Casting Crowns

Way back in early December I may have mentioned that I was going to be able to see Casting Crowns (CC) in concert. I was psyched since they are one of my absolutely favorite CCM bands (that’s contemporary Christian music).  Miss H’s mom had gifted us two tickets to the concert as part of her Christmas gift to us. I was blown away. Not just because she bought us tickets, but she bought us VIP tickets. She even bought them without fully realizing what VIP would get us. We soon found out and we were able to experience it this post Sunday. It was so worth it.

After some miscommunication by various volunteers we finally made our way to the “VIP” area. Remember when my hubby and I saw Newboys back in November? We had “gold member” tickets then that allowed for a “meet and greet.” We were allowed in early, ushered to a holding room, and then taken through another room to meet with the band. We were even each given a CD that the band could sign.

Jen and Robin waiting to backstage. 
Yes, I know it’s out of focus. Hubby is leaning out of the photo but my camera picked up on his jacket to focus on. 
It’s the only photo I had of the two of them so here it is.

CC had the same deal for their VIP - kind of. We finally found our way  literally backstage and were ushered into a section of seating that was behind the stage. We had a bit of a wait. Then CC’s road manager came out to talk for a bit. The poor gal. She’s actually Mark Hall’s wife (lead singer of CC). She first told us she was their road manager – minor applause for her. Then she mentioned how she was married to Mark – wild applause.


Shortly after this Mark Hall himself came out. What a great guy. Seriously. He’s a youth pastor and he’s very personable. He had us laughing and just seemed to really be enjoying himself.



Kutlass was also singing. They came out first as a group to chat with us as well. They all shared a bit about themselves with us and just welcomed us to the concert. They seemed very down to earth.


I do apologize for the quality of some of these photos. I was so far up behind the stage and it was so dark that it was difficult to get good photos. I was using a “night” setting on the camera so I do catch “ghosts” of movement.

Then the whole CC band came out. Again, they each talked to us and told us who they were, what they played, and what they do at home. I found it interesting that they typically only travel Thursday through Saturday. This allows them to be home for Sundays since all of them play for the worship at their own church – including CC! They did make mention about how unusual it was for them to be gone on a Sunday.

This shows how far back I was – this was taken without any zoom. 

This really didn’t last very long – maybe 10-15 minutes tops. By this time the concert was getting ready to start so we made our way to our seats. Oh, did I mention that the tickets – that Robin bought before the local radio stations even started advertising the concert – gave us front row center seats! They were seriously the best seats I have ever had for a concert. Thanks once more, Robin!

The opening band was called “Caleb.” I had stumbled on a blog a month or so ago and found out that “Caleb” is none other than Steven Curtis Chapman’s sons – Caleb and Will Chapman! And that blog...it was Mary Chapman's.

It was neat to see them in concert and to see CC giving them a chance to get established in the music industry. This is actually the second time hubby and I have seen CC in concert. The very first time was about six years ago when they were the first act of a concert with Chris Tomlin and Steven Curtis Chapman! It’s come full circle now I think.

Caleb did have the words of his songs projected up on screens if folks wanted to sing along. He talked about one song he wrote for some friends who were hurting after the loss of a loved one. Then he mentioned about their family tragedy and the loss of his sister – Maria Sue. This family has certainly gone through quite a bit with loosing her.

The next act was Kutlass. All I can say is – WOW! I have heard some of their songs before so I knew their sound. Of course, it is always far more powerful live. And this song - amazing - this is what they opened their set with and it was an amazing song to hear them sing.

I thought I had taken more photos of them while they performed. Apparently I was too busy singing. I had a few others but they were too blurry to use. I’ll mention here – I took 72 photos at the concert. I deleted the really bad ones and still had about 60 to pick from. Most were of CC. So I'll start with photos of all the band members....

Mark Hall – lead singer of Casting Crowns
  Megan Garrett – piano and vocals
  Brian Scoggin – drums

Juan DeVevo – guitar and vocals

Be sure to read his blog post. He mentions something really neat that happened in Portland. I remember the two men he was talking about. They were just a few spots down from where we were sitting.

Chris Huffman – bass and vocals

Hector Cervantes – lead guitar and vocals

  Melodee DeVevo – vocals and violin

Anyone local...be sure to ask Jen about the hand thing. ;-) Well, okay, I’ll share it here since this is getting really long anyway!

After the show was all over, we ended up getting in line for autographs. We first went through a line for Kutlass. Then we did the line for CC. The CC group was amazing – not that Kutlass wasn’t – but everyone in the CC band reached out to shake our hand, ask our name, greeted us personally. It was very nice. Jen was two people back from me. While riding home we were, of course, chatting about the concert and Jen mentioned how “the violin player” wouldn’t shake her hand. She told, "I'm sorry. I can't shake hands." However, I was pretty sure I had shaken her hand. Jen sent a text to another friend who had been in line behind us. Sure enough, she had shaken Melodee’s hand as well. We still aren’t quite sure why she wouldn’t shake Jen’s, but we all thought it hilarious. We also used copious amounts of hand sanitizer - just in case.

Overall we had a fantastic time. Here are a few more photos of the night.

I took this while Mark was singing “East to West.”

My friend Jen and I. She took the photo!
  Hubby and I. 
Yup – we’re old now and wear ear plugs during concerts. 
I think it actually makes them sound better as it cuts out a lot of the extra noise.

We had a fantastic night. The only downer…it was a Sunday night concert and we never got home until 1am. That made for a very early Monday morning!

B13 was also here. This is probably the first concert he remembers going to.  Hubby and I did take N8 and B13 to a concert to see Chris Rice but they were young. I think B13 was only about eight or so at the time. It was a short concert by Chris Rice followed by a Portland Pirates ice hockey game. They enjoyed the game immensely - the concert? Not so much. I have no photos of B13 since he went with the youth group. Maybe he'll talk about it on his blog. If so, I'll link it up later.