Dancing Has Certainly Evolved

So here I am, sitting at home after 3 hours of chest-pounding bass and drum and really loud (but not screaming) vocals, trying to let the ringing in my ears gradually go away, and keeping track of the score in the Marquette - Notre Dame game.

Woo! They were down by 6 at half, and came back to win by 10. :D Great way to avenge the regular-season loss..

Maybe I should have bought the earplugs they were selling behind the bar for $1. If I did this concert thing every week, I would. Anyway, it was a fun night. Egg foo yung at a little Chinese place 3 doors down from the Varsity, and decent seats when we got inside the theatre. :)



Plus, two warmup bands, both of which J2 knew and liked (we texted back and forth - he was sooo jealous - not to mention embarrassed that his Mom sang along to one of the songs, and glad he didn't have to watch that. I thought it was kind of cute.) They were The Higher, and Houston Calls (both available on iTunes, except I need to wait until after Lent for that.)

This really was pretty good music, even to old ears. I commented to D that if we had had this music back in the day, it would have been a real improvement over a steady diet of the Carpenters, Bread, The Captain and Tennille, B.J. Thomas, and stale leftovers from Three Dog Night. Well, there was Kiss, but they were just too weird-looking. And Jim Croce was a favorite, but again.. not a rocker. Elton John, Bee Gees, yeah, sure. Eagles - hmm, now you're talking! Still, not a lot of solid rock being played. These bands would have been good to have around back then.



The quality went up with each band, as you'd expect. The sound and musicianship got better. They all knew how to put on a show, but the sound and the songwriting were where you could see a real improvement. Sherwood was great. So when I got home I had to listen to more (which I had gotten last year from J2.) They talked about making a music video and having the video out on MySpace. Yup. They did. :) I like the video - and the song.

So about the dancing. Um.. yeah. That is what they called it, but boy, I really don't know...

Each band would say: "This next one's a good dancing number", and the crowd (at least the half that was way forward and packed together with no sense of personal space whatsoever) would all do the same thing. It was what the bands called dancing, and apparently what the crowd thought of when the bands said it, because it happened the same way each time.

Picture this. The song is done in a straight 4, about 150 bpm (yes, I counted), and there are the usual loud and loud-ER parts. The "dancing" happened on the -ER parts. The form to follow was: raise one arm in the air (only one), keep hand loose at wrist and tipped toward the stage. Extend one or two fingers toward the band. Pulse hand at wrist. While pulsing hand, jump vertically, on the beat, like jumping rope without the rope.

That's it.

Really.

At 150 beats per minute, for a good 4-5 minute song, there is a workout aspect to it. And the bodies are pretty packed in together. Incidental body contact appeared to be... tolerated? Expected? Preferred? (as long as it stayed unintentional. Although I can imagine one or two of the boys out there having certain intentions...)

So when the band goads the audience to dance to another one, they get a little tired and hot. So some guy comes up from backstage and takes the cap off a bottle of water and flings it out into the audience, to cool them off. They yell for more. :)

Sort of reminded me of sprinkling the congregation with Holy Water during Mass, but.. not really. There's more decorum in Mass. You don't, um.. yell at the priest for more. :P

Hm. I suppose for some of the crowd, concerts *are* their version of a worship service. And the concert mentality has sure invaded the contemporary Evangelical church in worship. It blurs Christianity and culture a bit. A bit too much.

There is a symbiosis between band and audience, with music serving as the connection. Similarly, there is a symbiosis between worship team and congregation. But in "concert" mode, that's where it stops. There is no third party.

In worship, the symbiosis is supposed to be between the congregation and God, with music, lyrics and the spoken word the connections that facilitate it. The worship team should get out of the way, becoming a part of the congregation, disappearing into the crowd in a way that the band on stage never does. This is what I think many contemporary Evangelical worship leaders don't get. They are in concert mode, and God... sometimes doesn't show up at all.

I'm on worship team one Sunday in each of the next three months, beginning with Easter morning. God help me stay out of Your way.