Jeremy Camp is back again, with another tour that is certainly remarkable. Complete with a candle lit stage, the simplicity and intimacy of the unplugged performance was astounding, allowing the audience to see a slightly different side of the usual rock-esque Camp.
Starting off with “Understand” from his earlier album Stay and following with “What It Means” from his recent release Beyond Measure, Camp played both new and old. The aforementioned songs (as well as many others played throughout the night) had a bit of a different sound when played acoustic, as the somewhat raw makeup really drew your attention to the lyrics and the strength of Camp’s voice.
Continuing with the classics “Take You Back” and “Right Here”, the band encouraged the crowd to join in. With such apparent enthusiasm on the part of the band, the crowd did just that. At one point, Camp wandered into the audience and pointed out someone who wasn’t singing along. He proceeded to hand them the microphone to sing to everyone!
The fifth song was a bit of a surprise, but definitely a highlight of the evening. It required the assistance of another vocalist, none other than Isabella Camp, Jeremy’s 2 and a half year old daughter. Together they sang “Down in My Heart”, with Isabella covering the “Where?/Down in my heart” bits in an ever-so-adorable manner. After waving goodbye, Isabella bid the crowd farewell.
Prefacing it with a brief explanation of its origin, Camp continued with “Beyond Measure”. It was quite enlightening to explicitly hear his inspiration for writing the song. Before a brief intermission, they played “I Still Believe” and “Walk by Faith”, the latter of which had an especially amazing sound acoustic.
Highlighting the spectacular piano playing skills of new band member Jacob, they started the second half of their set with “Beautiful One”, followed by “Give You Glory”. With a definite feeling of worship, the majority of the crowd was on their feet singing along.
I’d have to say my favourite part of the evening was hearing Camp’s bluesy rendition of “Jesus Loves Me”. Accompanied by his wife Adie, the song had a unique sound and you could definitely tell he was excited to sing it. Needless to say, it was inexplicably fantastic!
Before the final few songs, there was a question and answer session with the audience. Prior to the Q&A session, the band decided to play somewhat of a dramatic April Fools joke on the audience by stating that this was Jeremy’s last tour ever. Of course, there was a gasp laden crowd, at which point Camp admitted to feeling bad for trying to trick us. His admittance was something to the effect of “My heart started pounding and I was sweating profusely – I just felt so bad lying to you guys!!” Quite funny, for sure. Jeremy’s manager randomly selected audience members with questions, and allowed them to ask it into the microphone. The questions that were asked weren’t overwhelmingly informative, but intriguing no less! The final question was more of a prompt from Jeremy’s manager to share his testimony. As many times as I’ve heard it, his testimony is still just as inspirational. It’s so amazing to hear about how people have been touched by what God has done in his life!
Nearing the end, Camp continued with “Stay” and “This Man”, both of which sounded even better live than on his CDs. “This Man” in particular sounded really spectacular live!
At this point, Jeremy left the stage for Adie to sing solo. Her South African accent really worked well in the simplistic unplugged setting. Of the few songs she sang, I’d have to say the passionate “What Have I Done” was my favourite!
Similar to the Beyond Measure tour, Jeremy and Adie ended the show with a piano-driven version of “My Desire” and “Give Me Jesus”. The mellowness and honesty of the latter was really fantastic. After they left the stage, the crowd persistently cheered for an encore. Quite a while later, the stage lights switched back on and Camp and the band returned for a worship encore.
The night was complete with seemingly spontaneous anecdotal interjections and jokes between the band members. This concert was well worth the hundreds of miles I drove to get there, and I most definitely recommend you go if there’s an unplugged performance anywhere near you!
Article by Ariel Body
