Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Still working
I've been very bad at posting what has been happening with the film as of late. But rest assured we're still plugging away. More details to follow.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Going to the Newsboys
I'm going to be shooting the Newsboys Monday so stay tuned for some new entries.
With that said we have actually been busy shooting having recently taken a second trip to Cornerstone. When I get a second I'll post all about it.
Stay tuned!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Right Now
Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
Tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be
What happens next?
Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
Like today never happened
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
Tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be
What happens next?
Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
Like today never happened
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Cornerstone
As you can probably tell from some of my earlier posts, the Cornerstone festival in Bushnell, Illinois plays an important role not only in our film but in Christian Rock as we know it.
Steve Tayor said it best when he said “you simply cannot understate the importance of the Cornerstone festival.”
By way of description Cornerstone is a festival that is held every year around the Fourth of July at a farm outside of Bushnell. The annual attendance is somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 and there is usually around 300 bands that play the fest. It is run by a group called JPUSA (Jesus People USA) that are basically a commune of punks, hippies and otherwise from Chicago. What’s probably the coolest things about Cornerstone is that it is it’s own thing. There is nothing in the world like Cornerstone Festival. Here’s my summation of Cornerstone: hot, dusty (or muddy), smelly, and home to the most amazing performances and experiences on the planet.
The first time I went to Cornerstone was in 1997, and it was incredible. You simply have to experience it for yourself. The first year, I learned to always carry a flashlight, don’t camp out unless you have to, and that there is a bathroom in the back of the Wal-Mart that most people don’t know about (this won’t make any sense to anyone unless they’ve been to Cornerstone before). The shows that stand out to me from that first year are POD (of course), ZAO, Spoken, Saviour Machine, NIV, Sarah Jahn and the mighty Living Sacrifice. It was a good time. I remember that I took my Bible and just read it and went to shows. I lived on tenderloin sandwiches, elephant ears, and gyros.
Since that time I’ve been back several times and each year was an amazing experience. One year I got to see the Ragamuffin band on mainstage right after Rich Mullins died, as you can imagine it was really, really moving. Another time I got to see Mark Salamon do “Mindbender” with Living Sacrifice. Another time I got to see Danielson, when he played in the “tree suit.” There are so many great moments it would take days to go through them all.
Ash and I went to Cornerstone in 2006, and it was about the fifth time for me and the first time for Ash. It is important to note here that prior to this trip Ash had only been to festivals with Hanson, and he was part of their inner circle so the Krystal and catering flowed freely I’m sure. Cornerstone isn’t like that. We rented a golf cart, which was probably the best move we made but resulted in a battle on our last night at the fest but more on that later.
Lori was there and had set up a ton of interviews for us and they were all really good. It was just a fun time all around. Ash became fascinated with the generator shows that go on throughout the fest. For those who don’t know Cornerstone is a large grounds that has several official stages that are varying in size and distances from each other. What is cool about this is that in addition to the official stages, there are tons of smaller shows set up playing off of generators. While most are just a bare plot of ground with a band plugged into a generator, some are fairly elaborate having actual stage platforms with lights and everything. What is double cool about this is that JPUSA is totally cool with people doing it themselves and even encourages it. Virtually any band out there has the change to play at Cornerstone.
Ash was really into this and was always wanting to stop and check out the generator bands. He quickly learned that most of these bands were heavy, hardcore, screamo, punk or whatever and got into it. Again he was used to being with Hanson so hardcore was a new thing. He’s got this hilarious impression of hardcore guitars that goes something like “Kaw-Kaw, Kaw-Kaw” said in ominous Cookie Monster style voice. Trust me it’s funny when he does it.
There were tons of great interviews. Some of the high points were MXPX, Leigh Nash, POD, ZAO, Jon Davis, Demon Hunter and author John Thompson.
As I said before we had a golf cart so we could pretty much make it wherever we needed to go pretty quickly, it was nice. After we interviewed Underoath, Aaron Gillespie asked if we could give him a ride to the merch tent which is about a mile away. Of course we agreed and took off with Aaron on the back of the cart. It was pretty cool, we actually had some kids running along behind us and people were yelling at Aaron the whole way.
Probably the high point or low point of the fest however was as we were leaving the grounds on the final night. We were going to turn our golf cart in and take off to get rested for our long drive the next day. That morning I had went to the golf cart place, which was basically an RV at the entrance to the fest and made sure what time we needed to turn in our cart. I was assured that there would be someone there until well into the wee hours of the morning. I foolishly believed this and around 8 p.m. we went to the RV to turn in our cart. To our surprise there was no one there but a line of people waiting to turn in carts. People were knocking on the door of the RV and asking all around but no one knew where the guy was. The problem Ash and myself was facing was that we had rented a chain and padlock from the place with a $20 deposit that we needed to get back so that we would have gas money to get home the next day. So we waited and waited and waited. About 2 hours later a woman who had been waiting with us (and said that she was 80 years old) said she couldn’t take it and left. It is important to note that neither Ash nor myself was happy at this point. Then a kid comes running up and tells everyone (by this time there was probably 40 or 50 people waiting) that the cart guy was at the mainstage waiting to get POD’s autograph. The mainstage is at the opposite end of the grounds probably 3 miles away. Ash about blew a gasket. So we kept waiting. Around 11 or 11:30 the guy comes moseying up and totally acts like nothing is wrong. Ash was on him like a rat on a Cheeto. “Where have you been?” he asked at full volume.
