Extending the popular "Newsboys United Tour" into the summer months means an iconic Christian rock band appears tonight at Texarkana's premiere venue, the Perot Theatre.
Starting at 7 p.m. with special guests Zealand and Adam Agee, tonight's Newsboys concert sees current bandmates joined by former Newsboys members Peter Furler and Phil Joel. The current lineup includes Michael Tait, Duncan Phillips, Jeff Frankenstein and Jody Davis.
Phillips, the band's drummer, has been with the band roughly 25 years and says the reunion with two former bandmates feels really good for the new Newsboys. In this way, the show combines different eras of the band.
"We kind of felt people might want to see it again," Phillips said, noting fans are familiar with this new version of the band but maybe an element of the audience wants to hear the classic Newsboys material with Pete and Phil.
At first, the drummer admits, it was weird during rehearsals. "It really messed with me a little bit," Phillips admits. He never thought he'd see those two musicians there at rehearsals again.
But he said going through all those years together as Newsboys was like being on the same team or in the military together.
"The great thing is we kind of grew up together," Phillips said, comparing it to going through the trenches with one another. There were good times, hard times, and getting to know each other well. Rehearsals got them reacquainted with each other and the energy felt good, the drummer said. He thinks the fans can sense it on stage, this unity they feel together.
For him, memories have been coming back, and he says it's a trip going back to those old songs. "I'm really, really enjoying it," Phillips said.
He knows that sometimes with bands the fans may not resonate with the 2.0 version after personnel changes, citing Van Halen as an example. That may be true with early Newsboys fans, he suspects. But he's proud of where the band has gone.
"We've evolved incredibly over the years," Phillips said, adding that as a musician it's refreshing to revisit some of those old drum grooves. He thinks his drumming has matured and progressed from those older Newsboys days but it's still enjoyable to revisit those moments and see where his head was back then with those songs. He realizes why they were cool.
"All of these feelings come flooding back," Phillips said.
The tour actually began back in February for the Australia-born band, who have been based in Nashville, Tenn., for a while now. They did about 45 dates through the spring and decided to tour in the summer.
"Typically, summer for us is festivals, theme parks " Phillips said. Instead this year, they added roughly 20 "United" dates, and it looks like they'll continue shows into the fall.
"People have loved it and there's kind of been a great groundswell of support for it," Phillips said. Ultimately, he said, it's about pleasing the fans.
"This is one thing we thought the fans would really love and they have," Phillips said.
(Reserved tickets: $31, or $28 per ticket for the friends and family 4-pack. Premium package tickets are $48 and Ultimate VIP is $103. Tickets and more info: TRAHC.org or 903-792-4992.)