I’m not much of a concert person. I’ve been to musical performances, but never at an arena, and I never went just for that specific person. I think the “biggest” artist that I’ve seen live is Matt Maher. I was excited, after discovering Forrest Frank a little over a year ago, to get tickets to his Child of God Tour.

Since I control the music in our house, I will often play Forrest throughout our day or while running errands around town. The kids sometimes even request his music. The beats are fun, there’s a degree of playfulness in the accompaniment and the lyrics, and even my youngest knows the lyrics.

Alison and I took our two oldest kids with us, which was a treat knowing that it would be a late night.

We had dinner at Chick-fil-A, handed the youngest two off to their grandmother, and drove to the arena. It was easy to park and get inside. I stopped by the concession stand to get popcorn and water, and we settled in. The arena started off comfortably full, but by time Forrest took the stage, it was completely packed. 10,000 fans, enjoying live music and prayer.

Forrest did a great job with the show. The set list was perfect, there was lots of engagement with the crowd, and even the set was fun. At one point, he plugged in his laptop, opened Logic, and showed us how he put together Good Day with all 200+ individual sound components.

There was also a peek behind the veil. Forrest shared some of his story, and the why behind his music.

In addition to his released music, we were treated to a few unreleased songs. In one of them, he invited the audience to be on the track. He got an iPhone, opened the Voice Memos app, and then recorded us shouting lyrics. I read an article, that I now cannot find, that said this is how modern music is made; artists sending each other samples recorded on their iPhones and included in the final track.

The night did not end until late. Many families with younger kids started leaving early, and I was tempted to do the same. After a few minute break, Forrest and band returned, turned up the volume, and closed out with two huge performances of Drop! and Never Get Used to This.

It was a great night.