d:?

Well, as you know I went to a delirious? concert in Toronto on Saturday. I went with my friends Jobin and Steven, and we met Daniel, Mark and Mike there. Now I used to write long and detailed reviews of every concert I went to, but that soon became too tiresome given the number of concerts I went to! It was especially burdensome if went to a conference or festival and saw many bands in the same day, so for a while I only wrote reviews of delirious? concerts I went to, but then I lost even my penchant for that, and I haven't written one of these things in years. So before I run out of steam, here goes:

Date: 15 April 2006
band: delirious?
Venue: Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, Toronto
Crowd: about 1500-2000 (I never really got a good look at the crowd to be honest)
Interesting facts: My 9th time seeing my favourite band, this was part of a weekend conference at a controversially charismatic church where we had concert-only tickets, so most of the kids there had already seen a few delirious? sets that weekend, while were only privy to the Saturday night performance.

The concert started with a local trance DJ, DJ Puddy. I don't like to criticise, but his 30 minute set was awful, so I'll just leave it at that.
As finished, a guy came up to introduce delirious? by rapping. Do you know who it was? For some of you this will be shocking, for others, obscure: Anthony McLean from CBC's The X! He rapped about his iPod: "Only one song left, you can't be serious - you know I'm gunna fill it up with . . . DELIRIOUS?!!!"

Delirious? took the stage, with Stu G wearing white floral print pants, a black shirt and a red tie. Tim Jupp sported a regular red shirt, and Martin had a black shirt, tres chic black jeans, a tie with thick red and black diagonal stripes, and a wicked little smoking jacket which sported four d:? buttons as though they were military medals. And Jon Thatcher wore that smashing pinstribe suit that the band had made their staple during the Audiolessonover/World Service days. Stew Smith wasn't on this tour, so substitute drummer Paul Evans took his place.

Delirious? walked onto stage and opened with "Here I am Send Me" from the new album. "How many people, put your hands up, how many people are here for just tonight?" asked Martin between songs. "Cool. This weekend has been great but tonight, tonight's gonna be great." And then they launched into "Rain Down" from World Service.
A stretched out version of my favourite song from The Mission Bell followed, as Stu G played a tight power chord and Martin asked "Are you ready to paint the town?" And they went into "Paint the Town Red." Then they did "Fires Burn" which was a lot better in concert than I expected it to be.

When they started "Solid Rock" I knew that something special was up. When they got to the bridge, the part that TobyMac signs on the album, Martin grabbed a megaphone that was plugged into the sound system and started singing through that! It did the coolest effect on his voice and he sang the bridge and the rest of the song through it! He held the thing above his head like the rockstar he is, and it looked really cool and Bono-ish.

Then they did "Inside Outside" and Martin opened his Bible and read from John 5 before they started singing "Miracle Maker". he concluded Miracle Maker with the lyric "And I'm standing with the faith of a History Maker," and then they went into that song. During the bridge of History Maker Martin spoke a short sermon about what it meant to be a history maker and they also sang a refrain of "Holy is the Lord".

Then they did some more Mission Bell stuff, with "Now is the Time" and a very moving and powerful version of "Take off My Shoes." After that I phoned my brother and let him listen in on a few minutes of "Majesty (Here I am)", and then the band sang "Our God Reigns", without singing the politically charged verses.

Then the conference speaker came up. He was an intense bloke. He did an alter call and some kids responded, then delirious? finished up their set.

They did "Investigate". I'm glad I got a four minute video of that, because Investigate is unquestionably delirious?'s best song in concert. "in . . . vestigate . . . my life . . . and make me clean"
They finished up, as they often do, with Martin holding a lit candle in front of the microphone and singing "There is a Light".

Notably absent from the set were the two most powerful songs from World Service. They didn't do either of "Mountains High" or "Every Little Thing".

After the concert, Jobin, Steve and I helped the roadies put the equipment away, and we got to meet Martin, Tim and Jon!!! I won't describe to you the feeling of meeting my favourite rockstar, because I just can't ! We got photos, it was so cool!

My day with delirious? What a night, what a band.