Rock the Universe

Universal Studios, Hollywood
March 23, 2001

All right, folks, I've actually written a long, disjointed concert review, but I won't force you to read it if you just want the pictures. The illiterati may skip ahead.

And now for those of you who are still with me... *ahem*

"Rock the Universe" is an event that stretches across two evenings and involves lots of Christian bands taking over Universal Studios. One ticket gets you into all the concerts and on all the rides. I'd been looking forward to it for months, but just nine days before it we fans heard that Jody Davis' daughter was in the hospital and very ill. We were in constant prayer all week, and Bunyip told us on the morning of the concert that Bethany was still extremely frail and that Jody was with her (hence, not in Hollywood). Disappointment seemed selfish, so I just kept praying and headed to Universal Studios after work, wondering if the rest of the guys were feeling up to performing and what the replacement guitarist would be like.

The Newsboys, who were the headliners that Friday night, were scheduled to play twice so as to give everyone a chance to see different artists as well. But of course that didn't deter me and the rest of the diehards from parking ourselves in front of the main stage as soon as we arrived and sticking there for the rest of the night. (Peter asked the repeat fans at the second concert, "Don't you have anything better to do?" He shouldn't talk-- I notice that he was at both concerts himself!) I was too late to be in the very front, since school kids have the advantage over us working stiffs, but that was fine since I made the second row and there were short people in front of me. :) Normally I would have run to Jody's side of the stage, but circumstances being what they were, I grabbed a spot in between Peter and Phil instead.

The Newsboys were preceeded by a speaker whose name I forget, and by Pete Orta, formerly of Petra, who played only two songs, both of which were quite good. Okay, enough about the openers.

Our boys strode onstage rather casually, but of course the fans immediately began to scream their heads off. Phil stood right in front of me and performed an amazing trick in which he licked his bass pick and stuck it to his forehead (ooooooo...) so it took me a while to look over at Jody's understudy. He had dark curls and black leather pants that were quite Jody-esque. :) Later someone identified him as Randy Williams of Big Tent Revival, which I might have known myself if I didn't spend all my time on the Newsboys. A clever fan named Paul gave him the nickname "FauxJo".

I wondered if the concert was going to be any good (replacement guitarist and all) but I still don't know whether they played well or not 'cause I can't tell that kind of thing unless it's very obvious. Past a certain decibel level, who even cares? Something about the way Peter told us at the end of the first concert "We'll be back at ten and I promise we'll play the songs better next time!" makes me think that maybe they weren't satisfied with their performance, but I enjoyed it immensely. And the boys genuinely looked like they were having fun too. I wouldn't have guessed there was anything wrong if it weren't for the fact that FauxJo wasn't quite as cute as the Newsboys' guitarist usually is... I just spent the whole concert gawking at Peter and Phil. They were soooo close! Hey, if any of you Californians ever want to bring food to the Newsboys and you think they might be sick of lamingtons and Vegemite, try In-'N'-Out burgers. Apparently they love 'em. Duncan was demanding one in the middle of the second concert. Yeah, I'm just rambling now. :)

At the first show they played songs from Going Public, Take Me To Your Leader, and Step Up To the Microphone, and they played "Joy" (first time I'd heard it live!) and would've done "Not Ashamed" if they hadn't run out of time, but they didn't do a single number from LoveLibertyDisco. Clearly I wasn't the only person to notice this, because towards the end of the second concert, the whole front-and-center section starting chanting "Disco! Disco! Disco!" so loudly that the Newsboys were forced to heed the will of the people. Peter warned, "Don't blame me-- you asked for it!" and then they played "LoveLibertyDisco" for us. Which meant that the traditional "Not Ashamed" got pushed off the set list a second time (why Universal couldn't just let 'em play the last song, I don't know. There wasn't anybody on afterwards...)

In between concerts I hooked up with my friend Eanah, her brother Paul, and her friend Robin. They described for me their adventures at the Newsboys' soundcheck with a ten-foot banner they'd made. Eanah, who enjoys bribing the Newsboys with gifts, had also brought along a jar of Vegemite for them. Awful stuff, Vegemite. Unless you were raised on it (like the southern hemispheric subset of the Newsboys), you have no hope of liking it. During the second concert Robin managed to hand off the jar to Peter, who set it down on the drum riser and told Duncan, "Touch it, I'll kill you." There's no accounting for taste...

When the concerts ended (much too soon, of course) I got to see some more internet friends of mine: Bethany and Kyle and their family. That was even better than meeting the Newsboys! Really... :) There weren't any backstage passes, although a few people did sneak past the guards. I later heard that the guys were pretty tired, having flown in from Nashville that day on very little sleep. You sure couldn't tell that from their appearence on stage, though.

