Concert Review: Newsboys GO Tour

"I'm not too sure what we're going to do with ourselves," I said in the kitchen. "We're getting kind of old for this concert thing."

"Honey, how old are the newsboys?" my husband asked.

"Oh." The newsboys, in fact, are not boys any more. They released their first album in 1988, the year I graduated from high school.

I grabbed my keys, and headed for the car.

The concert venue was in Salem, an hour away from Portland. We'd allowed an hour and a half to get there, but ended up parking the car at showtime, 7:00 p.m. "Hey, they're free tickets, no big deal," yawned my husband. I'd won the tickets in a radio station contest a couple of months ago.

20 minutes later, we entered the building to the sounds of the first opening act, Stellar Kart.

It takes me a little while to warm up to the concert atmosphere. When we came in, Stellar Kart had just instructed everyone to jump up and down, which made finding our seats difficult. Once there, we got our hands clapping a bit, but Stellar Kart was almost finished with their short set.

Stellar Kart plays Christian pop/punk. They were obviously young, with plenty of energy - they were literally jumping the entire time we saw them. The music was fun and upbeat.

Next up was Kutless, a band from our hometown of Portland, Oregon. Kutless is definitely a rock band - and yes, a Christian rock band.

I listen to Christian music, but one of my criteria for listening is that the band or artist has to actually be good, on their own merits, rather than being the Christian version of someone else. Kutless fits this description. They rock! Kutless is, in fact a hard rock band. I'm a rocker who likes AC/DC and Queen, and I was impressed. Kutless plays good, solid, electric guitar-laden hard rock.

The band played a mixture of their original rock songs, such as current radio hit "Strong Tower" and covers of contemporary worship songs like "We Fall Down." The driving beat soon got everyone hopping, and I quickly realized that no one could hear me and no one was watching me, so I hopped along with the rest of them, ending up with hands in the air, head banging along to closing number "Better Is One Day."

We had time to cool way down before the newsboys set started. newsboys' guitarist Paul Colman quietly came out immediately after the Kutless set to give a talk about the band's mission project with Global Tribe, working to eradicate spiritual and physical poverty in China, Mexico, and other places. During the intermission that followed, I promptly sent my husband to buy me a Kutless t-shirt (I hate standing in line).

And then, finally, the newsboys!

The newsboys are medium-big rock stars in the Christian music world. They get plenty of radio play on Christian Contemporary stations, but pretty much play state fair-type venues. They're not as big as say, Amy Grant.

They put on a great rock star show, however! Flashing lights, video screens, shooting confetti, steam/smoke, the works. The band entered the stage one by one, silhouetted behind a screen, and then finally blasted onto the stage and into "Shine," their biggest hit.

"Shine" was terrific, but things really took off for me with the second song, "Wherever We Go," which is from their latest album, Go. "Wherever We Go" swept me up, and had me mentally soaring around the arena on the music.

I quickly noticed during the concert that the electric guitar seemed to have a more prominent place in the music than I'd noticed from the newsboys previously. This may be due to new guitarist, Paul Colman (formerly of the Paul Colman Trio), who replaced Bryan Oleson in 2006. Colman's riffs and solos fit right in with the harder rock of the opening acts, and the newsboys are putting his skills to good use on tour.

The band continued with two more songs from the new album, followed by Matt Redman's "Blessed Be Your Name." After one more song from Go, lead singer Peter Furler and keyboardist Jeff Frankenstein moved down the central catwalk to a mini stage, where they treated everyone to a taste of "old school" newsboys - exaggerated versions of early hits "Not Ashamed," "Million Pieces" and "Entertaining Angels."

This kicked off a smaller, quieter set, which included "The Letter," "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" and worship favorite "It Is You."

The band kicked it up again with "He Reigns" and "Breakfast" before disappearing from the stage.

During the encore, the group capped off the evening with an energetic drum battle between Furler and drummer Duncan Phillips (Furler is actually the group's former drummer). My husband is also a drummer, so the drum battle was easily one of the high points of the evening. We were cheering them on enthusiastically, as they battled on, platforms rising into the air. Then, Phillips' platform tilted over almost a whole 90 degrees. Okay, my husband has seen that before. But then, the platform actually started spinning! And Phillips was still drumming away.

The newsboys may no longer be boys, but they can definitely still put on a terrific show. If you enjoy newsboys, the Go tour is a don't-miss show.