The Petra Zone

Posted: **Mon Sep 27, 2004 7:42 am**

A DISASTER, but not because of Petra.

We arrived at Shoutfest at about 1:30 right when they were opening the gates. At 1:50 the music started with 3 local bands that were in a contest to see who would get a trip to Nashville for an opportunity to sign a record deal. On the second song of the third band the main speakers/subs went out. They had overloaded the generator and basically blew it up, but unlike most concert organizations they did not have a backup generator. They came out on stage and said they were looking all over the state but was having a hard finding one; Well three & half hours later they finally got one and the show started. All the opening bands got to play only 2-3 songs. The only one I was impressed with was Jonah 33, but they kinda played sloppy.

Petra was the first main act to play and they did not disappoint. It was short but awesome! I have to first talk about Paul; What an awesome drummer, he was pumped up and was doing everything in his power to get the crowd pumped up. I got to talk with him after the show and is so on fire for God, and said as long as Petra will have me I'll be there. He is the real thing. There is NO DOUBT in my mind he is the best drummer Petra has ever had. Also you can tell that Greg is having a good time and can you believe that Greg has been with the band for almost 3 years alreadly. I'll be honest this is the happiest I've seen John in years, he looks like the weight of the world has been taken off of him. I think it has alot to do with Bob being back out on the road. I asked Bob about the next album and he said most of the songs are written or are in their minds with what they want to do and will be along the same lines as JAH. He said look for it late spring/early summer if everyting goes to schedule. I was really surprised on how much Bob wanted to talk to everyone. Everyone thinks he is the quiet one, but he was going up to people and starting the conversations.

I know I've only seen one very short concert with this current lineup, but I have to agree with MJ and say this is the best lineup as far as professionalism, heart, & soul Petra has ever had. I've seen at least one Petra concert on every tour since NSD and have never seen them play so well together. They gelled on and off the stage like no other Petra before them.

MJ,

BTW the Sight unseen/TMW/It Is Finished medley rocked! I am very excited about the future of Petra; We just need to keep praying for them especially the business side because it is really hurting them right now.

Posted: **Mon Sep 27, 2004 8:05 am**

A funny Paul incident... he seems to enjoy spinning sticks in the air... I mean throwing them and letting them spin over his head, and then catching them when they come down. In Kansas one time he threw one of the sticks in the air... put out his hand to catch it... and MISSED! hehe he was sitting there with his hand out for a few seconds, like a Three Stooges gag, but he kept playing, and honestly you couldn't tell he was missing a stick at all. (I didn't see where the replacement stick came from, but a few measures later he was playing two-handed again.) Cat didn't even notice a thing; he didn't miss a beat.

Posted: **Mon Sep 27, 2004 12:17 pm**

Yeah, he did the same thing during the Cincy show last month. I was pretty impressed with him, though I don't know much about drummers. It's enjoyable to see the band gell the way they have, sound problems notwithstanding (Cincy had its fair share, too).

Posted: **Mon Sep 27, 2004 7:57 pm**

Petra's set at ShoutFest in Somerset, KY also had audio problems. The guys really seemed to handle it well--very professional. I guess they've gotten use to the audio setbacks seeing the reviews of other ShoutFest events and the problems that have occurred. Other than that, the event seemed to go off without a hitch.

Posted: **Tue Sep 28, 2004 9:04 pm**

I've Petra twice this year in PA, and both times Paul dropped the stick. I'm beginning to think it is an act.

Posted: **Wed Sep 29, 2004 4:40 am**

Check the post below...

Posted: **Wed Sep 29, 2004 4:41 am**

Yep...Paul dropped the stick a couple of times in Somerset, but he really seemed to be having a good time. He didn't miss a beat though--he kept right on playing with one just as well as if he had two. It's good to see the playfulness come out on stage.

