LCMS National Youth Gathering, Orlando, FL, July 24-28, Concert Reviews - Part 1

I traveled to Orlando, Florida, with 14 youth and 2 other adult leaders for the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod (LCMS) National Youth Gathering, July 24-28. We joined 35,000 other youth and leaders for Bible studies, speakers, mass events, and CONCERTS!

Today’s review features the Gathering’s Headliners. Future reviews will look at the Gathering Worship Bands and the Workhorse Bands.


American Dance Rock: Audio Adrenaline
The Sunday night Mass Event turned into a massive, crowd-pleasing Audio Adrenaline concert. Their second time as the Mass Event headliner, they became part of the gathering for a little over an hour, more firmly establishing themselves among us when Mark Stuart revealed his “LCMS 2004” T-shirt.

Audio A’s set drew a lot from their newest work while also dipping all the back to their second album, , with “Big House” (on which one of the volunteer security guard got to sing the chorus). That song is a reminder of Audio A’s beginnings—rap rock with a tendency towards the silly. Today it feels like they are a different band—more melodic, anthemic at times, much less rap or even rap-singing. However, live in concert, there’s still a rap rock attitude in Stuart’s lead vocal and presence.

Audio A challenged and inspired the crowd without making the concert less than a rock ‘n’ roll experience. For “Hands and Feet,” Stuart called out, “We’re looking for a generation of believers who aren’t afraid of getting their new shoes a little muddy going where Jesus wants you to go. Will you go?” Then the crowd raised their hands to go, to serve, and to rock the house. (This theme in Stuart’s stage speeches may influenced in their recent touring with speaker Bob Lenz whose talks later that week picked on that same idea of asking the youth generation to go for Jesus).

A few ballads interspersed in the set, like the “Ocean Floor,” gave the crowd a chance to breathe, stop the bouncing, and actually be further enveloped in the sound and experience, all leading us to praise God. That praise also came in the forms of a dirty, blistering start to “Make a Plan,” and culminated in the main set closer, “Get Down.”

The planned encore brought out the 70’s rock sound-alike of “Start a Fire” featuring a cowbell solo, a lot of cowbell, bringing back some of the schtick that was part of Audio A’s mystique in the beginning of their career. This led into a closer chorus of Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re an American Band,” as the Stars and Stripes was unfurled as the stage backdrop. The LCMS and America and Jesus—a little more of the close connection between patriotism and Christianity that I find uncomfortable (see comments on Third Day’s concert), and a reminder that this delicate line is something to which our Synod needs to pay close attention.


American Dance Rock: Superchic[k]
I didn’t get to see Superchic[k] at Lifest, because I wanted to support Flatfoot 56. As I waited to see them play in Orlando, I got increasingly nervous that I wouldn’t see them there either. They had an extremely tough sound check, sound problems that would continue to be a problem at the Edge Main Stage in the Orange County Convention Center where the Gathering took place. Despite the problems, Superchic[k] endured to pour their energy into their shortened set.

Guitarist Dave Ghazarian and Mixmaster Max Hsu formed Superchic[k] out of the ashes of Church of Rhythm, wanting girls to front a band so that they could minister to both guys and girls. With sisters Tricia Brock (vocals) and Melissa Brock (guitar, vocals), that dream took shape. As the band kicked through a set of American Dance Rock, Ghazarian and bassist Matt Dally perform like a crazy party band behind the Brock sisters’ girl band. Should guys be scared away from the thought of a girl band, all they have to do is see Ghazarian and Dally to know that there’s much more going on here.

When I interviewed Dally at Lifest, he mentioned how their pop-punk-funk comes from very diverse influences. That showed in their Orlando set—the sounds being borrowed from so many different places. Dally had said they fit somewhere near Blink 182, Evanessence, and the Black-eyed Peas. When asked what their influences were, Dally at first joked, “Oh, Carmen, Michael W. Smith.” Seriously, he cited Blink 182, and while he said most people think of them as cheesy pop-punk, he finds the new album very artsy. How does all of this compare to what Dally was listening to as a teenager? Well, while listening to Superchic[k], see if you can hear the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, or Pantera.

As the band has had big things happening lately with song placements in TV shows and movies, with Tricia singing the “It’s all inside” J.C. Penny slogan, Dally summed up their reaction like this: “I’m still the same person inside.” It’s all inside indeed.

During the Artist Talkback hosted by Interlinc, Dally told the story of meeting an old high school friend in Best Buy. When she asked him what he’d been up to, at that very moment, the Best Buy soundtrack announced a new song from Superchic[k]. “It was just too perfect,” Dally said. She would’ve never believed him if he had said, “That’s my band.” So he said, “Nothing.”

