With a new album, a soulful new vocalist, and a new vibe - to boot - the Grammy-nominated rock band, Newsboy
On the strength of hits like "Shine," "Spirit Thing," and "Beautiful Sound," each "boy" possessed an uncommon effervescence as the Australian-born band graced the stage of The Hammerstein Ballroom with their new lead vocalist, Michael Tait.
Silver-tongued as though he'd been singing the band's tunes for more than a mere year, Tait not only belted out new hits like "In The Hands of God" and "The Way We Roll," but also delivered nuanced performances of classics like "Not Ashamed."
Backstage, NEWD was "taken to their leader" - the fearless Tait, former vocalist with Grammy-winning trio dc Talk.
"When Peter called me back in January of last year and said "Hey, help, help, help, we don't wanna stop, we don't wanna quit, will you be an able mate to take over the helm?" said Michael, recounting his conversation with Peter Furler, the band's founder and former lead vocalist. "I thought, well, I hope I can do that job. I want to do that job. It sounds fun, but it's a lot of work. Low and behold, after a lot of prayer, God gave me a clear answer that this is where I belong. I did it and I'm happy as a lark."
Furler, who will be making occasional guest appearances on the road, has taken an early retirement after 17 years of writing, recording and performing with the band.
In handing over the mantle 6 months earlier he offered Tait the following endorsement, "Michael, you have the voice that I want to have in heaven."
Now, the band has a new face and fresh voice to match.
"Michael brings a freshness to the group that I've really appreciated," said Duncan Phillips, the band's drummer and its oldest member who has known Tait since the early DC Talk days. "The killer thing that I'm stoked about is we have 20 years worth of hits and then you get this monster world-class vocalist singing those hits. For a situation that could have been catastrophic, it's turned out to be the most amazing blessing, far beyond what I could have imagined. Two years down the track, we are going to be unstoppable."
At Rock The Sound, Newsboys shared the bill with Dove Award-winning rock band The Afters, guitarist/worship singer Phil Wickham, and pop/rock band Run Kid Run.
Rock The Sound Concerts is a non-profit concert promoter that seeks to glorify God by bringing Christian-based concerts to New York and New England.
While many of the artists who performed before this boisterous New York audience are all the rage within the Christian scene, some are no strangers to mainstream exposure.
The video for Run Kid Run's song "We've Only Just Begun" was featured on the American Eagle music video store soundtrack after its release.
Superchick, who performed on the August 1 show, have had songs featured in the movie Legally Blonde, MTV's "The Hills," and TV spots for ABC's"True Beauty."
And, Tait, whose singles from the dcTalk era peppered mainstream airwaves for years, agrees that artists should make music that a high school kid can listen to at lunchtime in their car and not be ashamed of.
"If it's Christian, then it ought to be better because the closer we get to the Creator, the more creative we should be," said Tait.
And, in a time of artistic crossove
"Given the opportunity, you better believe it. No question about it. If Sting called us tomorrow morning, Sting or Seal or Kravitz or The Stones or whoever," said Tait.
Phillips, who likens the Newsboys - dcTalk merger to a McDonald's and Burger King combination believes that there will be a lot more of that stuff going forward with the band.
"You're getting a super burger here. There's this buzz around this thing and we're really standing to get a lot more mainstream kind of interest. I even know some country folk that know about it and that's a genre that is quite removed from what we do," he said.
At the Hammerstein, the boys dispensed a monster mash-up of classic hits from both bands.
From Tait's solo hit "My Will" to a "Not Ashamed" and "Colored People" remix, Newsboys broke all barriers with their groovy, new Tait-led set.
Tait, who said he was "the only chocolate spot" in all of the bands he's been a part of, lives the words of "Colored People," written by his trio more than a decade ago.
"I am living integration," said Tait, who believes his music is a platform to facilitate racial equality. "A lot of the times we stereotype ourselves. You know like if you're African American, you eat fried chicken, play basketball and speak Ebonics and listen to R&B. Well, I am African American, I do rock and roll, I like sushi and I snowboard. People have to make a conscious effort as humans to leave the place where people look like you, talk like you, eat like you, and go out into the deep. Get out of that zone and learn to love your brother."
With dcTalk, Tait was instrumental in founding the E.R.A.C.E. Foundation (Eliminating Racism And Creating Equality) to combat racism.
Now, he is part of a similar movement called Global Tribe with his new bandmates.
"Global tribe is a commission for the human race to reach outside of our comfort zone and to reach people outside th
at zone," said Tait. "We see the commercials on TV with the little African kid starving. But it's more than just that. It's the people next door to us. How in the world are we going to cross the seas when I can't go across the street in my neighborhood? And so, for me, social justice is right next door to me half the time. It's in our neighborhood and we cannot just sit back and watch as believers."
What's next for this massive mainstay band?
The changing of the guard from Furler to Tait starts with the single, "Glorious" - a Tait-led remake of the song from the recent album and will culminate in a brand new record to be released next fall.
An unexpected, sweet treat for all the fans at Rock The Sound was a Peter Furler cameo. He burst onto stage to lead the song, "Breakfast."
The crowd erupted into a cacophonous frenzy that hardly quieted for the encore performance of the dcTalk fave, "Jesus Freak."
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