Michael W. Smith and Mercy Me sell out Big Sandy Superstore Arena
By Brandon Woolum
Twenty-years and still going strong. Kenova native, Michael W. Smith, is still selling thousands of albums and selling out arenas across the country each year.

Sunday evening it was time for him to come back home and show the Tri-state just what he had been up to the past couple years. The 46-year-old home town boy brought his "Celebration Tour" to the Big Sandy Superstore Arena, where a sold out crowd of over 7,000 witnessed the event.

Warming up the stage, prior to Smith’s performance, was Dallas-based Christian pop rockers, MercyMe. MercyMe recently sprung into the pop radio scene after their smash hit "I Can Only Imagine" began getting air play on pop radio across the country. The song became an instant hit after a Dallas radio station played the song by request.

The six piece band took to the stage after a three minute countdown ticked away on a large video screen placed on the back wall of the arena. Graphic video along with fancy lighting helped the band get the crowd on their feet and singing along with all their well known songs such as "Change Inside of Me", "Spoken For" and "Come One, Come All."

During the entire set the band performed, the crowd was on their feet waving their arms, making for a spine chilling emotional performance. Not only did the band sing songs that they had written themselves but they also threw some old church hymns in the mix. With the stage lights off and the house lights turned up it gave off the vibe of a church choir made up of over 7,000 people.

Following the choir segment the band went straight into their hit song "Word God Speak." After the song the crowd went wild as video began to play on the large screen of others fans explaining what they thought heaven would be like.

Once the videos were finished playing, the opening piano riffs of "I can Only Imagine" began and the arena went nuts. Hundreds of fans waved their arms in the air as the emotional song was belted out over the speaker set-up. Some of the loudest cheers of the evening followed the hit single. After briefly talking to the crowd about street names, lead singer Brad Millard, finished off the bands one hour performance with, "Where the Streets Have No Name."

Following a 15-minute intermission, the 3 minute countdown once again popped up on the screen. This time it was for AMA award winner, Michael W. Smith. A video introduction showed pictures from the past two decades of the Kenova native just prior to him popping up on stage. Performing a set that lasted 2 hours, Smith used an array of songs from all of his albums, both new and old.

"Now I’ve been doing this for 20 years, so that means I have 189 songs, and I was trying to think of which ones you guys would want to hear most," Smith said. "We were able to narrow it down to 172, so I hope you all have a few hours."

He started his set with an older song, "Secret Ambition", then going directly into "Missing Person." Smith used humor into his act to keep the younger portion of the crowd’s energy up while he played the songs from the early part of his career.

However Smith had something for the younger crowd also. As He sung "Awesome God", many youth groups could be seen across the arena singing the lyrics that they had heard in church all their life.

Using everything from a piano to a guitar to a keyboard Michael W. Smith succeeded in keeping the crowds energy and excitement up for the entire 2 hours he was on stage. The younger children were even able to stay going for the performance.

With a lightening display very similar too what Def Leppard used when they played at the arena back in July, it was hard not to be stunned with the amazing effects that Smith brought with him to the stage. Smith’s live image was shown on a large screen for the majority of the night. The screen was also used to show video clips from Smith’s music video’s.

Smith shared with the home town crowd the story of how his song "There She Stands" came to be. He said that 6 weeks after 9/11 he was sitting in the oval office with his friend, President Bush. He then said that the president proceeded to ask him to right a song on the 9/11 happenings. After having a few months of trouble getting the idea down on paper or music, he finally came up with the solution.

"I tried for 6 months, then a few months later I was at my farm and I looked at my flag. Then I just broke down and started crying. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had to call the song ‘There She Stands.’"

As he sung the song, photographs of the 9/11 events were shown to the crowd on the big screen hanging from the area wall. Smith received a standing ovation once the song was finished.

The final song Smith sung before saying his goodbyes to he Huntington crowd was "She Said Yes". The song was written about Cassie Bernall, a girl who was killed at Columbine High School afer admitting she said that god was real. Just before Smith starting singing the song, he played a small video of the girl talking about god just 6 months before her death. Following the song Michael received another standing ovation as he waved goodbye to his fans from throughout th Tri-State.