Harmonica of ROCK.

2005-08-05 - 11:15 p.m.

I spent my evening listening to two hours of christian rock, live.

Why did I do this?

*sigh*.

It was a charity gig. I was waiting for a certain Band to come on, who I like. Unfortunately, they were playing last, and were so out of place with the rest of the bands it was hilarious. One of their members is, in fact, a hardcore christian (heh), and they were asked to play at the gig by his church group. At first glance you wouldn't consider any of Band to be members of the church of england, cause they're a bunch of hippies of vaguely sinister appearance, who smell of weed. But Jel is, so, there you go.

The first band were alright, their own stuff was good, but they were crap on the covers they did. I was a little surprised when they sang Kings of Leon's Molly's Chambers. I don't know if they knew the connotations of 'she's got your, your pistol', cause it seemed a little raunchy for them. They murdered that song… it sounded too clean the way they sang it.

The second band were bad to a fascinating extent. Lead singer could not sing in tune whatsoever, but was determined to compensate with volume and enthusiasm. They did covers, with the words changed to make them more Christian. Cue Robbie Willi@ms Angels with the words changed to "I'm loving Jesus instead… and through it AAAAALLLL, he offers me proTECtion!'

He even tried to get the audience to join in. That was how bad it was. It was like the worst karaoke. They kept doing U2 covers… I had to pull my hat down over my face so I could laugh.

The third band were just dull. How many covers can be played in an hour. *sigh*. The only moment which broke through my stupor was when they did 'we will rock you', with harmonica solo. Harmonica. Yes, it rocks you… I liked that part, because he was a good harmonica player, and it was an interesting twist. Made me laugh, though I really don't think they were doing it ironically. Christian groups just don't do irony… or cynicism, in my experience. :-) Good job I can add it in for them, I guess.

Then on march the Band, all pale and druggie-like, doing a heavy fusion of metal, latin, funk, emo, reggae, and rap. Their lead singer dances around like a possessed puppet, with a top hat perched on his head. They are very loud, and not at all a nice cup of tea. A small crew of their loyal fans sit at the front. The old ladies quietly shuffle out at the back. At the end, a small boy says "Mummy, my ears have gone numb!".

I loved the Band's set. I guess I'm a bit of a fan, as I came out just to see them, and stuck out all the christian stuff beforehand. But then, my boredom at the moment meant I was desperate to go out. They are damn cool though. Derivative of many things, but the way they mix it together is very original. I don't like them so much on CD, cause they're so heavy, but they're good fun live. They have a good sense of humour, with songs about having the BCG vaccination, or the lead singer's careers advisor (a mournful number), or their particular take on small town life ("I CAN"T STAND THIS PLACE AND I CAN'T TALK TO YOU!"). And I find their music really easy to dance to, although I found that less easy than usual tonight, in the peaky church crowd.

On another subject, I witnessed a funny conversation while clearing someone's table today. A young boy was sat with his tiny sister on his lap, complaining to his mum about another kid who'd kicked *sister* while they were playing next to the swings.
"And what did *sister* do?" asks his mum.
"She jumped on him and kicked him."
I looked at the girl, who was very small and blond.
"Chrissie tole me to do it," she said.
"Yeah!" said the boy, who I guess was called Chrissie. "Cause Georgie, you can't let boys do stuff like that to you. You have to show them they can't."

Heh. It was so sweet.

~T.

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