The Petra Zone

Just thought I'd post my review of Petra's concert in Independence, IA...yeah, I know...Petrarocks beat me to it...

A band called CROSSED opened. WAAAAY too much bass in the mix...couldn't hardly understand what the female vocalist was singing.

PETRA came out to an overwhelming response. I was glad to see Bob Hartman back with them...he looked really stoked to be playing live again.

John Schlitt...where does this guy get his energy? Sang excellent, hit the high notes, and was really into giving the crowd a good show. During Bob's solos, he would jokingly mess with the drummer's kit, or play air guitar.

Here was the set list (can't remember the order...sorry!):

---"Beyond Belief" and "Creed" from BEYOND BELIEF
---"Sight Unseen" and "Dance" from UNSEEN POWER
---"Right Place" from NO DOUBT
---"The Noise We Make" from REVIVAL
---Medley: "I Will Call Upon the Lord", which morphed into "Ancient of Days", then back to "I Will..."
---Volz-era medley...since I am not familiar with those songs, I don't know what the titles were except for "It Is Finished"
---3 songs from the new JEKYLL & HYDE album..."Perfect World", "All About Who You Know", and "Jekyll and Hyde" (this song came off HUGE live!)
---"He Came, He Saw, He Conquered" from THIS MEANS WAR!
---They did an amazing hard rock version of "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High"
---Encore was "Show Your Power" after an excellent altar call by Bob Hartman

Two more things...You know, most bands wouldn't have given it their all in such a small town like Independence, IA, but these guys played like they were in front of a stadum crowd...major props for that. Also, they were extremely polite and friendly during a "meet-and-greet" after the show, signing autographs and taking pictures. I thanked John for the great show and I told Bob that it's really good to see him play live again, and he said he really missed playing in concert.

Only thing that would have made this show more perfect is if they had played any material off of the ON FIRE album..."Mine Field"..."Somebody's Gonna Praise His Name"..."Open Book"..."Counsel of the Holy"...okay, you get the picture!
But who am I to quibble? Great choice of songs spanning many albums.

"And I don't even like pears that well...no, I don't even like 'em at all!" ---from "St. Augustine's Pears"

Great review! Wish I was there.....

Just wondering, with it being in a small town, what kind of venue was it at, and about how many people were there?

The concert was actually a "Youth For Christ" production...from what I heard, 10 or 12 churches in Independence, IA worked together to bring Petra to their area.

I would estimate the crowd at around 200 people...but remember, I'm lousy at guesstimating! Most of the crowd were pre-teens and teenagers...making a 34-yr-old like me feel REALLY old!

The concert was held at the Independence High School. The town's population is approximately 4000-5000 people. Which makes my comment about Petra's professionalism in giving the crowd an all-out show worth mentioning again. Most bands would have thought, "Well, we're in this little bumpkin town in Iowa, let's just go thru the motions.". Petra did not think like that, and played like they were in front of 5000 people...FULL THROTTLE!

One thing I noticed is that Independence reminded me of my hometown, Winterset, IA...almost the same population. Made me almost wistful to be back home again...*sniff*...okay, I'm over it now!

"And I don't even like pears that well...no, I don't even like 'em at all!" ---from "St. Augustine's Pears"