|
|
Proof that the Electric Youth Are Revolting!Nov 01 '01 (Updated Feb 24 '03) Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Music
The Bottom Line FIF's live show is sloppy and zany, and Relient K and Ace Troubleshooter were good opening pop/punk acts. John Reuben's rap didn't go over as well.
Date: Sunday, October 28, 2001 Performers: Five Iron Frenzy, Relient K, John Reuben, Ace Troubleshooter Venue: Calvary Chapel, Capistrano Beach, CA Ticket Price: $15 (general admission) It was an evening that by all accounts, should not have happened. This past Sunday marked the return of yours truly to the concert scene after nearly half a year’s hiatus. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go to any concerts in between that Dave Matthews Band show back in May and now - it’s just been increasingly harder to find anyone who would have enough interest in some of the bands I like to go see them live - especially Christian bands like Five Iron Frenzy that tend to be purposefully sloppy in a live setting and attract a younger crowd, often playing in converted sanctuaries where unwary concert-goers are made to stand between rough-and-tumble teenagers for the entire time with nary a chair in sight. I’ve acquired a taste for the zany sort-of-ska style of Five Iron Frenzy over the years, and I was quite impressed with the teenage pop/punk sensation Relient K during their opening stint for the Supertones earlier this year. Add John Reuben to the mix, the only rap artist I’ve actually liked since the days of old-school dc Talk, and I was willing to put up with an opening punk band (Ace Troubleshooter) that I’d never heard before. But who to go with? Even if I were still with my ex-girlfriend, she wouldn’t have touched this one with a 10-foot pole after purposefully distancing herself from pretty much everything I liked towards the end of our relationship. Other concert buddies were out of state, or otherwise unavailable on a Sunday evening. That left a relatively new friend of mine who was raised on 70’s folk and adult contemporary pop (or “soft rock“, as she calls it). Surprisingly, this was her idea - she was willing to try anything just to have a fun night out with a good friend. So, we got our tickets for the “Electric Youth Tour” about 4 days in advance (we could have avoided the evil Ticketmaster and just bought them at the door; hindsight is always 20/20), and embarked on the long drive, practically 2/3 of the way from L.A. to San Diego, for what proved to be quite a fun show. I’ll admit, I was expecting the night to have its share of annoyances, being a veteran attendee of lower-budget Christian concerts. That made me a bit uneasy, being with a friend who wasn’t normally into ska, punk, or rap to begin with, and who had never been to a Christian rock concert before. I fully expected her to say “never again”, but thanks to some great work on the part of the bands and the concert promoters, it was a very different experience. Ace Troubleshooter took the stage literally seconds after we made our way into the makeshift concert venue. We found a pretty good spot towards the back of the room as the rat-a-tat drums introduced their frenetic song “Southeast 101”, and I prepared myself to be patient through six or seven iterations of the same song, this being one of those “underground” Christian bands. Well, first of all, Ace Troubleshooter is a little more popular than I recognized, even if I only recognized that first song, and second of all, they’re actually quite good at what they do. My friend noted their knack for harmony, which made them the perfect choice to warm folks up for Relient K’s appearance later on. I didn’t catch the titles of any of their other songs - there were about six total, and folks toward the front of the room really seemed to be into them. I noticed a decent amount of variation from song to song, mostly avoiding those awkward mid-song tempo changes except during the first and last song (it’s a staple of punk music that I never really cared for). The highlight of the set was definitely the original song that the band wrote for BEC Recordings’ Happy Christmas 3 compilation, entitled “Have It All”. It was a surprisingly mature midtempo song with a great melody - one of few Christmas songs I look forward to hearing again. They also introduced one of their songs by dedicating it to California girls and then promptly telling them to stop pushing us guys around. Way to go, Ace. There was a very brief turnaround in between Ace and rapper John Reuben, mostly because all John needed was a few rhythm tracks and a set of turntables. I have to say, even though Are We There Yet? was a five-star album in my book, I wasn’t all that impressed with John’s live performance. Maybe I’m just not used to live rap performances, but the whole thing sounded a bit flat, with John mostly shouting lines that were more sing-songy on the CD. Instruments used on the CD (piano, guitar, etc.) to help diversify the songs were present in the backing tracks, but largely inaudible over the bass. The only