By Erika Norton | Echo
With their new EP that dropped this September and a new movie being released in December, Switchfoot's audience had a lot of new material to enjoy Wednesday night.
The Grammy Award-winning band's fall U.S. tour stopped at the University of St. Francis Performing Arts Center in Fort Wayne for an intimate and interactive concert experience. Before performing, their new "rockumentary," titled "Fading West," played in its entirety exclusively to the audience members.
Before showing the film, lead guitarist Drew Shirley made one request to the audience: yell any time a killer wave came on-screen. The audience happily complied and with an abundance of surfing trip scenes, there were plenty of opportunities.
The film, described by the band as "part rock documentary, part surf film and part travelogue," showed the band's journey through their 2012 world tour, with sections artistically filmed in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Bali and their hometown of San Diego. Tracks from their upcoming album (set to drop Jan. 14) by the same title were featured throughout the film, which is set for digital release in December.The film depicts the ups and downs of the rock 'n' roll life, with the highs of great shows and the lows of having to be away from loved ones, especially during family crises. When they get away to surf, the band describes the saltwater as washing their stress away. The movie opens with the lines, "Do you know a cure for me? I know a cure for everything . . . saltwater."
After the movie, there was a brief intermission where audience members were encouraged to tweet at the band with questions for them to answer throughout the show, creating an interactive feel. Audience member Brant Arnos tweeted, "What advice would you give to an up and coming musician who struggles to write his own lyrics?"
After locating Arnos in the audience, lead vocalist Jon Foreman imparted to him some song-writing wisdom.
"Music becomes a vehicle to talk about things that you couldn't talk about otherwise," Foreman said. "So, write out of joy and be honest because God doesn't need a lawyer."
The concert portion of the night started off with "The Sound." Later in the show, the audience had the pleasure of sharing in the news that Fontamillas' son Jackson had just been born, which was why Jyro Xhan filling in for him on keyboard.
"I'm getting teared up just thinking about it," Foreman said. "I'm so happy for those guys."
A unique highlight of the night was when the band moved one snare drum, one microphone, an acoustic guitar, an accordion and a small tambourine to the lower stage to play an impromptu acoustic version of "Hello Hurricane." With their tight harmonies and close proximity to the audience, the song became a special moment for both band and audience.
After performing "Restless," a song where Foreman sang as he moved through the crowd, the band went into a few of their hits from the 2002 movie soundtrack "A Walk to Remember," which helped rocket them to mainstream success. They started off with "Only Hope," a song covered by actress Mandy Moore in the film.
Before performing their biggest hit as a band, "Dare You To Move," Foreman had one more request for the audience.
"I want you to just put your arm around the person next to you," Foreman said. "You're just gonna sway back and forth, strangers and friends, and we're gonna sing a song about motion."
After the show, audience member Jeff Gilbert described how much he enjoyed the show, especially as a San Diego native.
"I'm from San Diego so I've seen them at BroAm (the band's big music/surf festival)," Gilbert said. "Tonight was very high-energy, which is awesome."