And you know what the guy says?
“I’ve been here.”
Yeah, you read that right. He said he had been there all along. It was as if he decided that he could use the jedi mind trick on the line of people that had been waiting for hours. He could just say he’d been there and everyone would go “maybe he was here and we really didn’t wait 3 hours.”
Ash completely freaked out, and went off on the guy. It seems like the guy told him they were going to fight or something which was really funny because Ash is about 6’1, and about 200 or so pounds. We literally laughed as he quickly gave us our $20 back. We complained about it the whole way back to the hotel and then some more the next morning.
As we were driving home I called the golf cart company and griped about the guy and to make sure that he hadn’t “accidentally” lost our cart or something. They told me that our cart was fine and apologized that the guy had been such a jerk. They added that only one cart had come up missing for the whole festival.
I found out later that the cart in question had been rented to one Lori Lenz. What are the odds? So then Lori has a go around with these guys, it was crazy. Lori was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing in the case of the missing cart.
In any event we had a great time at the fest.
Steve Tayor said it best when he said “you simply cannot understate the importance of the Cornerstone festival.”
By way of description Cornerstone is a festival that is held every year around the Fourth of July at a farm outside of Bushnell. The annual attendance is somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 and there is usually around 300 bands that play the fest. It is run by a group called JPUSA (Jesus People USA) that are basically a commune of punks, hippies and otherwise from Chicago. What’s probably the coolest things about Cornerstone is that it is it’s own thing. There is nothing in the world like Cornerstone Festival. Here’s my summation of Cornerstone: hot, dusty (or muddy), smelly, and home to the most amazing performances and experiences on the planet.
The first time I went to Cornerstone was in 1997, and it was incredible. You simply have to experience it for yourself. The first year, I learned to always carry a flashlight, don’t camp out unless you have to, and that there is a bathroom in the back of the Wal-Mart that most people don’t know about (this won’t make any sense to anyone unless they’ve been to Cornerstone before). The shows that stand out to me from that first year are POD (of course), ZAO, Spoken, Saviour Machine, NIV, Sarah Jahn and the mighty Living Sacrifice. It was a good time. I remember that I took my Bible and just read it and went to shows. I lived on tenderloin sandwiches, elephant ears, and gyros.
Since that time I’ve been back several times and each year was an amazing experience. One year I got to see the Ragamuffin band on mainstage right after Rich Mullins died, as you can imagine it was really, really moving. Another time I got to see Mark Salamon do “Mindbender” with Living Sacrifice. Another time I got to see Danielson, when he played in the “tree suit.” There are so many great moments it would take days to go through them all.
Ash and I went to Cornerstone in 2006, and it was about the fifth time for me and the first time for Ash. It is important to note here that prior to this trip Ash had only been to festivals with Hanson, and he was part of their inner circle so the Krystal and catering flowed freely I’m sure. Cornerstone isn’t like that. We rented a golf cart, which was probably the best move we made but resulted in a battle on our last night at the fest but more on that later.
Lori was there and had set up a ton of interviews for us and they were all really good. It was just a fun time all around. Ash became fascinated with the generator shows that go on throughout the fest. For those who don’t know Cornerstone is a large grounds that has several official stages that are varying in size and distances from each other. What is cool about this is that in addition to the official stages, there are tons of smaller shows set up playing off of generators. While most are just a bare plot of ground with a band plugged into a generator, some are fairly elaborate having actual stage platforms with lights and everything. What is double cool about this is that JPUSA is totally cool with people doing it themselves and even encourages it. Virtually any band out there has the change to play at Cornerstone.
Ash was really into this and was always wanting to stop and check out the generator bands. He quickly learned that most of these bands were heavy, hardcore, screamo, punk or whatever and got into it. Again he was used to being with Hanson so hardcore was a new thing. He’s got this hilarious impression of hardcore guitars that goes something like “Kaw-Kaw, Kaw-Kaw” said in ominous Cookie Monster style voice. Trust me it’s funny when he does it.
There were tons of great interviews. Some of the high points were MXPX, Leigh Nash, POD, ZAO, Jon Davis, Demon Hunter and author John Thompson.
As I said before we had a golf cart so we could pretty much make it wherever we needed to go pretty quickly, it was nice. After we interviewed Underoath, Aaron Gillespie asked if we could give him a ride to the merch tent which is about a mile away. Of course we agreed and took off with Aaron on the back of the cart. It was pretty cool, we actually had some kids running along behind us and people were yelling at Aaron the whole way.
