hell or high water

some of my best memories of my time in olympia are directly related to another band, who became close friends, called as cities burn.

i wrote about this a few months ago but they've become fresh on my mind again with the release of their new album "hell or high water". i pre-ordered the album a few weeks ago and it just arrived in the mail today, and i've been listening and digesting the new music more or less all day. i think i'm on my 8th listen. and it's beautiful. i'm so proud and sad and just in love with this record.

i remember there being a lot of apprehension within the ranks of olympia before we met as cities burn. they were a christian band and we were playing on a christian tour as the only secular band. i was the only christian in olympia and the joke was that i was the ambassador to all the christian kids we would inevitably encounter. from the get go, from everyone we talked to said that the guys in as cities burn were totally cool and not preachy and a lot of fun. i went in with a totally open mind.

from the first night hanging out at the door in dallas, i knew we were going to get along great with these guys. they were humble, friendly, and completely disarmed our underlying reluctance about being on this christian tour.

one of the most unfortunate things about the christian independent music scene is there are a lot of really overzealous judgemental kids who didn't really want anything to do with us because our message wasn't in line with what they wanted to hear. the bands themselves tend to be filled with great dudes who are a lot of fun, but the fans are a whole other story altogether. it was really unfortunate. of course there were exceptions, but for the most part that tour was a challenge for us and we felt a lot of pressure to act in certain ways to keep from offending people and make our lives easier.

anyway, over the course of the tour, as our friendship grew, i began to realize they were exactly the type of christians that i aspired to be. completely open and honest about their faith and honest about the doubts they had as well. in addition to that, they never came across as preachy - not in front of the microphone or in private conversation. instead, they spoke in a way that made you want to ask questions and learn more. over the course of the tour, we had a few discussions and even prayed together once or twice and it was something that has always stayed with me.

so anyway, like all the bands that i've ever loved, the touring and the industry has chewed them up and spit them out along the way. i'm not sure that they're going to still be a band after this record, which is such a tragedy because this record is so amazing. as much as i want to write them all imploring them to continue and to push on, i know it's a waste of time. they're in the same boat that i was in. the same boat that a thousand bands have been in before. when do you throw in the towel? it's different for everybody, but i think that they may have hit their limit.

my only hope is that somehow our paths cross again. it seems so unlikely, now that i'm finally settled into a place and there's no longer the promise of tours or trips on the horizon. i hope the best for them. i hope this record does really well. it'd be a nice send-off at the very least, because they certainly deserve one.



you can listen to more as cities burn at myspace.com/ascitiesburn