But then there’s Relient K.

The house lights fall while lights remain bright enough to illuminate the full stage. Look close enough, and you’ll notice the peculiar sight of a small round fitness trampoline front and center. Any questions it might generate are quickly answered as the jingling strains of the Mario Bros. theme song cover the crowd. Then, one at a time, the five members of Relient K enter stage left, walk or jog to center stage, leap onto the trampoline, bound into the air to pull an aerial move (some more acrobatic than others) before heading to their respective instruments.

This is classic Relient K: fun, lighthearted, quirky—and pointedly relevant. After all, this is the Nintendo Fusion Tour.

Since its debut in 2000, RK has maintained its fun-loving—and pun-loving— personality. But time inevitably brings change. Band members have changed, most notably founding bassist Brian Pittman’s departure in 2004, which led to the addition of John Warne, bass and John Schneck, guitar. But time has been good to RK, and the guys’ personal growth and experience have brought about a musical maturity that is a boon to fans.

The boys expanded their musical expression sonically and lyrically on their 2004 release, Mmhmm, proving they’re here for the long haul. Now, enter Five Score and Seven Years Ago, which released this month. RK has stepped up again with a powerful record that proves that maturity brings greater depth and musical breadth. And if there is any question, this band absolutely never takes itself too seriously.

Game On
“Dat!”

“Nooo!”

“Dat!”

“Oh no!”

“I hit a box!”

“Shoot!”

“Quit knocking me into the grass!”

“I took him out with a bullet. I turned into a bullet, and then I—mmmmmm—I got him,” Matt Thiessen says.

“Schneck didn’t used to be this bad. He’s lost his will to play. His zeal is gone,” guitarist Matt Hoopes says.

“I’m kicking some butt and taking some names,” John W. says. “So far I’ve got Dave, Matt and Matt. Those are the three names I have.”

Enter the cutthroat competition of the Mario Kart Relient K Tournament, in which it’s every man—or Mario—for himself: Matthew “Cupcake” Thiessen versus John “Darnanion” Warne versus Dave “Dave” Douglas versus Matthew “Matthew” Hoopes versus Jonathan “Schnecky 99, quite possible the worst Mario Kart DS opponent in the history of handheld racing games.” You can view all the action on the Relient K podcast No. 12, the third since the guys upgraded to video. There you’ll witness John W. answering the off-screen question “How do you feel about the main event?” with “Confident. And a little cocky. I think I’m gonna win.”

According to the band backstage at Denver’s Fillmore Auditorium last fall, that’s nothing new.

“Dave got so upset he punched John Warne in the leg one time in a fit of rage,” Matt T. says.

Dave replies, “I don’t know why that is worth—“

“That’s relevant!” John W. interjects. “That’s extremely relevant.”

“John Warne is remarkably good,” Matt H. says.

“It’s true,” Dave says.

Matt H. continues, “It’s kind of annoying whenever he plays—“

“No one else can win,” Matt T. finishes.

“He always at least doubles the score,” Matt H. says.

“He needs to be handicapped,” Matt T. says. “It’s like golfing with Arnold Palmer.”

One of the perks of performing on the Nintendo Fusion Tour is a free DS Lite along with two games for each band member. I’m thinking Nintendo should have ponied up free Wiis; after all, the game giant is previewing and providing demos of the system at each concert venue. Nintendo apparently felt differently.

“I’m thankful for what we got, Matt Thiessen said,” he clarifies into my recorder.

Obviously, the gifts have provided hours of on-the-road entertainment.

Live
Standing in the middle of the frenzied crowd in Denver, there’s no doubt that Relient K draws a large and loyal fanbase. From the opening riff of “I So Hate Consequences” through the medley of old favorites including “Sadie Hawkins Dance” and “Chap Stick, Chapped Lips and Things Like Chemistry” to the closing “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been,” this crowd knows every word and sings along with raucous enthusiasm. OK, the one exception might be “Devastation and Reform,” but that’s because it’s the new song from the then-unreleased Five Score. The band claims the tune has received positive responses from fans and even other bands on tour.

“It’s a song about how positive things don’t really come out of life unless there’s conflict,” Matt T. says. “As human beings and as me personally, my whole life is about destroying things and then putting them back together. It’s a theme we’ve written about before: repentance and forgiveness and grace and getting back on your feet when things don’t go the way you want them.”

The song is a good example of Relient K’s style when it comes to dealing with spirituality: clever, catchy (thanks to a driving guitar riff) and accessible (regardless of a listener’s spiritual perspective) with an undercurrent for those willing to dig deeper.

“The challenge was it’s our fifth record,” Matt T. says. “We love writing about spiritual life, but when you get around to No. 5, it gets tough not to repeat yourself. But I think we did a good job not saying anything exactly the way we’ve said it before.”

