The Petra Zone

Petra facebook page censors positive comments about Louie or the dream team lineup. Try for yourself.

I wonder who's doing the censoring?

So first of all, I’m curious as to which page you’re referring to. There are several out there but if you’re referring to the official reunion page that is there current management/business partners and as a private business they have the right to censor anything they would like. Bob and John have said the current band members are what constitutes the band. I don’t particularly agree with it and choose not to see this incarnation.I’d love to see Bob, John, John L and Greg B. I think particularly since they are marketing themselves as the 50th Anniversary tour that they should be actively engaging past members. My comments concerning Louis on their page was not censored, but that was several years ago.

I presume it is an official page. The verification, meaning the blue tick, is something you can purchase these days, so I could be wrong. I know, of course, that it is well within the rights of anyone with a company to remove discourse from a page they manage. The company I own removes content regularly, and that’s with 30k+ active daily users. This is simply an observation.

Regarding the current lineup, I haven’t seen them. Would I like to… yes, but there’s no denying that the Dream Team (I know people can’t stand that term) is much more desirable. However, it seems that it isn’t something that can happen from either a business or personal point of view. I get it; a band is like a marriage—sometimes it just can’t go back. I yearn for the old days sometimes, but overall, no… living in the past isn’t constructive. However, when G’N’R got the original band back together, sales, streams, and the tour went through the roof.

Yeah, I get it about putting the band back together and that’s an old subject. At this point, most of the team members such as Bob and John are too old and have too much money to have to worry about any of it. But I think we’re in a unique and special situation. They’re marketing themselves now as a 50th-anniversary tour of the band that we’ve all loved for decades. Understandably they can’t get everyone back together, but as I see it, there are three distinctive groups that we all cherish. The originals from the 70s, Classic Petra, which reunited a few years ago, with variable success, and the dream team. I guess my thing is I wish they had been able to better coordinate and incorporate some of the members from these three incarnations rather than going with the status quo. Specifically when we consider Louie. They should’ve done a better job of incorporating him, regardless of her feelings and attitudes.

When a band has had as many members as Petra, it's hard to say which is the "real" band, but I will say the current touring lineup doesn't resonate with me emotionally like "Classic Petra" or "The Dream Team". Greg Bailey and Christian Bonero are fine musicians, and Bailey has been an official touring member for over two decades, but neither of those guys have appeared on a single studio album, so it's hard for me to think of them as "real" Petra.

To me, there are two Dream Teams:

Volz, Hartman, Slick, Kelly, Weaver

and

Schlitt, Hartman, Lawry, Cates, Weaver

That's who pops in my mind when I think of Petra.

Mountain Man wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 20, 2025 7:24 am

When a band has had as many members as Petra, it's hard to say which is the "real" band, but I will say the current touring lineup doesn't resonate with me emotionally like "Classic Petra" or "The Dream Team". Greg Bailey and Christian Bonero are fine musicians, and Bailey has been an official touring member for over two decades, but neither of those guys have appeared on a single studio album, so it's hard for me to think of them as "real" Petra.

To me, there are two Dream Teams:

Volz, Hartman, Slick, Kelly, Weaver

and

Schlitt, Hartman, Lawry, Cates, Weaver

That's who pops in my mind when I think of Petra.

I agree 100%

Greg B has played on a Petra album/DVD. I think Greg got screwed out of the J&H album, but I get it. Greg likes aggressive bass and tone so it would have been in his wheelhouse.

I don't know anything about their business now, but it used to be that Bob essentially owned/ran the recording side, and John owned/ran the live side. With Bob returning for the last tour, there's probably another arrangement.

People think the touring Petra band records the records. They NEVER have. There have ALWAYS been substitutions or additional musicians. This saved time, money, etc. Most pop and rock artists contract touring musicians. Back in the day, hardly anyone recorded their stuff. Even in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, tracks were replaced and augmented.

It's hard not to romanticize bands, but bands are like TV shows and movies. They aren't real life. People agree to do a job, and they do it until they don't or can't. What you see on stage isn't real life all of the time. They come together for a while, do their thing, then leave and do what we cannot see. People dislike one another and do the same things everyone else says about or does to annoy people we work with. All of that crap adds up.

We have to think about the sustainability of the "ministry." Bob is....well, he is Bob. John Schlitt. He's not replaceable, either. The rest of the guys don't matter. Anyone can do those other parts, and the band will still sound like the band.

Younger and different players provide benefits to the touring band. We must also consider life's calling, work, and schedules. The old guys can't just do a fly gig like the young guys. The old guys can't play as well as the young guys. The old guys today vs the old guys in their prime isn't the same either.

My Petra playlist stops, excludes everything past No Doubt, and picks up again at J&H. The world and music changed, and my years of impressionability ceased.

Yeah, I know there's a lot of studio magic that goes into making an album, but the guys are still somewhere in the mix doing their thing.