Amy Grant

Lead Me On 20th Anniversary Reunion Tour

October 17, 2008 - Irvine, CA

Well, after being a fan for 17 years, missing the Heart In Motion Tour, then seeing a long series of tours that have gradually got more and more mellow, the Lead Me On Show was a dream come true. For the first time ever, in my 14 years of Amy concerts, we got to dance for most of the show. In fact Amy actually danced, and jumped, and you could see some of the 1980s Amy Grant back, alive, and full of energy.

It all started at soundcheck. She came out, and I have to be honest, we were a bit nervous. She looked like she had just woken up, was drinking tea, moving very slow, and many of us were commenting to each other. But she seemed to wake up with time. She did a couple songs, and my favorites were Sing Your Praise to the Lord, and Love of Another Kind. She stopped Sing Your Praise after Unguarded, when I was a whopping 7 years old, so I have never had the fortune of seeing it. After she sang it, she asked us if we liked these little clap motions she created. I told her she should move around the stage, because it's really a dancing song. She said she would dance during the non singing parts, but it was too hard to move the stage while singing and trying to clap. Then she asked us to lead in the dancing...don't ever ask a crazy Amy fan something unless you want them to do it!

There was also a pre-show, where Amy came out and did a couple acoustic songs, and answered a few questions from the audience.  First, she sang "Love Has Made."  Then, she told a very touching story about a parent's love for their children, and how it's made a good analogy to her of how God feels about us.  She also sang "We Want the Same Things" and told the story about how she wrote it with Jon Foreman from Switchfoot...she didn't mention that the lyrics were inspired by a conversation she had with a friend of mine - Paul, from Portland (that will be in a future show!)

The show started with Father's Eyes. Quite a mellow tone, then transitioned into Love of Another Kind. It was the same mix as she did on the original tour. About 10 people, myself included, stood up and danced. I was honestly disappointed that the crowd wasn't more into moving and shaking! Well, after the song, everyone stood up and clapped. This was the first time I've ever seen that happen. I'm told that in the '80s people would stand up for the first few songs...but wow, I finally got to see people stand. To my happy surprise, most stayed standing for the next song.

Now the setlist was interesting. She went from dance song to non dance tune. I think if it was up to me, I'd group them a little better, but it was no harm. Just a bunch of up and down. By the midpoint of the show, on the dance songs, most of those on the floor figured out that it was okay to have fun and move around! I cannot tell you how fun it was to be at an Amy show with most of the people jumping like they were kids again. I guess that's the whole point of this tour...for people to remember what they were doing in 1988 and recapture those memories.

My other favorite part of the night was that I got to go with my friend Anastasia. She is the coolest girl in the world...Jeff and I met her on our cruse around the Baltics, and we had a blast. She's never been to an Amy concert (unless you count my Princess Pop Star performances)...not really much of a fan. But she had a great time, and I"m so glad I got to spend the evening with her.

 

Photos below courtesy of Shirley Yee

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