The Morphing of Horns -- A Concert Review
The
Outsiders, The W's, The Israelites
Heart 'n Soul Café, Mt. Prospect, Illinois
Saturday, August 8, 1998
By Linda T. Stonehocker
In its third year, the Christian ska scene has hit its stride. Horn
sections aren't a novelty anymore; they are a necessity if you want to
draw a crowd under 20 years old. It's only natural that as the scene's
key bands--The Supertones, Five Iron Frenzy, The Insyderz--become household
names that the genre is broadening as well. And that is why a coffeehouse/youth
center in suburbia found couples brushing up on their swing dance steps
before the live music began on a Saturday night in early August. The trend
setting women wore tight-waisted dresses with flaring knee-length skirts
and high heels. They looked good with the narrow ties and dress shirts
their ska men have worn for a couple of years.
Ten days after
releasing their first CD, which set a first week sales record for their
distributor on its way to number 4 on the Christian music charts, and becoming
a Billboard heatseeker, The W's arrived in the Chicago area to give the
curious and dolled-up swingers alike a sample of what the buzz is all about.
But first, the opening act. Unsigned, Greenville College originated,
The Outsiders were a tough act to follow. An upright bass introduced the
group with fast, crisp, jazz before shifting easily into blue-eyed funkadelic
soul. In its year and a half of existence, the band estimates it has played
almost 200 shows, which explains the tight interplay of the seven members.
They are practiced professionals who understand that the secret to band
success and longevity is engaging your audience. Their rolling rhythms
and extended guitar, saxophone, trumpet, keyboard, and flute solos undergird
the three vocalists's fun with the melody, during long numbers the listeners
hoped would never end. Their final offering, "Lead in My Pocket," contemporized
their seventies' sensibilities by adding hip hop and New Orleans-style
horns. This made categorization of their hybridized sound such a long string
of descriptors most people will simply call them "original."
The most
eagerly anticipated band of the evening was The W's. The W's introduced
themselves to Illinois at Cornerstone Festival 200 miles from this venue
only one month earlier, but word spread quickly. The swingers started in
with the opening beats while the rest of the audience looked on, eager
to learn the moves. The Christian market is ready to add some variation
to their horn listening, and primed to move their feet in more complex
patterns than skanking or a mosh pit can offer. This is couples dancing,
and half of each couple is a girl, another interesting variation for the
Christian rock music scene, which is predominantly male.
The sound mix favored the drums over the saxophone and trumpet,
highlighting The W's punk influence, but only a few diehards skanked or
slammed. The poor suckers who gave in to their families's wishes and took
dancing lessons, and practiced with their aunts at all those awful family
weddings found themselves in high demand. The W's can be physical, comic
performers, but tonight, there was no need for the high jinx; the crowd
was theirs from the opening notes. They ran through most of their soon-to-be-released
CD, and the crowd joined in on the first single from their new album, "You
Are the Devil." The room had a sock-hop vibe to it, with a giddy excitement
among the crowd that would be very out of place at any of the alternative
rock shows of the past decade, but hung in the air long after they finished.
Nobody told
the crowd you couldn't dance to second wave ska, so when the headliners
of the show, The Israelites, finally got their turn, the die-hard couples
kept at it. The steady dub beat eventually convinced everyone to bob along,
or get something to drink, or cool off outside, except for those still
teaching swing steps to eager students. The Israelites created a nice rolling
beat, but an out-of-tune saxophone curdled the sound for this reviewer,
and the crowd began to thin as they realized how much the Flying Lindy
takes out of you. As a historically authentic band, the pace never reached
the speeds of the more familiar third wave ska-core, but the route to reggae
from ska was clearly illustrated, with well defined excursions into South
American dance rhythms as well. This was the first group all night singing
clearly enough to make their lyrics understandable, which suited their
mission to emphasize the Christian origins of ska very well. Lost in the
"pockets" of their rhythms, the band outlasted the audience as they headed
home in search of more dancing lessons and retro clothes.
