but Delirious? would get my vote by a slight margin.
(In getting a chance to see and hear Casting Crowns this week in Hershey, and to meet Mark Hall for a video that is posted elsewhere here, it reminded me of the first time I saw and heard the group’s power, back when it played here at LCBC in early May 2006. I remember the number of people who had tears in their eyes at many of the songs, plus how they added a second show on Monday night, after myself and a sold-out crowd had already gone Sunday night. Here ’tis … dave o’c)
Hey you, teen guy in the last row at the church youth-group meeting … feel sometimes like everyone sitting around has it together, and YOU don’t?
Hey, teen girl in the same room … feel like all the girls around you are perfect and pretty and smart, and YOU’RE not?
Hey there, parents … waiting for those well-dressed people wearing such perfect masks around you in church to find you out?
Well, Casting Crowns has a song for you. A whole bunch of ‘em, in fact.
The popular Christian music group, which played to a sold-out crowd at Lancaster County Bible Church Sunday night and is sold-out there again tonight, doesn’t just write songs that are catchy.
Its members also offer a rare intensity that is at once humbling and also uplifting, and makes listeners say, “That’s how I feel!”
The group, known best for songs such as “Who Am I,” “Voice of Truth” and the new, haunting “Praise You In This Storm,” showed why it has such a core of fans, and such a strong connection to them, during their show Sunday night at the Manheim-area church.
Lead singer Mark Hall offers a voice that’s a lot like Mac Powell of the Christian band Third Day or Scott Stapp from the former group Creed.
From the opening number “Lifesong,” which began with a driving beat a la U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name,” and through to the finish — two-hours-plus later — Casting Crowns shows why it has joined the very best-known of Christian music acts.
Playing in the county’s biggest church, the seven-member group offered a big sound with a straightforward honesty in its songs.
Set to a harder-edged driving sound, the band’s lyrics have, in musical terms, an “oomph” to them, talking honestly about you’re-not-the-only-one-who-feels-that-way problems and doubts without being too “introspective,” i.e., bummed out.
The 35-year-old Hall, a youth pastor, knows a thing or two about doubts — diagnosed with the double-whammy of ADD and dyslexia, he remembers being called on plenty of times in school to read and feeling like he couldn’t tell anyone.
He joked with the standing-room-only crowd in the 2,500-capacity church that, now, fans of the group and “people hold up such nice signs … (but) I can’t read them.”
The songs were spread around nicely, harder-edged tunes mixed in with the more “ballad-y” efforts.
Two highlights were the very moving “Praise You In This Storm,” written for a young Christian girl who died of cancer, and “Voice of Truth,” Hall’s honest look at facing doubts, and hearing the whisperings that we’re not (a) smart, (b) good-looking, (c) interesting or (d) all of the above, enough to succeed.
He sings of standing before the giant, like David before Goliath, with “the giant calling out my name and he laughs at me / reminding me of all the times I’ve tried before and failed … but the voice of truth tells me a different story / and the voice of truth says ‘Do not be afraid!’ ”
Said one fan at Sunday night’s concert, Shawn Boksan, “I like them because they don’t hold anything back. They tell it like it is.”
His friend, Mike Vandling, added that “their lyrics are straightfoward … you know where they stand.” The two are part of a band called “The Outcasts” that ministers at the Glenvale Church of God in Marysville.
Before Casting Crowns performed, Sunday’s concert got two more boosts from opening performers Josh Bates and the well-known Nichole Nordeman. One highlight of Nordeman’s 40-minute set was the song “What If,” dedicated to “a friend who thinks this Jesus stuff is nuts,” asking them to consider, “What if you’re wrong?”
Before the night ended, Casting Crowns’ Hall asked the youthful crowd to hold up their cell phones in the dark, and it looked as if a thousand lighthouses stood out in the sprawling auditorium.
And no one asked for “Freebird.”
There haven’t been too many singer/songwriters in Christian rock who are more thoughtful, catchy and inspiring than these two.
And, with little publicity, Jennifer Knapp and Derek Webb will be in our midst for a concert this weekend.
It’s this Saturday night, March 6, at Manheim Brethren in Christ Church’s Warehouse 54, at 54 N. Penryn Road, Manheim.
Hearing these names make you feel like the late 1990s are coming back?
That’s because Knapp, over a four-year period in that decade and into the early 2000’s, carved out a place for herself at the top of Christian contemporary music with her gutsy, catchy, thought-provoking folk music.
Of course, she was right up there leading the way alongside Caedmon’s Call, the group Webb helped lead to prominence before heading out on a solo career.
He’s now back in the fold with Caedmon’s, I read, again giving the band a unique three-pronged vocal attack (Webb with Cliff and Danielle Young).
If you ever played the desert island disks contest, where you picked a CD or two to bring with you as a castaway, you could do a lot worse than Knapp’s “Kansas” or “Lay It Down” or Caedmon’s debut or its “40 Acres.”
Knapp, now nearly 36, has been back in the musical world for several months after a several-year hiatus.
The Dove Award-winning Christian folk-rock musician might be best known for her first hit single “Undo Me,” or for her terrific cover of mainstream folkster Shawn Colvin’s “Diamond in the Rough.”
My favorite remembrance of her may have been the time she came here to open a big concert in Hershey and spent that afternoon playing for women at Lancaster’s Water Street Rescue Mission, I heard later.
Knapp is getting ready to release a new album, “Letting Go,” on May 11, and this summer is planning appearances on the revived Lilith Fair tour.
Webb’s is the plaintive voice on Caedmon’s songs like “Thankful” and “Bus Driver,” among many others, and he has one of the most socially-aware consciences in Christian music.
It’s more than good to have both of them back.
Doors Saturday are set to open at 6 p.m., with the show set for 6:30.
Tickets for Saturday’s show are available at Lancaster’s CI Records, 226 N. Prince St., through Saturday or by calling (717) 391-7865. Manheim BIC’s number is (717) 665-2133.
