How do you say goodbye to one of the most creative, worshipful and groundbreaking bands in Christian music? Loudly--and passionately.

The 7 Tour rolled through Portland, Ore. on Tuesday, Oct. 11, giving the Rose City one last glimpse of the soon-disbanding David Crowder*Band.

But before the long, musical goodbye, audiences were treated to the musical stylings of similarly creative friends John Mark McMillan, Chris August and Gungor.

McMillan played a short set that introduced audiences to songs from his just-released album, Economy, including "Sheet of Night" and the moving congregational declaration, "God's Murdered Son." Noticeably absent was McMillan's runaway hit song, "How He Loves"--leaving audiences curious whether McMillan had deferred it to Crowder, who had recorded his own rendition of the song. The always-captivating McMillan left the audience wanting more after his all-too-short opening set. Plain and simple, while it was nice to have McMillan back in town--I recently reviewed his tour--it was weird not hearing more from him.

The Candyman himself, Chris August, was armed with just an acoustic guitar, and served as transition man between acts. In between comical musings and song explanations, he played a stripped-down version of his hit single, "7x70," and even introduced a new song from his forthcoming album, called "Amen." The gospel-tinged song--which would easily find its home on a Ray LaMontagne album--talks about holding on to hope in a broken world.

"Jesus came to heal everything," August explained. "The troubles of this world… they're coming to an end."

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The final warm-up act was a fragment of the musical collective called Gungor. Still one of Christian music's best-kept secrets, this band--fronted by Michael Gungor and his wife, Lisa--explores musically excellent compositions that declare the goodness and majesty of God. A full-fledged Gungor show typically is crawling with musicians--and will be coming to Portland in the Spring--but this tour featured just Mr. and Mrs. Gungor and their combination cellist, background vocalist and beatboxer, Kevin Olusola--who, by the way, can be seen Monday nights with his group Pentatonix competing against fellow CCM artist Rachael Lampa on the hit NBC show "The Sing Off." I digress.

Although there were only three musicians on stage, the sound was full, gorgeous and startlingly technical. From the subdued vibe of "When Death Dies" to the uptempo worshipful chant "Holy, Holy," to the handclaps and foot-stomps of the hoedown-friendly "You Are the Beauty," audiences unfamiliar with Gungor were mesmerized. Gungor aficionados were pleasantly pleased with the simple trio's output. And at the end of a well-orchestrated, high-energy bluegrass-inspired jam, the Crystal Ballroom erupted with cheers--some of the loudest of the evening.

With the reality of the David Crowder*Band's dissolution looming, the crowd just about crowned Gungor the successor to the most innovative modern worship band mantle.

Gungor continued with a song from Michael's old band, "Song for My Family," which proclaims, "Please forgive the wastefulness of all that we could be / But don't forget, there's more than this / Her beauty still exists / His bride is still alive." Camera phones rose from the crowd en masse as Gungor performed its most well-known song to date, "Beautiful Things." The audience could be heard singing, "You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of the dust," at the top of their lungs.

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 The David Crowder*Band didn't begin their set with flashing lights, grinding guitars or crunching synth sounds, but rather simply and solitarily. David took the stage alone as he played the keyboard. The sound crescendoed until the full band took to their instruments to begin a new, unnamed song from the upcoming (and final) album, Give Us Rest (A Requiem Mass in C [The Happiest of All Keys])--singing "O Great God, do your best." 

Always the instrumental innovator--anybody remember the modified Guitar Hero guitar?--Crowder played the Church Music song, "The Veil" with a synth pad attached to his acoustic guitar, so he could easily switch between the instruments. The 1980s-style synth and dance beats had the Crystal Ballroom's famous bouncing floor rocking.

When you hear David start off "There is No One Like You" by singing the chorus, you know you're going to have to repeat after him--loudly. Having seen Crowder a number of times at Creation Festival Northwest, I knew the routine. He sang a line; we sang a line. He sang a line; we sang a line. He then stopped us to educate us on how it's entirely proper for us to sing louder, and that really, it's more an issue of volume than of pitch. We tried again, bellowing the phrase "There is no one like You!" with a resonance not unlike screaming tantruming three year olds.

