We got tickets for Stryper’s November 3 concert in Atlanta! The concert is going to be at Earthlink Live, a small venue on Peachtree Street in mid-town. I’m so excited about it. I haven’t been to a concert as such since the 1980′s. I saw Stryper at Disney World, Night of Joy way back when (September 10, 1988, on the Castle Forecourt) I didn’t ever attend a ‘regular’ concert of them though. That WAS a real concert of course, just not a “only them” concert.
The Earthlink Live venue is an 1,100 perfect view seating hall, general admission, therefore, first come with tickets, first seating choice.
We were downtown yesterday to get the tickets and for Frank to pick up something he won from a radio station. We don’t normally go downtown and walk around at all, but had to in order to get to the box office. The children were keenly interested in the streets and buildings and all the noise, traffic, trees, and exaust-smelling air. Russell definitely connected with me: the country is so much quieter and smells better! It’s nicer. It’s alright to go into a city, but not stay longer than you have to. 
The children aren’t going to the concert. They COULD, it’s an All Ages concert, but we sure aren’t going to fork out the $23 per seat for them. I think Victoria would enjoy it though, more than either of the boys would. She’s almost 7, but still younger than I’d like to go out with her to such an event.
It’ll be Frank and me alone, an odd occurance. It’ll be me in my element, one of my favorite all time groups in an intimate setting … I mean, this is no huge stadium, and not even a large auditorium. 1,100 people are a lot of people, but that’s not bad when you know that most concerts have a larger attendance possibility.
So then, about the concert, Stryper has been around for many years, but not productive in the last 15 (yes, they have done something, but I mean a full blown new album and tour for such) until now. So they are on-tour once again, and I wonder how many seats will be empty at the concert. I have no idea what the Stryper fan-base is around Atlanta. We live many miles from the outskirts of Atlanta, and I don’t know any one personally that listens to Stryper. The only people I really know around here are from Church, and I’ve never had a discussion about Stryper nor heard anyone listening to their music, nor talking about them or their music or lyrics or theology. FWIW
The band is a Christian band, their lyrics are simple and to the point. Critical of them I am not overall. I love Michael Sweet’s voice and the music he writes and how the band puts it’s all together. I love intense music, and overall you find many of those tracks in past recordings. Their new album, Reborn, which I posted about last week, is less simplistic in lyrics and has upped the scale of intensity and gorgeous drums, guitar and base and the melodies and harmonies are so very melancholic in a very bright and hopeful way that just the music alone is medicine to my heart. The lyrics call people to God from every walk of life, despair being one theme, broken, upside-down, and more.Their actual theology differs from mine, seeing as I’m a 5-point calvinist presbyterian (to name just a few labels) and they are involved with Calavary Chapel to the degree of thanking them on their latest album … sure they don’t have the same “end times” view as I do, and any of their arminian lyrics are transparently really calvinistic since they do get the “you must be called” first … that “no one comes to the father lest he be called” sort of thing.
The idea of music is one that pleases people differently. Some like Stryper, I know they do since I see folks online that sure do, and I know I do. Many others aren’t into it, and that’s fine. I really like them though, since they have good hard hitting music that isn’t pretentious, it isn’t screaming, it’s the lyrical sweet voice of Mr. Sweet, belting it out and crooning it out and hitting the high notes inevitably at some point near the end of most songs. I love to sing along … it’s a good workout for my voice.
We shall see how the concert turns out, and I’ll give it a review when the time comes.