Humility and honesty marks Superchic[k]’s very intentional ministry to youth—helping youth to be honest about who they are, to be humble, and to realize that they have a lot of potential no matter what the world around them may think. That honesty came through in Dally’s comment about getting a record deal. “Once you realize what the label does, you won’t want to be signed. Most of them are crooks.” That’s fair and honest advice to all of the youth who came to the Talkback, many probably with the dreams of stardom themselves. As the band wolfed down some pizza in between answering questions, some of the glamour of a rock star faded in the stuffed mouths, tired eyes, and later on during the difficult sound check.

This faded glory, honesty about popularity came through in their set which included dance rockers “High School,” “So Bright (Stand Up),” “One Girl Revolution,” and “One and Lonely.” When I asked Dally back at Lifest about what different kinds of opportunities did they have when playing festivals, he said that it gave them a chance to play in front of kids from so many different backgrounds musically. The same would be true for the National Youth Gathering. Tipping his hat to this writer, he said, “Get to see the whole spectrum!”

May that terrible sound system not follow me to my next chance to see Superchic[k]. My attention was also divided during their set, because while they ministered to the youth in the crowd, I needed to continue my main role as Youth Pastor, helping out with some concerns in our own group.


Garage Rock: Relient K
Clearly Relient K was the most popular of the Edge Main Stage evening concerts. Due to their wacky approach, skater/garage band style, and their emo-heart-on-their-sleeve, Relient K has a dedicated following ready to be led to use humor as a defense mechanism and have a trucker hat faith.

Yet again, though, the sound system and concrete wall acoustics warred against Relient K’s normal balance of edgy, thrash rock and passionate emo strains. The muddy sound muddled the distinctiveness of each pieces which forms the Relient K garage.

Relient K is on a Christmas themed tour on the heels of the bonus Christmas disc, Deck the Halls, Bruise Your Hand, which is coupled with their 2003 album, Two Lefts Don’t Make a Right. . .But Three Do. The preshow music was a combination of traditional and non-traditional Christmas carols/songs, including the Chipmunks’ “Christmas Time is Here.” The stage featured 2 inflatable, lit-up snowmen. When the band took the stage, lead singer/guitarist Matthew Thiessen said, “Merry Christmas, you guys!” and they played their version of “Deck the Halls.”

From there, they took on “Forward Motion,” admitted their confusion about emotional girls in “Mood Rings,” and then ran headstrong with “Pressing On.” The set also included a new song, “High of 75.” “Gibberish” went right into “Sadie Hawkins Dance” on which guitarist Matthew Hoopes broke a string. Thiessen cheered him on as he tuned a new guitar, “You’re smooth!”

Referencing the orange backpacks that all 35,000 gathering participants had, Thiessen urged the crowd to dedicate their energy to rocking saying, “Where we going Orange Backs?”

After the main set closer, “Chap Stick, Chapped Lips, and Things Like Chemistry,” Thiessen announced that they would be walking off the stage and then coming back on. The next song (“I Am Understood?”) wouldn’t really be an encore, just the last song that happened after they walked off stage. You’ve gotta love that kind of honesty. May that honesty transfer into how Christians talk about their faith—admitting our own mistakes and quirks instead of faking it.


Hard Rock: Kutless
Kutless does the odd combination thing, like the sweet & sour chicken I got from the Ming Court cart earlier in the day. Kutless is acoustic guitar & mohawk guitar. They’re a motorcycle emo band. Like Muse or Placebo, they are hard rock & drum loops.

When it comes to rap metal songs like “Not What You See,” vocalist Jon Micah Sumrall commanded the crowd to “put your fist up,” and comparisons to other rap metal acts are quickly met. “Treason” is a double guitar blitz on the underlying melodic American Band Rock with Sumrall’s Henry Rollins attack on the mic while turning in some very plaintive melodies. “Tonight” and “Let You In” paint ominous beginnings with guitars, something that metal has always done so well.

“Sea of Faces,” the title track from the newest album, sounds like Matchbox 20’s “Unwell.” Here’s where that emo, acoustic melody breaks the roaring motorcycle pipes. That pop sensibility comes in the band’s direction of the crowd’s movements too. Rather than the normal chaos of a hard rock show, band members lead the moshing, hand clapping, arm waving, arm punching like black-clad cheerleaders. Again there’s the sweet & sour—rock ‘n’ roll rebellion funneled into marching band precision.

Nothing pulls you out of the angst, fury, and catharsis of hard driven rock like a girly girl waving her arms and bouncing like she’s at a Britney Spears concert with that little bounce/lock pattern of a cheerleader. Then she stops to twirl her hair. Meanwhile, Kutless opens up the heart, lays it bare before God, and the chest thumping becomes a way to pour out your fears and sins before Jesus.

More National Youth Gathering reviews to come, featuring Fusebox, Echelon, Jonathan Rundman, thepoolboys, and Right Lane Vacant.