Glo Tour 2000: Greek Theater in Los Angeles, 10/15/2000Jun 06 '01 (Updated Aug 05 '03) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Delirious? always manages to put on a high energy show with a wonderful mix of rocking anthems and intimate, worshipful moments. Their live show is not to be missed! Delirious? with Michael Tait, Raze, and Kendall Payne Date of Concert: Sunday, October 15, 2000 Location: Greek Theater, Los Angeles, CA Price: Roughly $28 (assigned seating) Put quite simply, I have a friend who describes herself as being “Delirious about Delirious?” I credit this friend as the main reason why I appreciate the band as much as I do these days, and she was definitely the instigator for me to go and see them live for the second time, even after catching their Mezzamorphis tour, which in my opinion, was going to be a tough one to top. Lately, I’ve been the one out of my small group of music-loving friends to work out all the details whenever there’s a good concert tour coming to town, but this time, my good friend was all over it. She was excited about the album Glo, which had just released in the States a few days prior, and couldn’t wait to see her favorite band raise the roof (figuratively speaking, of course) with their latest set of rocking praise anthems. Her excitement was contagious, and when she got the info on the three opening acts (Kendall Payne, Raze, and Michael Tait, all of which I believe were unique to this stop on the tour), I was intrigued enough to go for it. So, on a warm Sunday afternoon in mid-October, she and I and another friends of ours who was more of an all-around Christian music aficionado, made a quick jaunt across the L.A. Freeway system to see Delirious? at the lovely hillside setting of the Greek Theater. Kendall Payne The 20-year-old redhead and her backing band took the stage with moderate fanfare as the sun began to set behind us. While I wasn’t blown away by her set, it was nice to actually be able to hear the words she was singing, a rare treat at big-name rock concerts. While she suffers from the occasional awkward lyrical phrasing, she’s shaping up to be a well-respected singer/songwriter, attracting the attention of fans of Jewel, Alanis Morissette, Jennifer Knapp, Sarah Masen, etc. She was very down-to-earth on stage, much like Jennifer Knapp, and that’s a welcome trait in a Christian artist in a day when fans tend to put them on a bit too high of a pedestal. She started off rather strangely with a tune from the back half of her album entitled “Formerly Known As”, which I didn’t think was one of her best. But the pace picked up from there with the high-energy song “Supermodels”, which got cheers from many who recognized it as the theme song to the show Popular (interesting that the show picked it up before her album was even out in the Christian marketplace). Even those who didn’t recognize it got a good laugh out of lines such as “I’ve got more on my head than what’s made by Paul Mitchell.” Overall, Kendall’s attitude is more introspective than sarcastic, as shown by her current (at the time) radio single, “Closer to Myself”, which somehow managed to ride the airwaves of Christian radio and make an appearance on a number of WB teen dramas all at once. She closed with a folksy inspirational ballad called “Modern Day Moses”. I had heard about this one – it’s definitely the most overtly religious track on her album, and I expected from the title that it would be rather cheesy. However, it took me and my friends by surprise – the verses drew a nice parallel between Moses, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., and of course the “modern day me” who has the opportunity to affect just as much change in the world. The sweet resounding chorus, “Let my people go”, would have made the song a shoe-in for the soundtrack to Prince of Egypt, had she written it two or three years ago. Overall, a short but admirable set from Kendall. I may have passed on her debut album, but she is a charming individual and I look forward to seeing her growth on future albums. Set List: Formerly Known As Supermodels Closer to Myself Modern Day Moses Raze Well, everyone that knows me knows that I can’t stand Raze. They surfaced a few years back with a rather sterile brand of dance pop, and some of the most formulaic and insipid lyrics ever penned by Christian songwriters. Their music didn’t fit at all with the rockier attitude of the other artists, even though they were high-energy and the audience seemed to receive them well. I have to give their frontman Ja’Marc Davis credit – he’s not shy, and he knows how to warm up a crowd. Thanks to the addition of a backup band, they actually sounded quite good during the first few songs, which were unfamiliar to me, but somewhat enjoyable, mostly because I couldn’t understand the lyrics. They might have actually been more tolerable on the radio had they recorded their albums with more live instruments. In any case, I’m guessing that some new material was debuted that night, since their new album, The Plan, was due out the following month. When they got to more familiar territory was when things really went downhill. They began instigating audience participation with their silly, trying-too-hard-not-to-be-sexual dance routines, and it was frankly quite embarrassing to watch. Their mushy ballad “Always and Forever” came off with even more mush than it did on the radio, and by the time they finally left the stage after the overly synthesized and equally unbearable (but