Y'all might see my concert review below about meeting the girls for the first time on their Steady On tour. Well that was on Friday Feb. 5th, but then I met them again on Monday, February 8th, a week from yesterday. This time I brought along my diary so I could write down some highlights of the concert. My last review was basically my saga of finally, FINALLY, meeting the girls. For now I'll actually talk about the concert :o)

Ok, so it was in Modesto, a 2-hour drive from where I am in San Jose, CA. At the concert a few days before I had told the girls we'd be at the Monday concert, and we joked about how my family and I are total groupies, following them around. I didn't have meet & greet passes like before, but Terry said they'd "keep an eye out for us." So I just enjoyed the concert instead of being all nervous like before.

Well it starts out with the girls singing Jesus Is, Gather at the River, Drawing me Closer, Sing a Song, and Faith, Hope & Love. After the first few songs there's a break for Shelley to introduce the girls. Every introduction gets a wild applause as Shelley talks a little about the girl she's introducing like where they're from and other basic stuff. Once she gets through Denise, Terry, and Heather, in that order, Shelley introduces herself saying "And my name is Shelley Breen..." at this point some guy in the back of the audience let out a loud fox whistle. The crowd chuckles, but Shelley's reaction was classic. "Yeah, right." she says, "It's a bad hair day." We all laugh, but she goes on "See, that guy is probably thinkin' right now 'Shelley, I wasn't whistling at you, I was whistling at Denise over there.'" Denise doubles over giggling at the edge of the spotlight and we all start laughing a little more. Shelley's not done yet. "Actually," she continues, "I've never had someone whistle at me before... I kinda like it!" By now we're cracking up. Shelley smiles and says "Ok! One hundred and one jokes about the guy who whistled at Shelley! Moving on..." So after intros of the band, the girls sing This Day, You Are the Answer, Dying to Reach You, Jesus Will Still Be There, Great Divide, and Saving Grace. Every song was magnificent and powerful. It's so different to see the girls worshiping like they were than to hear them on tape or CD. Somewhere in the midst of those songs, both Heather and Denise gave moving talks. Denise lost her other grandfather, which means both her grandpa's died within two days of each other. She let herself cry and I was impressed and inspired at the way she let herself be emotional but still made it seem that she wasn't holding things back, that she was speaking pure truth in the fact that she felt God at work in the situation. She said through tears, with a big smile, that we have a hope in God, and God is in control. When Heather spoke she mentioned the trip she took to Europe and how overwhelming of an experience it was. Don't think I sound like a freak, but I felt really connected in a way when she was speaking, just because Heather is the most of a role model to me and to hear her talk about the awesome power of God really made me think a lot and it moved me to hear her talk like she was. I got choked up listening to Heather, and when she ended with saying "Someday, every knee WILL bow, and every tongue WILL confess Jesus Christ as Lord..." I totally got goosebumps :o)

Ok, so after their songs, the girls introduce Watermark. Now, on Friday night when they talked about Watermark, the new group touring with them, I remember thinking to myself "Alright, I'll tolerate them. Some husband -wife pair, they'll probably be cute together. I'll be patient and give them a chance." How stupid of me! Watermark isn't a group to tolerate, trust me. Nathan and Christy Nockels are phenomenal, talented, and passionate for God. On Monday's concert, I grinned when they were introduced and got choked up as they sang. The four songs they performed were Take Me There, Everything, Peace, and Gloria. If I had to pick a favorite it might be Gloria, but they're all so awesome. On the CD, one of my faves is Welcome to Delaware. Y'all have to give this group a shot, they're adorable and awesome. Ok, so then there's an intermission. It was supposed to be 15 minutes, but it was more like 25. Oh well, I got to chat with Nathan and Christy (Watermark, remember?) and they recognized my mom and me. I think that was really rad because all these people around us were like whatever about this group, while I'm thinking "Once y'all get the CD, you'll wish you'd met these two tonight. They'll top the charts in no time, and I got to meet them."