noticeable element besides the beats and vocals was a fairly skilled turntablist (I now declare “turntablist” to be a real word). John also had a guest MC with him whose name I didn’t catch. The three guys kind of had the Oreo effect going on with John in the middle (he’s white). The guys remained pretty true to the lyrics on the CD, though John noticeably slipped up or stopped to catch his breath at some points, and his backup guy did a pretty good job at trading lines back and forth with him to fill in the gaps. They started rather predictably with “Divine Inspiration”, the first cut from Are We There Yet?, and kept the party rolling with “Him Her He She” and “Gather In” (during which they had the audience fill in the “da-da-da” chorus). John kind of looked like an idiot doing that whole basketball dribbling motion with his hand a lot of the time, but part of me thought he might be poking a little fun at most rappers’ tendency to act hard (something that he rants about in the brilliant “Hello Ego”, which he performed for us, once again utilizing the audience to fill in the childish “blah blah blah”s from the CD). There was a brief interlude for John’s DJ to show off on the turntables - a good but rather rhythm less display of talent. John made a rather odd choice as he shared a little bit of personal testimony - he rapped the verses to “Identify” completely a capella. The lyrics to that song are a very powerful reflection on who we are in Christ and how we let our fears hide that identity from us, and it would have come off as a more intellectual, poetry-reading sort of thing if John hadn’t been doing those silly hand motions with no beat to back him up. Still, he got ample cheers from the audience as he shouted, “I’m not that person anymore, that’s what Christ’s blood was shed for!” I wondered if people were listening to the whole song or just cheering because Christ’s name had been dropped. But that’s not John’s fault. I suppose the guys did a decent job, and they had a decent sense of humor, as displayed when they played a dinky little cartoon theme between songs and had the audience wave their hands in the air like it was some sort of hardcore hip-hop beat, but I think John was a bit too obsessed with getting everyone in the audience to participate, insisting he wouldn’t go on until he saw “every hand in the air”. He closed with his biggest hit, “Do Not”, which was probably the highlight of his set. My friend was tolerant, but unimpressed. I couldn’t really blame her. The CD was much better. John knew that his music wasn’t everyone’s style, being the odd man out on a punk/ska tour, and I really respected him for taking the time to thank those who didn’t like his music just for being polite and bearing with him. After another surprisingly short intermission came one of the moments we were waiting for when Relient K took the stage. Lead singer Matt Thiessen came on stage wearing a cell phone costume, holding a real cell phone and attempting to play its jingle into the microphone, but resulting mostly in grating feedback. He admitted later that it was a pretty “un-funny” intro, but that was soon redeemed as the band got underway with their remake of the theme from “Charles in Charge”. Relient K made the overall attitude of the evening pretty clear - kids goofing around and having a good time. It was rather refreshing - of course there were some more serious “Jesus songs” in the mix, but the heavy-handedness was kept to a minimum, perhaps in better moderation than on Relient K’s albums. They jammed through the nostalgic high school anthem “Sadie Hawkins Dance” and a punked-out version of their latest hidden track, “Skittles and Combos” (before which they pleaded with the audience to not throw Skittles on stage - apparently this has been a problem), before taking a longer pause to dedicate a song to the ladies in the room. Oddly, these guys apparently had the same angst as Ace Troubleshooter, because their dedication also turned out to be an admonishment for the ladies not to play with our hearts. It was all in good fun, and of course they got a loud cheer from me for that one. They promptly launched into an insanely fast cover of Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up”, which my companion and I found quite hilarious. Finally, it was time to get at least somewhat serious, as the blazing electric intro to “Down in Flames” reverberated across the room. I haven’t been as impressed with the supposed “maturity” of the band’s newest album, but I have to admit, this song hits hypocritical Christians where it hurts with clever lines like “We don’t shake hands, we shake our fists.” It makes me not mind the rather fluid tempo of the song - one minute very fast and rigid, the next minute very loose and swingy. Indeed, the band sounded together on those songs, as opposed to a few of the more straight-ahead pop punk tunes, where it was noticeable when the band got slightly out of sync or played too slow. The contrast between fast and slow was exaggerated a bit too much in “Softer to Me”, a