inexplicably popular) “All Around the World”, I realized that it would have been a much more enjoyable concert had I been given access to a “mute” button and allowed to simply sit and watch the choreography. They syndicate well with each other and their backup dancers, but as I’ve mentioned before, that don’t make a dang bit of difference when you’re listening to a CD. Michael Tait I really wasn’t sure what to expect from the newly-formed “Tait Band”. Best known as one-third of the insanely popular Christian rock group dc Talk, Michael decided more recently to take advantage of the group’s sabbatical and start work on a solo album (the other members have followed suit, since the desire to do the solo thing was originally Kevin Max’s, and Toby Mac figured, why not?). Apparently, Michael still likes having a band to back him up – the mood was a welcome shift after Raze’s set, as Tait hit us with some straight-up rock and roll. Since the album still isn’t out, I couldn’t tell you what all of the songs were that Tait played, though I distinctly remember a few. They opened with the catchy mid-tempo rocker “Bonded”, and jammed through a few more new tunes which the audience seemed excited about even though everything was unfamiliar. A lot of people were secretly hoping for a dc Talk song or two, even though I’ve personally seen them enough times and was far more interested in what Tait could pull off on his own. The closing song, “Spy”, had a delicious guitar riff that sounded like it had been ripped straight from a secret agent movie, and an interesting lyrical focus on the way the outside world looks upon us as Christians. A mellower song, “Empty”, though somewhat repetitive, adequately summed up Tait’s confession of his need for humility – this will be the title track of his new record. And yes, they did manage to please the die-hard dc Talk fans with a rendition of “In the Light” that was closer to the recorded version than any live version I’ve ever heard dc Talk do! People were screaming for “Jesus Freak”, but it was clear that Tait was there to set himself apart as an artist in his own right, and it worked. He did take the time to address the few dc Talk fans who had been hiding under a rock and didn’t know the group’s current plans: “We’re not breaking up – we’re taking a break.” (Sorry, I don’t have a set list for either Raze or Tait, since I had no way of getting the titles of the songs they performed. They both played for about forty-five minutes.) Delirious? Finally, after a bit of a troublesome sound check, the main act took the stage (admittedly, they felt weird having a member of dc Talk open for them!). They wasted no time in tearing up the stage and giving the audience a taste of their new material – Stuart Garrard’s opening riff to the marathon “God’s Romance” set the house on fire. As expected, the lighting and everything augmented the tone of each song quite well, and the sun had set completely by this point, allowing the show on stage to truly “glo”. I had guessed that the focus would be on the new material that night, and it was interesting to note that they chugged through it with an even higher level of intensity than they did on the album. I wasn’t sure what to make of the supposed “spontaneity” of the “Glo in the Dark” tracks that follow “God You Are My God”, “Investigate”, and “Awaken the Dawn” on the album – they played them almost exactly the same way, and the result, while easy to follow, felt a bit clinical. In particular, “God You Are My God” didn’t quite come across with the power that I hoped it would – it was nice having the recording of the monks and female backup vocals to augment the band and make the song sound like the album version, but something just didn’t hit me as hard with that one. They really surprised the audience by posing “Deeper”, their biggest radio hit so far, as the second song – that’s been their traditional closing song for a while, so I figured they must have had a new track that they were really proud of and saving for the encore. The only track from the band’s Cutting Edge days that made it into this set was “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?”, which is probably the best of their early work, and the most suited for an arena-rock setting. It showed up in a slightly abbreviated format – clearly the band wanted to make time for their newer material. My favorite track from the new album, “My Glorious”, came off wonderfully as expected, with the thick guitar riff and solid drumming providing a nice counterpoint to the audience singing the chorus, which Martin Smith allowed to drown out his own voice. The proposition of mixing such a huge rock sound with a praise and worship motif isn’t an easy one to pull off, but Martin knows when to back away as a frontman and let the audience focus their attention on a much greater entity than the band. Once the song was over, martin continued to lead the audience in singing the chorus more slowly and reverently: “Glory, glory, sing the glory.” This segued into the calmer, more atmospheric mood of the epic “Intimate Stranger”, which faded into a recording of bagpipes to introduce “Awaken the Dawn”, a song which is an interesting balance between rocking intensity and very traditional P&W lyrics, written by Stu G. I thought it was kind of silly to place the two songs in the same order that they appeared on the album, but I’m guessing a lot of people were happy to get just what they expected, given how suddenly one flows into the other on the CD. As I’ mentioned before, I wasn’t up for a exact replication of the album. I wasn’t surprised that the only songs that lasted from the Mezzamorphis era were the upbeat rockers – “Heaven”, “Gravity”, and my personal favorite, “Bliss”. I had seen them do most of the rest of that stuff on the last tour, so I didn’t mind. What really did surprise me was the exclusion of “Hang on to You” (which ended up on their set list later in the tour, so perhaps they just ran out of time), and the album’s first radio single and video, “Everything”. Still, they did great with the songs that they had time to perform, pulling off a surprising transition between “Heaven” and the fan favorite “History Maker”, during which Martin climbed off of the stage and into the hands of a throng of fans, because he “had to be with the people”. Okay, maybe it was a bit of a gimmick that you might expect from a band like U2, but it was still appreciated. The band left the stage after that, and came back for an encore. At this point I was thinking that there were way too many songs that they had left to do, but I was glad that they chose “Investigate”, another highlight of the new album. What really bugged me was that this was the only song of the encore, and the band took off again after its rather abrupt ending – it’s just not a song to finish with. Plenty of fans were screaming, “HAPPY SONG!!!”, longing for a fun little tune from the olden days, but I figured they wouldn’t actually play it (though I found out that they started listening to the fans, and worked it back into the set later in the tour). Overall, Delirious? was energetic, inspiring, and an all-around tight band. They claim that some of their best audiences are in California, and this was definitely one of the most excited audiences I’ve ever been a part of. I just wish that they’d played longer. I mean, did we really need three opening acts? Set List: Deeper God You Are My God Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble? Bliss My Glorious Intimate Stranger Awaken the Dawn Gravity Heaven History Maker Encore: Investigate My friends and I stuck around after the show, navigating the crowd for our chance to speak with some of the musicians. It’s only been recently that I’ve attempted this at concerts, but the atmosphere is generally calm enough at Christian concerts that it’s acceptable for the artists to schmooze for a while after the show. While most of the younger crowd followed the beacon of Raze’s bright hair colors, I slipped away from my friends (who were waiting for Delirious? to emerge), and spoke with Kendall Payne for a little bit. She was very friendly and she handled herself well, despite apparently having some personal business to go take care of (she’s from Malibu and a lot of her friends were apparently at the concert). I told her it was weird that she was younger than me, but that as a songwriter, it was nice to see someone from my generation making her mark on the world. Michael Tait showed up briefly, which I didn’t expect, and he was also very polite and attentive. Compared to a dc Talk show, this crowd was probably pretty low-key, though there were a fair amount of screaming young girls. He is, after all, the most eligible bachelor in Christian music. I was able to ask him briefly if that was Pete Stewart (the former lead singer of Grammatrain whom Tait helped with production and songwriting on an excellent solo album) playing guitar in his band, and he replied, “Yeah, that’s him. He’s my edge.” After a while, the D? boys came out, and everyone got in line to do the meet and greet thing. My friends were ecstatic, and I was looking forward to speaking with them, but honestly, they seemed rather aloof. It just didn’t fit the image that they put forth onstage – “being among people” and all. I realize that they’re popular, and I’m not one to get into huge fits of excitement over meeting celebrities, but it was a bit of a downer. I guess there was a bit of stress going on that night, it being one of the first shows of the tour, so it’s forgivable. In summary (and I know this has been a long concert review), I still highly recommend seeing Delirious? live. They’re supposed to have some new material out this summer, and they’ll likely hit the States again after finishing up their current UK tour opening for Matchbox 20 and Bon Jovi (yeah, you read that right – they broke into the mainstream!), so keep an eye out. They are an awesome live band, if a bit predictable, and their concerts always have a strong element of “worship experience”. Michael Tait’s stuff is quite promising; catch him on the upcoming dc Talk tour if you can, where all three members will be doing solo sets and then the group will do classic dc Talk songs together. Raze, of course, is better suited for dance clubs, but they’re not on the road much these days anyway, given that Ja’Marc Davis was recently arrested on charges of sodomy involving a few of the group’s underage backup dancers. Finally, Kendall Payne is a promising new face, and if she keeps the ink flowing and the guitar chords strumming, she’ll have a repertoire of great songs to dazzle audiences with one day, and won’t have to settle for four-song opening sets and a few random song snippets being played on the television. My ratings: Kendall Payne: 4 stars Raze: 2 stars Michael Tait: 4 stars Delirious?: 4 stars Websites: http://www.kendallpayne.com http://www.razedance.com http://www.taitband.com http://www.delirious.net  |
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