Probably the high point or low point of the fest however was as we were leaving the grounds on the final night. We were going to turn our golf cart in and take off to get rested for our long drive the next day. That morning I had went to the golf cart place, which was basically an RV at the entrance to the fest and made sure what time we needed to turn in our cart. I was assured that there would be someone there until well into the wee hours of the morning. I foolishly believed this and around 8 p.m. we went to the RV to turn in our cart. To our surprise there was no one there but a line of people waiting to turn in carts. People were knocking on the door of the RV and asking all around but no one knew where the guy was. The problem Ash and myself was facing was that we had rented a chain and padlock from the place with a $20 deposit that we needed to get back so that we would have gas money to get home the next day. So we waited and waited and waited. About 2 hours later a woman who had been waiting with us (and said that she was 80 years old) said she couldn’t take it and left. It is important to note that neither Ash nor myself was happy at this point. Then a kid comes running up and tells everyone (by this time there was probably 40 or 50 people waiting) that the cart guy was at the mainstage waiting to get POD’s autograph. The mainstage is at the opposite end of the grounds probably 3 miles away. Ash about blew a gasket. So we kept waiting. Around 11 or 11:30 the guy comes moseying up and totally acts like nothing is wrong. Ash was on him like a rat on a Cheeto. “Where have you been?” he asked at full volume.
And you know what the guy says?
“I’ve been here.”
Yeah, you read that right. He said he had been there all along. It was as if he decided that he could use the jedi mind trick on the line of people that had been waiting for hours. He could just say he’d been there and everyone would go “maybe he was here and we really didn’t wait 3 hours.”
Ash completely freaked out, and went off on the guy. It seems like the guy told him they were going to fight or something which was really funny because Ash is about 6’1, and about 200 or so pounds. We literally laughed as he quickly gave us our $20 back. We complained about it the whole way back to the hotel and then some more the next morning.
As we were driving home I called the golf cart company and griped about the guy and to make sure that he hadn’t “accidentally” lost our cart or something. They told me that our cart was fine and apologized that the guy had been such a jerk. They added that only one cart had come up missing for the whole festival.
I found out later that the cart in question had been rented to one Lori Lenz. What are the odds? So then Lori has a go around with these guys, it was crazy. Lori was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing in the case of the missing cart.
In any event we had a great time at the fest.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Chris Daughtry
We interviewed Chris Daughtry at the Foundry in Joplin Missouri, which is an amazing venue. I was seriously impressed and the staff there was really helpful and cool. Ash hooked this one up. For some reason he has this in with all these American Idol alums. I think he secretly longs to have Randy call him “dawg” and critique him ever so sternly. That’s just speculation though. Anyway, he hooked us up with Chris Daughtry and we made the drive to Joplin to see the show. From what I understand the show was booked well before he went number one so the venue was way smaller than where he probably should have been playing. There were tons and I mean tons of kids there and it was full on Beatles style pandemonium. Seriously there were girls crying there. I’m totally not kidding. Screaming, crying and clutching at their foreheads.
For most of the day I totally thought the interview was never going to happen. We were told several times that Chris was not doing press, then he was doing press, then it will be 15 minutes, no wait 25 minutes. I totally thought we would go home empty handed but finally at one point they took us back to the dressing room where we set up and waited for a bit. I remember hearing a lot of screaming and freaking out from just outside the door and then Chris came in. I’ve never really been around this kind of stardom before, it’s kind of surreal, just like in the movies. Girls ripping at clothes, passing out, and they always scream and cry for some reason.
Chris didn’t seem like it was anything out of the ordinary, he just came in and sat down. He was really cool and approachable, we talked about Live and some other grunge type bands which Chris and I are both really into. Most of my stories were like, “I really like that CD” or “I saw them on this tour” while most of his were like “they asked me to be their singer” or “I just hung out with those guys.” It was somewhat emasculating. I can admit that now.
For most of the day I totally thought the interview was never going to happen. We were told several times that Chris was not doing press, then he was doing press, then it will be 15 minutes, no wait 25 minutes. I totally thought we would go home empty handed but finally at one point they took us back to the dressing room where we set up and waited for a bit. I remember hearing a lot of screaming and freaking out from just outside the door and then Chris came in. I’ve never really been around this kind of stardom before, it’s kind of surreal, just like in the movies. Girls ripping at clothes, passing out, and they always scream and cry for some reason.
Chris didn’t seem like it was anything out of the ordinary, he just came in and sat down. He was really cool and approachable, we talked about Live and some other grunge type bands which Chris and I are both really into. Most of my stories were like, “I really like that CD” or “I saw them on this tour” while most of his were like “they asked me to be their singer” or “I just hung out with those guys.” It was somewhat emasculating. I can admit that now.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
POD
We interviewed Sonny from POD in a trailer behind the mainstage at Corner-
stone.
