ZOEgirl's Free Experience Tour, 02.08.04: My First Teenybopper Concert Feb 23 '04    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music Revelation [Digipak] by Journey From $12 Machine Gun Etiquette by The Damned From $40 The Bottom Line While ZOEgirl, Superchic[k], and Joy Williams may all have their eyes on a younger crowd, that doesn't stop us older folks from enjoying them in a live setting... well, at least 2 out of 3 ain't bad. Date: Sunday, February 8, 2004 Performers: ZOEgirl with Superchic[k] and Joy Williams Venue: Calvary Chapel, Santa Ana, CA Ticket Price: $15 (General Admission) As much as I enjoy concerts that showcase deeply emotional and artistic music, performed in an intimate and memorable atmosphere, with fans who listen attentively and don’t require the artists to name-drop either Jesus or their city to get the crowd excited, there are some days when I don’t mind going to a concert that is simplistic, bouncy, and just plain fun. February 8th was one of those days. You see, I got into my first “real” car accident that day. Nothing major - just someone’s rear end crunching my driver’s side door as I backed out of my church’s parking lot. But it was enough to make me pretty tense for the rest of the day. I almost decided to forego my plans for the evening so that I could stay off the road and get to sleep a little earlier (my girlfriend and I had an 8 AM flight the next day). But instead, we soldiered on, the car still being in perfectly drivable condition and all, and made our way down to Orange County that evening to catch the second show of ZOEgirl‘s FREE Experience tour. (Which, amusingly enough, was “free” for us since we managed to score some complimentary tickets. Woohoo!) Yeah, I know, it was one of those “teenybopper” concerts. I mean, ZOEgirl, Superchic[k], and Joy Williams all under one roof - this was gonna be like a massive youth group meeting, right? Honestly, I didn’t care, because ZOEgirl and Superchic[k] have two records a piece that I enjoy, regardless of the age group those records might have targeted. (And to be fair, ZOEgirl’s more recent output has shown them trying to break out of the “teenybopper” mold somewhat successfully.) Still, I knew that a concert tour aimed at a younger crowd (with a decidedly female focus) had the potential to be over-the-top cheesy. It was anyone’s guess how this evening was actually going to go. Taken By Surprise Any conceptions I had of a large youth group meeting, and us being the oldest people there, were thankfully shattered when we arrived. The audience seemed to be mostly comprised of younger kids (mostly girls, obviously) and their parents. This really shouldn’t have surprised me, but I guess I would’ve been more likely to expect this sort of a crowd turning out to see Jump5 or something, since ZOEgirl and Superchic[k] tend to have a lot of songs dealing specifically with teenage issues. No matter, if these kids are relating to or at least enjoying their songs, that’s a step up from the music that’s actually being aimed at them, in my mind. There was something amusing about the fact that the seven-or-so-year-old girls in front of us had musical tastes that intersected with my own. First on the bill was Joy Williams, a fairly young pop singer who had achieved some notoriety in Christian music over the past two years or so. She’s one of those artists who I never felt was obnoxiously bubblegum, though I guess I had still passed her over as being a bit too clean-cut for my tastes. I guess I’d have to describe her as a very humble and down-to-earth singer - she gets noticed a lot by us guys because - I’ll admit it - she’s darn cute, but she tends to sidestep the glamour and dress very casually in her photos and her concerts. Not that appearance makes much of a difference in music, but I guess it does reflect her easygoing attitude. Thankfully backed by a real band (however subdued their arrangements of her songs might have been), she got her set off to a pleasant enough start with the funky pop number “New Day” before moving into the shuffling rock of “By Surprise” - a song about Christ’s return that was stuck in my head days later even though I usually don’t tend to remember songs that I’ve only heard in concert. (I guess I have Jesse Butterworth from the band Daily Planet to thank for that one - boy, do I miss those guys already!) Joy chatted some with the audience in between songs, but for the most part she didn’t seem to be talking down or pandering to her audience, which was definitely refreshing. The only difficult moment for me to bear came when she decided to teach the audience how to sing the chirpy, repetitive chorus to “I Wonder”. Not one of her better moments, that song. But she quickly redeemed herself with a heartfelt story about being called “Joy the Boy” when she was in junior high school, and grappling with her own conception of what makes a person beautiful, which led into “Beautiful Somehow”, more or less her equivalent of ZOEgirl’s “Plain”. That was followed by the lovely, piano-laden ballad “Every Moment”, which really stood out to me even though I noticed that no keyboard player was on stage - the piano was canned. That seemed like an instance where the collective talent of her tour mates could have been pooled - both Superchic[k] and ZOEgirl have members who can play the keyboard. Once that song crescendoed, she followed it up with her big hit “Surrender”, which I remembered enjoying from when it was popular on the radio due to its thick groove and savvy melody. While I felt that Joy’s band didn’t put quite the amount of energy into the songs that they deserved (save for perhaps “Surrender”), it was still nice to hear how her new material adapted to a live setting. She may not have much in terms of stage presence, but she was wise to adapt to a more organic style on her latest record (which, interestingly, was the source of her entire set). Set List: New Day By Surprise I Wonder Beautiful Somehow Every Moment Surrender It Doesn’t Mean We Have to Act Like We’re in High School! I was pretty