Devastated or Reformed?
It’s easy to point to Mmhmm as a breakthrough. Even the band views it a milestone.

“It kinda came out from the pop punk thing, with some influences here and there, to just like being its own entity,” says drummer Dave Douglas, discussing Mmhmm on podcast No. 12. “I feel like that was the first record where it was like, Oh, this is Relient K.”

This included new piano-driven melodies interwoven with edgier guitar hooks and creative elements such as banjo and screamed background vocals. (Five Score offers traces of banjo, mandolin, harmonica and pedal steel guitar.) The project brought RK greater mainstream exposure.

But the positioning caused some young listeners to wonder where the band was coming from. The labels were blurred, the categories crossed. “Was Relient K still a Christian band?” some asked, despite some of the group’s most introspective and spiritually intriguing lyrics to date.

“A lot of those sort of reactions come from places of ignorance, and that’s not necessarily trying to be negative,” Matt T. says. “They don’t know what is going on with the band. They probably haven’t listened to our last couple of records or gotten into the lyrics. And they probably haven’t talked to us in person. So it’s just an idea they’re throwing around, but they haven’t really gone and found out for themselves if what they’re saying is true or not.”

“And it’s definitely the way that [the music] is delivered more than the content,” John W. says. “Most of the songs we got on MTV were really high in spiritual content, but just because they’re on MTV or whatever, people will just say that [they’re not Christian].”

The band members understand that such reactions are inevitable and don’t necessarily take them personally.

“I’m definitely fine and accept the fact that there’s a lot of people out there who just don’t like our band,” Matt T. says. “I just hope that they don’t like us because they don’t like our music. And I feel it’s fine for kids to not like our band, because we sing about what we believe in, and they don’t believe in that. I can understand that.”

Spanning the Spectrum
Ironically, Relient K has always received as much or more Christian radio airplay and participated in Christian festivals and tours at the same time as receiving mainstream exposure. But in case of any confusion, the guys offer advice that’s applicable to any type or style of music.

“Check out the lyrics. Actually think about the lyrics, and read through them,” Dave says. “Look a little bit deeper, because the lyrics are a little bit more intelligent than ‘We love Jesus. You should, too.’ ”

Not that every RK song is specifically spiritual. Songs vary in subject matter. For example, Five Score ranges from love and relationships to repentance and grace to an epic life story. (See “Five on Five Score.”) Some of it is spiritually reflective. Some is pure human experience. Much of it is an extension of personal experience or expression. In some cases, it’s creative speculation or storytelling.

“All of us grew up in Christian homes going to church; that’s who we are, and all of us like music,” Dave says. “To be able to combine who you are, your beliefs with your passion in this world—I think that’s what everyone desires. And I think that those passions are put in our lives by God. To pursue what you really enjoy and to do it in a way that can be positive—I feel like that’s my calling. I think that’s the reason God put that in my life.”

“We all really feel blessed to be where we are,” Matt H. says. “There are so many great bands and so many amazingly talented people out there who never make it. We just started out as 15-, 16-year-old-jokers around the church, picking up guitars. To see where that has come is really hard to believe. So we want to make the most of it and realize that it is a gift to be able to do what we do.”

No, Relient K. The gift is ours.

Five on Five Score
“If you’re expecting to not get what you expect, then you’re actually getting what you expected—if you weren’t expecting it.” —Matt Thiessen on Five Score and Seven Years Ago

01 “Plead the Fifth” RK has always listed the Beach Boys as an influence; this a cappella opener is evidence. “It’s made up of basically two chord progressions,” Matt T. says. “Both those chord progressions are actually in other songs. The first chord progression is in the last song, and the second one is actually a bridge from the single “Must Have Done Something Right.”

06 “Must Have Done Something Right” Matt T. is in love, and it shows. “I always write about what I’m going through,” he says. “And I can’t avoid the fact that I’m really happy, and there are some good things going on.”

08 “Devastation and Reform” “A little bit darker one, but it’s got a catchy melody and a sweet riff that I play,” Matt H. says. He’s right. The opening riff rocks.

11 “Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care” Almost takes longer to say the title than play the whole song.

14 “Deathbed” It’s an 11-minute epic tracing the life of a dying septuagenarian (look it up). “The very end of the song is one of my favorite lyrics, which is the verse ‘I am the way and the truth and the life,’ ” Matt T. says. “Jon Forman [of Switchfoot] sings it: I am the way; follow me and take my hand. I am the truth; embrace me, and you’ll understand. I am the life; and through me you’ll live again. For I am love. That’s the end of the song, and he’s in heaven.”

Fives Discs in Seven Years
2000 Relient K
2001 The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek
2003 Two Lefts Don’t Make a Right . . . But Three Do
2004 Mmhmm
2007 Five Score and Seven Years

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