Christian rock band Skillet will headline Winter Jam when the talent-filled concert comes to Memorial Coliseum on Thursday, Feb. 17, at 7 p.m.

Skillet lead singer and bassist John Cooper says even concertgoers who are particularly into the hard rock scene are usually surprised when they hear Skillet perform.

“Everyone who sees a Skillet concert says, ‘Man, that was a lot of energy,’ ” he told Whatzup. “That might sound silly, but that’s what I’ve been hearing now for basically 20 years.

“I think it’s just the excitement, and I think that’s also why we have a lot of fans outside of hard rock fans,” Cooper added. “I always hear that, too, that people who don’t really like hard rock, they’re like, ‘I don’t like hard rock, but for some reason I like you guys.’ So I think that it’s the energy of the show, the excitement. People always say it’s extremely positive. And, I mean, that’s intentional, because music helps people.

“And I’ve always liked, I guess you could say, playing music that makes people feel like they could face the day. There’s so much hardship happening, people need that.”

Unveiling New Record

“This is a really exciting record to listen to. Of course,” Cooper said of the group’s latest record, Dominion, released last month. “I’m biased. Very exciting record to listen to, and I tell people I think this is the post-pandemic rock album people need. I call it ‘positively defiant.’ It’s a record that is just in defiance towards living your life in fear. That’s not to say there’s nothing to be afraid of, there’s a lot to be afraid of right now, but it doesn’t have to rule your life.

“I know people over the last couple of years who have just kind of given up, you know, fell into depression,” he added. “I know someone that fell back into alcohol abuse after being sober for five years — just couldn’t handle everything that was going on. And I wanted to write a record that wasn’t dealing with the hardships of the last couple of years, but it’s forward-thinking. It’s, ‘How do I take my life back? Where do we go from here?’ And that’s what Dominion is.”

Concertgoers can expect to hear tracks from Dominion, and of course, Skillet’s hits at Memorial Coliseum.

“We’re playing a couple of new songs. You know how it is, I wish we were playing longer and I could play more than a couple,” Cooper said.

Skillet has sold more than 12 million albums worldwide, earned more than a dozen RIAA certifications in recognition of gold, platinum, or multiplatinum status. Their 2009 album, Awake, went three-times platinum and won a Billboard Music Award.

Effect of Pandemic

Cooper admits the pandemic did play a role on the recording of the album.

“The biggest thing would be, probably, how it affected, kind of, the spirit of the record and the lyrics of the record,” he said. “Partly, it was strange recording it remotely even though it turned out to be a really good thing. It turned out to be kind of a great experience.”

He added that, at times, it is difficult to tell what the future holds with regard to touring during a pandemic.

“Nobody knows what the future holds. So there is this kind of feeling of, ‘Are we going to tour? Are we going to go back to Europe?’ ” he said. “So it affects the band, all bands, quite seriously in terms of, ‘Will we have a business? Will we be able to run a business?’ And things like that.”

Other Performers on Annual Tour

Several other acts will perform at this month’s concert.

Other acts include Tauren Wells, KB, Colton Dixon, I Am They, and NewSong. Pre-jam artists include Abby Robertson and Bayside Worship, as well as speaker Shane Prutt.

NewSong’s Eddie Carswell told the Evansville (Ind.) Courier & Press, “It’s exciting to bring Winter Jam back in full force. I’m excited to see what God’s going to do with it and to get back out there again. We stopped a little bit short in 2020, when things got crazy with COVID. This past year, when things lightened up a bit, we went out and did six or eight dates just to see what was going on, and the reaction was amazing. So we’re getting back to the full lineup of touring 41 cities.”

According to organizers, Winter Jam was started more than 20 years ago by NewSong, and the tour has “stayed true to its original mission of low admission to allow as many people as possible to hear the Gospel.”

“We are beyond excited to play Winter Jam again,” Cooper said in a press release. “Due to the times we are living in, I think Winter Jam will have more energy, more passion and will be more encouraging than ever before.”