Grace Hotel- Concert Reviews

Jeremy Camp

Concert Review

So Why Don't We Get Back on Our Feet Again?

Getting to the show was more of an inconvenience than I expected, due to weekday rush hour traffic, an incorrect assumption on my part that they would be playing on the University's West Campus like Jars of Clay did last fall (this was the exact opposite of the mistake we made that time), confusion over where the heck the Will Call line was, and being stuffed in the back of a hot and crowded room above the school's cafeteria. However, we adjusted and patiently waited nearly an hour after the reported showtime for Jeremy Camp's set to actually begin. The rugged-looking Southern California boy took the stage after an initially puzzling reminder from one of the show's promoters that this would be a mellow coffeehouse type show and we should stay in our seats. As I realized that Jeremy Camp's "band" consisted of himself and a sole percussionist, I guess it made sense, but it kind of irked me to be told I had to remain seated at a concert.

Though Jeremy is known as more of a rock artist due to his throaty vocals (somewhere between Scott Stapp and Rob Thomas) and strong electric guitar leads, he's also very good at the whole folk/inspirational genre, though I must admit his lyrics fit that genre a bit too comfortably. He wielded an acoustic guitar for this brief performance, and I must say, I always appreciate it when an artist can pull off good acoustic renditions of their more rocking songs live. Jeremy managed to do this, starting off predictably with his radio hit "Understand" and moving to a lesser-known but still good selection, "All the Time", during which he made excellent use of palm muting to mimic the start-stop patterns of the album version. His drummer Leif seemed to have a partial kit which he sometimes played with traditional drumsticks, while shifting to gentler bare hand techniques for the slower songs, which actually comprised the remainder of Jeremy's set after those two.

It was clear that Jeremy was confident being on stage, and this being his last night on the tour, he even indulged Bebo and the sound technician in a few pranks (at one point the literally ran off the stage and chased the sound guy out the door with a water bottle!) Though this was entertaining, I think it ended up compromising the time he had to perform. Knowing his back story and the testimony he would be sure to give, it seemed a little awkward to move from goofing around to telling a very serious and tragic story within less than ten minutes, but Jeremy managed to use the slower song "I Know Your Calling" as a decent segue into his message. For those who don't know, Jeremy was married briefly a few years ago before his bride died of cancer. While being led by God to marry somebody and soon finding out she had only a few months to live would be enough to cause any person to question God and likely even be angry with Him, Jeremy was able to experience a breakthrough during those dark times - a lesson about obedience and trust, which is chronicled in many of his songs.

The story of the couple's romance, marriage, and her sudden death was interspersed between the two songs most specifically inspired by those events - "Walk by Faith" and "I Still Believe", and needless to say, it added poignancy to a pair of songs that might otherwise be easy to write off as clich� inspirational fare. Jeremy doesn't tell it as a sob story to elicit and emotional response from the crowd (in fact, he even joked about an early stage of the relationship when she dumped him for a short time, quipping that the next song he was going to play was called "This Is Why I Don't Like Girls"). Rather, Jeremy's message focused on the good that came out of the tragedy, on how much he learned from his late wife's bravery in facing death, in how her desire to worship and be an example of Christ's love to others was not overtaken by anger or self-pity. It's one of those things none of us wants to go through, and yet the peace and understanding that ultimately comes from learning to trust God through such a trial is something I find myself wishing I could grasp. I'm waxing a bit theological here, so I'll get back to my concert review and say that Jeremy pulled off these slower songs with grace even if they weren't as interesting performance-wise as the more "rocking" songs. I was hoping for an upbeat closing number such as "Take My Life", but alas, Jeremy was out of time. He seemed well-received by a crowd who was likely familiar with him due to his local popularity. He'd be good to see live performing a full set once he has more material of his own, though obviously his songs are going to have to start covering more varied subject matter so that he'll be taken on his own terms as a solo artist and not just stuck with the stigma of being "the guy whose wife died".

I've got a little hope in my pocket, I want to share a bit with you

After a brief interlude during which Compassion International was plugged, Bebo and his new sidekick Gabe Scott took the stage. Bebo wore the familiar knit cap that seems to follow him everywhere - you have to love a man casual enough to even sport jeans and a rumpled T-Shirt at the Dove Awards. The duo kicked off with a pair of songs from Bebo's first non-indie album, Ten Thousand Days, the same two he seems to have grown attached to opening with - "I'm Alright" and "Stand". Fans seemed to enjoy these mid-tempo numbers, but as the set unfolded, it was interesting that Bebo's newest album was the last one to be represented, which could have potentially frustrated fans who had only gotten into his music recently. Nevertheless, his usual charmed worked its magic on the crowd as he shared funny stories and general ramblings in between songs... he's one of few people who can prattle on like an idiot and know it, and still be highly entertaining. Whether he was training the audience to fill in the chorus of "Walk Down This Mountain" while he sang the more lyrically complex part ("Yeah yeah yeah" is how I believe it went) or whether he was recounting bizarre nightmares about being stabbed in the back while playing on stage (which resulted in Jeremy Camp sneaking up on him while he was introducing a song), or talking about going to get his nails done with Gabe (it's a guitar player thing), he managed to keep the crowd consistently engaged.

