Hillsong Album Recording 2008

Hillsong recorded their latest live album on Sunday at the Acer Arena and what a night it was… amazing, I think its the best album they've done.

So without further ado, here's what went down…

A single spotlight lit the centre of the stage and Joel walked into the light, he talked about the heart of the night, the reason why we were there and then he read from Isaiah. After that the lights went down, and then the guitars kicked into the intro for Your Name High (written by Joel), which Joel led. The sound was amazing, in previous years they've tried to keep the live sound from spilling into the mic's used to record the crowd I guess to make overdubbing easier, but probably in light of the I Heart project they have a new philosophy now… just crank it up.
Your Name High is a great song, its uptempo and a progression of the style seen in Point Of Difference on AOTA, complete with a great section of wo-oh-oh's that you'll be singing for hours after hearing it.

Next the band launched into Run (Joel Houston), similar to Your Name High, four to the floor uptempo number. Again Joel led this one.

A quick personnel change and we're into the next song, Matt Crocker runs onto the centre of the stage and leads us in Across The Earth (Matt Crocker & Reuben). This is a mid-tempo song, that has a great tag at the end "Your kingdom reigns, Your kingdom reigns, above all, above all". The song ended with the tag being sung just with keys for backing.

Lights down and then Donna Crouch appears in a spotlight reading from Isaiah. While she does this there's another personnel change and Joel disappears and is replaced by Jill, who leads us in the next song Fall At Your Feet (Reuben). Its a great ballad, typical Reuben style, however Jill really adds something to the song with her vocal, its a highlight of the night.

After this Annie Garratt moves centre stage and leads He Is Lord (Ben Fielding). Another ballad but this one is very hymn-like with a big bridge and tag line at the end "He's coming back again…".
Really good song.

At this point, there's another change and Jill leaves the stage and Darlene comes on to lead us in a new song, High And Lifted Up (Darlene). This is the first time we've done this song at church, its a good one but maybe not the best she's written though.

From there the band moves into a 6/8 groove as Jad takes a break from music directing and leads us in Stronger (Reuben and Ben Fielding). This is a great song, classic Reuben stuff. Think What The Lord Has Done and you're not far off.

At the end of this song, Mike Guglielmucci walks onto stage, carrying an oxygen tank and with tubes in his nose. He walks centre stage and begins to read from Isaiah 53. The passage finishes with the line "and by His stripes I am healed" and the whole crowd goes crazy cheering him on. Then someone hands him a guitar and he leads us in his song Healer. This totally goes off, his faith is so inspiring, I think everyone in the room felt the atmosphere change as he began to sing. This is more than a song to him, its a prayer and declaration of faith. It was so powerful.

They joined this with the tag line from You Are Here (not sure of the writers, maybe Dave George and someone from London?), Joel leading this… "The same power that conquered the grave lives in me". Its a great ending to the first half of the night.

The second half opens with Joel A'Bell reading from Isaiah and then we're into You Deserve (from the Gromie's EP) led by Sam Knock. Its a favourite here at Hillsong.

The momentum continues with JD as he leads us in Alive In You (Scott Ligertwood and Mike Guglielmucci), another uptempo song, has a bit of an English feel to it.

Desert Prayer (Brooke) is then led by Brooke and Jill. Mid tempo song, not sure how many congregations could sing this one but it was a good song nonetheless.

You'll Come (Brooke), led by Brooke and Darlene. You can check this out on the I Heart album.

After this Brooke sang part of the old hymn Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, just her and her guitar.

Another change saw Marty come on stage and make his only appearance to lead Sing To The Lord (Matt Crocker and Mike Gug). It added a freshness to this song having a male lead where you would expect it to be a female vocalist leading. It's a great song, sounds like its been lifted from a Planetshakers album.

Approaching the end of the night now and Joel Davies came on stage to lead Where We Belong (Reuben and Joel Davies). This is a real grower of a song. Lots of words to fit in but I really like it, its a bit different and unexpected for Hillsong.

Then the last song was epic. Joel led his new song With Everything. Previous to this night I'd only heard the tag in church so it was great to hear the full song. There really is no other word for this song than epic. It starts off with Joel on his acoustic guitar and some keys providing backing and builds to a massive instrumental ending with 2 extra drummers on stage with a snare each smashing away.

After everyone walked off stage the choir (in the mosh pit) began to sing the tag line of this song over and over for another 5 minutes until it became clear that the team weren't coming back on stage for an encore.

For those interested in who played… Drummers were Brandon Gillies and Rolf did a half each, Gabe made an appearance with a snare for the last song. Matt Tenni and Bob played bass. There were 4 keys players, with 3 playing at any one time, Kev Lee, Peter James, Autumn and Dave Andrew. There was a stack of guitarists and for most of the songs there were 4 electric guitarists going at the same time… Nigel, Timon, Ben Fielding, Dylan Thomas, Andrew and Joel (from the Gromies), Jad, Dean Ussher.
Reuben played electric all night, Joel, Jill, Brooke, Marty and Sam Knock played acoustic guitar. There was also a small string section for a few songs and then a brass section for another bunch of songs.