Sunday, April 22, 7 p.m.
Heritage Church, 4801 44th Street, Rock Island IL
Appearing in an April 22 stop on the band's international “Good News Tour,” Rend Collective will fill Rock Island's Heritage Church with contemporary-Christian celebration via Northern Ireland, its gifted Celtic musicians praised by TheChristianBeat.org for their “shouts of energetic praise and moments of bittersweet thought,” as well as a repertoire in which “captivating sounds meet comforting lyrics.”
Composed of the quintet of Chris Llewellyn, Stephen Mitchell, Patrick Thompson, and Gareth and Ali Gilkeson, Rend Collective is an experimental, folk-rock, and Christian-worship ensemble that originated in Bangor, Northern Ireland. The band was established, in 2002, at Bangor Elim Church under the initial moniker Rend Collective Experiment, and started with more than 15 musicians participating. From there, the group began gathering at Noirthern Ireland's Rend – a ministry for spiritually hungry young adults seeking an authentic, raw, and real expression of church, and one informally pastored by bandleader and drummer Gareth Gilkeson. Designed to create a new breed of worship songs, Rend Collective released its debut album with 2010's Organic Family Hymnal, which AllMusic.com awarded four stars, stating, “With elements of indie rock and alternative, Rend seizes every opportunity to transform the experience of leading worship using a variety of sounds, voices, and instruments.”
Since the ensemble's formative years, the folk-influenced troubadours have become leading voices in the evolution of contemporary-Christian music, releasing the alt-pop project Homemade Worship by Handmade People in 2012, the live album Campfire in 2013, and 2014's The Art of Celebration, the first Rend Collective album to reach number-one on Billboard's U.S. Christian chart. The musicians' raucous, praise-filled live shows have conseqently sold out tours on both sides of the Atlantic, and Rend Collective continues to share stages with some of the biggest names in Christian music, among them Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and Tenth Avenue North. The band's revival hymn “Build Your Kingdom Here,” meanwhile, earned the group a Dove Award nomination, and the debut of January's Good News gave the band another chart-topping album this past January.
Rend Collective performs its 7 p.m. concert alongside guest musician Matt Brock, tickets are $9.99-50, and more information and reservations are available by calling (563)359-7617 or visiting NewAnthem.com.
