A Spiritual Message That Could Use Fleshing Out

The slogan for most hit acts in Contemporary Christian music seems to be, “good news all the time; give us five minutes and we’ll give you a world of affirmation.”

That’s how Steven Curtis Chapman’s show Saturday at the Pond of Anaheim played out, and it did not make for the kind of absorbing evening of tension between a fallen world and the uplifting power of belief that a truly excellent Contemporary Christian pop act--we await its first coming--would deliver.

Chapman’s music was given mainly to bright proclamations of God’s sovereignty and grace; the minor-key interludes grounded in a fallen world were brief, and even those ended in major affirmations. Granted, Christian music, given its underlying premises, must have the Good News as its ultimate message, and uplift as its overriding effect. But good news in every song rings artistically false.

Chapman’s chief appeal lay in the bright energy of the opening sequence of his overlong two-hour set. He and his sharp, six-man band arrived with an enthusiasm and engagement that called to mind Garth Brooks.

A folksy side came out in an acoustic segment, in which Chapman summoned some of the bluesy-country roots that decorate his current album, “Signs of Life.” The unassuming star contributed some capable guitar licks.

Most of what Chapman sang and played was unimpressive, if moderately catchy, mainstream pop-rock that fell in the general ballpark of Bryan Adams, the Doobie Brothers and post-Eagles country-rock.

It was delivered in a pleasant but not commanding voice that sounded best in high-range sallies, such as the old-fashioned gospel extension of “Let Us Pray” that was Chapman’s best vocal showcase of the night.

There’s a reason why Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith have crossed over with mainstream pop hits, while Chapman, though very successful in the Contemporary Christian sphere, has not: Their songs have more memorable hooks.

The Kentucky native was likable enough, if a bit long-winded, in his affable chatting about his family and his gentle exhortations on spiritual matters. In a render-unto-Steven segment, reps from his label, Sparrow Records, stopped the show and surprised him with a framed platinum-album award for his first million-seller, the 1994 release, “Heaven in the Real World,” and a gold-album award for “Signs of Life.”

Chapman, 34, has won a slew of Dove Awards--the Contemporary Christian world’s top honor--for his songwriting. But it was a failure of nerve or imagination as a songwriter that cost him a chance to probe the wilderness in a way that could have made the uplift of his message seem earned.

In “What I Would Say,” Chapman imagined speaking forgiving words to the grandfather he never met: an alcoholic who abandoned wife and son and never returned. It’s easy to forgive people we’ve never met; Chapman left undone the artistic heavy lifting it would have taken to keep himself out of the picture, and give a vividly imagined portrayal of his grandfather grappling with and losing to his demons. Not much uplift in that story, though.

“Free” managed to celebrate a death-row inmate’s salvation through Christian belief without allowing into evidence even a trace of the blood he spilled or the horror he caused. The film “Dead Man Walking,” an adaptation of a real-life nun’s rescue of a condemned killer’s spirit, did not flinch from those realities. If that’s the standard, Chapman’s song is plainly beneath it.

Until somebody comes along to prove otherwise, listeners interested in intense, memorable songs with spiritual content are better off with the likes of Van Morrison, Peter Himmelman, U2 and Bob Dylan--artists who happen to see the world through a lens of religious belief--than with Contemporary Christian artists who feel that every song they create must bolster and affirm belief.

Chapman’s music serves a good purpose in reaching people who want a religious message and a confirmation of their beliefs, but that’s different than serving the highest standards of songwriting as an art, which, among other things, involves provoking, disturbing, confronting and challenging an audience.

Second-billed Audio Adrenaline could have what it takes to follow Jars of Clay, a Christian band with a soft-pedaled, personal message, into the alternative-rock mainstream. Singer Mark Stuart displayed a good, husky, blues-tinged rocker’s voice and a commanding presence, and the band’s musicianship was strong. Audio Adrenaline, however, hasn’t yet focused its sound the way Jars of Clay has. Its 40-minute set was scattered between such incongruous elements as modern-rock drive and a faithful cover of the Edgar Winter Group’s 1973 hit, “Free Ride.”

Opener Carolyn Arends, who hails from Vancouver, B.C., and has made some crossover inroads in Canada, had an unfairly brief 15 minutes to put across her appealing, Beatles-derived pop-rock. Her upcoming second album, “Feel Free,” makes her sound like an Aimee Mann who forgot to get up on the wrong side of the bed. Onstage, she sounded as chirpy as Katrina & the Waves.