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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Since 1996 |
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Krystal
Meyers/Breaking Bondage
2 March 2008 First Evangelical Lutheran Church Beaver Dam, WI The night before, Krystal Meyers was playing before thousands at an Acquire The Fire event. The following night, she and her band performed for less than 500 in a city of less than 20,000 where multiple Dove Award nominees come few and far between. The concert, held in the sanctuary of one of Beaver Dam's Evangelical Lutheran churches (with chairs removed in front for moshers), came together by the support of several denominations' church youth leaders and several businesses. Likely it was the first rock concert, at least the first by a nationally touring act played on Christian radio, for many preteens here. All that adult effort brought what was a pretty positive rock'n'roll experience for those kids and the grown-ups in tow. At her raucous best, Meyers does add the 'n' roll to Christo-centric rocking's oft-staid realm. With near-platinum blond hair threatening to envelope her wide smile and grey-blue eyes, Meyers commanded the makeshift stage in a way recalling the hyperactivity of Paramore's Hayley Williams and Blondie diva Debbie Harry in her punkiest youthful prime. Those ladies make for apt points of comparison musically, too. When not incorporating recorded keyboards for numbers such as "The Beauty of Grace," Meyers and her band kicked out their jams with emo-skewed pop-punkery and a dollop of glammy bombast. The latter was deliciously apparent on "Make Some Noise." The song from her forthcoming third longplayer recalls the gnarly guitar grooving and big beats of early '70s Sweet or Gary Glitter. Meyers kept between-song patter minimal for her ten-song set. Per her show-opening de facto theme song, "Anticonformity," she encouraged kids to be themselves in the Lord and not follow worldly trendiness. Considering she is the daughter of E-Sword Bible software developer Rick Meyers, it might be a tad surprising that Krystal didn't exhort more. One thing the younger Meyers didn't do this evening was play guitar, as she did (or appeared to do?) at her 2005 LiFest date in Oshkosh supporting her first album. She was occupied enough rallying crowd participation during songs "Can't Stay" as it was, one supposes. And she certainly summoned more energy from the throng than did the unused moshpit. Maybe the youngsters were afraid to mosh without accidentally slamming someone, as the master of ceremonies from another Beaver Dam ELCA church warned against doing? Meyers and her bandmates, introduced toward the end of the gig, came, rocked,and left without encores but with time enough to chat and sign autographs afterwards. Not a perfunctory concert, but certainly La Krystal and her guys have done it before often and with as much enthusiasm and sincerity. "Why," The Verve's wonderful, but rather mournful, "Bittersweet Symphony" played in the background as Meyers said goodbye and the M C prayed out the event was a bit perplexing, though. Sincerity and enthusiasm likewise exuded from opening trio Breaking Bondage. Winners of a Christian battle of the bands at a city park in Beaver Dam last summer (and nobody told me about it!?), the youthful dudes from Woodstock, IL, plied poppy punk with twinges of hardcore and metal. Apart from their two OK enough original praise&worship choruses that ended their seven songs, that is. That a contingent from their hometown came to cheer them on probably help to generate clapping, too. I'd like to put Breaking Bondage in a room to listen to a stack of Altar Boys, Blue Cheer and Husker Du discs and hear where their already promising three-piece sensibilities go from there. Jamie Lee Rake |
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