Kicking off the night was Aaron Shust, he came out and was ready to worship. Aaron has an amazing voice and was a perfect fit for the tour! Although the crowd wasn’t familiar with much of his music, he was able to make the best of it and teach everyone a couple new songs. Aaron ended with his radio hit “My Savior, My God” and had everyone singing along. After his set I heard a lot of people saying things like “So that’s who plays that song…” Aaron easily captures the crowd with his honest and sincere lyrics and overall great live worship atmosphere.
Next was AudioA, now to give you a little perspective on my excitement to see AudioA, I had been waiting for 3 months for this show, and I nearly missed it! Obviously I made the show, only to my surprise to find meet and greets with my tickets. So by now I was pretty much stoked to see Audio A’s last show in Portland, OR. Audio Adrenaline, at least what is left of them, came out rocking out to Until My Heart Caves In opening track “Clap Your Hands.” Now I say ‘at lease what’s left of them,’ because drummer Ben Cissell and guitarist Tyler Burkum had previous plans before Mark and Will signed on to the second leg of the Coming Up to Breathe Tour, so really AudioA was only Mark Stuart and Will McGinniss, but still the band as a whole put together a great show! The band went through numerous hits including Big House, Hands and Feet, Worldwide, Ocean Floor, Beautiful, Rejoice and more! The band ended on a high not talking about the Hands and Feet Project in Haiti, and then they played their last song that Portland will hear, “Goodbye.”
After a brief intermission MercyMe came out and played for an hour and half. I must admit that MercyMe are great performers, but when it comes to entertaining, that’s not what they’re there for. MercyMe made a great worship atmosphere and Bart (lead vocals) had a lot to say that helped made it so much better! MercyMe played a lot of great songs including their hits “I Can Only Imagine, Here With Me, Spoken For, Word Of God Speak” and from their latest release “So Long Self.” I can’t get past the fact that Bart was just diagnosed with bronchitis, and yet he sounded so amazing. Again the band put together a great worship atmosphere that is sure to please anyone.
Article by Jeremy Koering
