Darkness. Several nondescript figures meander onto the stage. A guitar whines.
The girl next to me shouts excitedly, "Is it them? Is it Audio Adrenaline?" Suddenly, guitar, drums and bass kick in with full-force rock'n'roll.
Yes, it's them.
Spotlights slash through the darkness. Several fans rush the stage. As guitar and vocals wail, the crowd bounces and cheers, heads banging away.
Without introduction, Audio A has taken the stage at Hill Auditorium on the University of Michigan campus. The opening act for the Newsboys' "Going Public" tour, Audio Adrenaline has been grabbing up more and more fans since its '94 tour with DC Talk. Charting for months in Billboard, the band's second album, Don't Censor Me, features high-energy pop rock with an alternative edge. Three of the album's cuts, "Big Housel," "Can't Take God Away" and "Rest Easy" have all peaked on the Christian pop charts.
On theis particular Friday night, the guys have kicked off a nine-song set with a Beastie Boys-style rap-rocker, "We're a Band":
We're a band!
We're a band!
We're a band!
With guitars in our hands
For the Son of Man
We will take a stand
Three hours before Audio Adrenaline opened for the Newsboys, I'm seated near the front of Hill Auditorium. I watch and listen as the band goes through a sound check. All is not going well.
"Stop the music!" shouts lead singer Mark Stuart.
Keyboard player/lyricist Bob Herdman has flubbed up. Mark is not happy. Will McGinniss, Audio's blond bass player, comes to Bob's defense. "Don't be paranoid, Mark! It's not gonna be perfect. But it's gonna be OK."
The unspoken message: Let's not take ourselves too seriously. (It's kind of a motto for this band known for its no-frills, garage- band music). Almost as quickly as it flared, the argument fizzles.
After the sound check, I talk to the band about the tensions and hassles of life on the road. Along with occasional anger during sound checks, band members talk about other tensions of touring.
Still living the life of up-and-coming artists, Audio A's members tour in a semi truck, with the trailer converted into cramped living space. Sleep, when it comes, is often interrupted by bumps and curves in the road, And then there's always the possibility of being left at a rest stop. "It happened to me," says Will, "just this morning. I had to call the police, and they had to track down the truck." And the driver, who happened to be Bob (yeah, two of the guys serve as drivers), had to turn around and head back to the rest stop. In the process of hurrying to make up time, Bob got a ticket. To say the least, there was a bit of tension. For a while.
"We have been friends so long," lead guitarist Barry Blair tells me. "I couldn't imagine not having these guys around. Yeah, we have our problems and, like during sound check, we have our disagreements. But we are all willing to bend, give in a little, because we feel what we can do together is more powerful than what we can do on our own."
Mark adds: "When we get out there on stage and sing 'We're a Band,' 11ook to my right and then to my left to see the other guys. Even though I'm performing, some stuff just goes through my head-like what we've been through together, the good and the bad. And I think, We ARE a band - and we ARE taking a stand for Jesus Christ."
After entertaining the audience in Hill Auditorium with four more tunes, including their rock-a-fied rendition of "If You're Happy and You Know It (Bang Your Head)," Mark says this about the next song-in case the crowd misses the point:
"This song is not about a girl- friend. I'm singing about the world!" The lead singer then grasps the mike stand tightly, leans forward, and croons passionately the bluesy "Scum Sweetheart."
We walk hand in hand
'til life does us part
Me and the world
My scum sweetheart
We met long ago
With a flirt and a stare
Together ever since
a lethal love affair…
Barry steps forward and cuts loose a wicked lead on his Gibson Nighthawk. The guitar whines and moans. Fans throughout the auditorium close their eyes and strum away on their air guitars.
While talking with Audio Adrenaline, I ask each guy to fill in the blank: One song I'm glad we put on Don't Censor Me was __________. Each one gives the same answer:
"Scum Sweetheart."
Why?
Bob puts it like this: "We had to fight hard to get that one on the record. There were some people really nervous about the word 'scum.' They felt it might be offensive."
Yet in Bob's mind, the lyrics paint a powerful and right-on picture of the world's deceitful attraction. The words, however, also came out of a rather personal experience. " A couple years ago, we were back home in Nashville, on a short break from our tour with Geoff Moore and the Distance," remembers Bob. "I had just broken up with my girlfriend. I was heart- broken. I was staring out my apartment window at some trees in the distance, feeling so down. Then for some reason this idea came into my head: People fall in love with the world, and they end up hurt really bad. I just started writing-and what I ended up with was 'Scum Sweetheart."'
Yet Bob, whose heavily-bearded face seems to bear a perpetual smile, is quick to say the song isn't really tied to the break-up-or his feelings about the girl. In fact, Bob and the girl ended up patching things up-and getting married. (Ah, don't ya love a happy ending?)
Bass player Will, making a non-fashion statement in his white T and red polyester pants, steps forward to introduce the next song. Leaning forward so his long hair partially covers his face, Will says the tune means a lot to him personally. He talks about how God's love can help him--can help anyone--through down times.
