(I've been trying to post this all week, but our Internet has been terrible.)
Saturday night I got a phone call with some crazy news. Jars of Clay would be performing in Nairobi on Sunday! After some juggling of schedules and responsibilities, I took a carload of RVA staff into the city for the concert. It was my first rock concert in over four years (our entire time in Kenya), so you can imagine my excitement.
After the excitement of driving into the city and finding a venue I’d never heard of before, we found ourselves in our seats by the 2pm start time. And in our seats we would be for the first 2 ½ hours. A variety of amateur musicians—mainly Christian acts dancing, rapping, and singing for the biggest audience of their lives—took the stage one after another. (One of the rappers had a song with this chorus: “I want a piece of your ear like Mike Tyson.” Need I say more?) The majority of the Kenyan concert-goers enjoyed the enthusiastic performers, but back where we were sitting, it seemed like most were waiting for the headliners or at least something along the musical style of Jars of Clay.
The concert promoted the Jijue 1 Million Campaign. The message of the campaign—to encourage 1 million Kenyans to get tested for HIV by the end of 2010—was sprinkled in by artists and by local radio DJs. Jars of Clay was able to headline the show due to their travel with Blood:Water Mission (an organization they founded). As the haphazard concert prattled on, I was wondering what kind of show we’d finally get when the band took the stage.
Around 4:30, we finally saw wazungus (white people) starting to assemble on the stage and our energy level picked back up. My friend Ryan even picked out a few band members on stage doing their own set-up. I’m sure that’s not the protocol they’re used to on their American tours, but here in Africa, the band seemed to roll with things pretty well. The emcees of the event decided that they had been stalling for time long enough and that Jars of Clay should have been ready. They did their big “Ladies and gentlemen, Jars of Clay!” announcement and walked off stage to thunderous applause. Hilariously, the band and the stagehands continued their preparations for another 5 minutes. When the band finally was ready, they simply walked to the mics and began their set themselves.
The set began strong with their legendary anthem “Flood,” which receives a lot of radio play here in Kenya still today. But the crowd wasn’t completely enthralled by the band until “God will lift your head” (off of their Redemption Songs album). The catchy chorus was learned easily and was sang long while over a thousand in attendance jumped either in front of the stage or at their seats. (The African crowd didn’t really get Haseltine’s joke about how the 17th century hymn wasn’t actually written by the band, but I thought it was good.)
Dan Haseltine told the crowd that they’d chosen some “oldies” for the Nairobi crowd, perhaps because it’s easier for people here to get older, used music than it is to get newer releases. Besides “Flood” there was “Liquid,” “Love song for a Savior,” and “Crazy times,” and the audience loved singing along with all of the classics. The band told the audience they were shocked by how many songs they knew.
I was hoping for some new music when I came to the show and was pleased when the band played a song that had never even been played in the United States—“Two hands” off of their album The Long Fall Back to Earth, scheduled for release in April. I was up in the front for this song and enjoyed following the hand motions of the lead man and singing the easily-learned chorus with hundreds of others. The gist of the song? I used one hand to pull you close and one to push you away. What if I had two hands doing the same thing? What if my hands would both praise you? The band’s first single off their new album is just another example of typical Jars of Clay lyrics—they are simple enough to sing along but deep enough and artistic enough to keep percolating in your soul long after the music stops.
Perhaps the most difficult part of the concert for me was Heseltine’s “apology” to Africans on behalf of America as he introduced “Light gives heat.” In a message of empowerment, he apologized to the Kenyan crowd for Western influence on their country, saying that they shouldn’t be told how to “raise their children and fix their communities” by the “heroes from the West,” echoing lines from the song. As a missionary giving my life to help (not to belittle or to perpetuate dependency among Africans), I felt a little awkward standing among the 95% Kenyan crowd. I know the band is doing missions work themselves; their Blood:Water Mission is an American enterprise championing the cause of poor Africans. So, I really don’t think his aim was at bashing people like me, but I still didn’t quite know how to feel as one who supposedly needed to “apologize” for being in Africa.
The band wrapped up the day with “Carry Me (Dead Man)” and “Revolution,” and the crowd would have easily rocked along for two more hours if they could have. There were little kids way in the back dancing freestyle and adults in the front breakdancing. Things really did seem to be picking up just when it was time to wind down. I never expected so much energy from the stage or from the floor at a Jars of Clay show. The show ended promptly at 6 o’clock just as advertised (an amazing thing here in Africa).
As we walked out of the building, one of the girls in our group dragged us back inside. She made a contact with the concert organizer, and she said the band wanted to meet us. We waited about 10 minutes and then one by one, the band emerged from the green room. Dan told us about his encounter with Kenyan customs (they barely released their instruments in time for their first show), Charlie (keyboard) knew about our school because his wife was an MK, and a few people got their pictures taken with the guys. Like most Christian performers I’ve met through the years, the guys were completely humble and fun to chat with. I thanked them all profusely for not just performing a great show for us, but also for investing their time and money in declaring God’s glory to Africa.
The band has come a long way performance-wise since I first saw them in 1999; this show blew away that pre-If I left the zoo Jars show. I saw them again at UC-Irvine in 2002. While that show was great, the arena-venue was far more stuffy and impersonal than this Nairobi show. Jars of Clay has always been a favorite band of mine, and now that I’ve seen them here in Kenya (and met them!), their music will always mean even more to me.
