Circleslide

Cup O Joy Coffeehouse

August 11, 2006

Green Bay, WI

by Rob S.

            An appreciative crowd welcomed this Texas band to the Cup O Joy .  The band was excellent, sticking mostly to songs from their very solid debut CD “Uncommon Days.”

Front man Gabe Martinez sang “Home” with passion while “Noah” had a nice extended guitar solo from Aaron Gillies. Drummer Mark Alvis and bass player Tim Martinez bring a lot of energy to the stage.

Gabe described “Get Out” as “how God is using us to affect the world around us.”  Again, I was impressed by the passion in Gabe’s singing.  I just loved the band’s cover of Glenn Kaiser’s “In the Light of the Morningstar.”  You don’t hear much harmonica in Christian music but Gabe was outstanding.

Before the traditional hymn “Be Thou My Vision,” Gabe told everyone at the Cup that “We feel this thirst but fill it with everything but Christ.  Turn off the iPod and spend time with God, the real thing.”

Opening for Circlslide was singer Paul Lent and keyboardist Jeff Whitney from the Green Bay Community Church.  They did a very nice job with some John Ellefante songs and Jeff’s original “He Chose Us All.”  One of the lyrics from that song goes “He gave us grace when we chose to sin.”  For a moment I thought Bono was on stage when they covered U2’s  “Pride.” Listening to these two served as a reminder that there is no doubt some very talented Christian musicians just down the street from where you live.

I had a nice chat with some of the guys after their show.  Circleslide will be on tour through Thanksgiving.  They’ll be the opening act for Salvador.   I’ve seen both groups in concert and that should be a great show.  Check out Circleslide’s MySpace site for more info on the tour and the band.

www.Myspace.com/Circleslide

www.CupOJoy.com