UNITED’S BIGGEST NIGHT YET
Houston did return to United after his time away, and the band has continued playing concerts all over the world, even becoming the first Christian act to ever sell out the Staples Center in Los Angeles. This summer, they enjoyed one of their biggest moments to date at the legendary Hollywood Bowl. “LA has always been one of those places that felt like home for us,” Houston says. “Back in the day, when we first started coming to the States, everybody would give us every reason why it wasn’t going to work here. It might work in Canada. It might work in South Africa. It might work in Australia, but the U.S. was supposed to be different. They said we would have to do 200 dates and just run through the Bible Belt over and over and over again and build it up. But that wasn’t us. It’s not what we were called to do. “For whatever reason, early on, we would go to LA and people would just turn up,” he continues. “Like at Staples Center a couple years ago—when we played there, it was a huge risk and people were like, ‘That’s crazy.’ But we sold it out and it was awesome. So when it came around to this time,
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Staples was unavailable and we didn’t want to go backward. The Hollywood Bowl was just sitting there, and we wondered, ‘Is it possible for us to do that?’ We were told, ‘It’s pointless, don’t even try doing it.’ “It’s important to remember that going into this season with Zion, I didn’t even know where we were going to land. I didn’t know if people were still hungry for what we were doing, so I remember sitting there talking about whether we were going to do that date and we just decided to take the risk and do it. “So when it came to that night, it was incredible. It was packed out. Just an amazing, amazing night. All our friends and family were there, and to me it was just a little bit of an answer to prayer. It was a little bit of God going, ‘I’m still in this with you guys.’” Longtime United member Jonathon “JD” Douglass agrees that playing at the Hollywood
Bowl was an incredible moment. “To be honest, I got slightly teary and emotional when we took the stage at the faithfulness and grace of God,” he says. “To think that a bunch of very ordinary but passionate young people from a church on the other side of the planet would get to lead worship in an incredibly influential city and such an iconic venue where all the big bands have played was such a humbling experience. I will never forget that night. I think what stood out the most is that everyone sang so loudly and worshiped so passionately. It’s exciting to see what God is doing in His Church and you can only think that the best days for His Church are yet to come.” As if playing in front of 15,000 people wasn’t enough, Houston says the real highlight of the night came from two specific people who caught his attention early on. “At the Hollywood Bowl, people pay in advance for the whole season to see all of the big shows that come through,” Houston explains. “So I remember when we started off, we came out and there was this huge crowd and the atmosphere was incredible. But there was this couple in their 50s,