Saturday night I got a phone call with some crazy news. Jars of Clay would be performing in Nairobi on Sunday! After some juggling of schedules and responsibilities, I took a carload of RVA staff into the city for the concert. It was my first rock concert in over four years (our entire time in Kenya), so you can imagine my excitement.
After the excitement of driving into the city and finding a venue I’d never heard of before, we found ourselves in our seats by the 2pm start time. And in our seats we would be for the first 2 ½ hours. A variety of amateur musicians—mainly Christian acts dancing, rapping, and singing for the biggest audience of their lives—took the stage one after another. (One of the rappers had a song with this chorus: “I want a piece of your ear like Mike Tyson.” Need I say more?) The majority of the Kenyan concert-goers enjoyed the enthusiastic performers, but back where we were sitting, it seemed like most were waiting for the headliners or at least something along the musical style of Jars of Clay.
The concert promoted the Jijue 1 Million Campaign. The message of the campaign—to encourage 1 million Kenyans to get tested for HIV by the end of 2010—was sprinkled in by artists and by local radio DJs. Jars of Clay was able to headline the show due to their travel with Blood:Water Mission (an organization they founded). As the haphazard concert prattled on, I was wondering what kind of show we’d finally get when the band took the stage.
Around 4:30, we finally saw wazungus (white people) starting to assemble on the stage and our energy level picked back up. My friend Ryan even picked out a few band members on stage doing their own set-up. I’m sure that’s not the protocol they’re used to on their American tours, but here in Africa, the band seemed to roll with things pretty well. The emcees of the event decided that they had been stalling for time long enough and that Jars of Clay should have been ready. They did their big “Ladies and gentlemen, Jars of Clay!” announcement and walked off stage to thunderous applause. Hilariously, the band and the stagehands continued their preparations for another 5 minutes. When the band finally was ready, they simply walked to the mics and began their set themselves.
The set began strong with their legendary anthem “Flood,” which receives a lot of radio play here in Kenya still today. But the crowd wasn’t completely enthralled by the band until “God will lift your head” (off of their Redemption Songs album). The catchy chorus was learned easily and was sang long while over a thousand in attendance jumped either in front of the stage or at their seats. (The African crowd didn’t really get Haseltine’s joke about how the 17th century hymn wasn’t actually written by the band, but I thought it was good.)
Dan Haseltine told the crowd that they’d chosen some “oldies” for the Nairobi crowd, perhaps because it’s easier for people here to get older, used music than it is to get newer releases. Besides “Flood” there was “Liquid,” “Love song for a Savior,” and “Crazy times,” and the audience loved singing along with all of the classics. The band told the audience they were shocked by how many songs they knew.
I was hoping for some new music when I came to the show and was pleased when the band played a song that had never even been played in the United States—“Two hands” off of their album The Long Fall Back to Earth, scheduled for release in April. I was up in the front for this song and enjoyed following the hand motions of the lead man and singing the easily-learned chorus with hundreds of others. The gist of the song? I used one hand to pull you close and one to push you away. What if I had two hands doing the same thing? What if my hands would both praise you? The band’s first single off their new album is just another example of typical Jars of Clay lyrics—they are simple enough to sing along but deep enough and artistic enough to keep percolating in your soul long after the music stops.
Perhaps the most difficult part of the concert for me was Heseltine’s “apology” to Africans on behalf of America as he introduced “Light gives heat.” In a message of empowerment, he apologized to the Kenyan crowd for Western influence on their country, saying that they shouldn’t be told how to “raise their children and fix their communities” by the “heroes from the West,” echoing lines from the song. As a missionary giving my life to help (not to belittle or to perpetuate dependency among Africans), I felt a little awkward standing among the 95% Kenyan crowd. I know the band is doing missions work themselves; their Blood:Water Mission is an American enterprise championing the cause of poor Africans. So, I really don’t think his aim was at bashing people like me, but I still didn’t quite know how to feel as one who supposedly needed to “apologize” for being in Africa.
The band wrapped up the day with “Carry Me (Dead Man)” and “Revolution,” and the crowd would have easily rocked along for two more hours if they could have. There were little kids way in the back dancing freestyle and adults in the front breakdancing. Things really did seem to be picking up just when it was time to wind down. I never expected so much energy from the stage or from the floor at a Jars of Clay show. The show ended promptly at 6 o’clock just as advertised (an amazing thing here in Africa).
As we walked out of the building, one of the girls in our group dragged us back inside. She made a contact with the concert organizer, and she said the band wanted to meet us. We waited about 10 minutes and then one by one, the band emerged from the green room. Dan told us about his encounter with Kenyan customs (they barely released their instruments in time for their first show), Charlie (keyboard) knew about our school because his wife was an MK, and a few people got their pictures taken with the guys. Like most Christian performers I’ve met through the years, the guys were completely humble and fun to chat with. I thanked them all profusely for not just performing a great show for us, but also for investing their time and money in declaring God’s glory to Africa.
The band has come a long way performance-wise since I first saw them in 1999; this show blew away that pre-If I left the zoo Jars show. I saw them again at UC-Irvine in 2002. While that show was great, the arena-venue was far more stuffy and impersonal than this Nairobi show. Jars of Clay has always been a favorite band of mine, and now that I’ve seen them here in Kenya (and met them!), their music will always mean even more to me.
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