By way of background, I love POD. Mere words cannot express what this band means to me on a variety of levels. I can honestly say I do not know the course my life would have taken had it not been for seeing POD for that first time in 1996. I firmly believe that on that day God put me on a course that would take me places that I never dreamed and eventually end up with my participation in this documentary.
As with my earlier entry about Living Sacrifice, the first time I saw POD was on October 5, 1996 at the Where-House in Bartlesville Oklahoma. At that time I had recently accepted Jesus Christ as my personal lord and savior. I grew up in the church my entire life and even did the walk down to the front once when I was young but as I joke now, it just didn’t take. Ironically on New Year’s Eve of 1995 after bottoming out on my own, I got saved in the church that I grew up in, with many of the same people who had known me through my ups and downs in attendance. It changed my life and was without question the best thing that ever happened to me.
I had been a lifelong music fan and of course was interested in finding music that reflected my new attitude towards life and was horrified at what my prospects were. I actually remember having the thought that Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith was all there was and being really bummed out. My favorite bands at the time were Jane’s Addiction, Pearl Jam, Black Flag, the Rolling Stones, Tool, and Rage Against the Machine and I couldn’t fathom trying to substitute Petra or any other Christian market band for any of them. I had absolutely no idea that there was actually relevant cool spiritual music out there. This all ended one day when I was in a local Christian bookstore vainly searching for something that inspired me. For some reason most Christian bookstores have “demo” CD’s on the shelf so that you can listen to the CD before buying it. Solely on the basis of the pictures on the covers I remember picking up Audio Adrenaline and Bride and not being moved at all. As I was about to leave the store I asked this guy if he knew of any good Christian rock bands and he said not really but there is this place in town called the Where-House and they are having a show tonight. Words that would change my life.
I asked who was playing and he said that he didn’t know but that it would be cool. He told me where the place was and what time it started. Looking back on it now I’m kind of surprised that I went with that little information to go on but I guess it just goes to show how starved I was for something good.
So I show up and at first I thought I was in the wrong place, it was just this non-descript building in kind of an industrial area of town. There were like 5 people waiting in line at the door and these totally scary looking guys throwing a football in the parking lot. It is important to note that going into this I totally thought I was stepping down going to this Christian rock show. I think the last show I saw before this one had been Primus or Pearl Jam or something cool, and I was sure this was going to be some weak Amy Grant-esque stuff.
Right about the time I was pondering how lame the show was going to be, one of the guys throwing the football, threw it over towards where I was and a couple of the guys ran over towards me almost knocking me over in a scramble to get the ball. Not only did these guys run up on me but there were totally hard-core looking. Pierced, dreads, and more tattoos than I had ever seen in my life. This was not the kind of guys that we had in Bartlesville. Unlike myself these were guys that could use phrases like “homie” and make them work.
I distinctly remember thinking, “I’m in over my head.”
So the doors opened and I go in and I remember being totally amazed at the place, it was so, for lack of a better word: Rock. Inside this run down warehouse was a different world, a huge stage with a cool lighting rig. There were merch stands and this huge 80s style mural down one entire side of the building. Everything was really grungy and very punk looking. It was the exact antithesis of what I thought a Christian rock place would be.
I looked at the flier by the door to see who was playing and it was Living Sacrifice and Payable On Death (POD). I had heard of neither band, and the headline at the top of the flier was “country music night.” At this point I didn’t know what to think.
So eventually the lights go down and the guys that were playing football earlier climb up onto the stage, I was stunned, they were the band and they had just been walking around hanging around with people. They went into this intro that they used to start every show with. I don’t know if it even had a name but the only lyrics were “when we come, when we come, the wicked run” the kind of thing that you could learn the first time you heard it and shout it with the band the second time.
The crowd, all 60 of them immediately went nuts. The music was so crushing and real. I really remember Wuv, the drummer hunching over his kit, all tatted up and just going for it.
The next song they did was called “coming back” and the chorus was “He’s coming back for me and you.”I remember watching the band going nuts and there was this guy in front of me that was thrashing around that had this shirt on that had a small icthus fish between his shoulder blades and it said “Jesus Saves.”
I know that this is a term that gets thrown around way, way too much in music circles, but it was beautiful. I darn near wept. I really mean that. It was one of the most emotional moments in my life. I read once where Jimmy Chamberlain of the Smashing Pumpkins had said that all that the love of music is you searching for that one thing that drew you to it in the first place, that element that touched you on such a deep level you would always want to recapture it again and again and again. This was for me a moment that I am still trying to recapture. I always loved music, it had always been a major part of my life but that moment in time was like no other, it was how it was meant to be.
Every day that I walk this earth I will carry some of the joy from that show with me. As I said before I cannot adequately put into words what an experience this was for me.
Near the end of the set I head Sonny’s testimony for the first time and as anyone who has heard Sonny’s story before will tell you it is a moving moment. Right there in the town where I grew up, where I dreamed about something more, where I wanted to get out of, I found my life’s pursuit.
