Chris Tomlin – Indescribable Tour – October 7th, 2005 – Portland, ME

FULL SIZE PICS HERE.

As the Civic Center was filling up and people were finding their seats, local radio station WMSJ (a Christian Station from Portland ME) began by offering up a prayer of thankfulness and praise to God.

Soon the sound system began to ease in some ambient rock that transitioned into more driving rock and the video display came to life. A video sequence with voice over evoked thoughts of a call and response, previewing the night’s themes of praising God, proclaiming His greatness, love, power, and grandeur. This seamlessly segued into “Forever”. This highly charged version electrified the crowd and they were on their feet immediately.



Greetings followed. Chris seemed natural at communicating with the crowd and you can tell how much he enjoys sharing and telling stories and leading worship. After introducing their first headlining tour, and reminding us that it is all about the Lord, the band played “Holy Is The Lord” – to the great pleasure of the crowd.



“Famous One” followed and you could tell that this was going to be a special night. The sound system was excellent, loud but not too loud, crisp, with each instrument clear and the musicianship exceptional. The crowd was enthusiastically dancing and singing and praising.

Next, Chris introduced his special guests: Matt Redman and Louie Giglio. These friends have all performed and collaborated together for years, on lyrics and songwriting and also at the hugely successful Passion conferences.



Matt wasted no time pleasing the crowd himself with an excellent “Let Everything That Has Breath” – backed up by Daniel, Jesse, and Travis. “Dancing Generation” was next, followed by a very passionate “Once Again” and “Heart Of Worship” – which was probably the best of the set by Matt.

We then got a treat – Matt introduced a new song (“Never Let Go”) that was great. He followed this by going straight into “Blessed Be Your Name” with Chris coming back on stage.



Chris then re-introduced Louie Giglio and he lead us through an amazing adventure into the heavenly creations of God. In an excellent presentation filled with the wonders of astronomy, Louie taught us just how big, how powerful, how amazing God is. The universe is so big, much bigger than man could possibly use or need or comprehend, and helped us understand this is exactly right for proclaiming the majesty of God. God is so great and loving that even though there are more magnificent unexplainable, unknown, and unbelievably beautiful things than we can comprehend or know about, even though he knows every single star by name, that he also knows every single person that ever was, ever is, and ever will be by name. He even came here and died just so we could be with him forever. The reaction of the audience was amazing, it was so humbling and awe inspiring. It concluded with a powerful image of how God, the maker of all the celestial beauty, came to earth as Jesus and died on the cross for us, and then showed an incredible image of a cross at the very center of probably the most impressive looking galaxy known.

At that point Chris and Matt and the band came on stage and went directly into “Wondrous Cross” – connecting the preceding segment so well with more music and praise - the crowd was very moved.

Get this… the show was only half over. Louie encouraged us to pray, or study the verses that would be on the screen or enjoy fellowship and rest while they all took a short 10-minute break. Wow. At this point, you could realize how full the place was. I’d say 5000 people was a very safe estimate, the floor was full and each of the side sections was full nearly to the ceiling – only the back section seemed less full.

The second set started with Chris again reminding us of the greatness of God and of our evening’s purpose of praising Him. He then introduced himself, and after story of how he grew up and learned guitar from his dad when he was in 4th grade, played for us the first song he learned, “On The Road Again” with the band joining in. He then introduced each band member, each also with a song. Jesse’s song was Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean” – which has a very distinctive bass line. Travis came down from the drum kit to sing the opening lines of Garth Brook’s “Friends in Low Places” – to great audience approval. And Daniel tore into a rowdy “Sweet Home Alabama” after being introduced as the youngest in the band, joining when he was still a senior in high school.



Next, for me was probably the best song of the evening, an amazing version of “On Our Side”. This led directly into “The Way I Was Made”.

The most unfamiliar song to me was next – “Unchanging” – though it was received well by the crowd. “Enough” was a huge sing-along, with Chris changing to piano part way through. He is really good on piano.

Another of my favorites of the night followed - an amazing version of “Indescribable”. It was so different than the album, with a solo piano beginning. This song tied in with the opening video sequence and with Louie’s talk so well. Part way through the band kicked the song into high gear – the arrangement was an excellent update to this already great song.

Following this was another of my favorites of the night "Your Grace Is Enough".

Chris then related a story about how almost 10 years ago, after hearing another Louis Giglio talk, he wrote “We Fall Down”. He remained on the piano for this.

Next, Chris again thanked us for an amazing send-off on their very first tour. It seems incredible that they haven’t been headlining for years, the band and performance was so polished and they relate to the audience so well. You could tell he was truly humbled by the response we all were giving. He had lead us through much more than a concert though, it was so much more – definitely a worship service, full of teaching, prayer, praise and honor to God.

He then broke into a very moving “How Great Is Our God” which ended with him leading us into “How Great Thou Art”. The band left the stage and the whole crowd kept singing until the song was done.
What an amazing night of music, fellowship, praise and worship to God.

Thank you Chris, Matt, Louie, Daniel, Jesse, Travis and crew for an incredible evening of worship.



Here is the set list:

Opening video
Forever
Greetings and Prayer
Holy Is The Lord
Famous One

Let Everything That Has Breath
Dancing Generation
Once Again
Heart Of Worship
New song: Never Let Go(?)
Blessed Be Your Name

Louie G

both CT and MR: Wondrous Cross

short break

introductions
Chris – On The Road Again
Jesse – Billy Jean – MJ
Travis – country song – Garth? (Blame it on my roots, I showed up in Boots and ruined your black tie affair)
Daniel – Sweet Home Alabama

On Our Side
The Way I Was Made
Unchanging (Holy Hands)
Enough
Indescribable
Your Grace Is Enough
We Fall Down
How Great Is Our God
How Great Thou Art

- Scott

christian music



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