Well, I anticipated doing another blog long before now, but this appears to be a busy Summer for me. After getting home from Creation I’ve been running. A whole month has passed already! That’s crazy. Last weekend I went to a local music fest that featured Seventh Day Slumber and Disciple. Probably like three months from now I’ll get around to doing a blog about that, haha. Starting tomorrow night I’m playing bass for our conference’s family camp. Ten straight nights can get grueling after awhile, but I’m ready to go.
Enough with the chit=chat, the real purpose of this blog is to discuss something that happened the very first official night (we were there the night before) of Creation. That night featured Flyleaf, Skillet, and Switchfoot. I left Switchfoot desiring a little something more. I don’t know what that something was, but it was missing. Skillet were pretty amazing. Tight is the word that we kept using to describe their show. Musically, emotionally, lighting, pyro, etc. were all just very tight. I tell ya, you haven’t lived until you’ve been in a crowd so big that you could pick your feet off the ground and you wouldn’t fall because you’re stuck in all the people!
However, Flyleaf opened the night. I’ve got their record and have been enjoying it. I was excited to see what their live show was like, but I guess I wasn’t really expecting a lot. For those of you who are unfamilar with Flyleaf, get out from under your rock! Haha, Serously though they’re not a band who typically tours with other Christian bands. I know what you’re thinking, “Oh… one of those.”
“Those” are happening more and more in Christian music. Cries of “sell out” and jeers of “they’re just in it for the money now” have been hurled in their direction. Often times when asked in interviews, they seem to skirt around quesitons of faith (or at least in the interviews that everyone seem to gravitate to). Unlike their counterparts, Flyleaf can’t claim that they found big success in the Christian market and then jumped over, but I’ve heard them accused more than one time of using their “so-called faith” to help boost their album sales to a gullible Christian market. Harsh, but I’ve heard it.
About halfway through their set at Creation, Lacey of Flyleaf started to talk about how awesome this event was because they don’t get to play for “you guys” (meaning the Christian market) very much. She then started to share about how their call was to be a light in a dark place, so that’s what they’re doing. I got to admit, it brought a tear to my eye! There it was. How can you argue with that?
I know that some bands most likely do it just for their careers. Maybe I’m just not reading the right interviews or the right questions aren’t being asked, but it would seem to this humble JfH staffer that if more bands who opted to go the secular route and felt called to do so would just be open about that fact, there’d be a lot less questions.
Regardless, how about some straight answers. If this helps your career and that’s your motivation, that’s cool with me. This is what you do for a living. All the same if you’re doing it because you feel God has called you to share your message with an audience of people who don’t know Him, why not be open about it? Personally, I’m more apt to support a Christian band in the secular market who shares their purpose.
Now let me say this, I know some bands are open about their intentions and purposes. That’s cool, but for those who don’t… I’m tired of shifty answers that skirt the real issue. I’m tired of reading of a band saying something that completely contradicts something else they said.
Why can’t they all just give a straight answer?