harder-edged fan favorite from the band’s first album. It was time to be silly after that, as Thiessen exhorted the audience, “All in favor, all in favor say…” to which the audience responded, “NEIGH!” recognizing the painful pun from the new song “May the Horse Be with You”. I think the song was more fun live. On the CD, it just isn’t all that funny. “Wake Up Call”, my personal favorite from their first album, was up next, and it displayed the boys’ vocal chops quite well, with Thiessen trading call-and-response lines with fellow guitarist Matt Hoopes. The band was in fine form, especially their energetic bass player, though their drummer was a bit off on some of the faster numbers. A very short speech from Thiessen, confessing a recently realized need to grow up a little more, introduced the band’s latest hit “Pressing On”, which was more or less identical to the album version, except that the band transitioned it neatly into an electrified (albeit shortened) version of the acoustic praise song “For the Moments I Feel Faint”. Though there wasn’t any talk of September 11th or any of that stuff from stage, I could tell that people were connecting more deeply with the lines “Never underestimate my Jesus/You tell me there’s no hope, I’m telling you you’re wrong” due to recent events. It’s always great to see a rowdy bunch of kids (not that I’m that much older than them!) recognize a more solemn moment and lift their hands in praise. It shows that they really are paying attention to the lyrical content of the music they love. Matt teased the audience a little bit as they prepared to close out their set by asking one particular spectator “Manson or Maybeline?” Well, as fun as their new track from The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek can sometimes be, obviously everyone wanted the band’s campy breakthrough single “Marilyn Manson Ate My Girlfriend”. They added the creepy “ooh-ooh-ooh” intro from the indie version of the song, and otherwise embellished the song by pausing in the middle and asking everyone to burp on cue, even if their breath stunk because they’d had sushi for dinner that night (gee, how did they know?!). I suppose that was rather unnecessary, but hey, I remember being in high school. They closed their set out with the bass-heavy hit “Hello McFly”, which interestingly got a bigger response than “My Girlfriend”. The guys may have faltered a little bit, not sounding quite as tight as they did opening for the Supertones, but they still rocked the party. I’ve gained a lot of respect for the K after seeing them in concert - they have the potential to be one of Christian music’s hottest bands once they get a tad more experience and maturity under their belt (not that maturity is required to make it in Christian music - take Stacie Orrico and Jump5, for example.) My fellow concertgoer and I took a break to cool off and get a soda during a slightly longer break while Five Iron Frenzy was setting up. Even that break was barely long enough, and surprisingly, I don’t recall any shameless plugs for the church or contrived pleas to feed starving children during the break (not that churches shouldn’t advertise or children shouldn’t be fed; these things just tend to get overdone at most Christian concerts). An upcoming Supertones show was promoted during the break; that was about it. Before we knew it, the wacky collective known as FIF was taking the stage, its members wearing everything from a suit and tie to a rubber chicken hat to a Girl Scout uniform to a mullet wig. (Actually, the Girl Scout uniform and the mullet were both being worn by lead singer Reese Roper. You might attribute this to Halloween being three days away, but I’ve heard the band always goes out of their way to look ridiculous.) Fittingly, the opening tune was the heavy metal send-up “The Phantom Mullet”, which stops to skewer REO Speedwagon and Billy Ray Cyrus along the way. I was quite pleased to hear the band open with my favorite cut from All the Hype Money Can Buy, and even more pleased to hear the band’s horn section pierce through the wall of guitar, bass and drums quite clearly (as opposed to the Supertones, who drown everything in drum & bass when they play live). This segued into “One Girl Army”, the band’s pro-feminism song that has a great message even if it’s not one of my favorites due to its awkward spoken verses. For some reason the band has latched onto this one as their standard “second song” for their live shows. The silliness continued with “O Canada”, the jumpy ode to our northern neighbors and such joyous activities as drinking venison Slurpees and getting arrested by the Mounties, and “Suckerpunch”, the middle-school misfit anthem that served to break the band through into Christian Hit Radio back in 1997. Reese blessed us all with a dorky rendition of the Macarena in between the verses on this one. It became apparent that the horn players got a bit more excitement out of the older material, which of course was written back when ska was still a hot trend, but they held their own with backing vocals during the newer, less horny songs. