1994 and 1995 where the last two years of my college life and probably the most fun I've had too since during this point of my life, I met some of the happiest party people I've ever met in
Manila! I'm saying this because this group of friends from IS Manila also introduced me to the music of Live - the band, whose lead singer,
Ed Kowalczyk, had a show here last night at the
Araneta Coliseum. Funny thing is, we didn't even realize that Ed's music had that deep Christian bent and it really took us by surprise that Ed's latest album, Alive, is already a full blown
Christian rock album! I may have had an idea then that Lighting Crashes had some holy freakin' message but realized only now that Ed was really bent on making music praising God.
Would you believe that after the set of
Vertical Horizon, Ed started his set with an Ave Maria song!!!??? And ended it with the classic '
Hallelujah'!!?? Who knew and to think my IS friends did a lot of unholy things to their music (sshhhhh......)
Anyway, his new music sounds close enough to how Live sounded but after listening to it for a week, I couldn't find any standout single. So it was still the Live classics that moved the audience that night - from All Over You, to Dolphin's Song to Heaven to
White, Discussion - and of course, the classics -
I Alone,
Selling the Drama and
Lightning Crashes.
I admit I only warmed up when he played the Live songs. I do listen to Christian rock (Jars of Clay) and I watch their concerts (Switchfoot - twice already!!) but I think Ed tries to hard to 'preach' here. Sometimes, being too preachy can turn off people. Oh well, just my opinion.
I do hope he still releases new music. I am still interested in the direction he is going. I just hope he digs deeper emotionally since his songs from his Live days had that mysterious pull which made their band interesting in the first place. Right now, he just sounds like a preacher who tries too hard.
