(All the world’s a stage? I wrote recently about U2’s current tour and its innovations with its stage, so here’s a look back to a review of that April 2000 newsboys’ show I had mentioned, when they played in a big tent in Hersheypark, bypassing the arena … Giant Center wasn’t yet around. It had been a chilly, rainy Saturday afternoon, but all was hot musically inside that bubble, I do remember. There were five members back then because Phil Joel was still there, singing and playing bass. This ran on 4-10-2000 … thanks for lettin’ me go retro! dave o’c>
Newsboys entertain while delivering timeless message
HERSHEY — Inside a big dome that looked like the Martians had landed and needed chocolate, the mirrored ball on the ceiling and the white suits of the guys on stage were vintage New York Disco, 1978.
But the message the Newsboys’ Peter Furler shared here Saturday with the mostly teen-and-younger audience was not retro or futuristic, but timeless.
And that message was, if you’re not one of the beautiful people at your high school, or if you feel misunderstood, like you sometimes don’t fit in, know that “everyone’s someone” to God.
The Newsboys, the multiplatinum Christian rock band, then launched into “Someone,” from their newest album, “Love Liberty Disco,” which was the theme of the band’s concert tour that came here for two shows on Saturday.
Inside a big tent pitched in the Hersheypark parking lot, the Newsboys were tremendously entertaining for the several thousand people who came in out of Saturday’s cold rain to see them — displaying their trademark strong mix of the guitar-fueled and the funky, along with a downright beautiful ballad or two.
As they’ve grown to become one of the biggest acts in Christian contemporary music, the band’s five members have not departed from their true love — using their songs and fun-loving image to share their faith in Christ.
That was clear at the end of Saturday’s show, when Furler slowed down the screaming of the crowd and the thunder of the band to talk for a minute.
“We’re not here to talk you into OUR message,” he said in his Australian accent, but instead the message that Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life.”
All appropriate for a band that once made an album called “Hell is for Wimps,” and whose best-known song talks about there being no breakfast in hell.
The entire audience sang along on that one, the sing-songy “Breakfast,” and pantomimed the toast-has-burned, milk-has-turned, Captain-Crunch-is-waving-farewell lyrics.
Everyone then bopped along to other well-known Newsboys songs, such as: “I’m Not Ashamed”; runaway-teen-angst ballad “Reality”; the tremendously catchy hit, “Shine”; and “Take Me to Your Leader,” the title song from the Newsboys’ 1996 hit-filled, grunge-heavy album.
The disco theme of Saturday’s shows was just the latest riff for a fun-loving band that, over the years, has come onstage via everything from motorcycles to space ships.
The Newsboys also have a loyal legion of fans across all age ranges, and that was seen here in Saturday’s crowds — lots of school-age youngsters, but also lots of moms and dads trotting out their 25-year-old dance-floor moves, even without their kids’ permission.
The Newsboys — whose members come from Australia, New Zealand and the United States and are now based in Nashville — are getting as much attention for the airdome they’re traveling in as for their music.
The building holds up to 4,000 people, and the sound was great, or at least better than you’d find in an ancient hockey hall.
The Newsboys airdome tour is being watched carefully by many in the music industry, and there were pluses and minuses with the structure Saturday. The first show was delayed because of fears about the heavy wind and rain, but with the theater-in-the-round setup, there also wasn’t a bad seat in the place.
Actually, “seat” is the wrong term, because few sat during the Newsboys’ hour-and-a-half set.
