Waking up (late) this morning after a late-night concert, it was delightful to hear the sounds of Beethoven's "Fur Elise" coming from our 10-year old's piano playing. While she's not at the concert performance level yet, she can still play something that's pleasing to the ears. Nice way to wake up.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is one hot ticket. They are so full of authentic rock and roll sweat that people are thronging to their shows (at least the one in Austin last night was packed), as it should be. The mix of their adroit instrumentation was wonderful. Robert Levon Been's massive, over-driven bass fills the room all by itself, but it's complemented by Peter Hayes' higher end guitar tones. At times it sounds like he's playing a harmonica, or like they're looping that sound; other times Hayes is playing a harmonica. They play full and loud as a trio, or they're joined by their friend Spike Keating for a two or three guitar romp. They add organs and revival pianos. Hayes will start the show solo, accompanied later by his bandmates' voices in harmony. Then they'll go to the drums and bass with the electric guitar and blast the room full of real rock and roll. Drummer Nick Jago is as solid as they come, too. In fact, the entire band is extremely tight. Whether it's bass and guitar chords melded with drum beats all at the same time or whether it's piano chords with the rest of the band, they're all exactly on time and impressively synchronized.
Hayes started the first of 5 songs (for their giant, long, half-hour encore) solo with acoustic guitar again. Heck, he even ended the night hunched over an accordion on the floor, singing laments and wails like he was really suffering. This culminated a good, two-hour show. They gave everyone that came what they all (probably) wanted: a foot-stompin' good time.
What a show. What a band.
It appears that these individuals consider God and His Word important. It would appear that their "rough around the edges" language doesn't betray a fake life, but a changed life. It's funny, because I'm reading out of James today, and this author makes some strong points about not just knowing the Word, but living it. I love the quote: "God did not give us the Bible to make us smarter sinners, but to change our lives."
"My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the Word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it -- he will be blessed in what he does. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
James 4:6 has an interesting tidbit about grace that goes well with the blog of a day or two ago:
"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
God gives grace! Having more of grace is what I want! One thing that certainly goes with grace is humility. Humility and gratitude toward the One Who gives you grace. Verse 12 adds an interesting note:
"There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One Who is able to save and destroy. But you -- who are you to judge your neighbor?
Difficult word of the day: complementary. Complementary is that which basically goes together well. Complimentary is like a free cup of coffee. My church has a small table of free coffee available for after the service. A nice little laminated sign says, "Complementary Coffee." I held it up to make fun of last weekend, but no one saw me. That's probably a good thing, because pointing out spelling errors can be embarrassing. Oops! Did I say that out loud? I had to look up the word just know, because I doubted whether I had a grasp of the word or not. I get these two words and their proper spelling confused all the time. Maybe now I'll get it right from now on.