After the show I hung out with the band, we talked about Suicidal Tendencies and tattoos. One thing that really had made an impression on me was that the bands and the people at the show were so up front about what they believed. They were not embarrassed or ashamed about anything nor should they be. This was one of the coolest venues that I had ever been to and it was one of the best shows I had ever seen.
At the time, platinum records and MTV cribs was a long time off for POD, and they were like every other band, traveling in a van and barely making it. I had $6 to my name, not even enough to buy a T-shirt, but I wanted to support the band so I gave it to Sonny.
I remember the first few years being really exciting. At that time no one ever thought a Christian band much less one on a very very very minor league label would ever make it big, so I just wanted to enjoy them every chance I got. They were really struggling to make it and were doing a lot of touring. Once I saw them on the back of a flatbed in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Tulsa. A church had put on the show and during the performance they were baptizing people in a cattle tank off to the side. I remember seeing them another time at a Skatepark in Arkansas. My friend Judah, who later became a bass tech for the band, drove us there. About ten feet into the trip I found out that Judah is one of the craziest drivers I have ever encountered. We were doing about 90 on the way to Arkansas and Judah was passing cars every way imaginable including on the shoulder. We were listening to No Innocent Victim the whole way there, it was pretty nuts.
I also remember talking with Sonny after the show and this woman coming up to him and saying that she had gotten saved after seeing them in a club. Apparently she was a waitress at the bar that POD had played at. She said that she could feel that they were real and she wanted what they had. It was really moving.
Another time after POD played at the Where-House, I went to Denny’s with the bands afterwards. It was POD, NIV, Dirt, Nailed Promise and Mindrage. Picture this scene, it’s Saturday night, 12 o’clock midnight at a Denny’s in Bartlesville Oklahoma. It was kind of like if you took all the locals from the movie “Deliverance,” got them hammered and then went and packed out a Denny’s. I’m totally not kidding. And I go walking in with these guys, tattoos, piercings, dreads everywhere. It was like in one of those old westerns where there was this really busy saloon and then the marshall walks in and the music stops and everyone shuts up because they know something crazy is going to happen. I remember the place literally freezing, people were stopping mid sentence and staring. The only words being spoken were by the waitress asking where we wanted to sit. After we sat down people started going back to what they were doing but it was really uneasy. The great part is that no one said anything. I truly thought that one of the locals would mouth off something but no one did. I think they were scared to.
The cool thing about POD at that time was that while most people didn’t know or care who or what POD was, people who liked them, loved them. To see them was for them to become your favorite band. They were just so awesome on every level, it was insane. I distinctly remember how much everyone at the Where-House was into them. At the time the WH was doing tons of shows and we were meeting all kinds of cool bands and people every couple of weeks but POD was different. They would travel in this beat up brown van that looked like it was from about '85 or '86. Bands would always roll in, in the afternoon and there would be a couple of staff on hand to greet them. It was really funny with POD because everyone on staff rolled out and would actually line up at the door when the van pulled up. Seriously, I think there was one time that someone was waiting at the door and yelled “there they are” when the van was in sight and everybody lined up. It was kind of embarrassing but I loved these guys so much that I didn’t mind being a fan-boy.
A short time after that Cook started managing them. I was of course overjoyed because not only would I get to see them more, I’d get to hang out with them more. I was always asking what was going on with them and Tim would always have something good to report. At one point Rescue Records, POD’s label went belly up and they were left looking for a new label. Tim told me that several labels were looking at the band and it was looking really good. I remember saying “do you think they might be able to sign to Tooth and Nail?” because at the time I thought that Tooth and Nail was the apex of all we could hope for. He goes “we’re really looking at Atlantic.” I couldn’t believe it. Atlantic was at one point the home of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Rush, and Stone Temple Pilots, among many, many others.
I need to stress that at this aside from people in the scene, no one on earth cared about any Christian artist, much less a niche band like POD. Heck the Christian market didn’t even care about POD. I told Tim, “yeah, that would be nice” but I totally thought that they didn’t have a chance.
The next thing I knew they were signing to Atlantic.
It was crazy. There was this incredible buzz everywhere. All the sudden people who never even knew there was a band called POD, was talking about them. There were magazine articles. They were on every website. I don’t remember where I saw them next right after they signed the deal but I remember being really overjoyed and emotional. I was so proud that these guys had overcome everything, and despite every odd against them had succeeded. It was a glorious time (Goodfellas reference).
I remember seeing the “Southtown” video on MTV for the first time and again being blown away. It was just as good if not better than any video out at that time. Wuv was wearing a ZAO shirt and you could see others wearing NIV and Project 86 shirts. I felt like not only had POD made it but they were taking us all with them, the whole scene.
Then it seemed like everything good that could happen, did happen. Gold records, then Platinum records, then multiple platinum records. Saturday Night Live, MTV, TRL, Cribs, Ozzfest, Rolling Stone, Spin, everything.
