An Evening with Switchfoot

            November 27, 2009, is the day that changed my perspective on music and its role in my life. That wonderful night, I experienced my first concert, with my best friend Jensen.

            My eyes flung open. I jumped out of bed and ran to my phone to check the time. It was seven in the morning. I couldn’t believe the concert was only fourteen hours away! Yes, that’s a long time, but I couldn’t help but be excited, similar to the feeling young children, and some adults feel early on Christmas morning. I simply couldn’t believe I was seeing Switchfoot at the House of Blues Anaheim. Switchfoot, the band I grew up with. The first cd I ever purchased was Nothing is Sound by them and haven’t looked back since. I still believe I have yet to make a better music purchase.

 The countdown began. With each passing hour I grew more and more anxious. My friend and I continued to text each other every hour; twelve hours to Switchfoot, ten hours, and so on. We couldn’t help ourselves. Eventually, the time had come, and my parents drove me over to pick Jensen up. I walked inside and grabbed one of his guitars and started playing different Switchfoot riffs. I know over twenty-five of their songs, so I played little snippets of each song we thought would be in the set list. The whole time I couldn’t stop giggling. I honestly was like one of those pre-teen girls at a Jonas Brothers or Justin Bieber concert. I didn’t care, how dumb I acted. I couldn’t help it.

            On the way up to Anaheim, Jensen and I debated if we should listen to Switchfoot in the car. We decided in the end that it might take away from our experience somehow. That didn’t keep us from continuing to debate the setlist. We knew the first twelve songs would be their new album Hello Hurricane in its entirety. That’s what originally sprung my interest in the An Evening with Switchfoot tour. There would be no opening act, just the new album plus an additional set of fan favorites. We were pretty sure Stars and Dare You To Move would be in the set somewhere.

            We arrived. The awesome exterior of the House of Blues came into view. I started running. I couldn’t believe this was reality. As every loving friend does, Jensen ran after me. It was still a few hours until the doors opened but that didn’t matter. We were here! My parents laughed and insisted on taking a picture. Normally I don’t enjoy taking a bunch of pictures, but the euphoric rush from being at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney no less, changed that. My eyes were bright, and my demeanor, well, like a kid at Disneyland his first time.

            Insider tip for the House of Blues, buy food when you go because you get to wait in different line that gets let in first. I’m so glad we were told that, because it made a huge difference. We walked into the doors to an almost empty room. We ended up about ten rows back from the stage. Incredible. First thing any guitarist does at show- scan the equipment. I saw Drew Shirley had out an Orange half stack and his boutique supro-pro. Needless to say, I was stoked. I looked to the left and got even more excited to see Jon Foreman had a Vox AC30. I yanked on my mom’s arm. “Do you see the amps?! Vox! Orange! This is going to sound amazing!” She started laughing and said, “I knew you were going to say something about that.” My mom is actually pretty knowledgeable about guitar tech. Since I have no siblings to talk about it with, I tell my mom about it. The thing that makes my mom so much cooler than most is that she not only listens, but remembers. If I tell her about pedals, brands, amps, or anything else, she actually knows what I’m talking about, and can ask rather intelligent questions about it. I have a cool mom.

            I looked over and saw Jensen gazing at Chad’s beautiful drum set. Jensen is a drummer, so it’s understandable. It took about an hour for the show to start, it was one of the longest hours of my life. Everything was moving so fast up until that point. I remember feeling anxious. I started to actually worry that Switchfoot’s show would fall short of my expectation. How could any match the bar I set? I expected perfection.

            The lights suddenly shut off, and the crowd erupted in cheers. I saw the shadows of people walking across the stage. Then, the stage lit up and Jon Foreman began to get the audience singing woahs with him, as the band began playing Needle and Haystack life. They had incredible stage presence. Not only was the light show awesome, perfectly matching the emotion and transitions with the song, the band was one. They were so in sync, they knew exactly how to play with each other and lock into each other’s musical style. With each song, I became even more immersed in the music. God was doing something through Switchfoot. It was definitely a spiritual experience. I know my adrenaline was pumping, but the feeling was so much more than that. I mean, I had nothing to compare it to at the time, so the feeling would be more sensational than others. Still, after seeing bands like U2, Phil Wickham, The Fray, Anberlin, and Sanctus Real, there is nothing like Switchfoot live. I actually saw them toward the beginning of last semester again, and my experience was equally as spiritual as the first. Anyway, back to the experience…

            I felt connected with Switchfoot. Their lyrics took on a whole new meaning; I understood them more than I ever did. It was incredible how honest they were with their fronts to songs. I still remember Jon Foreman explaining “Your Love is a Song” as his accepting that there are things in this world he will never understand. There will always be questions without answers, and answers that don’t satisfy. Still, God’s love is the song that binds us all together. It’s what gives him hope, and strength.

            After the show, I was absolutely floored. I looked at Jensen, my eyes wide open and jaw dropped. He looked the same. I turned to my parents and they had similar expressions. My dad doesn’t even like this kind of music, and he said, “Wow… that was amazing.” I think between the four of us, we said that was unbelievable at least twenty times on our way to the car. That night revealed to me how God used music for his glory. I saw a part of myself in Switchfoot, starting a fire in my heart for a career in music. I somehow knew then that music would have a big role in God’s plan for my life.

            It’s hard to believe that it’s been close to three years, and all of us continue to talk about it like it was yesterday. It’s a moment in time that will be forever engrained in our minds. In case anyone is interested, here is the set list from the show. It’s one of my favorite playlists.

1.     Needle and Haystack Life

2.     Mess of Me

3.     Your Love is a Song

4.     The Sound

5.     Enough to Let Me Go

6.     Free

7.     Hello Hurricane

8.     Always

9.     Bullet Soul

10.  Yet

11.  Sing It Out

12.  Red Eyes

13.  Faust, Midas, and Myself

14.  Stars

15.  The Shadow Proves the Sunshine

16.  Oh! Gravity.

17.  Dirty Second Hands

18.  Twenty-Four

19.  Dare You to Move

20.  Meant to Live

Encore

21.  This is Your Life

22.  Awakening