Christian Rockaliser

This blog is not, no matter what anyone tells you, dead: I'm working on a post at the moment, and the monster project that has been cryptically alluded to on Twitter progresses slowly and steadily.

I'm not writing to defend the vitality of Rockaliser today--that should be an eternal given--but to point to something I wrote elsewhere:

Deep in central Pennsylvania, the roads are usually quiet, but today Route 747 is gridlocked. Cars crawl towards the Agape Farm on Rapture Street, which is tucked away in a small woodsy valley outside of Mt. Union. Handwritten signs along the road read "Welcome Creation," beckoning each caravan toward a weekend of worship. Just past the intersection of Hallelujah Highway and Glory Lane, the sound of "The Star Spangled Banner"—performed by the band Audio Adrenaline—echoes across hundreds of tents. Like the firing of a gun, it announces the advent of Creation, America's largest Christian music festival.

My friend and colleague Alana L. and I went to a Christian Rock festival--the Pennsylvania-based Creation, which is America's largest--and wrote about it for Mother Jones. It was a pretty unique experience--a world away from the music that I usually write about--that I hope we captured adequately.

I can't say that I converted into a Christian Rock fan at the festival. And that's the last thing I'll be saying about the bands, as John Jeremiah Sullivan himself said when he went to Creation (Sullivan, in fact, goes on to share several insightful thoughts about the bands). At the end of the day Creation is kind of just another summer music fest, albeit one with its own quirks and some very different aims from, say, Coachella. But you can just read the article, OK?