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun.) Five Iron practically turned on a dime between some songs, often making me listen carefully for the first few seconds as I tried to grab a title while searching through several similar song intros in my mind. The ultra-silly “You Probably Shouldn’t Move Here” was pretty easy to recognize, with its Dixie-inspired horn parts, various screams and sound effects, and an obnoxious yodeling solo from Reese (he also attempted a Russian dance during the bridge). Reese seemed to ad-lib to replace out the line introducing “Val from The W’s” at the last minute, (it wouldn’t have made sense, since the W’s broke up), randomly introducing someone he met in the parking lot instead. Whatever. You have to know the song to know what I’m talking about. I have to say, it takes guts to play a song about why California sucks and Colorado rules to a Southern California audience. But they ate up every second of it. The middle of FIF’s set lagged a bit for me. It was great to get to hear three new tunes from the group’s upcoming album (due out November 20th), though I wished they weren’t all clustered around an older song, “Cool Enough for You”, that I didn’t know. (They did a cute little time travel skit before that one, though - I had been hoping that the illusions to “going back to 1995” implied a silly cover song a la the band‘s rendition of Tom Jones‘ “It‘s Not Unusual“ from a few years back, but oh well.) New song “Pre Ex-Girlfriend” is one I know I’ll be looking forward on the new CD, though at this point I had to wonder if the bands had some sort of a conspiracy to pick on the women in the audience. (Maybe they just knew I needed a safe place to acknowledge my frustrations.) “Far-sighted” sounded like a more serious song to be added to a long line of hypocrisy-bashing tunes like “Litmus” and “Four-Fifty-One” (neither of which were played on this tour, lamentably), and the other new tune, “You Can’t Handle This” was dedicated to “Anyone who understands what the Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics is”. (My ex-girlfriend, having majored in physics, would have found that hilarious, but then she’s too “mature” for concerts like these.) From the sound of the new tracks, I’d expect the group’s new album to have very poppy melodies with rawer production. Probably less of a mixed bag than All the Hype, but then, I really liked that album. Five Iron Frenzy tends to use general goofiness to add character to their set, and if you’re not familiar with the band, it can look like they’re just killing time. Reese joked around with trombone player Dennis Culp and guitar player Micah Ortega (who looks old enough to be really out of place in such a band) quite a bit between songs, and at one point, he invited sax player Jeff the Girl (don’t ask) over to sing a song. I had thought that she was going to do “When I Go Out”, a great little track from Quantity Is Job 1 that never cases to amuse me, but instead, she did some other thrash rock song that was just about as long (that’s about five seconds, for those who are keeping track). It was still pretty funny. It wasn’t as funny when Micah (Jeff’s brother, actually) came up to do pretty much the same thing. Apparently these were actual skate rock songs or something. Whatever. The classic “Dandelions” was up next, which Reese dedicated to the mama’s boys and generally effeminate men in the audience, mostly because it’s about as close to a sappy song as FIF gets. I like the Christmas-y horn intro to the song, but other than that, I go against the grain of most FIF fans in saying it’s not one of my favorites. It seemed even jerkier than it already is on the CD. Next they played an older song that I wasn’t all that familiar with, but I think it was called “Where Zero Meets Fifteen”. I was surprised that they didn’t stick “Handbook for the Sellout” or “Superpowers” in there. I had thought those to be FIF concert staples. Ever the troublemaker, Reese (who by this point had stripped off his wig and uniform and boasted a black shirt that had “COCKY” emblazoned across the front of it) introduced “Blue Comb '78” as “the saddest song ever written, sadder than ‘Send in the Clowns’”. It’s actually a punkish song about a Roper family road trip during which Reese’s big sister threw his beloved comb out the window, marking the end of his innocence. Boo hoo. The set did take on more of a serious tone as it wound down, though - for all of their goofiness, FIF really is an intelligent band with a lot to say. Their first big hit (that I know of) was introduced rather enigmatically as Reese said, “This is called ‘A Flowery Song’. I hope you hate it!” He’s been using that line for a while; it was just an awkward thing to say before what was essentially a praise song. In any case, the doxology “Praise God from whom all blessings flow” has never been so darn catchy, and the song is definitely flowered with horns all the way through. This was where fans got to utilize the sock puppets that 5 Minute Walk Records had instructed people to bring in advertisements for the tour, by making one big sock puppet choir. 