POCATELLO — The Portneuf Health Trust Amphitheatre’s acoustics will be in full use this month when four-time Grammy Award winning duo and recording artist group for King & Country performs live under the stars for their first ever Summer Nights Tour at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

The Christian pop duo, composed of Australian-born brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone, will not just be playing fan-favorite songs, but will also be bringing an experience that involves inspirational stories, performances on more than 40 instruments and a celebration of the human experience in an outdoor venue.

“Naturally, summer becomes all the special events, you know, the theme parks, the water parks, the festivals. And so as a band you end up doing those types of events in the summer,” said Joel Smallbone during a phone interview. “But this is the first time we said, 'Hey, what if rather than doing a lot of those, we sort of set aside a few weeks and just went into specific outdoor venues and just made it our own experience, versus, you know, just going to the charming theme park or festival?'”

Joel, who immigrated to the United States with his family from Australia to Nashville, Tennessee, when he was a child, explained for King & Country will perform both hit songs and new music.

“By the time we make it to you we should have some new moments in the set (list) to share with you,” he explained. “We take a lot of pride in playing everyone’s favorites and even might slip in a Christmas song or two because that’s one of people’s favorites from our band, as well. But for the most part, it’s just a ‘best of’ of what we do and, in this case, coupled with some new music.”

Many of the band’s performance will be geared towards implementing dozens of instruments the group can play, which he explained is something akin to organized chaos when the songs get rolling.

“I literally walked up onto the stage the other day and did a bit of a count as to how many instruments we had on the stage and I counted 46,” he said. “I think it might have gone up since then. There’s eight of us on stage. Most of us are multi-instrumentalists. And so it’s really beautiful, and you can never quite get a hold of where everyone’s going to be next. There’s a lot of switching around. We use a lot of technology on stage as well, curtains falling on the stage, cyber collaborations … we try to keep it interesting.”

Drums are among their most frequently used instruments on stage — lots of drums.

“One of the (most fun) things that I feel like most people know us for at this point is we just have a lot of drums,” he said. “Concert drums, symphony drums, bass drums, snare drums. I mean, we just got all these drums. It probably compromises half the instruments on stage, and that’s just really fun.”

While Joel himself tends to gravitate towards programming, producing, and vocals, overall he said his and his brother’s main goal for performing is to keep the focus on the message of the songs, especially after getting through a year weighed down by COVID-19.

“I really want to make sure Luke … and I are making the main thing the main thing, and that is just being able to be unencumbered and present this music and these thoughts and ideas in a free way,” he said.

“And honestly now more than ever, so much of what we’ve faced over the past year, the tragedy of loss of life, and economic loss and mental health loss but then also the tragic loss of not being able to gather together,” he continued. “People from different political, spiritual, ethnic positions, being able to gather together under the banner of loving this band or this song, there’s just such a great loss. To have this opportunity once again (to share our work), it’s something we’re certainly not taking lightly.”

In addition to this, the main theme he hopes that people take away from for King & Country’s music is the idea that there is a purpose to life and that we as humans should celebrate this gift each day.

“One thing we firmly hold onto as Australian-Americans, as immigrants, is we hold onto this idea that there is a purpose, there’s a thread of purpose throughout life no matter how hellish or hard it can be,” he said. “We have been fearfully and wonderfully made and that’s a cause for celebration. That is one half of it that is just a conversation of hopefulness and how so much hope can be found in coming together under God. And then secondly this idea of celebrating life, celebrating the ability to gather, the fact that there’s air in our lungs, the fact that we made it through last year. And that’s something we’re taking very seriously coming into ... the new season is what does it look like to actually just celebrate that we made it? It’s a big deal.”

For those interested in attending for King & Country Summer Nights Tour on July 31, visit https://eventticketscenter.com for tickets which start at $39 per seat up to $75.

The Portneuf Health Trust Amphitheatre is located at 2375 Olympus Drive.