The Concert of a Lifetime

On Friday (10/8/2010), Shannon and I drove up to Toronto to see David Crowder Band live at Queensway Cathedral. In a nutshell, it was the greatest concert I have ever been to in my life.

David Crowder Band (DCB) has been my favorite band for a few years now, probably the longest stretch I've been with a single band, and this concert will clinch that title for a long time to come. I admire them on and off the stage. They're down to earth, fun guys, and yet extremely talented as musicians and extremely anointed as worshipers.

This concert proved how amazing they are musically and how passionate they are for God - the perfect combination. DCB is not afraid to try out all sorts of styles and genres of music in their songs. From techno, to  heavy metal, to hoe-down, they do it all and they do it awesomely. And being around so many die-hard fans was really cool. During "Everything Glorious", which according to iTunes is their most popular song right now,  I looked around the auditorium and saw everyone singing it at the top of their lungs. It was awesome. I commented to Shannon, "These are my people."

And then after the show is done, and they just nailed every song, the crowd is screaming for one more song, they come back out to screaming fans and David Crowder remarks how it's all for His glory and they lead the crowd into Here I am to Worship. No fancy stuff, no crazy guitar solos, no keytars (yes they used one earlier), just straight up worship. And it was incredible. My respect for them skyrocketed.

This was their setlist:
A Lark Ascending
No One Like You
The Veil
Forever and Ever
Like A Lion
How He Loves
God Almighty, None Compares
You Are My Joy
Glory of It All
Shadows
I Saw the Light/I'll Fly Away
Oh Happiness
Everything Glorious
O Praise Him
Here I Am To Worship

I can't tell you how perfectly the songs fit together. It was genius. The fact they started with A Lark Ascending had me speechless. It was brilliant. I was slightly sad they didn't do Alleluia, Sing or SMS (Shine), but I'm not complaining. They even did "I Saw the Light" and "I'll Fly Away" complete with Jack Parker on banjo & Hogan on the fiddle.

The Hillsong United Youth Band opened for them and that concert was awesome too. A bunch of young people going crazy on stage with reckless abandon and zero shame. I was really encouraged to see a band who is so dominant in the world of worship music put so little emphasis on performance and so much emphasis on worship. It was really cool and it challenged me and my youth band to never let it go to our heads, no matter what.

I would see DCB again tomorrow if I could. It was so amazing. Shannon walked in an admirer of DCB and walked out a huge fan. DCB is so underrated compared to a lot of other worship leaders out there (e.g. Chris Tomlin, Hillsong, Matt Redman) and I wish more people would see how awesome they are, but then again, I kind of like knowing something so many people do not. It's almost as if I get DCB all to myself!