Relient K
Blog I wrote about the mentioned show:
https://brandon-dorman.medium.com/semler-relient-k-and-faith-f9f3c6b04b77
The Christian subculture I grew up in has often taken a bad rap for insulating kids, making it ‘us vs them’ and some really bad music. But there were some bright spots, like the band Relient K.
Although initially it seems like they were marketed as a safe alternative to blink 182, in my mind they established themselves early on not only with fun pop punk music, but some much more interesting tracks as well (even if now I realize they probably ‘had to’ due to demands from the christian record labels…)
But these five songs are representative of how music is associated not with the chords and lyrics, but inexorably linked to moments and thought-frames in life. It’s not just that I remember hearing and singing to “Balloon Ride” in my car, it’s that I was a senior in high school, still new at driving around town on my own and excited for the college experience ahead.
Balloon Ride: Not even the best song off of their self-titled major label debut, but I loved the opening lines —
There were times in my life, when I was confused.
There were things between me and God,
that were blocking my view…
and then goes on a metaphorical journey of a hot air balloon ride to see the big picture. But I liked this song because often in high school I felt like I was only seeing the daily challenges of homework, social pressures etc. yet longed for joy. Specifically, I remember singing this in the car after getting fired from my first tutoring job after a few months ($15 an hour!).
For the Moments I feel Faint: I guess I thought about the fallacy of human beings and struggled with that more than most people, but these opening lines as well always hit me and encouraged me:
“Am I at the point of no improvement?
What of the death I still dwell in?
I try to excel, but I feel no movement.
Can I be free of this unreleasable sin?…
Never underestimate my Jesus”
I think it was encouraging to know that in the midst of doubting faith etc, that Jesus was big enough for the doubt as well as the faith. This song in particular I would play on repeat at Sugar Pine Christian camp in 2003 because I only brought relient k, delirious and third day cd’s I’d to play on the portable CD player I had for some reason. Honorable mentions from the album “two lefts don’t make A right but three do” for that summer include Getting into You and Am I Understood.
More Than Useless: In the summer of 2005, I had graduated college but wasn’t starting my teacher credential program until the Fall. So, I lived in a buddy’s spare room for the summer and worked at a group home for teenagers 4 days a week 10 hours a day. It was emotionally tough work, with the kids issues and my own issues of feeling sorta lonely after the immersive four years of being around lots of great people all the time in school. I’d been the student body vice president for two years, and there was always a lot of work to do for that — meeting with people, events etc — as well as double majoring in math and psychology. The drive out to the group home was about half an hour each way, and some days could certainly get discouraging. So screaming the lyrics was a great way to clear the discouragement and get set for the day with optimism:
And sometimes I think that I’m not any good at all
And sometimes I wonder why
Why I’m even here at all
But then You assure me
I’m a little more than useless
And when I think that I can’t do this
You promise me that I’ll get through this
And do something right
Do something right for once
To this day that entire MmHmm album reminds me of the pure optimism and joy I felt in that great post-college, pre-workforce period of life when everything was ahead of me.
Sahara: The album Forget And Not Slow Down came soon after I’d gotten engaged and so at first was a bit of a bummer — breakup songs inspired by Matt Thiessens own broken engagement. Yet within it, there was classic Relient K humor and optimism. The song Sahara is fun to sing along too but also has great commentary about pride being the downfall of a lot of us and sometimes we need to face that before anything else.
I Celebrate The Day: Off their Christmas album(s), this song is sort of a reverse Marg Did You Know, as it’s more from someone talking to Christ. It also notes that despite the fact we nearly always fail our best ambitions, we are loved and forgiven.
Because here is where You’re finding me, in the exact same place as New Year’s eve
And from a lack of my persistency
We’re less than half as close as I want to be
It’s worth noting that this song is immediately after “silent night/away in a manger” so together it’s almost like the completion of a story.
I saw relient k in my youth probably 4–5 times between 2000 and 2007, most notably on a tour two days in a row with five iron frenzy in 2001. I saw them in 2016 with switchfoot almost ten years after seeing them and the first time since I’d even been married or had kids, and it was so much fun I just had to do it again when they announced the first tour since then. So I’m flying double masked to Chicago this weekend to hang out with one of my best friends as well as see the show! As an added bonus the show is at the House of Blues where Switchfoot recorded a live show in 2016 from that same tour. It will be my first time in the Midwest since January 2020 when I worked for ACT!