After Will's brief talk, Mark takes center stage, accompanied by Barry on acoustic guitar, and begins Audio A's toned-down ballad, "Rest Easy."
Fans settle into their chairs as Mark sings:
One more mile 'til I lay to rest
I have put myself through the test
But the mile has never ended; no distance had been gained
I do not see greatness, I wanted to obtain
Where is my embrace from the race that I have run?
I have kept a steady pace, but still
I have not won
Rest easy
Have no fear
I love you perfectly
Love drives out fear
I'll take Jour burden
YOU take My grace
Rest easy
Will and I are seated in a cluttered dressing room in Hill Auditorium. He's got on a gray sock cap, pulled down nearly over his eyebrows. The room is noisy, other band members come and go. There's laughter. Shouting. Joking around.
Will's mood right now is somber, though. He pauses often as he tells me about a horrible experience-a nightmare breathed to life. His mother was dying of lung cancer. There was nothing to be done but watch, pray, and pull together as a family, That's what Will and his two sisters did. All three of them dropped out of college for a time, came home and helped their dad care for Mom. Even though Will's mom died in '89, he speaks about her death as if the pain is still fresh. Each time the guys play their hopeful "Rest Easy," Will is reminded of God's deep, comforting love for him. As he gazes into each audience, he wants all those hurting people out there to feel that love, too.
"I've experienced pain," Will tells me. "I also know there are people in the audience from broken homes. People who've experienced some other loss and pain. People who feel very much down on their luck. I want them especially to see a true picture of God. I want them to see a God who desires to embrace them with his great love."
After bringing fans back to their feet with their rousing "Don't Censor Me," Audio A keeps them standing, and gets them cheering wildly as Mark shouts: "We will see you in heaven! And that's what this next song is all about!"
Obviously these fans know what's coming next. Everyone around me begins singing along as Audio A perform its very popular and upbeat "Big House." When he gets to the chorus, Mark stops singing and holds the mike high in the air toward the audience:
Its a big, big house
With lots and lots of room
A big, big table
With lots and lots of food
A big, big yard
Where we can play football
A big big house
Its my Fathers house
You never know, the guys of Audio Adrenaline tell me, what kind of effect a song like "Big House" may have. In fact, this tune has had an impact. It's become kind of an anthem for many Christian students and youth groups. And then there's the story about the high-school student in Oklahoma…
He'd been a rowdy partier. But God grabbed hold of his life and he became psyched about his newfound faith. Then two weeks after he attend- ed an Audio A concert, he was killed in a car accident. To say the least, the mood at the cemetery was painfully heavy.
There were tears. Students in his youth group whispered questions of grief and doubt. ("Why did this have to happen?") Right when the unanswered silence felt unbearable, one girl started singing a slowed-down, a cappella version of "Big House." Before long, everyone was singing.
"It's amazing and humbling," Mark says softly, "to know that this fun song could evoke such feeling-and offer these grieving people a bit of hope. "
As the concert at Hill Auditorium ends, members of the band dash to the edge of the stage, lean over and reach toward out-stretched hands. There's a rush to the stage as more fans come forward to shake the hands of the guys in Audio A.
A couple of hours later, after the Newsboys have finished their set, Mark, Bob, Barry, Will and their drummer for the tour, Brian Hayes, make their way to the lobby of Hill Auditorium, where they're mobbed by picture-waving fans. The band members sign autographs. They talk. They smile and joke around. And they listen intently as individual fans talk about a need or a struggle. Before long, most of the crowd has left. Only a few fans remain. The large hanging lights flicker on and off. Yet no one seems to catch the hint. Finally, ushers demand that everyone leave so they can finish their work and go home. Not wanting to cut short some good conversations, the guys of Audio Adrenaline slowly make their way out a side door of Hill Auditorium.
It's a day after Audio Adrenaline's performance in Hill Auditorium, and I have traveled with the band to its next venue-Wheaton College's Edman Chapel auditorium. While we talk, Mark is setting up a sales display of CDs, cassettes, T -shirts and posters.
Before long, we're discussing the relationship between fan and performer.
"We really like to think of the people who come to our concerts as friends-not fans," says Mark. "We don't want to come across as better than anybody. We don't ever want to come out on the stage and act like rock gods. We just wanna play music.
"We have our problems, we have our sins. It's bad for anyone to idolize us or any Christian artist. We are human beings. The only one you should worship is God."
I decide to push a little harder: "There does seem to be a problem with the whole Christian celebrity' thing, though. I mean, look at those posters. You guys are cool"
Mark gets a pained look on his face. He leans forward, sighs, then says, "It's very hard. What you wanna do is give people something with a good Christian message-and something that competes with the secular music scene.
"To compete, you have to have great albums and great poster art--or you're not going to be 'hip' and current. I would say we are going to give listeners the best alternative Christian music we can come up with. I just hope listeners will come to our concerts and celebrate with us.
"And I do hope we are good role models. We might be musicians, but God has called us to live what we say we believe.
"In the long run, my hope is that people will look beyond the cool-looking posters, and see the guys behind the image. I just want them to see us as ordinary guys who can do some pretty foolish stuff sometimes, yet who still want to love their God."