geared up for Superchic[k]’s set. If any of the three acts stood a chance of rocking the house, it was these crazy guys and girls. (Yes, the band is mostly made up of guys - they have a female lead singer and guitarist.) Oddly enough, they had a video queued up to introduce themselves that featured the boys in the band in gym suits, training for the tour and taking on amusing exercises such as learning how to protect the girls in the band from male fans with less than honorable intentions. If only their set had been nearly as entertaining. The group took the stage with plenty of fanfare, but as they launched into an unrecognizable and clunky version of “One Girl Revolution”, it became clear that Superchic[k]’s live sound was frustratingly flat. I suppose the venue could have been part of it - church sanctuaries don’t always boast the great acoustic of your average theater or concert hall - but as the guitars and drums started to drown everything out, including Tricia Brock‘s voice, at the point of the song’s chorus, I had to wonder who was really the central focus of the band. Even founder Max Hsu, who was churning out all manner of samples and keyboard noises, could hardly be heard over the din. The kids who were familiar with the band’s music seemed excited enough when they churned out familiar singles like “Karaoke Superstars”, which sounded horribly off-key during its chorus, and “Barlow Girls”, which was all but unintelligible, only recognizable by its super-catchy chorus that dared to rhyme “bomb” with “mom”. The newer song “High School” seemed to fall apart before it even started, and I could tell it wasn’t one of the audience’s faves. All the while, the video screens surrounded the stage were flashing various band logos and phrases like “SUPERCHICK ROCKS MY FACE OFF”. Please. If that were really true, you wouldn’t have to tell us. Surprisingly, the band never got around to the stronger material from Last One Picked - I guess a five-song set doesn’t allow you much room to deviate from the hits. Songs like “Na Na” and “So Bright (Stand Up)” (which actually was a hit) would’ve probably added value to the set. Instead, they moved on to a rather forced-sounding remix of the already hackneyed “Hero” (I really hate to dog on that song, since it has such a great message about our intervention possibly saving lives of kids who might otherwise turn violent or suicidal). I mean, if they were going to rework the song into a heavy rock anthem, the least they could do would be to find a way to take the emphasis off of the word “a” in the phrase “You could be A hero.” As the song crashed to a halt, bass player Matt Daly (who is clearly the hot guy du jour of the band) launched into a spitfire solo rap that was admittedly quite powerful, but also uncomfortably similar to the style of Eminem. And on that note, with has last cry of “The time is now!” echoing through the sanctuary, the band left the stage. Only five songs. You’re not supposed to get less time than the person who opened for you, are you? Set List: One Girl Revolution (remix) High School Karaoke Superstars Barlow Girls Hero (remix with Matt Daly solo rap) You Get Me If there was anyone on this tour who understood what it was that I liked about attending concerts, it was definitely the women of ZOEgirl. Thanks to two savvy pop albums and a promising appearance at 2002’s Fish Fest, I’ve gone from writing the group off as a teen pop also-ran to really respecting their music and message. They too utilized the video screens, though to less obvious effect, choosing mostly to use images of nature and the occasional music video to accompany their energetic dance pop. They opened with the kickin‘ “Trip Rock Remix“ of their first big hit “I Believe”, which was the only song from their first album to be played that night (thankfully). I actually like the practice of playing remixed versions of songs in concert that some bands have taken up recently - my mind usually tends to associate remixes with more processed, less song-oriented material, but ZOEgirl and Superchic[k] have both done pretty good jobs with the remixes I’ve heard from them (at least, the studio material in Superchic[k]’s case), altering the musical mood without sacrificing the song. It was interesting to note that ZOEgirl and Joy Williams were actually sharing the same backing band, and as a result, some of the same problems were present - most notably, the guitarist just didn’t have the power and volume that he needed to have to match the recorded version of this song, or crunchier numbers like “Beautiful Name” and “You Get Me”. The more beat-oriented approach on older material like “Dismissed” and “Even If” (probably still my favorite ZOEgirl song) gave the drummer a good workout, though - he didn’t disappoint. Of course, it would be silly of me to focus only on ZOEgirl’s backing band, since the three ladies are starting to come into their own as musicians. Which is not to say that they’re virtuoso players or anything, but it’s encouraging to see a group take the emphasis off of the silly choreography that was never really their thing to begin with (though ironically, video footage of the ladies doing a dance routine for a festival crowd appeared during the new song “Feel Alright“), and focus on singing and playing their instruments. They didn’t play instruments all the way through the show, but it really made a difference when they did. Chrissy Conway reprised her role on keyboards during the song “Plain”, which was more filled out this time compared to the stripped-down arrangement I remembered from a few summers ago. During this song, which is about self-worth and not letting others’ perceptions of you get you down, the faces of several young, junior high/high school age girls appeared on the video screens, some fat, some skinny, some made up, some not, and supposedly representing all different types, but somewhat disappointingly, all white. Aside from that nitpick, it was a nice touch. Chrissy also offered her touch to the worshipful ballad “Life to Me”, which is a world