Posted: **Wed Sep 29, 2004 8:14 am**

Here's an account of the day from one of the guys in one of the battle-of-the-bands groups. This is posted at The Kross message board, but since you have to actually create a login to even READ messages there, I'll repost here:

WOW What an amazing day!! Well folks here is the way it all happened. We get to the festival and we draw for performance slots and we are first which I like just fine because we get a good sound check. While setting up my guitar rig I noticed right off that my volt meter on my Furman power supply is flashing to tell me the power is dangerously high at about 130 volts. I inform the production manager and he confirms my fears and adds to them saying the generator is having trouble handling the load and so they idled it up to 130 volt. Well I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics Technology so I know that its all about the current not the voltage and that they are in trouble, but hey this is a big operation and they know what they are doing so I go on setting up.

We get through our 2 songs and we did everything as good as can be done so we were pleased and done for the day, so we thought.

Well the last band "Unshaken" takes the stage and they have a track that they play with and at a chorus it has a subsonic kick drum effect that kills the power, generator and all!!

An hour goes by nothing but failed attempts to get the PA up and running. 2 hours still nothing people start to trickle out, so Jeff Roberts gets a small generator to power the guitar amps on stage and has "Unshackens" guitar player play because it is his amp that is still sitting there, oh yeah did I mention that he is playing with Petraï¿½s bass player and drummer!! So I grab my guitar because this guy really doesn't know that much music I guess because after about 1 and 1/2 songs they are all looking at each other like, what do we do now?!?! Well Petraï¿½s drummer gets a kid out of the audience who says he plays drums and this kid does a blues jam with me and Petraï¿½s bassist and the kid is not bad so we tear it up for about 5 minutes till the kid just can't play no more, thanks Christian if you are out there it was lots of fun. Well about that time the rest of my band shows up ready to go and so we have a wonderful time playing a couple of instrumentals and leading the over 5000 people in 5 worship songs!! What a blessing!! Oh did I mention that all we had were bass, guitar and the acoustic sound of the drums and the crowd did the singing after I got them started!! We did this for a while I honestly have no idea how long we were on the stage but it was long enough that we started feeling like we were hogging the stage, but we weren't because Jeff Roberts walked up behind me during one song and said "keep going the generator should be here in about 10 minutes". We finish to a big applause and they give away some stuff and make some announcements.

So 4 hours go by from the time the power went and at around 6:30 a new generator arrives from Dallas, and they were lucky to get that one because most of the countries generators are in Florida, and it gets going again with no trouble. At about 7:30 "Jonah 33" are playing and one of the crew comes and asks me to get him 4 CD's I said sure but asked David to do it because I was WIPED OUT from the marathon worship service we did.

About 30 minutes later David comes back and tells us what the CD's are for. Jeff Roberts was so impressed by all 3 bands and said that the bands were so good, and that he had never run into this kind of thing where he just could not bring himself to leave any of the bands out, that he was going to declare an unofficial 3 way tie!! Though he said he would have to announce a winner all 3 bands would get a chance to be heard by the A&R people at the label and a shot at the grand prize, and honestly they are looking for more than just a grand prize winner.

Now we entered this for only one reason because I have been around long enough to know that most time talent contests are not really about talent but are usually popularity contests and who can get the most people to come. Our reason is that we had prayed that we would get our music to Jeff Roberts, because that is who we want as a booking agent, about 1 week before we found out about Shoutfest and the contest. And I felt like God was telling us that we should enter and that He would use this to get us an audience with Mr. Roberts well as you can see we not only were heard by him, because he was one of the judges, but David personally handed him 4 of our CD's and Jeff Roberts thanked us for saving the show!! Because as he said, "people were starting to leave and we kept them there" and he was very grateful for that.

IS GOD GREAT OR WHAT!?!?!?

Well that's it, what a day I have pictures and video and I will let you know and see as soon as I post them on the website. I have one picture where I stepped in front of someone for a moment to get a side stage photo of Petra playing with my cell phone and when I turned around to say sorry and thanks for their patience I found out I had just stepped in front of Michael Tait and his band!

Posted: **Thu Sep 30, 2004 4:50 pm**

Wow MJ, thanks for posting that! Very cool how God worked things out for this band. It helps to have talent and the willingness to give it to God so He can use it in a time of need.

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