Festivals and Concert Videos

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I wish I had been able to go to FFM. I think it’s refreshing to see talented musicians and authors get together and discuss faith in music. Sadly, I’m worried that was the best of the Christianity/music fests this year. I’ll admit it, I find CCM festivals to be fun, I enjoyed covering Creation West last year. Deep down though, I really feel like people within the Christian subculture don’t put enough thought or artistry into their music. I think that’s part of what I’ve been trying to focus on with this site – trying to find artists that put a bit more into it. I mean, I still love the fun “Christian rock” stuff even though I don’t think it’s all that amazing, but I like exploring what’s beyond that subculture more.

I generally find that there are four different kinds of bands in Christian music. There are "artists", that try to stretch things and be creative; there are "musicians", who play music to back up pop singers and what not (those first two are in the mainstream of music as well); there are "worship leaders", who sing to try to engage people in praising God; and there are "ministries" that aim to convert people with their music. I like artists the most, and I wish that more of Christian music was based on that kind of stuff than on ministries.

Cornerstone festival used to be pretty good about balancing the more popular "ministries" and booking some bizarre "artists" and even some harder music that’s kind of hard to categorize. Now I’m pissed with them – they have an awesome artist lineup this year, but the schedule is rather pitiful. I know, technically Anberlin opening for Relient K and Switchfoot is an amazing show – but they put it up against Bill Mallonee, Ester Drang, and Over the Rhine. The first two days of the festival don’t really have any exciting headliners, but then the last two days have a number of head-scratchers. Why the heck is Ashley Cleveland performing at the same time as Jars of Clay? They both released hymns albums recently, with many of the same hymns. They also collaborated for a few stellar songs on the Who We Are Instead album. They’re catering to almost the exact same demographic now that they’re both singing hymns – so why the hell are they on competing stages? That makes no sense.

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Sorry for the rant. Anyway, it looks like that Low concert I saw last week was one of the last they played before feeling a bit under the weather, according to the band’s message board. That stinks.

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I do have a cool link for people to check out today. I know, all my whining about CCM and all of the "Christian" stuff we cover makes this look like some kind of "Christian" music site, but to be honest, I dig lots of independent music too. I found out about this cool site earlier today that has live concert videos in the Windows Media Format. Anyway, the site is http://www.fabchannel.com/ , and they have some sweet stuff on there. Well, some interesting bands anyway – I can’t say I’ve actually had a chance to watch any of these videos yet. Artists they have videos of include The Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes, Low, Damien Rice, Sonic Youth, Snow Patrol, and Paul Oakenfold.

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