Last night was pretty fun. MDC was invited to go to the Power98 Power Jam 2005 competition & I had a great time with my colleagues watching our local bands perform & compete. Congrats to winners B.A.R.B & runners-up monofone. Personally I thought monophone was better but heck, that’s my opinion.

Listening to all these bands, I realized that musically, there isn’t a huge disparity between the bands as they all can pretty much play their songs decently. And I’m speaking from the point of view of a normal someone who doesn’t have the supersensitive musician ear to hear the different quality of notes played. (Something some of my insane colleagues in MDC can do) But what made those 2 the top 2 was definitely their showmanship. They managed to invoke enthusiasm in an originally sober crowd, and groove the bounce into the people of zouk in a way the others bands couldn’t. In fact B.A.R.B did all that a little too well for one of my colleagues as she was jumping around all over the place, and knocking into everyone. Damn… the bouncers should keep a cage for these people.

So after a late night out with thousands of other happy people, I struggle out of bed the next morning at a much too early time in order to go to work. As I spend my usual waking moments with the Lord, some thoughts invoked by the memory of the previous night come floating in. People respond to certain bands better than others, partly due to their songs, mostly to do with their charisma. Would this be the same in a church context? For those who know me, I am heading the music ministry in Barker Road youth and frankly it is not very happening at the moment. Would the same youth, who stand like statues every Sunday morning in Barker road respond similarly to an enthusiastic, charismatic band?

Some people believe that only the Holy Spirit and Him alone can invoke someone to worship God and that you can worship God no matter how bad the music is. Well, ya that’s true provided you are all hyped up & dying to worship God from the start, like my friend yesterday who was dancing & showing us all the mambo actions before even entering zouk. I am becoming a believer to the idea that God realizes & uses the power of good convincing music played through a good convincing band. He knows it is powerful & has the ability to bring life to those statues thus helping them to enjoy praising Him. So my view is that the band is needed to get the people in the mood and the Spirit meets & touches them in that mood, making the experience real & not just an emotional rara.
Haha, how biblical that view is I have yet to confirm but for now, my experience & logic backs me.

So that means unless proven drastically mistaken, I’d better start hitting the jamming room =)