The shows were amazing at that time, the kids knew all the words and the band was truly on top of their game. I remember seeing them at the Brady Theater in Tulsa on the “Satellite” tour. I got to watch from the side of the stage and it was one of the great moments in my life. The place was packed to the gills and everyone was so jazzed for the show it was like this incredible release when they got on stage. They opened with “Outkast” and people were going nuts, I remember the crowd was just surging up front and Sonny was all over them screaming the “don’t count me out” part. Wuv was wailing on his kit and I vividly remember him throwing out his sticks as he was playing. They were hitting the stage and skidding into the crowd. There was nothing like seeing POD at this point in their career. It was amazing.
I guess I should get back to the part about Bleed Into One. We interviewed Sonny in a trailer behind the mainstage at Cornerstone. He was as cool and nice as he was the first day I met him. He talked about people not getting the band in the early days through to the fact that people still didn’t get what they were doing. I asked him how it was playing for Ozzfest crowds and he said that sometimes people would be really hateful. He said that sometimes people would flip them off with both middle fingers held in the shape of a cross. I have to admit you’ve got to hand it to people like that, at least they’re creative with their hatred.
By way of background, I love POD. Mere words cannot express what this band means to me on a variety of levels. I can honestly say I do not know the course my life would have taken had it not been for seeing POD for that first time in 1996. I firmly believe that on that day God put me on a course that would take me places that I never dreamed and eventually end up with my participation in this documentary.
As with my earlier entry about Living Sacrifice, the first time I saw POD was on October 5, 1996 at the Where-House in Bartlesville Oklahoma. At that time I had recently accepted Jesus Christ as my personal lord and savior. I grew up in the church my entire life and even did the walk down to the front once when I was young but as I joke now, it just didn’t take. Ironically on New Year’s Eve of 1995 after bottoming out on my own, I got saved in the church that I grew up in, with many of the same people who had known me through my ups and downs in attendance. It changed my life and was without question the best thing that ever happened to me.
I had been a lifelong music fan and of course was interested in finding music that reflected my new attitude towards life and was horrified at what my prospects were. I actually remember having the thought that Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith was all there was and being really bummed out. My favorite bands at the time were Jane’s Addiction, Pearl Jam, Black Flag, the Rolling Stones, Tool, and Rage Against the Machine and I couldn’t fathom trying to substitute Petra or any other Christian market band for any of them. I had absolutely no idea that there was actually relevant cool spiritual music out there. This all ended one day when I was in a local Christian bookstore vainly searching for something that inspired me. For some reason most Christian bookstores have “demo” CD’s on the shelf so that you can listen to the CD before buying it. Solely on the basis of the pictures on the covers I remember picking up Audio Adrenaline and Bride and not being moved at all. As I was about to leave the store I asked this guy if he knew of any good Christian rock bands and he said not really but there is this place in town called the Where-House and they are having a show tonight. Words that would change my life.
I asked who was playing and he said that he didn’t know but that it would be cool. He told me where the place was and what time it started. Looking back on it now I’m kind of surprised that I went with that little information to go on but I guess it just goes to show how starved I was for something good.
So I show up and at first I thought I was in the wrong place, it was just this non-descript building in kind of an industrial area of town. There were like 5 people waiting in line at the door and these totally scary looking guys throwing a football in the parking lot. It is important to note that going into this I totally thought I was stepping down going to this Christian rock show. I think the last show I saw before this one had been Primus or Pearl Jam or something cool, and I was sure this was going to be some weak Amy Grant-esque stuff.
Right about the time I was pondering how lame the show was going to be, one of the guys throwing the football, threw it over towards where I was and a couple of the guys ran over towards me almost knocking me over in a scramble to get the ball. Not only did these guys run up on me but there were totally hard-core looking. Pierced, dreads, and more tattoos than I had ever seen in my life. This was not the kind of guys that we had in Bartlesville. Unlike myself these were guys that could use phrases like “homie” and make them work.
I distinctly remember thinking, “I’m in over my head.”
So the doors opened and I go in and I remember being totally amazed at the place, it was so, for lack of a better word: Rock. Inside this run down warehouse was a different world, a huge stage with a cool lighting rig. There were merch stands and this huge 80s style mural down one entire side of the building. Everything was really grungy and very punk looking. It was the exact antithesis of what I thought a Christian rock place would be.
I looked at the flier by the door to see who was playing and it was Living Sacrifice and Payable On Death (POD). I had heard of neither band, and the headline at the top of the flier was “country music night.” At this point I didn’t know what to think.
So eventually the lights go down and the guys that were playing football earlier climb up onto the stage, I was stunned, they were the band and they had just been walking around hanging around with people. They went into this intro that they used to start every show with. I don’t know if it even had a name but the only lyrics were “when we come, when we come, the wicked run” the kind of thing that you could learn the first time you heard it and shout it with the band the second time.
The crowd, all 60 of them immediately went nuts. The music was so crushing and real. I really remember Wuv, the drummer hunching over his kit, all tatted up and just going for it.
