By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
An enormous, sonically diverse entourage of Christian acts will bring a national tour to Amarillo on Friday.
Iconic contemporary Christian band Newsboys headline the Big Church Night Out tour, which hits town for a 7 p.m. Friday concert in the Amarillo Civic Center Complex Coliseum, 401 S. Buchanan St. Tickets are $25 to $45 or $100 for VIP passes, plus fees.
The tour also features indie-rock band Sidewalk Prophets, rock band 7eventh Time Down, pop singer Blanca, rapper Derek Minor, illusionist Brock Gill, worship leader and singer Jamison Strain and rocker Adam Agee,
"We've got magic, pop, rap, R&B — the list goes on," said Newsboys lead singer Michael Tait. "It shows the diversity of the body of God, the body of Christ."
Tait said he as been heartened by the explosion of new sounds in the contemporary Christian scene — which he has witnessed first-hand since his earliest days in the public eye.
In the 1980s, Tait co-founded DC Talk, one of the first to find success bringing hip hop to the Christian music world. (He went solo after DC Talk split in 2000, then joined Newsboys in 2009.)
"Whn we first started out, you had the Gaithers, very traditional sounding acts. A lot of youth would call that a bit hard to digest and be excited by, if you will," Tait said. "The goal of (DC Talk) in the beginning was to make music we were proud of and not ashamed to show our friends.
"The gospel message, that's something we were never ashamed of ... but we were looking for way to reach the culture on levels that are more creative, more inspiring to people," Tait said.
"When I came up, (the scene) was very narrow musically," Tait said. "Now, it's everything. It's awesome. It's as it should be."
And Tait said he's just as much a fan of Newsboys' tour mates as anyone in the audience.
"Last night, I watched most of the show (from the wings)," Tait said Sept. 22. "It was fantastic."
It helps keep tour life manageable, too.
"The older I get, the more the wear and tear and logistics (are wearying)," said Tait, 51. "But the shows — connecting with people never gets old. I love it, love it, love it, give me some more of it."
Chip Chandler is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and on Facebook.
