The other night I had the opportunity to go to a concert at the Treefort Music Hall in Boise. I happened to see an advertisement on Facebook about Anberlin coming to Boise, and I clicked on it. They were coming to Boise about a 10 days from the day I saw the advertisement. I was excited because Anberlin is a band that I have started listening to a lot the last few years. I had heard of Copeland as well from a Happy Christmas album I had as well. I bought a ticket and went. No one else in the family was too keen on going to a loud rock concert on a Thursday night, and I was fine with that. This was a 20th anniversary tour for their “Never Take Friendship Personal” album.
So, I headed downtown and go there with plenty of time. Once inside I checked out the merchandise tables for each band. I bought an Anberlin tour shirt right away and contemplated a record, but didn’t want to carry it all night. Copeland also had records as well as T-shirts, but since I hadn’t listened much to them I didn’t buy anything beforehand. I chatted with some of people and then it was time for the concert to start.
Spitalfield was on first. Apparently they also were of the same age as Copeland and Anberlin and made the comment that they hadn’t been to Boise in 20 years. They were from Chicago. They were fine. Nothing great. It was a rock sound. They played for about 25 minutes I think. Then it was time to transition to Copeland.
Copeland was playing their “In Motion” album from beginning to end since it was the 20th anniversary of that album. It was a mix of rock and pop. I enjoyed it. It was a little hard to understand the lead singer and so I didn’t get all the words he was saying most of the time, but the sound was good. Not good enough for me to buy anything from them that night but I will consider listening to them if I find them for free on Amazon Prime. I had heard of them before, like I mentioned earlier, and so I looked them up and sure enough they originally signed with Tooth and Nail records. Tooth and Nail was a predominately Christian record label initially, but everything I read about Copeland stated that they were not a religious band at all (although some members are/were Christians). Then it was time for the final transition to Anberlin.
Anberlin came on a bit before 9pm to huge applause. I learned earlier that evening that the original lead singer, Stephan Christian, was no longer the lead singer of the band. He has been replaced by Matty Mullins (from the band Memphis May Fire). I wasn’t sure what to think of this, but it didn’t matter because I was there already. They came out and started playing. They were playing their “Never Take Friendship Personal” album from beginning to end as well. I thought that it was cool that Copeland and Anberlin were doing the same thing there. It was well done. I was able to hear Matty clearly most of the time. So, the sound mixing was a lot better. The thing I really didn’t like was the lighting. They were always backlit and so I could never see their faces. I liked how Matty acknowledged that it was the other 4 guys in the band that were Anberlin and he was just blessed to be singing the songs with them. Matty did a fine job. It certainly wasn’t the same as Matty’s voice seems to be a bit higher than Stephans, but he did a good job. Once they got through the entire album then stepped off stage, but came out shortly thereafter and played 4 more songs: The Resistance, High Stakes, Impossible, and finally Godspeed. They did a great job with all the songs. They announced that a re-recording of the “Never Take Friendship Personal” album had just dropped online right at 10pm (between High Stakes and Impossible). I will certainly check that out, and see how it sounds. I was talking with their merchandise guy and he said that there was some great updating to some of the songs in the new versions. I wasn’t clear on who was signing lead on the new recording though – Stephan or Matty? Before I left I decided to buy the record Anberlin had their as well, and I will listen to it at some point. It is their newer stuff.
I decided to look up why Stephan Christian left Anberlin and according to pretty much every source online it was that he wanted to stop touring to be able to spend time with his wife and kids. That is a great reason to stop touring. He wanted to focus on family and making sure to nourish their needs. He has said that he hasn’t left the band, but has left the touring side of things. I am not sure how that works, but time will tell.