Syndrome of Fire In Studio

Show open, banter, and tech trouble

The show opens live from the Pathway studios with singing-along banter; hosts tease band member Tim for taking his shoes off seconds after arriving, riff on the 'half jack' donkey joke, and wrestle with a broken camera that leaves one host frozen on-screen.

Guest introduction and studio banter

The hosts welcome the band Silversyde (rendered 'Syndrome of Fire' in the transcript) to the studio, with the usual cross-talk about being a sound guy, abrasive shirts, and the band bantering back.

Tour talk — Indiana, West Coast, Key Club

The band talks about heading to Indiana this Wednesday and a West Coast run in October, including an invitation to play the Key Club in Hollywood and the B-52's venue by the beach — a big deal for a small band from Iowa.

Plates, shoes, Back to the Future, and tour logistics

A host offers to open for the band by spinning plates (poorly); the shoe riff returns, Back to the Future's motorized laces and drying jacket are debated, and the band describes financing trailers and vans as God's hand moves ahead of them.

The soda negotiation story

A host (speaker-0) tells the running-joke origin of the band's 'we don't pay for soda' rule: a bar charged him $1.50 for a Diet Right out of the fountain, and he refused to pay until his booking guy, Dale, straightened it out.

Facebook habits and Tim's TV-news audio story

A host considers quitting Facebook for a week after noticing it turns him into a town gossip; then Tim (speaker-2) tells a story from his TV-news audio days about a reporter who held his mic at his belly button during a New Year's broadcast from Fort Des Moines, plus Anchorman, Kevin Cooney, and an Adrian Brody sighting.

Transition and contact info

The hosts tease grandpa in the chat, plug livefromthepath.org, the YouTube channel, the podcast, and the newsletter while the band sets up to play.

'Best of Me' song intro

Cassie (addressed by name, speaker-3) introduces the first song, 'Best of Me,' as a sad song about losing the best thing in one's life — written as if she had lost the man she married.

'Best of Me' studio performance

Silversyde performs 'Best of Me' live in the studio, Cassie on vocals.

WGN News comedy sketch

A pre-produced comedy sketch: 'World God Network News at seven' with anchors Peter Fisher and Mary Magazine, correspondent Israel Gazales, River Jordan on sports, and weatherman Al Soker (also rendered 'Soaker'). Jokes include plastic surgery ('God told me to do it'), NASA's scrubbed shuttle Angelica launch, God banning speaking in tongues ('you're fired'), the Dallas Cowboys as God's favorite sports team, and rain that breaks only when a man says a prayer of repentance.

Half-jack eBay gag and the rendering truck story

The hosts joke about buying a 'half jack' on eBay, then Tim recounts calling highway patrol about a man lying parallel in a traffic lane next to a flat-tired car — which spirals into a long bit about what a 'rendering truck' actually is, illustrated with a photo of a pig hoisted under a rendering truck.

Mad cow blood-donation story

Tim (speaker-2) explains he can't donate blood because he was in England during the mad cow scare — the dollar signs fell away when the screening questions reached it.

EP 'Static' and songwriting quality

The band describes its four-song EP 'Static' — sold for $6 via email/fan club — and why they chose to spend the big bucks on a short, tight-quality recording instead of a cheaper full-length album.

Van offer and the insurance-policy joke

A host offers his 16-passenger van as a tour vehicle (subject to his wife's veto) and coins the running joke 'the Dan Hudson insurance policy' — Dan Hudson being named on-air as the owner of the policy.

Song background — the suicide-note song

• What is the story behind the band's suicide song?

A band member (speaker-5) explains the next song's verses paraphrase a close friend's suicide note, which the friend blogged on Facebook before taking his life; the chorus is what the band wishes they could have said ('didn't you know that we loved you'). After a show in Benson, Minnesota with the band Fades Away, the song helped free a girl who had attempted suicide herself.

Second song performance ('Didn't you know')

Silversyde performs the suicide-note song live in the studio, built around the repeated chorus 'didn't you know that we loved you.'

Reaction, songwriting philosophy, crossover crowds

The hosts call the song beautiful; the band contrasts songs that came together in minutes ('So Sorry') with ones God made them wait for ('The Letter,' from the EP), and talks about playing for crowds that know nothing about God and feeling His presence show up there.

'Don't label us a Christian band' discussion

Cassie explains they don't want to be 'that Christian band' — they want people to see something different in them rather than label themselves; the hosts agree that flowery, phony church culture drives newcomers away ('phony service equals phony God'), while authenticity and real life are what people connect with.

