Doug Van Pelt

This might shock you...

...but
I went to see the Newsboys on Saturday night. Now, I haven't been a fan of this band. I've considered them to be pretty good at pop music, but being on the left side of rock had me ignore them for the most part. Normally, I wouldn't have been interested in going to one of their concerts. I know that they've done some fun things with their drumsets over the years, but I've never gone to one of their shows -- at least for as long as I can remember. The thing about this show, though, was that it was taking place in the Frank Erwin Special Events Center. That's the big arena at the University of Texas. The place where I've seen U2, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Van Halen, ZZ Top, Scorpions, Robert Plant, Heart, Amy Grant, the rodeo, Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey's circus (with Klank working on the crew), and dozens of other big-name acts. I just had to check this out and see how it'd go over.

A brand new band called New World Son opened this leg of the tour (I guess Stellar Kart was the opening act for the spring leg), but we were running late and arrived just in time to see Kutless play. They had the crowd responding very well, moving around and singing along to their worship songs, "Strong Tower" and "Better Is One Day." Their two guitar players did a good job of controlling tones and little accenting notes to decorate the rhythm playing of the other. They did pretty good. Frontman Jon Micah Sumrall did a smooth job talking with the crowd.

The Newsboys started off their set with "Shine," which I'm thinking is their biggest hit and strongest song ever. Their keyboardist handled all the "bass" duties, hitting keys or launching recordings that they stay on track with click-tracks. To the surprise (and even dismay) of HM's more critically astute readers, the Newsboys did not suck. In fact, they quite well rocked the place. While the band many times mimicked the great U2 -- both with Paul Coleman's chiming guitar picking and frontman Peter Furler's catwalking and "dance like David danced" movements -- they did what no one else is really doing and captured some of the "feel" and modern day rock star vibe of the Irish supergroup.

Near the end of the set -- after an "old school Newboys" mini-set with keys and guitar at the end of the catwalk -- Furler strummed his guitar, shared his testimony and prayed the sinner's prayer after a gentle but persuasive talk about walking with God. It was sweet to see this happen (probably for the first time) in this storied arena. For an encore they busted out a dueling drum solo -- with Furler on a standing kit at the end of the catwalk. Both drums were hydraulically lifted up in the air. Duncan Phillips' round drum riser tilted sideways and spun the seatbelted drummer quite fast at different angles from vertical back to horizontal and then down. Furler's riser went straight up, too. It was a display of good showmanship.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at October 22, 2007 10:18 AM