Moody Christian Rock? It’s dc Talk

The members of dc Talk are masters of pop. They do it all: hard rock, hip-hop, folk and R&B.; It’s all well played and aggressively contemporary, rewarding this Christian pop trio with top 10 albums and fans attracted to its warm, energetic delivery.

That puts dc Talk worlds away from most Christian pop music, but still doesn’t make its members important original artists. At the Universal Amphitheatre on Saturday, dc Talk demonstrated the very real crossover possibilities for inspirational music, but fell far short of the more compelling and universal spirituality that has always been part of the music of U2.

For the Nashville-based dc Talk, it was enough to simply shatter the stereotype of Christian pop artists as preachy and mundane. The band’s core vocal trio looked like they could have stepped out of a Sugar Ray video, and played convincingly moody hard rock on “Supernatural,” the title track of the band’s 1998 album.

Leader Toby McKeehan paused occasionally during dc Talk’s 90-minute set to read inspirational messages, but usually chose to weave his Christian messages into the music.

The most overtly Christian material inspired spontaneous sing-alongs from the crowd, which stood with arms raised. But the audience was also teased with bits of edgier secular music (including a taste of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”), and several songs with a light hip-hop vibe. Still, the rap vocals lacked real punch, with a payoff closer to the lightest of R&B; than anything memorable.