Amy Grant & Michael W Smith Pittsburgh - Benedum March 3, 2011
These 2 Christian musical performers brought their “2 Friends” tour to town last night and it may have been one of the best concerts that I have ever attended. I found myself a bit surprised at how much I was drawn into it all. People stood, clapped, waved their arms in the air. I don’t really get into that sort of thing. The musical content rocked. It did seem like a rock concert at times, with strong guitar solos and exciting lighting. Then at other times, very meaningful and thought provoking songs. Both Amy and Smitty know how to interact well with the crowd. Speeches and jokes contributed to their stage presence. The show contained a great mixture of fast upbeat content, slower more meaningful content, and just verbal content.
Memories and getting older were constant themes. Amy is now 50! They go back over 20 years. One on song, they both talk about how they both have kids now in college and how tough it is for parents to watch kids leave the nest. Smitty told a joke that got a lot of laughs. It went something like ‘I was at a Nashville mall and found myself stalked by a little girl, maybe 12. She kept following me around so I finally stopped and asked her ‘Can I help you with something?’ And she replied ‘Aren’t you Michael W Smith?’ and he replied ‘Yes, whats your name?’ and she said ‘my Grandma is your biggest fan!’ “ He mentioned how some people in attendance may have seen him or Amy in concert when they were kids, and how they now bring their kids to shows.
They also both did a song dedicated to military families. It’s a song about being apart from those you love. Amy joked that although Michael is a “beautiful man, I don’t love him like that. Sort of like singing a love song with your brother” and she got some laughs. Martina McBride used a similar joke when she sang one song live with her brother as duet partner because Keith Urban wasn’t there to sing it with her.
They did 2 encore songs. When they returned to stage for those, Amy wore her trademark leopard spotted coat that she wore way back in her early days. Smitty also changed a bit. The last song was one about friends. Seemed to include that word a hundred times. I don’t know the actual song title.
I tried taking some notes and writing down the set list, but as always that’s tough to do when its dark inside the theatre. They did not have a real program, and what the ushers gave out and called ‘programs’ were really ads for Smith’s future cruise. The concert lasted 3 hours and moved along at a fairly good pace. No shortage of content. We certainly got our money’s worth.! They did provide a 15 minute intermission, and just before they cut us loose for that, Amy, Michael, and Michael’s drummer gave the sales pitch to get people to donate to something called Compassion, their charity thing to help people in other countries.
The show started with both Amy & Smitty on stage. Amy just left of center. Smitty with his keyboard just right of center. The first part of the show included Amy songs, mostly old stuff, with Michael out there at the start, then he eventually left the stage. The first song was “Stay for a While” (I could be wrong on some song names). Second song was “Everywhere I go”. Amy told the crowd to get up and dance. She said to ‘dip and sway’. I stood, but I didn’t sway though 99% of the crowd did. I was NOT about to ‘dip’ though I am still unsure what that even was. Maybe the little downward motion some did at the end of the sway? I don’t know but people enjoyed the whole thing a lot. LOTS of crowd participation tonight in a theatre with few empty seats! Everybody was really into it all, singing along, standing at times, clapping, etc.
The next 2 songs were “Love will find a way” and “Praise to the Lord”. Praise included a mean guitar solo. After the song, Amy introduced the guitar player that played it, one of 3 guitar players she had. His name = Pat Buchanan! I chuckled a bit and thought of some jokes involving political commentator Pat Buchanan. Amy would eventually introduce all of her band and her 2 backup singers. Two of the band have been with her since her early days, and her one backup singer is her now husband’s Vince Gill’s daughter.. She has a powerful voice.
Smitty then left the stage and Amy did some of her solo stuff. A song possibly called “Laura” (this one had a speech with it), then “Baby Baby” had some people clapping, swaying, singing along, etc. Then she sang “Every heartbeat belongs to you”, “Better than a Halleluiah” , “arms of love” , “what about the love”, and then, while alone on stage, just with guitar, Amy sang “El Shaddai”. The band came back and she sang “We are Christians” or maybe its entitled “What can we do”?)
I did have a problem all night long on song identification. I have an Amy cd or 2 and know some of her older stuff, but I clearly lack detailed knowledge of most of her music. In my younger days I used to watch our local Christian music tv station’s music video show called “Lightmusic” and learned a little about both Amy and Smitty’s music. But sadly that provided only a limited background on their work.
Smitty came back out and they did a few songs. One was “Emmanuel” Then came the speeches about their charity work and their pitch to get donations. Then intermission. Crew started changing the stage while they talked, removing Amy’s band’s stuff and putting Michael’s stuff up there.
The second act started with Smitty all alone with his keyboard, located dead center stage now. He started with a medley of old songs, starting with “My Place in this World” and included others I don’t know the names of. I thought to myself “Why do all those songs in a quick medley like that? “ But later I could see why. This show did have a LOT of content and would have lasted forever if he did the whole versions. He has 22 cds so that’s a LOT of material.
Then he did an instrumental piece from his instrumental cd that was a showstopper. WOW! He said that he originally did that song in Dublin with a 65 piece orchestra, then he looked around on stage and being all alone, people laughed. He told us to imagine one, and that he would tell us when to do so. He made a motion like fiddle playing at the appropriate time and people laughed. As I left, I forgot to check the merchandise table for that cd. I may buy it from Amazon.
He did a number of solo songs, as well as having Amy come out and join him on a few. I think some of the solos were called “Angels watching over me”, then “Faithless Heart” Then he gave his speech about his daughter moving off to college at Pepperdine and how sad it was to see her leave. Amy came back out for that song about kids leaving the nest and said how choked up she gets singing it. (“How to say goodbye“) They did the song for the troops that I mentioned earlier. Then Amy exited stage and Smitty did more of his solo stuff, including “Secret Ambition”.
Smitty did 2 more songs that I would call showstoppers. “Welcome Home” a song from his new cd “Wonder”, is a great one. About losing friends and death. This song reminded me a bit of Carrie Underwood’s “Temporary Home”. Then he sang “Majesty” and just left the whole crowd silent.
Then Amy came back out for a song called “Heaven’s Rain, They eventually did 2 encore songs together.
Amy did a good job and put on a great show. But I must say that Smitty ruled this night. He had several show stopper type songs and had the crowd listening to his every word. He seems to be a bit of a paradox. He isn’t a very flashy kind of guy, but he really connects to the crowd with his stage presence, music, and humor, and puts on a very entertaining and meaningful show!
Go see this show if you can!
Newspaper’s review can be found at
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11064/1129850-388stm