5 Minute Walk has always found creative ways of donating to the poor - this time all the socks were to be given away after the show to homeless folks in colder climates. Some fans apparently forgot this, as they were throwing the socks up onto the stage, and Reese had to gently remind them that they were supposed to be donations. It didn’t exactly help that some of his bandmates were picking them up and beaning him on the back of the head with them as he was explaining this. But such is the wackiness that is Five Iron Frenzy. “A New Hope”, the band’s reflection on kids returning to school after the Columbine shootings (they’re from that area in Colorado), sounded much tighter than when it was debuted on the live album Proof that the Youth Are Revolting!, and interestingly, they kept with the sequence at the end of All the Hype, launching into the frenetic praise song “World Without End”. I could tell that drummer Andrew Verdecchio was having trouble keeping up on the purposefully jittery verses, but the band kept the reigns tight during the song’s powerful and worshipful chorus, and once again, hands were lifted, even as a sugar-high circle conga-lined around the room. Everyone was having a blast, knowing that insane levels of fun could indeed go hand in hand with genuine worship to God. There was a hint of sadness in the room as FIF transitioned from the last track on All the Hype to the last track on Our Newest Album Ever!, my personal favorite, “Every New Day”. That’s been their traditional concert closer, and probably always will - it’s a powerful song about longing for God to bring back the innocence of our youth, complete with a rousing spoken part by Reese during the bridge and a powerful coda. Despite the intense heat in the room, the sock puppets, the crazy outfits, and the high adrenaline, it was one of those worshipful moments that have always been some of my favorite aspects of a concert. Sadly, the band was finished after the song ended, and they walked off stage despite cries of “One more song!” from an audience who probably knew the drill but didn’t want it to end. Reese did come back out on stage - he led the audience in an a capella chorus of “As the Deer”. By that point, my voice was too hoarse to hit the high notes, but it didn’t matter. Despite any off-key voices or instruments, or off-timed drums, it had been a blast of an evening with a high fun factor and a clear reminder of who was being celebrated in that joy, and it was all surprisingly genuine (despite each act looking like morons at one point or another). My companion and I concluded on the drive back up (as I conceded to lay off of the frenetic modern rock music for a little bit and let her play some Journey for me) that even though FIF was a lot of fun and a great live band, Relient K really stole the show (as they did opening for the Supertones back in March), and they probably had the most potential out of anyone there that night. I would highly recommend that you catch one of the remaining dates on this tour if you’re into some of the edgier, goofier bands in Christian music (not necessarily the really hard stuff, though). Most people looking to expand their horizons into ska or punk are probably better off at a Supertones show (even though I personally think FIF is a better live band) or waiting for Relient K to tour with some bigger-name headliners. We’ll probably be hearing more of Ace Troubleshooter in the near future - they could be where Relient K is in a couple years, though they’ll have to work harder for it. As for John Reuben - well, rap ain’t my thing, though I do love his album and look forward to his next one. It just doesn’t work as well live, but then, I’m sure dc Talk had pretty laughable live shows at the beginning, too. My Ratings: Five Iron Frenzy: 4 stars Relient K: 5 stars John Reuben: 2 stars Ace Troubleshooter: 4 stars John Reuben Set List: Divine Inspiration Him Her He She Gather In Hello Ego (turntable solo) Identify Do Not Relient K Set List: Charles in Charge Sadie Hawkins Dance Skittles and Combos Straight Up Down in Flames Softer to Me May the Horse Be with You Wake Up Call Pressing On For the Moments I Feel Faint My Girlfriend Hello McFly Five Iron Frenzy Set List: The Phantom Mullet One Girl Army O Canada Suckerpunch You Probably Shouldn’t Move Here Pre Ex-Girlfriend Farsighted Cool Enough For You You Can't Handle This Where Zero Meets Fifteen (?) Dandelions Blue Comb '78 A Flowery Song A New Hope World Without End Every New Day Websites: http://www.fiveironfrenzy.com http://www.relientk.com http://www.johnreuben.com http://www.acetroubleshooter.com  |
| Read all comments (1)|Write your own comment |
|
Ads by Google
|
by PacManY2J
by George_Chabot
by starcollector
![Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast Reviews](http://di2.shopping.com/images/pi/95/a4/8a/2006752046-100x100-0-0.jpg?p=p23.21c7b66ec062e148c96c&a=2&c=1&l=8071320&t=120604072631&r=2)
