Screaming goes over well in Germany.
It’s something Dawn Richardson, lead vocalist with the Christian rock group Fireflight, learned at last year’s Christmas Rocknight in Ennepetal, Germany.
While European crowds are pretty wild in general, they respond exceptionally well to heavier music — and screaming. “They really get into that,” Richardson said.
Heavier music is something Fireflight can deliver, especially in the songs “You Decide” and “Liar” from its debut album “Healing of the Harms.”
It’s also something that fans can expect if they head to Ennepetal on Dec. 7 and 8 for this year’s edition of Christmas Rocknight. The outstanding lineup will include performances by Disciple, Pillar, Spoken, Project 86, Tree 63, Building 429, Flatfoot 56 and others.
And headliners Fireflight will be there as well.
“It’s a big jump for us to go from being sort of unknown to being a headliner,” Richardson said.
But even as unknowns, the Rocknight fans made the band feel very welcome, cheering for every song, excusing weak German-language skills and even offering chocolate, said Richardson, whose band has made two trips to Germany in the past year.
“The fans are so grateful, for making the long trip,” she said. “… They like things American. There’s a little bit of exoticness about us.”
Of course last year’s crowd included members of the U.S. military and their family members. Richardson said she enjoyed speaking with them after the show.
“I really felt very connected to them because we feel like we spend a lot of time away from home traveling in the United States and all over in the world and leaving behind our family and friends and the things that are comfortable,” Richardson said. “So we kind of knew how they felt. It was an honor to talk to them because they’re so brave in my eyes, especially the servicemen and women. We felt so privileged to have them come to our show.”
Rocknight is just part of a very busy season for Fireflight.
In the last few months, the band toured with Disciple and completed its sophomore album. The as-yet-untitled disc is due out in early March.
“We just got out of the studio recording it about a month and an half ago, and it was one of the most hectic times in our lives because we had about six years to write the first album and about six months to write the second one,” Richardson said.
“We were pulling our hair out trying to figure out how it was going to happen and we were all praying really hard. And it came together so amazingly that it blew us all away.”
Others have already taken notice. The band’s label trotted some tracks before the bigwigs at NBC, who purchased the new song “Unbreakable” for use in promos for the TV show “Bionic Woman.”
“So that’s a really huge thing to happen to us,” Richardson said. “We were just so excited. … It’s a little bit of foreshadowing of how great this album is going to be.”
To learn more about Christmas Rocknight and Fireflight, visit http://christmasrocknight.de. and www.fireflightrock.com.
Today’s Praise is a roundup of news and reviews from the contemporary Christian music industry.
