From: jpeg8496@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Jeffrey P. Elbel)
Subject: Re: Is a certain type of music bad?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 04:07:31 GMT

anderson@cs.rose-hulman.edu. (Claude W. Anderson) writes:

>We drove 110 miles to Champaign to Hear Randy Stonehill on Sept. 19.
>He was excellent, but they had a warmup band called "Farewell to Juliet" who  
>not only were poor musically (at least as projected through the sound system  
>that they used there) but were so loud that it was painful and there was no  
>chance of figuring out what they were singing about.  It was all I could do  
>to convince my family that it was worth enduring the pain and low-quality  
>music for a few more minutes so we could hear Randy.  After 1/2-hour of F to  
>J, it took a few minutes for my ears to recover enough to understand what  
>Stonehill was saying between the songs.  How can they call that ministry  
>when it is destroying the most valuable (IMHO) of our 5 senses?

Dear Claude,

Hello.  I saw your post regarding Randy Stonehill's opener, Farewell
to Juliet.  I am a member of the band, and while I am disappointed
that you hated our music so vehemently, rest assured that I am not
insensitive to your complaints of volume excess.  I am a musician
(though you would apparently argue that) and value my hearing more
highly than you would probably imagine.  I concur that hearing is
a real blessing, and I treasure mine as a gift from God.

The problem lies in setting up a P.A. in a church auditorium which
is a converted basketball gymnasium.  These structures are acoustically
terrible, with all sorts of echo and feedback problems.  Intense noise.
Why amplify at all, you may ask, what with all those rippity frackin
noisy amplifiers?  The answer:  for a rock combo to play, there must be
a balance among the instruments, and you CANNOT TURN DOWN DRUMS.  Therfore
other instruments must be turned UP to a comparable volume.

Yes we were loud.  Darn loud.  Our drums were NOT miked.  Please try to
believe me when I tell you I was concerned about this from the outset
and tried to get our mix as QUIET as possible.  I also asked the pastor
to recommend that people put cotton or tissue paper in their ears, if
not ear plugs.  He apparently did not do this, as he had other things on
his mind.  But, I was fully aware that many people were coming to see
Randy and his acoustic guitar, not some all fired noisy rock music.

There is also the consideration that the show was SUPPOSED to be outside,
but God saw fit to send Champaign some more rain.

I would also like you to know that while we wish we could be loved by all,
YOU may not represent the audience which FTJ is targeting.  There are many
youth in town, high schoolers and thousands of university students.  Many o
of these really enjoy "modern rock."  As you know doubt know, music is a
powerful tool for reaching out to people who may not be receptive to other
forms of communication from Christians.  There are also many Christian
students who can enjoy our music and know that we are not promoting a
lifestyle in discord with God's intentions.

We do have something to say to people, and yes it may be hard to hear in
a live setting, but please try to understand what we are trying to
accomplish and think before you undermine our efforts.  Knowing that
someone thinks our music is genuinely BAD and is vocal about it in a
public forum is very disheartening.

Your brother, Jeff Elbel (guitarist/songwriter, Farewell to Juliet)