Hard rockin, heavy metal Christian band Stryper brought their inspirational way of preaching to a crowd of not so angry onlookers Sunday night (111/22) at El Corazon in Seattle, WA.
Now if this were any other metal band and the lyrics changed slightly, there may have been picket signs out front, but tonight there was only loud (extremely loud) music coming from inside the venue with a clear message- follow the Lord.
Stryper is near the end of their 50+ city US tour celebrating their 25th year anniversary with all the original members. Fear not, they will be heading out to do some international dates in 2010 and lets hope they return for more US dates sometime in 2010.
These guys were pretty big back in the 80’s with hit songs like, “To Hell With The Devil,” “Calling On You,” and “Honestly,” only to name a few. They were also known as the guys in the bumble bee costume (because of the yellow and black outfits they wore) to many hard rock fans outside of the Christian genre.
Stryper had all the makings of a huge mainstream rock/metal band with the big hair and good looks, but rather than follow a path that was not so good for them, they followed what was put forth to them- the path of goodness.
Stryper had also been known to toss out Bibles in the middle of their show back in the 80’s, and I was wondering if they still did that. Well, they sure did. The capacity crowd of people waited for this moment too, to get their hands on one of the pocket Bibles with Stryper’s logo on the front. As they were tossing them out, one ricochet from the ceiling and landed at my feet. I wanted to keep it, but standing behind me and the barricade was a kid who was about 9 or 10 years old with glasses just looking at me. Yes, I did what was good, and gave it to him, and what do you know, I got a thank you from him. I guess this hard rockin Christian music does spread the word of goodness.
As to what I might have expect at a 2009 Stryper show, I didn’t know what to expect from these guys. However having seen lead singer/guitarist Michael Sweet in an incarnation of Boston last year, I knew he was still a good performer. It wasn’t until that night that I realized that not only was he good, he was great! You guitar fans need to check out his playing skills.
The vocal harmony’s and guitar harmony’s/duals between Sweet and Oz Fox where off the hook. I kind of found myself banging my head like a born-again rocker at this show. I would say try and catch these guys on the next go around, but I don’t know if that’s happening anytime soon with the tour almost over, but there is always the Internet and a vast number of videos available to watch. Also I’d suggest anyone not owning a Stryper CD to go out and get one, you won’t be disappointed. For me, I know it’s time to add them to my iTunes account for Christmas and get their newest CD released earlier this year called “Murder By Pride.”
Supporting Acts On The Tour
I missed the first opening act Manic Drive, but spoke with one of the guys after the show and they seemed like a good group of musicians. I liked Michael Sweet Jr’s band Flight Pattern, you’ll have to search them on the web and check them out.