After an interesting acoustic take on "Cover Me" (one of a mere two tracks from Big Blue Sky to surface that night), some new material finally showed up in the form of my favorite track from
Myself When I Am Real that hasn't made it to the radio yet - the sleepy ballad "Where the Trees Stand Still". During this song especially, you could practically hear a pin drop in between Bebo's sad words - a plea for stability in the life of a traveling musician that many of the University's students could likely relate to. It was one of those moments where I wanted to sing along to the few lyrics I knew, but I settled for keeping it barely audible, as Bebo himself could probably have heard me if I had sang at normal volume. Gabe accompanied Bebo on the accordion for this song, taking a quick break from the various guitars that he had been playing. Bebo made sure to comment about how Gabe played "literally a million different instruments" in between songs, which Gabe remarked was a lie, prompting Bebo to refine his statement to "figuratively a million instruments" and then retort that if he had a nickel for every instrument the guy played, he'd have like 10 bucks. It certainly seemed so, and this was part of the big draw to the tour for me, since I've loved Gabe's work on Andrew Peterson's first few albums and missed it dearly on Love and Thunder. That and the banter between the two more than made up for the occasional dull song and the overall slow pace of the show.

A Shapeless Piece of Steel

It was interesting to note how malleable some of Bebo's songs were in a live setting, or perhaps how much the recorded versions had metamorphosed from his original acoustic compositions. The aforementioned "Cover Me" was obviously stripped of its programming and still shone without all of the extra gloss. It made sense to not try and reproduce any of the "bigger" production from Big Blue Sky with canned music, and I guess that would explain why he skipped denser numbers such as "I Am" and "Break Me Through", but it was surprising when he and Gabe also changed up the new song "Beautiful You". Without its rich intro riff, and with a faster tempo, I didn't catch that it was the same song until the build- up to the chorus - "I need you to be careful with me..." - but then of course I was singing along. Somehow the choruses to many of Bebo's songs came off a lot sharper without percussion giving the illusion that it was supposed to be a "fast song".

Next up were a few oldies - the highly emotional ballad "The Hammer Holds" (okay, so most of his ballads are highly emotional, but this one strikes a special chord), and a song I didn't recognize about being a tree - I later found out this was a cover of folk artist John Gorka, a song called "Branching Out" that Bebo had been playing live for years but to my knowledge never recorded. I think I finally got the message behind "The Hammer Holds" after being rather confused by it for a few years - it's the story of Christ's crucifixion from the point of view of the nail. I dare say it's almost as interesting as Third Day telling it from the point of the thief! I guess it was fitting to follow this up with another song about being an inanimate object, a tree aspiring to "reach for the sky". Those who hadn't heard the song got a good chuckle out of the all-too-predictable but still amusing rhyme "If I should fall in storm or slumber, please don't turn me into lumber."

Bebo and Gabe continued to impress as their set wound to a close. I will admit the home stretch got a little sleepy at times and I heard fans complaining about the overabundance of songs as we left that night, but there was no denying the awe expressed by the crowd as Gabe unleashed a tasty hammered duclimer solo to lead off "Tip of My Heart", then transferring to the slide guitar to offer weepy country sounds to "Long Way Home". Bebo followed this tale of a struggling marriage with a very long, but captivating story about a woman whose husband had left her after thirty years. Gabe then sat down at the piano for "Deeper Still", which turned out to be the last song before Bebo's encore.

So Come with Your Strength, and Carry Me Home

Okay, so "encore" was a bit of a misnomer. You see, Bebo thinks encores are dumb. I couldn't resist letting out a loud holler of approval when he explained to the audience that it was silly to leave the stage and milk us all for applause, only to come back and play a big hit song that had been planned the entire time. He drew out his last chance to ramble before the audience, even giving Gabe a little time to do a little "Secrets of Bebo" segment while he tuned his guitar. (Gabe apparently came very close to revealing something about Bebo that he really didn't want people to know!) Finally, a familiar, 3/4 time guitar strum filled the room, and any casual fans in the room were rewarded with that one song they'd heard on the radio and liked - "Great Light of the World". Bebo made the most of this as a top-of-your-lungs sing-along moment, which works well being that it is a heartfelt worship song. As much as it frustrates me that this is the song that Bebo is most recognized for and that got him a Song of the Year nod, I have to admit it's my favorite of his so far, simply becuase the music has more punch than his usual fare and the melody is more memorable. The two guys definitely did it justice in a live setting.

Just to Look at You

As interesting as it would have been to talk to Bebo and/or Gabe after the show, I actually appreciated that he encouraged people to spend their time on something more lasting and memorable than stopping by for a brief hello or autograph or to buy a CD - he exhorted us to spend that time at the Compassion table, or simply to talk with the people around us that we had enjoyed the show with. He wanted to emphasize community over celebrity.

Bebo's show was great overall - I might've liked to hear how he interpreted more of the new material, but since I'm not too terribly attached to most of his songs, I didn't leave dissapointed over any exclusions like I often do after seeing someone like Jars of Clay. As long as you've had a decent shot of caffeine earlier in the day and you can appreciate raw, honest songwriting and gentle instrumental power instead of expecting fireworks during every minute an artist is on stage, I'd highly recommend seeing Bebo live next time he's in your area. As for Jeremy Camp, while his acoustic set made him an ideal opener for Bebo, I'd be interested to see him play more of a rock show in the future. Once he gets some new and more varied material out to the public, I think he could put together a very engaging set.

Source: therebelbase.net