Relient K singer Matt Thiessen still remembers his last day as shift manager at the Wendy’s in Bolivar, Ohio, five years ago, when one of his co-workers wished him and his bandmates well by saying, “See you on MTV.”
“I didn’t want to tell her she was wrong and say, ‘Well, no, you probably won’t because we’re not that kind of band,’ ” said Thiessen, who with the band comes to the Congress Theater on Nov. 6.
It turned out, though, that Thiessen is the one who was wrong. Sure, it seemed like a long shot when the teenagers from Canton, Ohio, started combining emo-tinged punk with Christian rock. But Relient K really was an MTV kind of band. And earlier this month, “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been,” the second video from the band’s gold album “Mmhmm,” not only aired on MTV, it crashed into the “TRL” top 10.
“It’s really surprising how good MTV is to us,” Thiessen said. “We’re not the next Green Day or the next Weezer. We may never reach Fall Out Boy status, but at this moment in time, we’re on MTV. It’s our 15 minutes.”
There are still times when Relient K–Thiessen, guitarist Matthew Hoopes, drummer Dave Douglas, bassist John Schneck and guitarist John Warne–worries about whether it will be accepted because of the religious bent of its music. Rather than sticking to its Christian rock fan base, built on tours with Switchfoot and Five Iron Frenzy, Relient K spent the summer on the Warped Tour, with dozens of other emo and pop-punk bands, including My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy. Thiessen said the band was surprised by the great crowd response.
“There was hardly ever anything negative,” he said. “Out of all the bands, we were one of a handful that did not have a lot of screaming and stuff or dropping the f-bombs onstage.”
Thiessen said Relient K rarely gets grief about being “too Christian.” The complaints are usually about not being Christian enough.
“The ones who really focus on it are usually the ones who don’t think we’re doing it right, the ones who want us to say ‘God’ five more times in every song,” he said. “If I don’t know you, I’m not going to shove my religion down your throat. But I talk about my faith, and I’m not going to be one of those people who play it off like I don’t.”
Relient K
With: MXPX, Rufio, Over It
When: Nov. 6
Where: Congress Theater, 2135 N. Milwaukee Ave.
———-
Edited by Curt Wagner (cwwagner@tribune.com) and Victoria Rodriguez (vrodriguez@tribune.com)
