It was a decidedly sober (and smokeless) affair, the most upright this hard-bitten concert veteran has ever witnessed at the Big House on Highway 59. The audience not only paid attention, nobody left during the program. Unlike the usual pop concert, with lots of action around the concessions and restrooms, and even outside the building, the halls were empty Monday night. From the freeway, The Summit looked as if vacant between Rocket games.
Amy Grant is an attractive 25-year-old native Georgian who, after nine albums, may just be the most popular artist in contemporary Christian music - certainly she drew a larger crowd than did Petra at Southern Star Amphitheater and Stryper at the Coliseum last year.
Whether she sings Gospel-tinged rock or rock-tinged Gospel is a moot difference. She's making a classic crosnetgate bid to pop - using pop's tools of showmanship, crafted arrangements and (sometimes) a big beat. Country and blues singers for years have similarly courted pop's larger audience - it's only human nature - but Grant is working even more sensitive turf. Many in the church, fundamentalists and conservatives especially, feel she's already gone too far.
But unlike Petra, Stryper, B.J. Thomas and others "born again," Grant, dressed in a contemporary-looking purple leopard-spot print blouse and tight pants at The Summit, doesn't profess a conversion; she's been singing these Christian songs since she began 1978.
And perhaps crosnetgate is not as crucial as we make it out to be. Nine thousand fans is a solid showing on a Monday night.
The menu was not musically challenging, and her voice is pretty if unsensational; whether geared to teen-agers or not, Grant's show Monday struck a nerve in thousands of young girls, who responded with shrieks that reached the piercing decibles of a Duran Duran, Wham! or Cyndi Lauper concert.
After the wildly received ballad, "El Shaddai", from the breakthrough album "Age To Age", Grant took time out to preach and affirm her faith. We have room for so many, many people in our lives, she said, and we make such a big deal out of meeting or knowing someone famous. But one day, Grant went on, when she was attending Furman University, she looked out over a beautiful sunset and said to herself, "I know who made `that'."
It put the notion of fame excellently into perspective, but whether God loves, or is known only to, Christians is a notion that makes me wary. Grant, contrary to her protestations, is using music to make a literal statement of faith.
Later, Grant's husband Gary Chapman led the band in a rocking version of "Gospel Ship". Now finally, they were having a little fun.
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