This tour, band feels fans ‘sweat and body heat’
After 20 years, Christian musicians excited about playing small venues
Thousand Foot Krutch wanted to get up close and personal with its fans.
So when the Canadian Christian rock band began plotting its current tour it searched for intimate venues across the United States, including a stop Wednesday at Scout Bar.
“This tour has been awesome,” said Trevor McNevan, lead singer and founding member. “It’s been really fun. We are face-to-face with fans. We can feel their sweat and body heat. It’s that intimate club vibe that we really wanted to try to bring back.”
The intimacy is in support of the band’s latest record, “Exhale,” another collection of the band’s dynamic hard rock songs which range from growling guitar bursts to soaring melodic chorus vocals that, sometimes, carry the band’s message of faith.
For instance, the song “Give Up the Ghost,” McNevan sings: I’ve seen the devil and I’ve met fear I met them both on the road That led me here I’ve met God and I saw life And he saved mine a million times
The album is a stylistic complement to the group’s last album “Oxygen: Inhale,” released in 2014.
“From the beginning it was always the idea to have the albums be a two-part thing,” McNevan said. “‘Inhale’ allowed us to dive deeper into the lighter side of the band while exhale came out more on the aggressive side. … We’ve been making records for a long time and this is the first time we’ve done a two-part type of deal.”
Though the band has been around for two decades, it’s the last 14 years that has been the core of the group in the trio of McNevan on vocals and guitar, Joel Bruyere on bass and backup vocals, and Steve Augustine on drums.
“In a lot of ways (being together so long) makes it easier but it depends on the situation,” McNevan said. “The good thing is that, going into a record, we know what we are getting into for the most part. … It’s a very organic process.” And successful. “Exhale” reached No. 6 on the Billboard’s top rock albums chart and No. 1 on the Christian albums chart.
“It’s all been such a blessing,” McNevan said. “You’re kind of in a vulnerable spot when you’re putting out new music. You can’t control what people think. You really feel vulnerable.”
“So when you get some of the encouragement and you get a good response, it is an amazing feeling. We can’t be thankful enough for the support and we feel very fortunate to be able to make music still enjoy all these years later.”
Thousand Foot Krutch will bring a set list that features five songs off of “Exhale,” along with a bevy of songs from the group’s long discography.
Whether you’re a newer fan of the band or have been following the trio for years, McNevan said there is something for everyone in their one hour, 15 minute set list.
“We really tried to mix it up for this tour,” he said. “When you have as many albums as we have, it can be a challenge to put together a set list. We will play new songs but we also take a journey through the catalog. It’s been really fun to play so far.”