Band origin story

• How did the band form and get started?

Ryan (addressed by name, speaker-5) tells how God started the band: a trip to the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City, meeting a replacement keyboard player at Central College in Pella (where his wife works), Tim joining, Cassie becoming lead singer, and Jaemon leaving his band First Born Son. A prophecy-room word at IHOP — that their expectations were set too low — kicked the floodgates open.

Tim's stories — karaoke opener, David Cross, 'Thriller'

Tim tells of being in a band mocked by comedian David Cross, and of his dad taking him to see Damon Wayans on 'black comedy night' at the LA Improv; a host admits he gave up learning the 'Thriller' wedding dance from YouTube after twenty minutes.

Bette Midler, iTunes, juggler, carnival barker

A tangent on buying Bette Midler's 'Wind Beneath My Wings' on iTunes (with Tim's screenshot of the 'are you sure' prompt), the fear of algorithmic recommendations, the Adventureland juggler's crowd-prod trick, and Tim's story of a carnival barker selling the world's largest No. 2 pencil and 'a hamburger with arms and eyes.'

Metal alloy pen hunt and call-in number

The hosts eBay-hunt a metal-alloy pen ('Ben fifty one fifty' is bidding), announce the call-in number 327-1007, and read chat shoutouts ('Hi, Ben').

Tim's drum opener stories

Prompted by a band member, Tim (speaker-2) tells his funniest road stories: claiming his old band 'played before the Dixie Chicks' (three hours earlier, same stage) and drumming in a bar corner while opening for a karaoke set — the lyric screen in his face and a CD playing through the PA at the same time as the band.

Blues band past and Blues on Grand closing

A host recalls his old blues band's Tuesday-night residency at Blues on Grand in Des Moines — now closing — joking they quit playing there because the venue stopped giving them free pop.

Keyboard and shoe-off piano solo jokes

Gear talk about the keyboard (a Stevie-Wonder-on-Awards-shows Motif, falling apart from missing screws) leads to the bit of playing a piano solo with the shoe off, throwing it at the keys.

'Faith's Melody' intro and performance

Cassie introduces 'Faith's Melody' as an unfinished song they change every time they play, performed with Sunny, and the band plays it live in the studio.

Post-song and the David Bush cardboard cutout

The hosts praise the stripped-down performance and issue a two-week ultimatum to David Bush — a guest who refused to appear on the program — or they'll print a cardboard cutout of him and set it in the studio chair.

Church disenchantment discussion

• What can be done about lifelong churchgoers becoming disenchanted and burned out?

A host (speaker-0) recounts a hours-long talk with his cousin, a young children's pastor from Louisiana, about lifelong churchgoers becoming disenchanted — 'the 80 who were the 20' — and the crew diagnoses the drift from working for God to working for the church as institution, illustrated with Paul's 'run to win the race.'

Insurance bit and plant-the-seed ministry talk

The tired-ministry talk turns comic ('I can't protect you from God, but I can keep the rain out' — $83/month insurance), then a band member reframes ministry as plant-the-seed work: be any link in the chain, even the link that keeps someone from picking up drugs that night.

Promo, the Man Show, and the waffle bakers

Booking info and a promise to post the performances within a day or two, a plug for next week's 'Man Show' on biblical manhood, and a long bit about the Danish 'Waffle Bakers' box mascots arguing over who made the waffles, with Danish/Italian/Russian accent impressions.

Tim's wife checklist

Tim (speaker-2) shares the band's long-running joke: since God is picking his wife, the criteria are British, beautiful, rich, and loves Jesus — which the hosts promise to post on the website.

Accents, anniversary dinner, and the cinnamon-roll bit

Waffle-impression accents give way to a host's fifth-anniversary story (his wife ordered chili cheese fries, which he hates), a free plug for Buffalo Wild Wings and Holiday Inn cinnamon rolls, and the bit where King David eats a man-sized cinnamon roll before battling Goliath — 'King Solomon says, split the baby, eat the whole cinnamon roll.'

Booking info

The band gives booking contact via bookingcindermoffire.com and their website/Facebook/Myspace pages; the hosts note performances will be posted on livefromthepath.org and YouTube within 24–48 hours.

Pen parlance and Russian accents

The metal-alloy pen bit returns as a debate over the 'parlance' of Russian pen makers, followed by a run of terrible Russian (and skateboard-taxi) accents.

Close and next-week promo

The hosts thank Silversyde, note October shows with Fades Away, tease next week's Man Show ('what the biblical man looks like today'), and sign off — closing with a dead-on impression of 'the British woman.'