Delirious Concert

Writing about web page http://www.delirious.co.uk

I went to see a band called Delirious last night. For anyone who hasn't heard of them (which I guess is most people), they are a Christian rock group, who have been around for about ten years. As always, they were fantastic. Even though Wolverhampton must have been a bit of a come-down for them after touring America last year, they really went for it and really rocked.

I reckon everybody should listen to them. For people who think that a lot of the music today is superficial and passionless, Delirious are an amazing example of what music can be when you really believe in what you are singing about, rather than being concerned with how rich or famous the music is going to make you. Delirious have had decent reviews in major papers, their CD's have been sold in HMV and have made an impression in both the regular charts, and the MP3 charts, and yet so few people are aware of them, and radio stations generally refuse to play them.

This would be understandable if they wern't any good, but compared to most of the stuff in the 'popular' charts, this just isn't true. They are talented musicians, writing songs that have depth and originality, played with energy and flare. But by writing songs that are overtly Christian, Delirious have deliberately sacrificed their chance of being considered in the same field as secular bands, even though their music is every bit as good, and what they sing about means so much more than the one-track 'sex on the beach' lyrics of a lot of popular songs.
It must be frustrating to have their music suppressed because of their Christian beliefs.

There seems to be a feeling in the media that somehow other religions or faiths (they are two separate things), are to be respected and given a voice, and yet it is ok for Christian beliefs and groups to be dismissed as powerless and irrelevant. And yet, last night really showed me that Christianity can be real, it can affect peoples' lives, it can be hard-hitting and practical.

The band members were totally lacking the egos that you would expect from a group who had toured with Bon Jovi, had released several albums and had a large fan base (which in Christian circles, they do). They were there, not to show us how good they were, but to show us how good God was. The support act that were on before them broke their set off to pray for Delirious before they came on, that their music would touch people and that they would have the strength to get through the show (after eighteen straight tour dates so far, this prayer was probably needed!). Again, a total lack of the self-serving, self-promoting 'we must sell our cd's' attitude. We were standing near the front, and there was the usual sardine effect as the crowd pushed in to get close to the band. But unlike other concerts I've been to, there was no-one pushing each other out the way to get a better view; strangers were saying Hi to each other and by the end of the concert, people who had never met before were chatting with each other.

This is the effect of real Christain faith, that it does change people for the better, that it does produce reconciliation and friendship where there was none before. That is what Delirious stand for, for a real God who does change people's lives.

It seems to me that if the media seeks to minimise this truth, and trivialises and characterises Christianity as a group of rainbow-guitar strap, tree-hugging Middle-English tea drinkers, then it is the media that is marginal and ultimately irrelevant, not the faith, and not the music that promotes it.

So anyway, have a listen to Delirious, and enjoy some real music about real issues sung by real artists!

: 15 Oct 2004 15:27 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem