Amy Grant Comes to Phoenix

Amy Grant kicked off her "Lead Me On 20th Anniversary Tour" last night at the Celebrity Theater in Tempe, AZ. I've been a fan ever since I was eight years old and in the third grade. If you asked any of my family who I most wanted to meet on the entire planet from the time I was eight until my early twenties, they would have all answered, "Amy Grant, of course!"

Celebrity Theater was a perfect venue for her concert. It's a relatively small, round theater that seats about 2,500 people. The round seating and round stage in the center seem a little strange until you realize... THE STAGE ROTATES. For those of you older Disneyland fans, it's akin to the "America Sings" attraction from the 70's and 80's only instead of the audience rotating, the stage rotates. When Amy took the stage, she quipped about having taken her Dramamine so she was ready to play, and if it was too loud for you, wait a minute, and then it'd pass and part your neighbor's hair next.

The music was all from her Lead Me On album and prior, so everything from 1988 and before -- the "classic" Amy Grant music. She began with "My Father's Eyes" and the audience was enraptured. The sound quality was great, aside from a fog machine that was slightly noisy on our side when it kicked on from time to time. She sang all of the songs that I knew by heart, and I mouthed the words to every single one, absolutely thrilled to be seated about twenty feet from the stage.

Because she had a recent promotion with Philosophy, Chuck was able to get backstage passes for us to meet Amy Grant after the concert. Needless to say, it was all I could do to not bounce off the walls like a Super Ball when we were headed to meet her -- I couldn't wipe the smile off my face, I was nervous, my mouth was dry, I was finally getting to meet Amy Grant! Getting to meet her was everything I'd always imagined; she was kind, gracious, and soft-spoken. She signed my Moleskine journal that I carry everywhere with me (see pic above) and we got to take a picture with her. I told her that I loved her music since I was eight, and that this was my third concert, the first two being at the Waikiki Shell back in the 80's.

The concert was fantastic, everything I remembered from years ago, and memories flooded back. I fought back tears a few times on songs that reminded me of my mom, and laughed and smiled other times when I heard songs that I'd long forgotten. It was a wonderful evening and I felt like a kid trying to sleep on Christmas Eve last night, I was just too wired to fall asleep.

Here are a few pics I snapped (kept the flash off so they're not that great, I didn't want to disturb the band): http://picasaweb.google.com/tekchic/AmyGrantConcert2008

Here's a quick video snippet of "El Shaddai": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ72OpKm5fQ