A Girl With a Sword: visions more vivid than sunsets

October 28, 2005

visions more vivid than sunsets

Again, I went to see a concert at the Museum of Fine Arts. Tonight's was The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers opening for The Mountain Goats. Prayers and Tears were pretty damn awesome. They were a kind of quiet band, but they really controlled the atmosphere. After some songs about death, alien abduction, and imaginary friends the lead singer explained that they usually play in rock clubs, where they can't play any really quiet songs, so they were going to play one now since they were in a museum. Then they broke into "Come Ye Sinners." That was . . . surprising. I don't think that's ever happened in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts before. It was beautiful, though, and it made me feel a little bit ashamed about the way I've been being a Christian lately. Since I've moved up here to New England I've kind of become more possessive about my faith. I've often resented sharing a faith with so many people I disagree with, and now it feels like I don't have to. It's all mine. And I have avoided letting people know about it because of the negative connotations. But listening to these boys play this hymn in the Museum of Fine Arts, while the lesbian couple next to me cuddled, I felt like a coward for not being more loving and generous with my Christianity. I realized that if I want to stop being ashamed of Christians the first step is for me to be open about my Christianity. If the only open Christians are the obnoxious ones then no wonder people think Christians are obnoxious.

I wasn't sure what to think of The Mountain Goats. John Darnielle is quite a personality, and I think our personalities clashed a little. I began to like him more as the show went on and I heard more of his witty monologue. At one point a member of the crowd called out a song title. "I'm not going to play that." Darnielle called back, "I feel it would be dishonest. . . to continue leading you on about that." At the end of the set Darnielle asked The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers (or as it was printed in the program--"The Players and Tears . . .") to come back to the stage. "I spent a long time trying to convince them to change their name." he said, "Someday I'm going to get rich enough to pay them to change it to The Tricks." They played a couple songs together, ending with Against Pollution and it was triumphant and glorious.

The funniest part of the show was during the encore when John Darnielle said, "Oh, and Perry [of Prayers and Tears] forgot to mention this when he was on stage so he begged me to use my time to ask if anyone has a floor he and his bandmates can sleep on." This got a very enthusiastic response from the crowd.

Posted by linnea at October 28, 2005 1:09 AM

Comments

sweet... a concert in a museum. the best i've ever heard was live jazz at the modern art museum in Washington DC.
'if you tarry till you're better you will never come at all.'... joe novey (i mean no disrespect) spoke in chapel today. he talked about a woman who called herself "white trailer trash" and asked joe to teach her how she could love her drunk husband better. he told us that he replied,"teach me. you teach me how to love." he also quoted this line from an "obscure young life fundraising letter," from a new Christian woman in India (i think it was india): "i want to be the dirt that others walk on, on the path that leads to Christ." he said it was the only thing that woke up his old hardened heart in a long time.

Posted by: tacyjane at October 28, 2005 1:10 PM

I feel for you, girl! I have watched TV shows of 'televangelist' and Laughed (!) and then thought, "Real people think this is what Christians are" Somewhere there is a happy medium, BUT there might always be someone who is offended. After all, Jesus offended people, and he was perfect. This, however, is a starving world. Don't hang on to all the food. Have you ever read 'Blue, like Jazz'? By a guy named Donald Miller, I think. You'd like it. He's a honest as any blogger.

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