Anyways, the announcer guy comes back on stage and asks everyone to sit in their seats. The lights fade to dark, and the smoke machine picks up. A really deep base sound comes from the keyboard as lasers on stage start to shine all over the auditorium. The base rattled in my stomach and different colored spotlights started to go wild all over the huge room. People were trying to "catch" the 20 or so seperate lasers coming from the stage and the light was blaring in our eyes as everyone anticipated a climax to the deep base. Finally, through the colored black, I can make out four figures walking to center stage. As the girls start in with their harmonic "Nah, nah-nah, nah nah-nah..." that marks the beginning of Steady On, the crowd roars in screams, applauds, yelling, as whistles. As the "nah-nah" reaches it's apex, the colored lights and lasers stop and give way to brilliant white spotlights on the girls and on stage. They light up with huge smiles as the audience roars. Quickly and beautifully, Heather starts in with her verse, and the girls take off on the chorus. A crazy crowd cheers on these women singing to their Savior about keeping us walking steady on. It was so indescribable, the only way you could understand would be to go to a concert. As the crowd is still jazzed up, Denise starts in on My God. We all settle down as Point of Grace sings this love song to God. It was absolutely beautiful. They skipped "I'll be Believing" that night because Heather had a hoarse voice. I know it's a regular part of their Steady On tour routine, but I suppose she couldn't handle it that night so they threw it out. Instead, the girls begin what we affectionately call their "funny stuff." Shelley (or was it Denise? hmm...) introduces the way the girls like to make the audience laugh in all their concerts, so they wanted to do a women of the Bible routine. I can't ever forget a single song. Starting off with their own version of Freedom by Aretha Franklin, the boa-adorned girls are just warming up with making the fans crack up with their revised parts about Eve convincing Adam to eat the apple. Then was my favorite part. Heather talks about how Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt, and the other 3 run back from backstage with an old-fashioned microphone and cashemere sweaters. Each sweater has a letter embroidered on it, and lined up, the girls sweaters spell out "POGS." Denise tosses Heather her sweater and the tune of Mr. Sandman strikes up. I died laughing when Terry manages to keep a straight face when beginning the girls in the familiar "Bum Bum, bum-bum, bum bum..." that begins Mr. Sandman. They all faithfully sing their own "bum bums" in part, and the transformed babershop quartet revises Mr. Sandman to their own words about not being able to "get my feet out, so I can walk home." At one point on Monday's concert, Heather cracks up laughing when her "bum bum" comes around. Her hoarse laughter was adorable and contagious, so Shelley had to fill in her part as the other two giggled as well with the audience. The other songs they sang were their versions of Walk Like An Egyptian, in which Denise hilariously sings the verses in a babyish voice that sounds somewhat like a crude version of Terry's beautiful vocal stylings (no insult to Terry, note that I say her beautiful voice. Denise was merely making hers sound young). Then they did Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, singing about how Delilah wanted to just have fun when cutting Samson's hair. Then came everyone's favorite. The sang a Christian version of Spice up Your Life, which I'm sure everyone out there has heard about. Shelley was an outstanding Baby Spice, Terry a dead ringer for Scary Spice, save lighter skin, Denise a wanna be Posh (you can't really be Posh without dressing scanty, so for a Christian woman, Denise was perfect at the part) and Heather had an absolute blast being Sporty Spice. I loved it.

Well, the girls calmed down by going immediately from that to Who Am I? which was written by Watermark (surprise!), and Terry nearly brought me to tears when singing her verse. And Shelley was especially incredible on that song. I was overtaken with goosebumps hearing her voice sound so sweet, clear, and powerful. For some reason I think that was the best I've ever heard Shelley sing. It was so passionate. Then they went to The Song Is Alive, and I think that was right after Nancy Alcorn made an appearance and Terry spoke about Mercy Ministries. I might be wrong at the timing, but it all happened somewhere in there. Keep the Candle Burning was a given and beautiful. Then was a hilarious slip up. The girls said they wanted to finish off with Circle of Friends, but as the band started playing Better Days, I don't know if it was by accident or on whose part, the girls had no choice but to sing Better Days. It was still awesome, though. THEN we got to Circle of Friends, at which point Christy Nockels joined them, and little girls run up on stage and clings to every girl as Heather and Denise sat on the steps, surrounded by adoring young fans, and a few brave soldiers walked up to Terry and Shelley, hanging on tightly and making other little girls more bold about approaching these women. It was priceless.

After the concert we got to chat with the girls, but only for a few brief moments. It was still worth it, though, as Denise saw me and immediately said "Oh, hi Honey!" in recognition, and the other 3 caught on quickly. Shelley said "Well, y'all are official groupies now, following us here." I grinned and told her "Great, now I can say 'hey, I'm a real groupie. Shelley Breen even said so.'" She and Terry laughed and I moved on to Heather and Denise. I thanked them for meeting us and everything, and as we walked away I said over my shoulder to Heather "I'll write you. You don't have to write back, but I'll write!" She shot a big smile and we left.

It really hurt to get home 2 hours later and at first I didn't understand why. My mom and were talking and this is what she said to me "When you look forward to something for a long time [2 years in my case], and then it happens, it's really awesome. But when it's over, it really hurts." I couldn't have put it better. That was the greatest weekend, getting to meet my role models and these awesome women of God. It hurts that it's over, but Point of Grace is still always there. Until I see them in heaven someday, I know I can keep being encouraged by the music these girls sing, the message they represent, and I can keep staying in touch with other fans like any of y'all who are reading this. Until we meet in heaven, keep the candle burning and may God keep you walking steady on.