The Petra Zone

Just got an email...Classic Petra's concert in Dallas for this coming weekend has been cancelled. Tickets will be refunded. I'm officially bummed.

stsmedia wrote:Just got an email...Classic Petra's concert in Dallas for this coming weekend has been cancelled. Tickets will be refunded. I'm officially bummed.

The cp sites says Texas dates cancelled, so that means San Antonio, too. I'm bummed, too, but as I said in a different thread, not one word of advertising have I heard, so if they cancelled due to lack of ticket sales, I'm not surprised.

Yeah they sold just over 300 as of Monday for the Dallas show and promoter gave them the option to back out and they did; which you can't blame them.
They did have an ad in The Dallas Morning News last Friday in the concert section of the entertainment guide.

I'm sorry but they were doing a 70 min+ set with talk and the cheapest tickets were $28. We saw Skillet this summer for $21 and they played for 2.5 hrs. There is something totally wrong here.

executioner wrote:I'm sorry but they were doing a 70 min+ set with talk and the cheapest tickets were $28. We saw Skillet this summer for $21 and they played for 2.5 hrs. There is something totally wrong here.

Maybe I shouldn't comment since I don't really know but this is my speculation but here it goes: Skillet toured non-stop from March-October, took a month off, and is now touring again, non-stop. They played several dates in Texas and from what I can tell, they tour on a bus, their lives are absolutely dedicated to their music, and they are still relatively young. Since they have all the things above, they can play more dates, play for longer, etc. etc. etc. Their costs are low to put on a show and they are in demand and have a great staff.

Classic Petra, on the other hand, is only playing dates once or twice a month, very rarely going from state to state in anything other than a plane, have no consistent national following, opening acts, sponsors, or anything else to drive the costs of the concerts down.. Now, why they are only playing 70 minutes, I can't answer that but they aren't exactly in their 30s anymore so I can only point to that as being the reason ... I mean, let's be honest. I want them to play longer too, but I also want them to survive and you can't rock that long on stage at their age and expect for voices, stamina, health etc. to remain. As much as I don't like the Gaither stuff, they've got the concert experience down to a capital T and have a couple of hours worth of entertainment but aren't belting it constantly either. Since it is such a large event, they aren't all on the stage at once and take breaks. I mean, some of Greg's notes that he is singing are unbelievable. I have a fairly high voice for what most people would consider normal and those notes that he sings are once in a lifetime type notes for me ...

This sucks.. maybe I won't get to see CP now.

Now, why they are only playing 70 minutes, I can't answer that but they aren't exactly in their 30s anymore so I can only point to that as being the reason ..

They're not 80 either...

I don't think it's age. John does solo shows that generally run 80+ minutes, and he's the only one on stage. No breaks or breathers there!

That's it. Touring means the costs are averaged out. A couple of one-offs a month is not a tour and the costs are much higher. The other thing to remember is that CP is older, and the people who would come to see them are probably older. All of us need to go to bed early . I don't think CP has enough music to play a 2.5 hour set, do they?

BTW, what the heck is going on with the weather? Oklahoma is having earth quakes (over a thousand last year when they used to have a few hundred) and it is getting ready to snow in Kansas.

CP will have a longer set after the new album right?

Daniel wrote:CP will have a longer set after the new album right?

Which new album? The one they were supposed to record in April and that should already have been released by now? As far as I know they haven't even started recording BTTR2.

They should try to join one of those CCM touring packages, e.g. The Rock And Worship Road Show. Then they only have to play short sets and they'll be part of a far larger crew. Or they should join Newsboys or some other popular band as support act. Of course that will put a heavy strain on them, because these aren't exactly quiet tours. I can imagine if they wouldn't really want to do that, but then they might join part of one of those tours. If bands like Newsboys and Third Day have so much respect for Petra, they might show that by inviting them to tour with them.

p-freak wrote:

Daniel wrote:CP will have a longer set after the new album right?

Which new album? The one they were supposed to record in April and that should already have been released by now? As far as I know they haven't even started recording BTTR2.

They should try to join one of those CCM touring packages, e.g. The Rock And Worship Road Show. Then they only have to play short sets and they'll be part of a far larger crew. Or they should join Newsboys or some other popular band as support act. Of course that will put a heavy strain on them, because these aren't exactly quiet tours. I can imagine if they wouldn't really want to do that, but then they might join part of one of those tours. If bands like Newsboys and Third Day have so much respect for Petra, they might show that by inviting them to tour with them.

That's a great idea Pieter, but do you think any of those guys would want CP to open for them? Newboys etc.. fans are very different.

This is a huge letdown. The cost really is not high for a concert. I've been to plenty of artists that play approx. 70 minutes (newsboys anyone) so I don't buy those as reasons for poor ticket sales. Maybe a couple people. It takes a little money to market a show, and by little I mean a lot. It's too bad the band had to cancel. They have a great message and product.

Daniel wrote:That's a great idea Pieter, but do you think any of those guys would want CP to open for them? Newboys etc.. fans are very different.

If people want to see Third Day or Newsboys and it turns out that Classic Petra is part of the deal, they'll go anyway, even if they're dead set against Petra (which would be stupid). I've been to many shows where the support acts were totally uninteresting to me, but I still went to see them. So this could even mean some extra exposure and a possibility to find new fans.

I think it all depends on Newsboys/ThirdDay/whatever management. Even if individuals within a band would have great admiration and respect for Petra, then management will probably want to convince them to not let Classic Petra tour with them because of all kinds of business reasons. Someone in the CCM community just needs to stick their neck out. Without that, Classic Petra might as well call it quits as live band and just records lots of new music.

I wish back in 2005 when they decided to retire that they just would've started churning out JAH2, 3 and 4 independently. I think Bob's a little bit too much old school for going in this direction. So it actually surprised me that they initially went the indie way with Classic Petra. I'm not sure what going to happen on the Classic Petra front now. If they keep cancelling shows and the future remains unclear, then why continue? Unless they get picked up by a good record company (does anyone know anything about ANR?) and become part of some existing touring circus, they'll never get anywhere and their impact will be minor.

From what I've heard from the promoter is ANR is still in the mix and have brought a management/booking team with them, but it will take some reorganization and time; so I guess you can say they are starting over. They did some studio time in August/Sept redoing some classics for a second album but have stopped and not real sure how far they got in the process.
I expect it to be quiet for awhile. I've said this before and will say it again, they need more than these 5 current members to make this thing successful. I think the Gaither blueprint is the only way to go and bring members from all eras to get this thing off the ground.

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