Check out Landing Lane

I received an email from my sister. The short version is: "I was asked to go and hear this Christian rock band play, but I will be out of town. Would you go?"

My first thought was about the use of the word "rock" to describe a Christian band. (That will be an entirely different blog for a different time.) My second thought was, "But I was planning to go to the open mike at Judy's Java in Elkton on Friday night." My third thought and thankfully the one I listened to was, "Barb doesn't usually ask me for anything unless it is important to her."

Did you ever go some place or do something fully expecting not to have a good time, but you went anyway because it was important to someone else? Well, that was my mind-set when I walked into the Landing Lane concert on Friday night November 9th. The show had already started; I had dragged my feet getting there. The crowd was small and not very lively, but as I sat and listened to the music and the lyrics I realized that the music I was hearing was not what I had heard the night before on their website. What I was hearing now was hard driving yet enjoyable music being played and sung by a band that had obviously spent many hours playing together. I was stunned when they commented that the drummer had only been with the band for six weeks.

A good description of Landing Lane's music would surely have to include the word 'rock.' However, there are other words that must be used. Two that come to mind are 'praise' and 'worship,' but the first word that I would have to use in describing the music of Landing Lane is 'Christian.' That is to say that the music was not in any way offensive and the lyrics were unapologetically all about Jesus Christ.

I am no music critic... Well, then again I guess we all are. We all make a choice as to whether or not we will buy another CD or go to a concert to hear a band play again and so on. So, I will offer my opinion here on the Landing Lane concert that I attended on Friday night:

First of all let me say, when I have the opportunity to go to another Landing Lane concert I will! As I have already stated, these guys are first and foremost a Christian band. The fact that at this particular concert they performed original music almost exclusively was and is a double-edged sword for them. While it is great that they have enough original stuff to do an entire concert, in my opinion a band that doesn't yet have a following should do enough covers during a concert to get some audience participation. The one cover song they did "You've Got to Serve Somebody," by Bob Dylan was done quite well, but 80% of the audience there on Friday night weren't even born yet when Dylan recorded it. The fast 'rock' songs that they played made me want to move with the music, but due to the fact that the band had no sound engineer with them, it was a bit of a strain to make out all the lyrics. By the same token, with the slower songs it was easy to hear the powerful lyrics, but Dave did some of them alone without the benefit of Tim, Patrick and Kirby playing behind him. I think they would have had more impact had the whole band played them acoustically.

If you get a chance to go and hear Landing Lane, GO! Clap your hands, jump up and down and praise God to some good 'Christian Rock' music. You will have a great time and so will they.

Guys, keep doing what you are doing!