Pop Music Review : Steven Curtis Chapman’s Christianity Goes So Far

Bars were closed at the Universal Amphitheater last Saturday night. And security was virtually nonexistent, unnecessary. Which isn’t to say the Christian pop concert there by Steven Curtis Chapman was a sleepy night out. The singer-songwriter never stopped moving.

Chapman--who sings at UC Irvine tonight--is at the pinnacle of Christian pop with a smooth folk-pop sound somewhere between Michael McDonald’s and Bruce Hornsby’s. He won a Grammy for his previous album, and his newest, “Heaven in the Real World,” took in more than 500,000 orders before it was shipped.

It’s a level of success that points to further crossover into the secular mainstream. The clean-cut Chapman has enough wave in his blond hair to be on bedroom posters. But crossover poses as many risks as rewards (it was good news for Amy Grant, bad for the rock group Stryper). At the amphitheater, the Kentucky native seemed in no hurry to head that way, pausing again and again between songs to preach a word or two.

He told stories from his life, of his three young children and of his childhood misadventures with older brother Herbie. Most of all, he spoke of his wife of 10 years, Mary Beth, and when he sat down to strum an acoustic love ballad to her, he sounded like Kenny Loggins in one of his warmer folk-pop moments.

“I hope you hear these things as coming from the heart of a friend,” he said.

His onstage messages included a lengthy plea at show’s end for support of the Prison Fellowship, founded by convicted Watergate figure Charles Colson to counsel prisoners and bring aid to their families. Chapman has become deeply involved in the ministry and suggested his fans stop by the Prison Fellowship booth outside the auditorium.

He was an otherwise pleasant and upbeat presence, dressed in a black, three-piece suit over a white shirt buttoned to the throat--an outfit that didn’t keep him from doing some high-kicking dance steps with one of his keyboard players.

His six-man band had come onto the stage amid enough colored lights and spacey mist to make Pink Floyd feel at home. Shortly after an acoustic medley of Chapman’s earlier music, the group did an amusing rap parody, though the Almighty was never more than a verse or two away.

And then out came Chapman. There were many catchy pop hooks throughout the show, sung in his earnest tenor. There was little musically to challenge him or his listeners. It was slick pop, well played. But as the concert neared the two-hour mark, the good cheer began to wear thin, and the chosen limits of his musical scope became all too apparent--a sign that he really is ready for pop radio.

* Steven Curtis Chapman sings tonight at 7 in the Bren Events Center at UC Irvine, Campus Drive and Bridge Road, Irvine. $17.50 to $19.50. (714) 856-5000.