The next song they did was called “coming back” and the chorus was “He’s coming back for me and you.”I remember watching the band going nuts and there was this guy in front of me that was thrashing around that had this shirt on that had a small icthus fish between his shoulder blades and it said “Jesus Saves.”
I know that this is a term that gets thrown around way, way too much in music circles, but it was beautiful. I darn near wept. I really mean that. It was one of the most emotional moments in my life. I read once where Jimmy Chamberlain of the Smashing Pumpkins had said that all that the love of music is you searching for that one thing that drew you to it in the first place, that element that touched you on such a deep level you would always want to recapture it again and again and again. This was for me a moment that I am still trying to recapture. I always loved music, it had always been a major part of my life but that moment in time was like no other, it was how it was meant to be.
Every day that I walk this earth I will carry some of the joy from that show with me. As I said before I cannot adequately put into words what an experience this was for me.
Near the end of the set I head Sonny’s testimony for the first time and as anyone who has heard Sonny’s story before will tell you it is a moving moment. Right there in the town where I grew up, where I dreamed about something more, where I wanted to get out of, I found my life’s pursuit.
After the show I hung out with the band, we talked about Suicidal Tendencies and tattoos. One thing that really had made an impression on me was that the bands and the people at the show were so up front about what they believed. They were not embarrassed or ashamed about anything nor should they be. This was one of the coolest venues that I had ever been to and it was one of the best shows I had ever seen.
At the time, platinum records and MTV cribs was a long time off for POD, and they were like every other band, traveling in a van and barely making it. I had $6 to my name, not even enough to buy a T-shirt, but I wanted to support the band so I gave it to Sonny.
I remember the first few years being really exciting. At that time no one ever thought a Christian band much less one on a very very very minor league label would ever make it big, so I just wanted to enjoy them every chance I got. They were really struggling to make it and were doing a lot of touring. Once I saw them on the back of a flatbed in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Tulsa. A church had put on the show and during the performance they were baptizing people in a cattle tank off to the side. I remember seeing them another time at a Skatepark in Arkansas. My friend Judah, who later became a bass tech for the band, drove us there. About ten feet into the trip I found out that Judah is one of the craziest drivers I have ever encountered. We were doing about 90 on the way to Arkansas and Judah was passing cars every way imaginable including on the shoulder. We were listening to No Innocent Victim the whole way there, it was pretty nuts.
I also remember talking with Sonny after the show and this woman coming up to him and saying that she had gotten saved after seeing them in a club. Apparently she was a waitress at the bar that POD had played at. She said that she could feel that they were real and she wanted what they had. It was really moving.
Another time after POD played at the Where-House, I went to Denny’s with the bands afterwards. It was POD, NIV, Dirt, Nailed Promise and Mindrage. Picture this scene, it’s Saturday night, 12 o’clock midnight at a Denny’s in Bartlesville Oklahoma. It was kind of like if you took all the locals from the movie “Deliverance,” got them hammered and then went and packed out a Denny’s. I’m totally not kidding. And I go walking in with these guys, tattoos, piercings, dreads everywhere. It was like in one of those old westerns where there was this really busy saloon and then the marshall walks in and the music stops and everyone shuts up because they know something crazy is going to happen. I remember the place literally freezing, people were stopping mid sentence and staring. The only words being spoken were by the waitress asking where we wanted to sit. After we sat down people started going back to what they were doing but it was really uneasy. The great part is that no one said anything. I truly thought that one of the locals would mouth off something but no one did. I think they were scared to.
The cool thing about POD at that time was that while most people didn’t know or care who or what POD was, people who liked them, loved them. To see them was for them to become your favorite band. They were just so awesome on every level, it was insane. I distinctly remember how much everyone at the Where-House was into them. At the time the WH was doing tons of shows and we were meeting all kinds of cool bands and people every couple of weeks but POD was different. They would travel in this beat up brown van that looked like it was from about '85 or '86. Bands would always roll in, in the afternoon and there would be a couple of staff on hand to greet them. It was really funny with POD because everyone on staff rolled out and would actually line up at the door when the van pulled up. Seriously, I think there was one time that someone was waiting at the door and yelled “there they are” when the van was in sight and everybody lined up. It was kind of embarrassing but I loved these guys so much that I didn’t mind being a fan-boy.
A short time after that Cook started managing them. I was of course overjoyed because not only would I get to see them more, I’d get to hang out with them more. I was always asking what was going on with them and Tim would always have something good to report. At one point Rescue Records, POD’s label went belly up and they were left looking for a new label. Tim told me that several labels were looking at the band and it was looking really good. I remember saying “do you think they might be able to sign to Tooth and Nail?” because at the time I thought that Tooth and Nail was the apex of all we could hope for. He goes “we’re really looking at Atlantic.” I couldn’t believe it. Atlantic was at one point the home of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Rush, and Stone Temple Pilots, among many, many others.
I need to stress that at this aside from people in the scene, no one on earth cared about any Christian artist, much less a niche band like POD. Heck the Christian market didn’t even care about POD. I told Tim, “yeah, that would be nice” but I totally thought that they didn’t have a chance.
