the value of the frenzy

"Lord search my heart, create in me something clean
Dandelions- you see flowers in these weeds" (Dandelions)

I've had the words of this song running through my head for the past number of days. This used to be my favorite song when the album came out my senior year of high school- and it had slipped to the back of my mind. Then it came back to me as i began listening to music on my computer again for the first time in a while (i've got my entire library of cds on my pc). it came back to me, and then i used the album for something the other night and got listening to it through again.

I love it! and i remember how much i love the band! And i'm holding off saying the band name for my wife. Not because she won't like it, but i wonder if she'll be surprised to discover this band wrote a song with lyrics as profoud (I consider them to be that) as these are. It's Five Iron Frenzy. Hence, the value of the frenzy.

Now, I understand not everyone likes the music, but i must say that I honestly believe this is one of the greatest bands to dawn the Christian charts. For two main reasons- the first is that they are by no means the "same" as every other band. they were quite different, in all regards. The second is that they were not under the assumption that every song needed to say Jesus in it. And not every song with spiritual meaning had to say it directly. They valued the tongue in cheek (My Evil Plan to Save the World), and the flat out comedy (see the "Pants Opera").

I remember in the youth group i used to work with in college, there were a few brothers whose father didn't like the band. He didn't like any Christian band that didn't blatantly say Jesus. So he was very wary to let them buy the music, or listen to too much of it. But, he would have loved it if they got into some group like MercyMe, or... anyway- not remembering if i've said tis before, I'm going to bash most of Christian music. Although there is some decent quality, and some stuff that is just amazing in the lyrics department, there is generally something I dislike about most Christian music.

it is predictable, and it offers little for the brain. You can always, ALWAYS expect the word "love" to rhyme with "above", and for some bands, you can expect every album to sound like a duplicate of their previous one. the style is the same, and there is very little that offers new ideas, or new anything.

Five Iron Frenzy was not that. I was on this kick where I put all of their albums in a playlist and cycled through them randomly, and I could hear the differnces in songs from each album, and... They were just a great band, with great creativity, and they knew how to have fun. I'm convinced that there are still Christians who think that having fun is a sin. But I'm pretty sure it's not, cuz i'm pretty sure God had fun creating the universe.

I loved seeing these guys in concert, and I loved to listen to their albums. "They sang, they danced, they made me laugh. I really wanted to be like them" (modified quote from Superpowers)

i don't know if i had much more to say, but... Even though they've been gone for a while from the Christian music scene, i still miss them. you guys rock... and they weren't above posing in pictures with and a sign saying they like my band.