Observations on a Concert From a Not-Yet Old Fart
Last week was probably one of the busiest weeks of my life in recent years. Monday, I had my local writer's group. Tuesday was Claire's music lesson. Wednesday was the Library Reading, Thursday was Daddy and Claire night (Em went out to dinner with some friends), Friday I spent a good chunk of the day blitzing friends about "Last Respects" publication and then Emma and I went to see Switchfoot in concert. That's right, Switchfoot.
I haven't been to a concert for years -- U2's Elevation tour was the last one. My, how concert's had changed. Somebody at my work told me that they now use cell phones instead of zippo lighters when the ballads are rolling. I thought they were joking. No joke. People hold cellphones up instead of lighters. That's one of those rare moments when I actually feel old.
I had no idea that there were Switchfoot afficianados but one sat behind us. There was a mixed crowd there -- a lot of younger people, a few older people, and a surprising amount of kids who were not yet teens. Copeland, the opening band, didn't do much for me. More interesting was the older dude sitting on the aisle who kept yelling at people standing in front of him, blocking the stage, to get out of the way. That poor guy -- he must've run himself hoarse by the end of the night.
Switchfoot was a lot of fun. I liked these guys before I saw them in concert -- they're a rare breed of band that are christian but outside of the Christian record label -- they don't fling religion around in their songs like it's an accessory, you can tell it's deeper than that. That said, I wasn't nuts about them. I liked their last two albums a lot, but before that I kind of thought they had a mixed bag catalogue-wise. What I like most about them is that they aren't afraid of the disallusionment in America, but at the same time they don't want to cop to the disallusionment either. Onstage, these guys rocked. Jon Foreman, the lead-singer, gave bear hugs to both a fan and a the guy who brought out one of his guitars. He also had a great dialogue with the crowd and really made everyone there feel like they were a part of his journey. And it was great to see songs like "Meant to Live," "Oh! Gravity.," "We are One Tonight," "Yesterdays" choked both Emma and I up, and "the Shadow Proves the Sunshine" live.
Yeah, I liked Switchfoot before I saw them in concert, but right now I'm just about drunk on them -- I love them so much.