Switchfoot paid a visit to Temasek Junior College before their performance at Max Pavilion, where I was. Aww, how I wish I was there.
I went for the Switchfoot Live in Singapore Concert yesterday! Me, Jony, Yuan and Yuan's friend, Julian. Switchfoot's first album was The Legend of Chin, because at first the band was called Chin Up, after a friend called Willis Chin. This also follows Isaiah 6, where we first look up to God, before looking inside and then outside ourselves.
"We called our album Legend of Chin out of respect for our friend back in San Diego," says drummer Chad Butler. "He's such a great guy. A real smiler, too. The kind of guy who always has his chin up!" (Pun intended.)
"Willis is definitely one of our heroes," says guitarist-songwriter Jon Foreman. "He's so real and so consistent in living out his faith. He's no fake. And that's what we hope our album is all about—about being real, no matter what the situation or circumstance."
"And we are trying to show people where true hope is found," says bassist Tim Foreman. "And Willis knows exactly where his hope is found."
"Then there's our song, 'Ode to Chin,'" says Chad. "It's a tribute to Willis. It's about being accountable to someone like Willis. ... This song is also about keeping your eyes on the Lord."
Chin also plays in a band called Movement Oust, and you can sometimes find him leading worship at Calvary Chapel North Coast in San Diego, CA.
Damn, you can already go to youtube, search for Switchfoot Singapore, and videos are already uploaded. The entrance said no video and audio recording, but at least 10% of the crowd took out their mobile phones as soon as Switchfoot started their first song.
It was a bit of a screw up. We reached at 6+, waited until 8 to gain entry. As expected, the concert started half an hour late. We had to listen to two local bands, whose names I didn't even bother remembering. Sitting through 7 agonizing songs for one hour. Woah, they planned to play EIGHT songs! Luckily the second band canceled one. Too bad, both bands couldn't move almost the entire audience to move and sing along. They were quite talented, but most of us never heard of them, wanted to see Switchfoot and they played an overwhelming of songs. After the first band finally dismissed themselves off, and the host announced that a second local band will be coming, I could feel the tension rise.
It was also yesterday night that the phrase "My granny can scrap better than that" was redefined. When the second band was playing, a lady seated a few rows from us around her fifties took out her earpieces when the second local band performed and listened to her mp3/Walkman/whatever. Either that or she covered her ears with them.
She:
1. Was there ALONE for a concert.
2. Was there for a ROCK concert at a rather awkward age.
3. Was there for a $70/$80 concert.
4. Was using her earpieces even though the cacophony from the band was overwhelming enough to drown out all other sound.
5. Was sitting at one corner, staring at the floor, even though everyone else (including me) was foolish enough to at least show our faces to the band.
6. Kept the earpieces only after that band excused themselves from the stage.
7. PWNed.
Hidden Text. Oh man, the starting was garbage. You may be like; "Come on, it's the first time you heard them, be easy on them" but no, it sucks ass from a straw. Okay, maybe that was a little bit too tough.
Then came Switchfoot. Compare the reactions of the crowd as soon as they came in to that of when the local bands were trying their best to stir up the crowd, and the verdict is obvious.
They played sixteen songs, excluding a Switchfoot version of Beyonce's Crazy In Love, of which an excerpt was used in conjunction to with Gone to form a medley. They are:
1. Oh! Gravity
2. Stars
3. This Is Your Life
4. We Are One Tonight
5. The Shadow Proves The Sunshine
6. Ammunition
7. Only Hope
8. Gone
9. On Fire
10. Dirty Second Hands
11. American Dream
12. Learning To Breathe
13. Awakening
14. Meant to Live
15. Twenty-Four
16. Dare You to Move
(I tried to recall the order as best as I can. They would most probably be quite a big number of mistakes around the middle.)
I remember the way they started their concert. They played some riffs, played the starting part of Meant to Live, made the crowd crazy, then immediately shifted to Oh! Gravity. Yuan was the first to identify that song; my was he fast. After that song finished, they played more riffs and proceeded to present the famous intro of Stars. I doubt the crowd could have went even more crazy then that. Yuan was grinning out his tooth, for God sakes. We Are One Tonight and The Shadow Proves The Sunshine were a medley. Awakening was killer. If only Yap Ning was there, then I would go, "Hey! Awake-Ning!"
