AJR Concert
Dear reader,
About a month ago I went to a concert that my little brother and sister had been talking about for many months.
I must admit, I’m not a huge fan of concerts. But I knew the band and I wanted to be there with them (more as a protective big brother than anything else)
Not to say it was a dangerous concert or anything. But my brain does default to the worst-case scenarios.
The story itself starts with a killer storm. Looking at the weather radar we could tell there was a freaking big storm that we had to drive to get to the concert, but it was funny that for our hour-and-a-half drive, the storm only lasted for about 22 minutes.
But the 22 minutes were very rough.
The windshield wipers were moving as fast as they possibly could, the headlights were barely showing us any road ahead of us, and the music was blaring.
Overall it was a very overwhelming 22 minutes. But after that was done it was calm, peaceful, and quite beautiful to look at outside.
We got to the concert venue decently early, so we found our chairs and got comfy.
The people in the row ahead of us one of their chairs broke and they fell backward, and in order to not get sued they gave everyone in their row a front stage pass which was kinda of funny.
The opener sang like Jason Mraz and called his mom at the end.
Then we waited for the main event. Which took a while, it was like an extra 30 minutes of waiting in between acts.
But then it started with a bang. The performers came out and it was truly a pretty cool performance from start to finish. I think I clocked It as 2 hours long which is longer than any other concert I’ve been to.
Yet, I’m writing this whole story out so I can talk about this one thing.
AJR’s music is very catchy, their melodies and use of instruments are very odd, and I think that’s one of the primary reasons I can enjoy their take on music. (Like a modern-day Beatles)
But. (I could get a lot of flack for this.) They very clearly do not honor God with their music.
The lyrics are quirky and they talk about conflict and trials in their everyday lives. They discuss human emotion and heartbreak, but they don’t talk about any kind of hope in their music.
The main singer Jack had a bit of a monologue at the end of the show. Where he went on and on about how people didn’t believe in the band, they had haters in their school, and then he proceeded to shout
“F*** them for not believing us!”
Yeah.
I don’t want to say I endorse them, is it wrong to say their music is catchy? I don’t think so, ‘cause from a worldly perspective they are nailing it. But I want to be careful in saying this.
I was surrounded by people who were worshiping a band that had no hope. I saw teen girls screaming their hearts out, and old moms dancing in ways that were so provocative, and I was wondering how I was to respond.
Sure I sang the songs I knew. But the lyrics are empty. There may be truth sprinkled in here and there, but none of the songs pointed back to God in any positive way.
They even wrote a song called “God is really real.” Due to their dad passing away, and how believing in God is convenient when it benefits you.
What it comes down to is this, I felt out of place at the concert. It was cool, and a memory that I’ll share with my siblings. But to compare that to a Rend Collective concert I went to last year is unfair.
The difference in concerts was simply this.
One group was singing songs to worship The God of the Universe.
The other was singing songs to sing songs.
One had supernatural connotations.
The other had catchy tunes.
I share this tale with you so you can think about why you listen to the music you do. I am not here to condone or condemn anyone for their taste in music. I hope you can tell that’s not my desire in all of this.
My hope is this, whatever we ingest in this life we talk about. So we should be cautious of what we ingest.
If we serve a God who is good and worthy to be praised, why should we waste our time doing things that don’t honor Him?
Sincerely,
Your Fellow Roadie
-Mitchell