Veritas is a church tucked away at the end of what was at one time a warehouse and office building. Almost no one would know it was there were it not for the strategically placed directional signs in its vicinity. It was at this place on the edge of downtown Columbus and a portion of town with a sketchy reputation that Derek Webb and his friends in Page CXVI played the Columbus, OH part of the Ctrl Tour.

Turnout was decent, but perhaps more sparse than there would have been had it not been an OSU football Saturday (coincidentally, it was the same evening that the OSU marching band performed the halftime show currently going viral). Derek Webb was not fazed by the small-ish crowd, making the most of the intimate atmosphere. He emerged with essentially no fanfare and played the worshipful “Every Grain of Sand” which plainly pleased those die-hard fans in attendance. Following this, he briefly opened the floor up for requests and played a 20 minute set that included “Wedding Dress,” “I Repent,” “I Wanna Marry You All Over Again,” and “This Too Shall Be Made Right.” Many personal anecdotes and commentary filled the gaps between songs. Webb spoke of getting engaged in six weeks (someone correct me if I heard wrong), “…something I highly recommend,” he quipped. Following this, Webb invited the members of Page CXVI onstage to perform the background music for his full-record performance of Ctrl. With strategically placed readings from the short-story that accompanies Ctrl, Webb and friends had those in attendance captivated. Perhaps the factor I was most impressed by is simply how much power was in the performance despite the stripped down set up behind Webb. Percussion was scant more than a snare drum, cymbal and tambourine. I happened to be present during sound check, and heard Webb specifically say that he didn’t care if his voice was drowned out at times – he’d rather the feel of the songs be accurately conveyed through sheer power than the audience hear the lyrics without the emotion. Well, this was certainly true. There was no encore, just time to think about what we had just heard.

Page CXVI (pronounced like the letters or “page 116”) re-imagines hymns in an eclectic way. Vocalist Latifah has a beautiful voice, and her two bandmates weren’t too shabby either. After roughly a half hour of said hymns filling the room in an atmospheric fashion, the band closed with a cut off the SOLA-MI project, a collaboration between Latifah and Derek which many fans are speculating is paired with the Ctrl plot. I thoroughly enjoyed the set, and the trio is just as humble onstage as they are offstage. I’m a little miffed at myself for not checking them out earlier…