There was one part where Jonathan Foreman's cable broke. Maybe he was rocking too hard. Anyway, he borrowed Phil's guitar instead. Andrew Philip Shirley is a guitarist and the newest member of the rock band Switchfoot. Shirley attended California Baptist University studying a Fine Arts degree with a Music minor. During that time he also started and led the Chapel Worship Team and the Thursday Night Live Bible Study. He had only started playing guitar as a senior in Highschool. After graduating from college, he also began working with Youth for Christ as the Riverside area Campus Life director.
So many things wowed me that night, I can't post them all! Towards the end of American Dream, before the last two lines of the final bridge (But that ain't my America, that ain't my American Dream), the band suddenly stopped and stoned there. Oh my Word, the bassist Tim was leaning back at quite an uncomfortable angle. Once again the crowd went wild and started chanting "Switchfoot, Switchfoot". I'm not sure just exactly how long they stoned there, but it must have been a minute at least. When The four of us were rather amazed by that idea. Jony proposed we do that during worship leading next time!
Yesterday was a dream come true, but it was also an awakening. When I heard twenty-four, one of my favorite live from the writer's own mouth, there were so many things I realized. All this while I have been more or less idolizing Switchfoot, and it was then that I knew what folly it was. The glory goes to God. They appeal to a wide audience when they play, but the lyrics, the soul of their music is dedicated to the Father. They cry out to God for forgiveness and grace, not to the audience for fame and glory. When Jon reached the first line of the bridge (I'm not copping out), he choked and delayed that part, and sang the second line (not copping out) with added determination.
The band and I, we are worlds apart, yet I feel we are so near. The way they profess their faith and reach out to souls is one that God will not ignore. Their songs sing of the things we face in our walk with God; not just the joys of salvation. Even Billy Graham once went up the mountains alone to think through whether or not his faith is real. The song 4:12 sings about how he doubted and thought the world was merely material, and how he realized that "souls aren't built of stones, sticks and bones". Dirty Second Hands talks about how we create our own enemy, how envy and lust causes us to fail, but the next song on the album, Awakening is on how grace abounds to cover our sin, and that we're awakening to fulfill what God wants us sinners to do. I think Yuan likes Stars because he also cogitates on the same theme as Jonathan Foreman when he wrote that song. He told me that if the stars had a choice, it would never shine its' light on this fallen world.
It's as though through faith, Jon is speaking to Yuan and saying, "Yuan, this one is for you."
Stars looking at a planet, watching entropy and pain
And maybe start to wonder
How the chaos in our lives could pass as sane
I've been thinking about the meaning of resistance
Of a hope beyond my own
And suddenly the infinite and penitent begin to look like home
I've been thinking about everyone, everyone you look so empty
But what is classic is how Jonathan leaves a hint at the end, "When I look at the stars I see someone" Where this "grace or love or anti-entropy" does not hide His face from this fallen world, and continues to shine for humanity.
Behind the Song:
"Here's another song that we've been playing live for a while. Maybe it's the Led Zeppelin side of me but I love a good rock riff and this one is really fun to play. It's a good builder that I'm anxious to play this summer. Speaking of summer, I have a theory about social entropy; if you and I ever end up talking about existence drinking caffeinated beverages in the wee hours remind me to tell you all about it. For now let's just say that in a world of pain and war and divorce and greed and genocide, how does anything good ever happen? I understand the second law of thermodynamics in the physical world to be something like this: "Any system which is free of external influences becomes more and more disordered with time. This disorder can be expressed in terms of the quantity called entropy." So without some sort of external influence on the social plane, I find no logical reason why humankind didn't see her last day a long time ago. Call it grace or love or anti-entropy- there must be something keeping things together. The question becomes, why do good things happen to bad people? In the song, the first verse looks at things from Descartes perspective, pinning the center of the universe on the individual. "Maybe I've been the problem," maybe I'm overcast, falling apart, etc... The second verse talks about our world from the perspective of the stars looking down on earth from the eternal dance of gravity and motion. I love the night sky. It reminds me of how small and insignificant me and my problems are in light of the infinite. When I look at the stars i feel like myself.” – Jon Foreman (Switchfoot)
God Bless Switchfoot, God Bless this world, God Bless YOU!
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