away from the group’s beat-driven dance pop, but was definitely a standout during their live show. This worked better as a “worship” portion of the set than doing tired covers of “Open the Eyes of My Heart”, “Awesome God”, etc. would have. Not to be left out, Alisa Gerard and Kristin Swinford pulled out their new acoustic guitars for a few songs. While their knowledge so far seems to only extend to basic chords and strumming, I can’t say that I know much more than that after two and a half years of owning my own guitar. It added a nice, full sound to the ballad “Unbroken”, and really served to change the atmosphere during the older hit “With All of My Heart”, which was always acoustic guitar-based, but in this setting it was taken out of R&B mode and played in full “unplugged” fashion. It lost a bit of its syncopation along the way, but it was great to see the girls confidently leading the way on one of their most beloved songs. Remember how I complained earlier about the canned piano during Joy Williams’ set? There did seem to be elements of ZOEgirl’s set that were canned as well, and while I understand they probably couldn’t hire too many players for a smaller-scale tour geared towards youth, again I have to wonder why the artists didn’t do a better job of collaborating with each other to fill out these areas. The title track from Different Kind of FREE, which closed out the group’s main set, lost a bit of its attitude by replacing it skipping, hip-hop beat with normal drums. Max Hsu could have really cut it up on this one if Superchic[k] and ZOEgirl had thought to collaborate. On top of that, Matt Daly could have filled in for the missing rap part, which ended up leaving a gaping hole in the middle of the song. I’ve seen artists share resources when touring together before, such as The W’s playing horns during a dc Talk song, so I know it’s within the realm of possibility. Lying Down Flat in the Boat There was about a half hour break before ZOEgirl came back out for their encore - during this time, the evening’s emcee Susie Shellenberger gave a brief talk. She’s a writer for Brio Magazine, I believe, so it’s not surprising that her overall speaking style was aimed towards the youngsters in the room. I was understanding about that, though I had to wonder if her goofy speaking style and too obvious jokes would get on the nerves of some of the older and more cynical kids in the room. (Don’t you hate it when adults snicker loudly at their own jokes as if to make it crystal clear to the kids that whatever they just said was supposed to be funny?) My girlfriend enjoyed her message more than I did, I think. She mostly focused on an analogy based around a paraplegic teenage kid who asked his dad if he could participate in the Ironman Triathlon. Our of love for his son, the dad, a middle-aged man who had never done physical activity to that extent, underwent heavy training and arranged to take his son with him on the long swim, bike ride, and marathon required to finish the event. This allowed his son to partake in the event vicariously - it took the dad about twice as long as the normal time to finish, not surprisingly. An inspiring story, to be sure. Unfortunately, like a lot of Evangelical preachers I get exposed to these days, this was used to draw a loose analogy to Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made for us. It worked in the sense that we don’t have to do anything other than believe wholly in Him to get to Heaven. But it didn’t work when she kept emphasizing that following Jesus required “Lying down flat in the boat.” That seems to imply that you get saved and then do nothing, when actually faith in Christ asks a lot of action on our part. It just isn’t the action that saves us. Anyway, I don’t want to split theological hairs - I just feel that you have to be careful not to dumb stuff down too much when you’re talking to kids. To Susie’s credit, she handled the expected “altar call” quite well, by asking everyone to keep their eyes closed, and those who wanted to accept Christ that night, or recommit, to raise their hands where they were. I’m not always keen on altar calls at concerts since I think it’s a bit impersonal, but I think it’s more genuine to have everyone make their own individual decisions without other people leering at them and egging them on and getting a buzz off of the sheer number of people going forward. ZOEgirl came back for their “big finish”, which wasn’t long and drawn out like some encores tend to be. ZOEgirl’s biggest strength as performers might just be that they clearly communicate the message of each song without talking at extreme lengths in between or dragging things out unnecessarily. They really know how to keep a set moving. They finished up with their recent hit “You Get Me”, which made for an apt encore, and then, surprisingly, they closed out with the lighthearted, fun workout known as “Contagious” (a.k.a. “The Na Na Na Song”). Because of how effortlessly the girls moved through each song, the concert seemed to end rather abruptly, but it was nice to end on an upbeat number that gave the band - especially the under appreciated bass player - a final workout. Set List: I Believe (remix) Dismissed Feel Alright Even If Plain With All of My Heart (acoustic) Unbroken (acoustic) Beautiful Name Life to Me Different Kind of Free Encore: You Get Me Contagious Unless you’re an aficionado of fun and fairly lightweight girl pop/rock, I probably wouldn’t see you getting your money’s worth out of the FREE Experience tour, but if you have young kids - especially girls (or are one), who have shown an interest in Christian music, then this’ll be a lot better than most of the Christian entertainment out there that’s being aimed specifically at that age. Heck, it’s even reasonably enjoyable for us old fogies. My Ratings: Joy Williams: 3.5 stars Superchic[k]: 2.5 stars ZOEgirl: 4 stars Show Overall: 3.5 stars Websites: http://www.joywilliams.net/ http://www.superchick.net http://www.zoegirlonline.com

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