I caught Switchfoot on their Music Builds tour last night. The band sounded great and they used a bunch of interesting sound and visual effects. They're an inspiring bunch of Christian surfers from San Diego (Carlsbad, actually) who want to see social and political change.

I've seen U2 in concert a couple of times and Switchfoot reminded me of them last night. The only thing that separates these two bands is the amount of time they've been playing. Jon mentioned that he had been recording and playing music for 10 years. I remember when I met him in Lake Havasu, Arizona. We were there on a missions trip (e.g. giving drunk people rides home) on Spring Break with a group called YDI (Youth Development International). They sponsor a youth crisis hotline (1-800-HIT-HOME) that I used to answer. Jon played a set of songs for us one night and he did it alone with his acoustic guitar. It was a coffee house setting and all of the helpers were relaxing and recovering from the day's work. He sounded great and I bought his Legend of Chin CD.

Whether it was switching between starry backdrops or red etch-a-sketch effects, quoting Bono's "God isn't short on cash," or putting exclamation points on their catchy hits, it was great to hear the boys again. The only thing I don't get is how Jon didn't find any surf yesterday. From the stage, he said it was flat, but I was in the water yesterday and there were 2-3 ft. with occ. 4 ft. waves.