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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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Casting
Crowns/Matt Redman
Weidner Center for the Performing Arts University of Wisconsin Green Bay Green Bay, WI 22 October 2009 Some people's music sounds better coming from the studio than the stage. Steely Dan was one such case for me. However impeccable the rocking jazzbo musicianship, there's something about their almost antiseptically clean studio albums that, to my ears, got lost the one time I saw them in concert. Other people's music, like that of Casting Crowns, gains added impact when taken from the sterility of the studio to the stage, where it can be manifested more organically. For six years, Casting Crowns has been not only one of CCM's most commercially successful groups but possibly the most level-headedly passionate about keeping believers honest. When a band begins its radio hit streak with the bold prodding of "If We Are The Body" and never really lets up from offering solidly mainstream Evangelical Protestant theology--and more intermittent slaps of conviction--it's a wonder Mark Hall and his fellow Crown Casters can keep smiling in light of the media that interview them to both parties' mutual benefit. CC get publicity to sell more music and tickets, and those TV, radio and press outlets may well be oblivious to the fact that Hall and his bandmates may be singing about strange fire-bringers just like them. Balancing their relative lyrical audacity, however, is Crowns' sound. On radio, it fits comfortably into cCm's mix, even if it budges it ever so slightly toward sonic progress. Frankly, it was probably the band's general conformity to the Christian market adult contemporary/inspirational aural mode that first prevented me from realizing the vitality of Hall's lyrical voice. At this sold-out benefit for Acts 1:8 Ministry, however, Casting Crowns fairly . . . rocked. My only prior substantial live experience with them, five years ago as an opening acts for Steven Curtis Chapman, found them keeping their harder tendencies in check. Tonight CC would not have been mistaken for a death metal act, either. But Hall's septet packed more oomph into the sound than one might gather were their studio albums the only measure. Theirs is comfortably familiar sound of mainstream rock--rock that never knew the trendy taints of grunge, industrial nor anything else so hip. CC's dual guitar line-up with Megan Garrett's various keyboard tones, Melodee DeVevo's violin (occasional lead vocals by both gals, too) and Brian Scroggins' aggro drumming nonetheless lend a humble glory to Hall's sturdy baritone. Their look appears about as comfy, too, with nothing in the way of flash appeal. Though looking little like rock stars, neither do they come off as schlubs. The entire package complements Hall's lyrics. Those lyrics, in turn, segue to the an unexpected draw: Hall's anecdotes. Since his songs are born of his experiences in youth ministry, true poignancies undergird what might otherwise sound like utilitarian exhortations and vicarious confessions. The one overriding lesson that stuck with me and Roger, my friend who drove us (and singer of CC songs to tracks at our church), it's that only digging in one's Bible and communing with the Lord in prayer can enliven and test your faith, no matter how orthodox one's pastorate and parachurch activities. In a day when so many acts playing to the Christian market still have an eye on broader acceptance outside the church, Casting Crowns are almost a throwback. They make music primarily for the saints, and, Hall offers them an earful of something other than catchy anthems. And even if I heard "Lifesong" on K-Love on the way home and thought the Crowners did it better an hour or so earlier, it's good to know they're doing what they do with their no-frills sparkle. Opener Matt Redman and his players worked with the apparent aim to make me want to be at a U2 concert. His guitarist has a fierce Edge complex, it seems. And though he presumed to lead the crowd in praise&worship before the headliners' appearance, three numbers into his set, he started into the oddly situation-specific tune that may be his biggest Christian copyright Licensing (i.e., congregational use) hit, "The Heart of Worship." Weren't we just in the heart of it during the previous two numbers? Like the combo following him, his songs' words were on screen in back of him for us to sing and ponder. For me, he came off a mite better when Hall invited him back on stage to share verses with CC. The event's sponsoring ministry
would like you to know about their efforts with Green Bay Packer Ryan Pickett
to build community water towers in Uganda. Check out that and more at www.Acts18.org
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