The Word of God With an MTV Beat
Spring 1996 © New York Times

Runway models and chameloens have a rival for quick-change skills: DC Talk, the Christian rock band that performed at the Mercury Lounge on Friday night. During its set, DC Talk sounded like Stone Temple Pilots amd Kool and the Gang, Fishbone and Harry Chapin, U2 and the Doobie Brothers, L.L. Cool J. and Styx. It deployed all those styles to proselytize for Christianity.

Outside secular-humanist strongholds like New York City, DC Talk generally plays arenas, and its new album "Jesus Freak" (ForeFront), briefly reached the top 20. Church groups, including teenagers and parents with young children , were bused in for Friday's show.

Current Christian pop closely follows what's on the radio and MTV, offering substitutes for mainstream rock and its oblique or objectionable messages. DC Talk--three vocalists and a six-man backup band--, dressed and clowned onstage like an alternative- rock band, and Toby McKeehan, the band's main songwriter, jumped into the audience like a Lollapalooza headliner.

DC Talk's lyrics aim at adolescent uncertainity, insisting that faith can resolve private struggles with pride, temptation or peer pressure: "I don't really care if they label me a Jesus freak." The band, which is integrated, also decries racism. "The last thing we try to be in our music is preachy," Mr. McKeehan declared before starting a mini-sermon.

DC Talk revived old hits with Christian messages, like "Day by Day," while its own catchy, style-hoppings exploited every device they could borrow. For the finale, Mr. McKeehan recast Nirvana's "All Apologies," singing "What else can I say/Jesus is the way." (Kurt Cobain wrote, "Everyone is gay.") By next year, DC Talk will probably have some licks from Hootie and the Blowfish.

[ouch.]