MusicScribe BLOG

I went up to Morganton, NC this evening and caught a concert with an upcoming group called Ruth and the headliner, Sonicflood. (No, it wasn’t a Southern Gospel concert.) I was sitting 20 feet up in the air on a scaffold with a friend of mine who was shooting video for the big screen. I got to hit the button to switch between the wide angle and the close-up…for roughly three and a half hours. That will give your ego a boost…controlling what’s happening on a screen with dimensions of roughly 30 feet on a diagonal.

You probably wouldn’t guess from the name, but Ruth is a group of four guys. The show started with the lead singer on stage all by himself. The emcee said, “Please welcome Ruth.” That was weird. He sang a song and then the rest of the band joined him on stage. Oh, so it’s NOT an individual guy named Ruth.

Ruth seemed really unsure of themselves and nervous. I can’t tell you what they sang, because the lead singer’s vocal was buried in the mix and his enunciation was pretty poor.

Sonicflood has been in the business for a number of years. They took the stage with confidence. I didn’t realize they had a local guy playing lead guitar. Trey Hill is from nearby Shelby, NC, about 30-40 minutes south of Morganton. Hill had several sizzling solos. (His Wikipedia bio currently lists him as a former member of the group, so perhaps he was just filling in tonight.)

Lead singer Rick Heil has been with the group since their break-up in 2000. Yes, you read that correctly. Heil started a new group using the same name.

I didn’t catch the names of the other current members. The keyboard guy had at least three keyboard controllers plus something that looked like a Nintendo Game Boy on a long wire that he’d pound on to trigger odd sounds from time to time.

They kept this evening’s show rolling along fairly well for the first hour of their set. I recognized a number of well known P&W mixed with several inventive songs I hadn’t heard before. (I didn’t write down the setlist, since my hands were full hitting the video switcher button.)

After an hour or so, they had an invitation which began with “Here I Am To Worship” and segued into “The Heart Of Worship.” Heil left the stage, and the keyboard player sang the same phrase over and over for about 20 minutes. The crowd first responded by going forward. After a while, though, people began taking up their collapsable chairs and walking…away. I’m not diminishing the invitation portion of the concert. It’s obviously very important. All I’m saying is that the approach they used caused many to completely lose interest.

I have to give credit where it’s due, though. Sonicflood finished on a strong note with several excellent songs including “Lord Of The Dance.” Hill delivered an outstanding guitar solo near the end of the concert.

(After the concert, I got to help my friend get a mid-sized TELEVISION MONITOR off of the 20-foot high scaffold. Yikes! Fortunately, I didn’t drop it.)