Anby.

Amanda, Cody and I saw Anberlin @ House of Blues New Orleans last night. Their music blesses me so much. I don't think I've ever said that before about a band that plays music that is secular in nature. These guys are all Christians, but they play songs about life...mainly relationship sons: friendship, romance, etc. But the song-writing is so heartfelt and beautiful. I feel like I know Stephen Christian, the lead singer, from a past life or something. The songs he writes are based on his personal experiences, many of them failures. Including broken relationships he knows he has messed up. For example, in "The Feel Good Drag," a song about infidelity in a relationship he scream-shouts "Was this over before it ever began? Your lips, your lies, your lust, like the devil's got your hands!" Yet they are not afraid to sing a lyric like "When life is in dischord, praise ye the Lord" ("Paperthin Hymn"). Anyway, this is my second favorite band ever, second only to that worship band/my heroes known as Delirious?. But Anby are definitely my heroes. It's music that makes me feel honest and happy to be alive. I guess that's why they've done so well across various audience-types. Honest lyric writing. Whether that be a song about the Holy Spirit ("Cadence") or a song about the communication breakdown across the gender gap ("Foreign Language"), it's candid. And "Dance, Dance Christa Paffgen" has been the best song I've ever heard in my life going solid for about a year now. It is that good.

They played 14 songs last night, 3 of them during an encore we demanded and they graciously offered to New Orleans, the city they love. "A Day Late," "Readyfuels," "The Feel Good Drag," "Glass to the Arson," "Never Take Friendship Personal," "Time & Confusion," "The Runaways," Love Song," "[New Song]," "Dance, Dance Christa Paffgen," and "Paperthin Hymn" followed by an encore of "Naive Orleans," "Audrey Start the Revolution!," and "Foreign Language."

They have a new album Cities coming out early next year. Stephen promised it will be "the best Anberlin album yet!". I can't find much of anything about it on the web though.