Anyway. The pictures will probably convey it all better than my words can. It was a wonderful time even though the Newsboys were only 80% complete-- in fact, I think Jody's absence forced me to develop greater appreciation of the other four. :) That night turned out to be the first of many concerts in the next few months that Jody had to miss. But Bethany eventually pulled through and went home with her parents (praise God!), so I'm planning on seeing all the Newsboys this September when Festival Con Dios comes to town.

And now for the pictures! (You deserve them for ploughing through that review of mine.) Click on the thumbnails to get the full size shots.

	Here's the crew. That's Jay, our favorite stagehand, taping down the set lists. I wish I'd asked him to tear one up for me afterwards.
	The part of Phil was played by an understudy-- nah, it's Jay again, tuning Phil's bass for him. The sign in front of him quickly disappeared. Something else I should've asked for...
	Kinda cool blurry action shot. Beth theorized that Peter was wearing his coat inside out.
	Phil's outfit: long black coat, green-tinted glasses, red knit cap. But that's nothing compared to what he wore at the soundcheck.
	Ah... the smile we never get tired of. :)
	You can make out Duncan and Jeff in this shot, and that's about as good as my pictures of them ever got. They were stuck to their instruments and there was a lot of fog...
	Peter likes his Gretsch guitar. :)
	Whatcha think? Inside out?
	Well, whatever he wears, Peter's always so photogenic. It's wonderful. You can't take a bad shot with him. Maybe that's because his hair is never messy?
	Here's the best picture I got of Duncan all night. He's got about twelve extra drumsticks there... must be planning on breaking one or two.
	If nothing else, this shot demonstrates that Phil's teeth are nice and straight.
	We kept hoping he'd lean a bit too far and fall on the crowd... no such luck.
	The five of them all decided to ignore the fans at the same time. (They were having a consultation about something.)
	Jeff sings "Funkytown". This is about the only time the lights were on him, so enjoy it while you can.
	Peter in red.
	You can catch a glimpse of FauxJo there under Peter's arm.
	Phil singing his li'l heart out.
	Jeff's very excited about this concert.
	Peter holds out his microphone on its stand for the benefit of the fans who are singing along.
	Looking at this one now, I can't understand why I was calmly taking a picture instead of shrieking and grabbing for Peter's hand. Perhaps I was delirious?
	I like Phil in this shot 'cause his hair's flying and he's standing pidgeon-toed. It's so Phillish!
	Peter's reaction to our singing. He thinks it's lovely. :)
	Phil conducts the fans while Peter runs his microphone along the bass strings. This didn't produce any sound that I could hear, except cheering from the fans who thought it was a neat trick. Beth claims that her "highly trained bassist ears" could detect "a staticky sliding bassy sound."
	Oh, incidentally, we're into the second concert now. You can tell 'cause Peter's changed to a new (yet equally strange) outfit. Cool pants!
	I still can't believe how close they were! Man, it was cool! :)
	Jeff catches a quick snooze between songs. It's a narcoleptic thing.
	When Peter finished playing "Entertaining Angels" and handed off his guitar to Jay, he was still holding his pick. This caused a frenzied group of fans to start screaming for it, and Peter gave them a hard time: "What? What do you want? Can't understand you..."
	Back to singing. :)
	Here's Phil showing off his funky bass-playing skills. Sometimes his hair reminds me of a lion's mane.
	"Funkytown", take two. Still sleeping. :)
	Peter likes to take cameras from the crowd and walk them around the stage. Now that's an awesome home movie for some lucky person.
	In fairness, I have to say that FauxJo looked much friendlier when he wasn't mugging for the camera. :)
	Phil grabs some water and his hair.
	Concentrating...
	Peter and Phil.
	When I'm this close to the stage, I can't help but take a few shots up people's noses.
	This is as close as FauxJo ever came to my side... conveniently, it's a back shot so we can sort of pretend it's Jody...
	Peter grins like a lunatic. And that's why we love him so.
	Here's Phil looking positively angelic. I was gonna correct the redeye, but then I figured, "Nah... matches the lighting."
	That's Robin's hand giving Peter the Vegemite. "Good stuff!" he told the crowd, "Grows hair on your head!"
	More microphone tricks.
	Phil and Jeff listen to Peter talk at the end of the concert.
	They're leaving us! sniffle Duncan's always the first on stage and the last off. But I still can't get a decent shot of him...
	Eanah and Robin display their enormous banner. (When Eanah decides to get the Newsboys' attention, she figures, "Why beat around the bush?")
	Here's Eanah, Robin, and some redheaded chick who keeps showing up in my pictures.