When the Ska Mania tour came to our town, we decided to check it out for ourselves. And we saw it all.

At 7:23 p.m., we were in the middle of a dance marathon, with some 3,000 ska-crazy maniacs jumpin' and moshin' all over the floor.

At 8:17, we were in the middle of some sort of intergalactic rock opera, complete with Captain James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. "Bones" McCoy and an annoying Klingon, all acting rather goofy on stage.

At 9:42, we felt like we were in church.

Yep, you could find just about anything and everything during this Ska Mania tour.

Christian ska's Big Three—The Orange County Supertones, Five Iron Frenzy and The Insyderz—took their fast-paced, high-powered, good-times show to 18 cities in 28 days, rockin' the house in big places like L.A. and Atlanta, as well as not-so-big places like Elkhart, Indiana and Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Everywhere these guys went, it was party time. And ska was the guest of honor.

"Ska is just a really fun style of music," says Jason Carson, drummer for The Supertones. "It's happy music. The audience can dance to it and have a great time at the shows."

Exactly what is ska, anyway?

"We usually define it as sped-up reggae with horns," says Joe Yerke, lead singer for The Insyderz.

And, depending on which band is on stage, and what song they're playing, you'll also hear traces of punk, hardcore, swing, heavy metal, and rap.

"A pretty wide range of sounds," says Reese Roper, lead singer for Five Iron.

And a pretty wide range of scenes—at least during the Ska Mania gigs.

At the concert we saw, held in a college gymnasium, the stage was set up on one side, and the rest of the place was one huge dance floor. And dance they did. For most of the 3-1/2 hour concert, you'd find thousands of bouncing bodies, jumpin' for all they were worth.

There was plenty of action on stage, too—some of it quite, uhh, unpredictable. Like when Five Iron came out to the original Star Trek theme, complete with the voiceover: "Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise … "

Five Iron, dressed in Trek costumes, had a running gag between Captain Kirk (Reese) and Dr. McCoy (bass player Keith Hoerig). Several times throughout the show, "Kirk" would ask, "How's everything in sick bay, Bones?"

And "Bones" would answer, "Well, Jim, everything's OK, except for one problem. A KLINGON!"

Then the Klingon (guitarist Micah Ortega) would jump out and "attack" somebody in the band.

Fortunately, there were no casualties—well, at least Bones never said, "He's dead, Jim"—and the bands played on.

By the time The Supertones took the stage, the energy level was, well, ska high. The guys from Orange County ran through all their fan favorites — like "Adonai," "Resolution," "Strike Back," "Who Can Be Against Me?" and others — whipping the crowd into a frenzy. (Or was that Five Iron's job?)

And then came church.

At every one of their concerts, The Supertones take about 20 minutes to slow things down—w-a-a-a-y down—to worship God.

Jason came down from behind his drum set and told the crowd about God's great love, about how Jesus went to the cross to die so we could live forever.

By the time Jason got to the point where he invited non-believers to take the life-changing step of faith, the place was so quiet that Jason didn't even use his microphone.

Then there was a time of prayer, with small groups huddled together all over the floor. Tears were shed. Sins were confessed. And decisions were made—decisions to follow God.

Jason then led the singing: praise songs, worship songs, church songs. When the worship time ended with everyone singing, a cappella, "We Exalt Thee," it was almost as if heaven came down and filled the place.

"People always tell us the part they like most is the praise and worship time," says Matt Morginsky, lead singer of The Supertones. "They say, 'I liked the rest of the show too, but that was the standout for me.'"

"That worship time is what we're all about," adds Jason. "It's incredible, seeing the crowd come together and worship God in unity. We're focused on one thing: Bringing others to know Christ. That's more important than anything. It's way more important than our albums, it's more important than our music, it's more important than us. If we didn't have a time of giving glory to God, we wouldn't be in this. It's all about God.

"If our three bands can pull off a show where people are walking away talking about the Lord, more than talking about the bands, then we've accomplished our purpose."

Mission accomplished.

Brass roots
Not long ago, if you played a brass instrument in the high school band, you couldn't even think about someday being a rock star.

That's changed, thanks to ska.

"Ska has made horn players a hot commodity," says Darren Mettler, trumpeter for The Supertones.

"It's given hope to a lot of brass players," adds Dennis Culp, Five Iron's trombonist. "When I was in high school, I actually took up bass and guitar, because nobody wanted to hear the trombone. Now it's funny to play the trombone and have people think it's actually cool!"

"I was a band geek in high school," says Insyderz trombonist Sang Kim. "One summer I practiced four hours a day, every day. Sometimes I wondered why I was putting myself through that, because it was hard. But in the end, it all came clear to me. I knew there were ways I could use the talent God gave me, and now it's happened."

Copyright © 1999 by the author or Christianity Today International/Campus Life magazine. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or e-mail clmag@CampusLife.net.
March/April 1999, Vol. 57, No. 8, Page 18

Read more from 'Bands & Artists'

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