Okay, now far be it from me to have a laugh at the expense of my venerable spouse, Mr. Maise, but...BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!
Over the past few months, he has become an avid fan of Flyleaf, a quasi-gothy, quasi-metal band that is, I have to admit, more melodic than most metal bands he enjoys and rather angsty lyrically. The husband was particularly taken with lead singer Lacey Mosley's high, breathy and occasionally shouty vocal stylings. One evening when he had gotten a wee bit buzzed at Hala Kahiki, our local Polynesian dive bar, he waxed philosophic: "Her voice is like a siren. I would crash my boat into the rocks for it." Um, yeah. Whatever. I, on the other hand, feel that her voice careens on the edge of annoying, but I will admit that she is talented, and I really do appreciate Flyleaf's attempts to write metal songs with catchy hooks, that you might find yourself singing along with despite the fact that it's completely out of your vocal range. Besides, the man has gone halfway around the world to indulge my Nine Inch Nails obsession, so who am I to judge? When I learned that Flyleaf was coming to town, I readily agreed to accompany him. Fortunately our Ro came along as well.
The Flyleaf concert at the House of Blues was originally postponed due to the fact that Ms. Mosley had seriously strained her voice. Which I certainly don't doubt. It hurts my throat to just listen to her! But fortunately, the show was rescheduled and happened to coincide happily with one of Mr. Maise's irregular days off.
We missed the first opening act and had a nice dinner at the House of Blues restaurant. (Note to HOB concertgoers: if you buy an entree from their restaurant, you can get line-jumping privileges. Not that they were needed in this case. The show was well attended but not sold out.) So when we took our place in the upper balcony, Skillet was taking the stage. I don't have a ton to say about them. They're from Kenosha, Wisconsin; they're all relatively good-looking; they have a formidable-looking female drummer; they're REALLY LOUD; and while they aren't terribly offensive musically, it's obvious that Nickelback is a major influence for them. Meh. The husband bought their album because it was $10 and because he is amused by the name Skillet, as it reminds him of the chinchilla-esque character of the same name on "12 oz. Mouse." Interestingly enough, both Skillet and Flyleaf dedicated a portion of their setlist to telling us some pitiful tale of a "girl they know." In Skillet's case, she was a depressed cutter, so they dedicated a song to her and reminded us all that God loves her. Which is quite nice of them.
When Skillet departed, Flyleaf followed about half an hour later, as is customary. Lacey Mosley is a lot shorter than any of us were expecting. The band is quite energetic on stage, jumping off of amps, jumping up and down, etc. They played faithful renditions of the album tracks that, thanks to the spouse, I now know up and down. Lacey spends much of the concert with her arms stretched skyward or on her knees, which made me start to wonder...but more on that in a moment. Their tale of woe involved a young woman who had once been beautiful but was covered in burns and was a victim of domestic violence. Apparently in her despair this young woman set herself on fire but found faith in God because when the pain started to be too much, she went into a coma. Jesus, what a downer of a story! Anyway, a song was dedicated to that girl as well.
So around this time, and the fact that the snippets of lyrics I could discern could totally be about a person's relationship with God as opposed to another person, I leaned over to Ro and asked, "Um, is it just me or are these guys a Christian rock band?" After all, one of their songs, "Cassie" very obviously refers to the disputed story of Cassie Bernall, one of the Columbine victims, who was allegedly killed after replying "Yes" to the question, "Do you believe in God?" (The official investigation concluded that this exchange did not occur.) So, although the VERY IDEA of my completely areligious husband taking me to a Christian rock concert is HILARIOUS to me, I wasn't going to give him any shit about it or comment, but he did ask why Ro and I burst out laughing when Lacey dedicated the last song to Jesus Christ. He looked a little sheepish and said, "Her voice just draws me in," and of course, I totally respect that. [tee hee!]
Not that I have any problem with someone believing in God or expressing their faith. I mean, I am a card-carrying Episcopalian after all. But again, it's the juxtaposition of us being brought to this rather Jesus-y rock concert by a man who normally fervently eschews all of that (a big Marilyn Manson fan back in the day, no less!), that Ro and I found humorous.
Besides, Christian rock and this kind of Creed-influenced quasi-Christian rock is just...dorky. I don't know why that is. Elvis can sing gospel, and it's awesome. U2 can get away with being even more overtly Christian than Flyleaf, and it still rocks. What is it about Christian rock as a genre? Seriously...help me out here. (Oh, and both Flyleaf and Skillet are marketed as both mainstream and Christian artists, btw.) Although I'm sure that both bands are expressing themselves artistically in an authentic, heartfelt Nickleback-y way, Christian rock always leaves one with a sense of being conned...of being proselytized to in a way that they think you will find "cool." Being a veteran of Roman Catholic youth groups, I have been subjected to quite a bit of that "rad" message delivery. Also, Christian rock sets itself up as an alternative to mainstream GODLESS DEVIL MUSIC, in a way that U2 never did.
This HILAROUS and ABSURD snippet really says it all. From "Skillet's Answer to Marilyn Manson":
Marilyn Manson stood on stage, screaming something about Jesus. And it wasn't very nice. To Skillet's John Cooper, who was in the audience, it was downright offensive. "Man, you're just rippin' us off!" John said out loud at the Manson concert.
Since Skillet's music is often compared to Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails, John, Skillet's lead singer, decided to learn more about these groups. He found that the hype about Manson's message wasn't exaggerated; it was very anti-Christ.
As he watched the audience cheer at Manson's rants, he saw just how powerfully music can impact students—for good or for bad. John knew his band could have that kind of impact too, but with a message of hope.His experience at that concert led to the song "Rippin' Me Off" on Skillet's recent album, Alien Youth.
I mean...Marilyn Manson????? They're STILL using Marilyn Manson as their boogeyman? PLEASE. He is beyond irrelevant and is more concerned about his girl problems and horror movies that go nowhere these days than with being the Antichrist Superstar. I mean, he's pushing 40! Marilyn Manson???!!!! Plus, it should be pointed out that Skillet sounds nothing like either Manson or NIN. Nothing.
The inability of Christian rockers and their fans to differentiate between a criticism of ORGANIZED RELIGION and God Him/Herself is just...a different topic for a different day. Mainly, Christian rock is dorked out because many Christians continue to believe that they and everything they stand for are constantly under siege and that they can't find messages of hope or love or peace in songs by NINE INCH NAILS (gasp!). There's nothing wrong with writing music with a positive message, but when you condemn angry music and dark music simply for being angry and dark, you're missing the point half the time.
I'm kind of digressing here. But I have to say, Flyleaf isn't particularly egregious in the preaching department. You can listen to their music for months and not realize that they're trying to be the next Creed, lyrically. As the husband apparently did. And as far as I'm concerned, they're a hell of a lot better than Creed. Not that that's saying all that much.
After the show, I asked the husband, "If you had a chance to HYPOTHETICALLY date Lacey, but you would have to regularly attend church, would you do it?" He looked a little torn. "What kind of church?" he asked. "Evangelical!" I gleefully answered. Now he looked really torn. "Well, is it a relationship as I would consider it to be a relationship?" "Yes, you would have sex with her," I replied, rolling my eyes. "Well, sure, I guess," he said.
Lacey and company? You've saved another soul.
