Singer Audrey Assad Charms with Ecclesia Performance

On the night of Oct. 2, I walked into Ecclesia Church for an Audrey Assad concert and immediately felt uncomfortable. Ecclesia, a renovated warehouse on Elder, is the trendiest place I have ever seen. Everyone was wearing flannel shirts and thick-framed glasses. The place had its own coffee shop inside the church (the mochas are excellent). The seating was an eclectic collection of pews, chairs, barstools and couches. Usually this amount of overt trendiness would send me running in the opposite direction, but my desire to hear the lovely voice of Audrey Assad motivated me to stop judging and give the church a chance. I am so glad I did. 

Assad, a contemporary Christian artist, is currently on her last tour. As she explained on social media, she is transitioning from Christian music to pop. If these last few concerts are meant to give her Christian fans something to remember her by -- she certainly succeeded.

Assad entered the stage with such humility and grace, I barely noticed the shift had been made from the opening act to her own music. She proceeded to play the whole concert from behind her keyboard, singing quietly at times but always with great conviction and beauty. Incredibly understated and sweet, her voice flowed purely throughout her songs, particularly those from her newest EP Death, Be Not Proud. Particularly, she performed the titular work “Death, Be Not Proud” movingly.

With a simple posture, soft lighting and graphics of 18^th century Christian artwork, Assad skillfully set the mood for her song. Her barebones voice -- free from excessive accompaniment, background vocals and stylization -- created an incredibly poignant experience.

Interspersed with her music, Assad shared personal anecdotes in a casual, sincere way. At one point, she explained how her baby travels with her on tour. The night before she had panicked over the fact that her little boy was sleeping so soundly. What if he was dead? she thought anxiously. But if she went to check on him, he would only wake up and not be able to sleep for the rest of the night. But what if he was dead? Suddenly, the fact that she had named her tour “Death, Be Not Proud” would be terribly ironic. As the whole audience laughed over her story, I realized this warmth and charm is something that makes her such a great musician. Everything she sings is just like this story -- genuine and personal to her, yet something everyone can relate to as well. Somehow she made a large warehouse of people feel like we were sharing a private joke with a friend. Her ability to transform a good-sized concert into what felt like a group of friends gathered around the living room piano is such a remarkable gift.

Though it is sad to see Assad leave the world of Christian music, where she has recorded such beautiful albums, she could not have ended this era of her career any better. The Death, Be Not Proud tour is something truly special. It does what every concert should—take the music one loves and makes one love it in a new light. Though the recordings lack the gorgeous effortlessness of her live performance, I highly recommend her most recent EP, Death, Be Not Proud, and look forward to what she does next in her musical career.