The next thing I knew they were signing to Atlantic.
It was crazy. There was this incredible buzz everywhere. All the sudden people who never even knew there was a band called POD, was talking about them. There were magazine articles. They were on every website. I don’t remember where I saw them next right after they signed the deal but I remember being really overjoyed and emotional. I was so proud that these guys had overcome everything, and despite every odd against them had succeeded. It was a glorious time (Goodfellas reference).
I remember seeing the “Southtown” video on MTV for the first time and again being blown away. It was just as good if not better than any video out at that time. Wuv was wearing a ZAO shirt and you could see others wearing NIV and Project 86 shirts. I felt like not only had POD made it but they were taking us all with them, the whole scene.
Then it seemed like everything good that could happen, did happen. Gold records, then Platinum records, then multiple platinum records. Saturday Night Live, MTV, TRL, Cribs, Ozzfest, Rolling Stone, Spin, everything.
The shows were amazing at that time, the kids knew all the words and the band was truly on top of their game. I remember seeing them at the Brady Theater in Tulsa on the “Satellite” tour. I got to watch from the side of the stage and it was one of the great moments in my life. The place was packed to the gills and everyone was so jazzed for the show it was like this incredible release when they got on stage. They opened with “Outkast” and people were going nuts, I remember the crowd was just surging up front and Sonny was all over them screaming the “don’t count me out” part. Wuv was wailing on his kit and I vividly remember him throwing out his sticks as he was playing. They were hitting the stage and skidding into the crowd. There was nothing like seeing POD at this point in their career. It was amazing.
I guess I should get back to the part about Bleed Into One. We interviewed Sonny in a trailer behind the mainstage at Cornerstone. He was as cool and nice as he was the first day I met him. He talked about people not getting the band in the early days through to the fact that people still didn’t get what they were doing. I asked him how it was playing for Ozzfest crowds and he said that sometimes people would be really hateful. He said that sometimes people would flip them off with both middle fingers held in the shape of a cross. I have to admit you’ve got to hand it to people like that, at least they’re creative with their hatred.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Bill Power
We interviewed Bill at the Zambooie offices in Nashville last year during GMA week. I am in no way a fan of GMA and I’m usually pretty miserable most of the time I’m there so it was really nice getting to hang out with friends for a while.
I think the first time I met Bill was one year at the Where-House’s new band tournament. We always tried to make the NBT something that would not only be cool for the bands but would actually help them to make it to the next level. This included flying in “celebrity” judges for the final round. This was almost always record labels, booking agents, magazines, things of that nature. So naturally Tooth and Nail would be first on our list. And as one of the higher ups at Tooth and Nail, Bill was lucky enough to be the one to make the trip one year.
A little bit of background on Bill, he’s kind of the Henry Rollins of the scene. Aside from being in on the ground floor of Tooth and Nail he was in one of their first bands, Blenderhead, and then went on to found Zambooie merch with Bruce Fitzhugh and Mike Lewis. No kidding. I still don’t know when this guy sleeps.
We hooked up with Bill about ten minutes after we finished up with Bruce’s interview. Bill’s office was really cool, he’s really into punk and had these cool Jawbox, and Rollins posters along with a string of hot pepper lights so we just shot him at his desk.
Bill was as usual really cool, very insightful and totally honest. At one point we were talking about the scene becoming cool and Bill said that anytime whenever whatever it is that you are into becomes the cool thing to do it’s in danger. Good advice for anyone not just Christians, I think that’s why Tooth and Nail and everything Bill has been involved in has been so relevant. I honestly wish more people in our scene could be as much of a mover and a shaker as Bill.
I think the first time I met Bill was one year at the Where-House’s new band tournament. We always tried to make the NBT something that would not only be cool for the bands but would actually help them to make it to the next level. This included flying in “celebrity” judges for the final round. This was almost always record labels, booking agents, magazines, things of that nature. So naturally Tooth and Nail would be first on our list. And as one of the higher ups at Tooth and Nail, Bill was lucky enough to be the one to make the trip one year.
A little bit of background on Bill, he’s kind of the Henry Rollins of the scene. Aside from being in on the ground floor of Tooth and Nail he was in one of their first bands, Blenderhead, and then went on to found Zambooie merch with Bruce Fitzhugh and Mike Lewis. No kidding. I still don’t know when this guy sleeps.
We hooked up with Bill about ten minutes after we finished up with Bruce’s interview. Bill’s office was really cool, he’s really into punk and had these cool Jawbox, and Rollins posters along with a string of hot pepper lights so we just shot him at his desk.
Bill was as usual really cool, very insightful and totally honest. At one point we were talking about the scene becoming cool and Bill said that anytime whenever whatever it is that you are into becomes the cool thing to do it’s in danger. Good advice for anyone not just Christians, I think that’s why Tooth and Nail and everything Bill has been involved in has been so relevant. I honestly wish more people in our scene could be as much of a mover and a shaker as Bill.
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