"Behold the keytar!" declared David, continuing with concert tradition. That phrase has, for several years now, been a hallmark of a David Crowder*Band performance, as well as a trademark of the song "Foreverandever, Etc." The hardcore Crowder fans also rightly expected a "Super Mario Bros." solo on the aforementioned keytar. The familiarity was endearing, especially knowing that I may never hear the phrase “Behold the keytar!” ever again.

“I am yours… forever and ever and ever and ever…” shouted the band and the audience. I realized at that moment that it’s the childlike wonder and excitement that I’ll miss the most from the David Crowder*Band.

After singing the worshipful “A Beautiful Collision” and “Intoxication,” Crowder introduced his newest single from the forthcoming Give Us Rest called “Let Me Feel You Shine.” Gone are the synths and pads of past Crowder records, replaced with vocalized “whoas” and straight-up rock instrumentation—reminiscent of Hillsong United’s song, “Solution.”

“I lift the knife to the thing I love most, praying You’ll come so I can have both,” sang Crowder in “Let Me Feel You Shine,” clearly living out the subject matter. “What I need is for You to touch me; what I need is for You to be the thing that I need.”

Following “Glory of it All,” the band played the Passion: Here For You version of “Shadows,” and I for one was surprised and impressed to hear guitarist Mark Waldrop bust out the Lecrae rap (originally from Lecrae’s song, “Boasting”). He brought it, for sure. 

Another hallmark of a Crowder show is the ridiculously long pause between the first verse and the first chorus of the song “You Are My Joy,” but this concert may have had the longest pause ever.

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The typical chatting and bantering of the band during the pause led to David’s spotting of a fan’s sign, which read, “Can I play guitar on ‘[Everything] Glorious’?” Crowder obliged, and handed the fan—also named David—his guitar. The band then played the complete song of “Everything Glorious,” and the crowd gave its loudest applause of the night for one of its own. (Looking at other reviews of the tour, it appears this song wasn't part of the standard set list.)

Once the hoopla settled down, the band went right into the chorus of “You Are My Joy” as if only seconds had passed.

“God Almighty, None Compares,” featured a sweet electric Classic Rock-style guitar harmony breakdown before “Here is Our King” brought the crowd back into engaged corporate worship.

“If you have any longevity at all as band, you’re gonna make a Christmas album; it’s just a fact of life,” David said, as he prepped the audience for a Bluegrass rendition of “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” a single from the recently released O For Joy.

The well-known Gospel song “Because He Lives” gave way to a more uptempo Gospel standard, “I Saw the Light,” which had the crowd back in hoedown mode.

Taking a decidedly more serious and somber tone, David invited McMillan, Michael Gungor and August back onstage for the most climactic, powerful moment of the evening, as together they sang “How He Loves.”

The opening notes of the song answered the question as to why McMillan hadn’t played the song. It was meant for this moment.

As the second verse neared the second half, more than a few audience members probably wondered what would happen, lyrically, as McMillan originally wrote, “Heaven meets Earth like a sloppy wet kiss,” and Crowder’s version sang, “Heaven meets Earth like an unforeseen kiss.”

The debate over “sloppy wet kiss” has gone on for quite some time. In this context, though, the author’s intent came through, as McMillan, Crowder, Gungor and August all loudly sang “sloppy wet kiss.”

It was an inspiring moment as the artists all were captivated by the obviously anointed song. The audience was part of the moment, too, as the room filled with praise from the people singing, “He loves us, oh how He loves us…”

“It’s still Christmastime in my heart. I don’t put limits on Christmas cheer,” stated an adamant David Crowder as he introduced yet another Christmas song during the mid-October concert. The band then nailed a cover of Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Carol of the Bells/Christmas in Sarajevo,” also from the Oh For Joy album.

Clearly in its final minutes, the concert offered its final “hit” from the Crowder Band in the congregational “O Praise Him.”

“Tonight is really special,” David said as he sincerely and endearingly scanned the crowd. He said that he couldn’t have imagined the ride God had planned when he first talked with Passion’s Louie Giglio about sharing his songs with the world.

“These aren’t your songs,” David quoted Giglio saying. “We felt a responsibility for sharing them. We’ve done our best to carry these songs for 11 years. Thank you all for being part of the ride.”

Ending where the “ride” began, the band closed the evening with one of their very first songs, “All I Can Say.” Quietly, acoustically and somberly, the David Crowder*Band said a heartfelt goodbye.