The Scars Remain Tour: How Family Force 5 stole the show.

We had a little youth ministry outing to a concert right here in town at Spring Arbor University. It was Disciple's "Scars Remain" tour, featuring four bands: Decyfer down, FireFlight, Family Force 5, and obviously, Disciple. It's not my usual listening pleasure (I had only heard one song by one of the bands before going) but I went in hopes of connecting with some students who were also going to be there.

The first couple of bands were ok. It was your typical rock show in a church (I am just thinking of how weird that might sound to some people). Bands jamming, trying to get the crowd involved and the majority looking at them thinking - let's get to the headliner.

Then Family Force 5 hit the stage. I wasn't sure what was going on at first. The previous two bands were hard rockin' head bangin' stuff, and these guys came out playing some kind of mix between techno funk and british rock. One guy (who looked like a cross between Phil Joel of Newsboys and Napoleon Dynamite) was on stage just dancing around. At first I thought he was a roadie who was just enjoying himself but then he got right into the middle of the stage and was going crazy swinging guitars around and stuff. It was hilarious. At one point he was dancing on top of a giant stack of amps.

Song after song FF5 kept everyone surprised with their wild stage antics, frequent breakdancing, strange professional dancer dude, and their totally unpredictable musical style. Near the end of the show the SAU cougar mascot was even on stage with them and the Disciple drummer joined them while wearing a very lifelike cat helmet/mask thing. I was laughing the entire time.

Disciple came out next and it seemed like the energy level dropped. I looked around and people were actually leaving and those who stayed weren't jumping around anymore. I went out and browsed the merchandise booths just to kill time while they were playing. The real show was FF5, and everyone there knew it.