Immersion Worship

Have you ever played the game “Chubby Bunnies”? You know, where you put a marshmallow in your mouth, say “chubby bunnies”, then add another marshmallow, say it again, add, say, add, say, until you either choke, become incoherent, or puke? If you have, then you’ll know what a voice sounds like when it’s all marshmallowed up like that.

Now I’ve been a Five For Fighting fan for a a few years; really since their America Town album hit, but there’s always been something about John Ondrasik’s voice that has bugged me. He’s not a great singer anyway, but there’s a tonal characteristic that has always just annoyed me a little bit, and I’ve never been able to put my finger on it. That is, until today.

As I was driving to work today, I was listening to the radio, and they were playing a Dave Matthews Band song (The Space Between) and they followed it immediately with a Five For Fighting song (One Hundred Years), and it suddenly dawned on me.

John Ondrasik sounds like Dave Matthews playing ‘Chubby Bunnies’.

This is an unfortunate realization, since every time I hear Five For Fighting from now on, I’m going to think of Dave Matthews trying to sing with a mouth stuffed full of marshmallows, and that shall taint my listening pleasure for the rest of my days. I know this to be true, because about 5 years ago my wife pointed out to me that Billy Corgan from The Smashing Pumpkins couldn’t actually sing, and since then I’ve not been able to really enjoy listening to The Smashing Pumpkins because I just can’t get past the fact that his singing sucks.

I don’t know what’s worse; scratching the itch concerning John Odrasik’s voice and thus dooming my enjoyment of Five For Fighting, or knowing that sooner or later I’ll also figure out why I’m bothered by James Morrison’s voice and I’ll be forced to add another to the ‘unlistenable’ pile.

Tsk tsk.

I was on TV again. This is becoming a habit…



What’s more worrying is that I just realized that I’ve worn the same pair of short in the July 4th parade for the last 3 years. I need more shorts, apparently.

As mentioned in my recent post about losing my knee somewhere between a seat and a step, on Monday of this week my friend Danny bestowed upon me one ticket to see Coldplay at The Forum in Los Angeles. And I was really quite excited about it since I’ve never seen Coldplay (and really wanted to, since Viva La Vida is such an awesome album) and I’ve never been to The Forum (despite it being host to some legendary artists and bands).

Sparing the details of my knee dislocation, the show was absolutely fantastic. Chris Martin is a showman; he knows how to engage the crowd and has a strong stage presence. As musicians, Coldplay are up there with some of the most talented rock musicians around.

The show opened with their 4 or 5 biggest hits to date, but every song they did was full of energy and sounded great. My only disappointment was the heavy use of samples and loops. I’m not a big fan of the “taking Pro Tools on tour” method; I’d much rather hear four musicians get creative with filling their sound out than relying on pre-recorded orchestral movements being played along with them. But then there was also plenty of new sounds and approaches to older hits to go along with that.

Towards the end of the show, Chris Martin announced that he was “bored of playing at this end of the room”. The band then hopped off the stage, in to the crowd, ran to our end of the arena, and played a two-song acoustic set in the middle of the crowd, 30 feet or so from where I was sitting. Will Champion even sang a number. And I can also confirm that Chris Martin’s hair really is that bad.

All in all, an excellent show by an excellent band. Thanks for ticket Danny, and for running for ice when I fell like a fool and yelled like a little girl.

This is my third year in a row playing in the annual Lake Forest July 4th Parade, and this year rocked harder than the previous two. The rotating set list was Mustang Sally (Wilson Pickett/The Commitments), Rock n Roll (Led Zeppelin), and Life Is A Highway (Tom Cochrane/Rascal Flatts), and it was, frankly, stellar. Everyone gave it their all and it sounded good.

I hope I get invited back next year. Here are a couple of pics…

Worship leaders, I need you to answer one simple question for me and help give me further perspective.

Question: Would you use the song “I Can Only Imagine” in a regular worship set at your church? ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ is fine, but feel free to elaborate with reasons if you wish. Answers on a postcard, or in the comments since that’s easier.

On a show that is predominantly a show about talented, decent singers, how on earth did The Clark Brothers get camera time last night?

That was just awful.

Did you ever wonder whatever happened to The Karate Kid and the guys from Cobra Kai? You’re never going to believe this…get him a body bag, Johnny, yeah!

I want William Zabka on my podcast…

So in amongst all the trade wheeling and dealing and hob-nobbing and schmoozing, it turns out that NAMM is generally just about musicians and musician-enabling-manufacturers getting together and saying “we’re awesome! yay us!”.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, because there are some truly remarkable musicians around using some truly remarkable products, and a four day pat on the back once a year could be appropriate.

So how was it for me? Well, first of all, I apologize for the lack of pictures. There was just so much there, with so little time to see it all, that I just got lost in it all and forgot that I had a camera bag on my shoulder. However, I did manage to get these pictures of Steve Hunter:

Steve is one of those folks that puts in an awful lot of hard work for little recognition. Also known as a session musician. Anyway, his collaboration credits are numerous and impressive - Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, David Lee Roth, Tracy Chapman, Aerosmith - and it was great to see and hear him amongst a crowd of just 20 or so people gathered in a corner of the Fender booth as he played some Gretsch gear.

Now here is where I step in to dangerous ground and might possibly have to relinquish my man-card for a while: I love Daisy Rock guitars and I want one. Yes, that’s Daisy Rock as in ‘Guitars for Girls’. I played one some months back and was blown away by it’s playability and it’s sound, and if it wasn’t for the fact that most DR guitars are bright pink and involve flowers and hearts, I’d probably have bought one by now. However, check these out:

I think it’s clear that if they had a different name on the headstock, most people would be more than happy to be seen with guitars like that. So, I’m warning you, especially those of you at The Summit; I might just turn up with a “girl’s” guitar one day.

All in all, a most excellent show and I hope I can go next year. I definitely want to give a shout out to Chris Locke at BBE for hooking me up and I look forward to working with them in the future. Buy BBE products, people, especially anything with ’sonic maximizer’ in the description.

Jeff over at Consuming Worship has posted the second part of my interview. You can check it out here.