WEEKEND REVIEWS : Smith Echoes Secular Hitmakers : Pop

Anyone who stages as lavish a concert as Michael W. Smith did on Saturday at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center probably doesn’t have to worry about borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

But Smith, the top male star in Christian pop, did borrow substantially from some of his famous secular brethren in a show abetted by a fine seven-man band and striking lighting effects.

At various junctures, Smith echoed the likes of Bryan Adams, Robert Palmer, Jackson Browne and the Beatles. Whether these little appropriations leave Smith in violation of the Sinai Top Ten is a matter for a higher authority to judge. But it certainly makes him a viable candidate for the Billboard Top 40, where it is considered no sin to covet thy neighbor’s hooks.

The handsome singer didn’t have anything to prove to a hyped-up audience of about 5,000 fans that awaited his arrival by doing the wave and roaring chants of “We love Jesus, how ‘bout you?” back and forth across the arena.

But Smith didn’t coast, instead turning in an energetic, hard-working and stylistically and emotionally varied set in which he frequently ventured from behind his keyboards to twist and shout. As for religious content, Smith avoided simplistic formulas. While his message songs were hardly incisive or adventurous, sticking with general expressions of longing or affirmation, at least they didn’t merely sermonize.