As a long-time fan of both bands, this was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss. I was at House of Blues Dallas early on the afternoon of Monday, October 17, getting to know other fans at least as excited for the show as I was.

 

Unfortunately, Anberlin’s lead singer Stephen Christian had a personal emergency and had to head home. Not to be deterred, Anberlin brought in vocalists from the band Story of the Year to fill in for Stephen Christian. 

 

The absence of the lead vocalist only seemed to spur the other guys in Anberlin on to an even higher quality performance. Christian McAlhaney and Joseph Milligan upheld their usual guitar and back-up vocal duties while interacting with the audience significantly more than usual. I expected that Anberlin fans would be disappointed by the lack of Stephen Christian, but the audience took the announcement with a surprising amount of flexibility and encouragement for the band.

 

Anberlin opened to a sold out house with the blistering "Reclusion." Four years after its release, Anberlin’s album Cities still maintains its status as the favorite of many Anberlin fans, so Anberlin’s setlists tend to rely heavily on Cities material. After moving on to "We Owe This To Ourselves," a track from last fall’s album Dark is the Way, Light is a Place, Anberlin dipped back into some older material with the raw "Paperthin Hymn" and "Never Take Friendship Personal." Both of these tracks got a strong crowd reaction, but "Paperthin Hymn" in particular moved the crowd to sing so loud that it almost drowned out the stand-in vocalists.

 

Although Cities and Dark Is the Way, Light is a Place were the best represented albums in the setlist, they included "Change the World" from their debut album and "The Resistance" from 2008’s New Surrender. One of the highlights of set was the small acoustic break in the middle. The crew did a minor stage reset so Anberlin could play several songs with just guitar, a stripped down percussion setup, and the two borrowed vocalists. After the fan favorite "Unwinding Cable Car," Anberlin played a chilling rendition of "Alexithymia." Once the stage was reset, they closed their set with "Dismantle. Repair.," "Impossible," "Godspeed," and their best known single, "Feel Good Drag."

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Anberlin’s albums have always been somewhat hard-edged and thought provoking, but beautifully crafted and passionately played. Their time on stage was no different. They are one of the bands that drifts in the uncharted waters on the line of the sacred/secular musical divide, and they manage to stay stable by pursuing honesty and incredibly well-crafted songs. This ethic carries through to their live performance.

By the time the stage was set for Switchfoot, the packed venue felt breathless with anticipation. Because House of Blues has a slightly smaller stage, Switchfoot was only using partial lighting production, but even so the stage was set beautifully.

 

The room went dark. After a brief soundbite intro, Switchfoot broke into the unrestrained, sprawling "Mess of Me" from their last release, Hello Hurricane. From that moment to the end of the night, there were never more than a few seconds where the crowd was not screaming or singing along. Switchfoot plays a lot of Texas shows, but there was something unusually alive about that Monday evening set, something that kept everyone singing.

 

Switchfoot moved on to play "Stars," complete with Drew Shirley’s Texas tradition of playing his guitar rendition of “Deep In the Heart of Texas” as a bridge. The crowd’s response didn't fade even when the band launched into newer material with the throbbing "The War Inside," driven by Tim Foreman’s bass work and Chad Butler’s solid drumming.

 

The emphasis on the strong bass line continued with the classic "This is Your Life." By this point the crowd was more than warmed up. I have never seen an audience so clearly and unashamedly enjoying every moment of the music. The band seemed to be enjoying the evening at least as much as the audience. 

 

Jon Foreman took a moment to announce that they’d be performing "Thrive" for the very first time that night. Switchfoot never plays the same setlist twice, making unexpected moments like this possible. He told the audience that he had written the track right in that venue a year before, and it seemed right that they would play it there for the first time. Even though it is a newer song, hundreds of fans were still singing along, adding their voices to Jon Foreman’s haunting cry “I want to thrive, not just survive.”

 

After the hollow "Thrive," the band launched into their honest and hopeful medley of "We Are One Tonight" and "The Shadow Proves the Sunshine." For these songs Jon climbed over the barrier and slipped into the crowd. It is tradition during Switchfoot concerts for Jon to join the crowd and sing with them, and even on the very tight-packed floor he managed to make his way across the room with his microphone. The well behaved crowd let him pass, still singing with him in a beautiful moment of unity.

 

When Jon made it back on the stage, he looked down at his setlist and said “you know, I think the setlist is wrong.” Jon Foreman often changes his mind on the setlist in middle of the performance, and on this night he decided that a cover of the Beastie Boys’s song "Sabotage" was in order. The crowd reaction was intense, and it was a fun moment of spontaneous energy before the lights dimmed and they played "Restless."

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The searching cry of "Restless" began what can only be accurately called a worship experience over the next several songs of the evening. The songs were definitely songs of reaching, of response, captured by the words and the fragile melody: “I can feel You reaching, pushing through the ceiling, 'til the final healing, I'm looking for You.” The last chorus of "Restless" faded out, and Jon introduced "Dare You to Move," their anthem of redemption. For this song Jon helped a fan on stage and let him play guitar with them. It was another moment that showed that Switchfoot is sharing their songs, not simply performing them. Afterwards, the lights faded again and Jon Foreman pulled out a harmonic to start "Your Love is a Song," leading the audience in a moment of abandon with the words “Your love is a symphony, all around me, running through me.”

 

These quieter moments were followed by an intense performance of "Dark Horses" and their well-known "Meant to Live." They could have ended the evening on that high, but the crowd was definitely not ready for the end when Switchfoot left the stage. The band came back out to play their masterpiece "Where I Belong," a fitting wrap-up for the themes carried in many of the rest of their songs. They closed out the night with "The Sound," ending with at least as much explosive energy as they carried into the first song.

 

Switchfoot has been a strong force in the Christian rock arena for many years now, and the fact that they continue to draw large, incredibly enthusiastic crowds is a testimony to their ability to sing about things that last longer then then temporary demands of genre and the interest of subcultures. Switchfoot’s music has an ability to unite, to draw strong loyalty. After watching Monday night’s performance, I think part of the reason is because Switchfoot means what they sing. Switchfoot has built a career breathing out songs of hope, whether in colleges, churches, or clubs. People are drawn to that. Switchfoot manages to lead one of the most genuine worship performances without ever using any of the expected words or phrases. Their songs are true, and the way they live their songs draws people to their shows.

 

Switchfoot has an ability to sing every word of every song like they mean it, every night. I hope they never stop meaning what they sing, and I count it a tremendous privilege to spend an evening singing along.

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