Review by Doug Carroll
Photos by Darryl Webb
GCU News Bureau
"I'm into Jason Castro."
That line, guys, could get you places with women on the GCU campus, many of whom were observed in full swoon Wednesday night during Castro's hour-plus set of lightweight Christian pop songs at the new Thunderground venue.
Castro, 25, isn't the least bit edgy. His voice is pleasing enough to have made it all the way to the finals of "American Idol" four years ago, but that's not the secret to the rocket he has been riding up the charts. The surfer-dude-next-door look, paired with a no-worries demeanor, is what's making it happen for him.
Castro is more teddy-bear cute than rock-star handsome, and the fact that he's married and has an infant daughter doesn't seem to matter to his adoring fandom. Thunderground, in the lower level of Thunder Alley, was packed for his show, and the enthusiastic audience supplied most of the energy.
"This is what we want," said Scott Fehrenbacher, GCU's senior vice president for faith-based development, as he surveyed the buzzing crowd of 500 before Castro went on.
Castro's new album won't be released until January, but he brought advance copies with him, and they were snatched up eagerly afterward. In fact, before he had even finished his second encore song, Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," fans were making a beeline for the stand where CDs and T-shirts were being dispensed. Castro, engaging to the end, stuck around to meet them all.
The show turned out to be a perfect match of style and venue, a much better fit for Thunderground than the overpowering hard rock of Thousand Foot Krutch, which opened the place on Aug. 25 as part of Welcome Week for students.
Although it had been expected that Castro would play a solo acoustic set, he brought his four-man band with him. The sound quality was excellent, picking up the subtleties of songs such as "Over the Rainbow," which Castro played on ukulele just as he had on "Idol."
Swoon alert: Castro is scheduled to return to campus on Oct. 12 as one of the opening acts for a concert by For King and Country at GCU Arena. That gives the male population on campus three weeks to get "into Jason Castro."
Contact Doug Carroll at 639.8011 or [email protected].
