This is a fairly large church and I estimate there are about 300 people in attendance. I was excited to meet Britt Mooney & Steve Chalk there from Christian Geeks Rockcast (https://geeksrockcast.com/). I rode with a friend from church, Glenn Alfonso. Alexander from my church was there with his son. Carl Moorhead from Australia who is a MOD for the Christian Metal Group (https://www.christianmetalgroup.com/) was with us as well.
The first thing I noticed is that this is not a Stryper crowd but they are an older rock crowd. Glenn said “Of the fifteen times I have seen them, this is one of the best shows!” Britt said “ This is not like going to a Petra show in 1988.” Three members are 74 years old and still rocking for Jesus.
Kimber was the opening act. She is from Nashville. She is a solo country worship act with backing tracks. Next they played a video about FCA (Fellowship Of Christian Athletes, https://www.fca.org/) because this concert is a fundraiser for the organization. Two representatives of the organization spoke about what they do and how they help people. Jake Rager came up next. He is a local Atlanta, GA worship leader and recording artist. He had a full band with him and a female backing vocalist. He played an acoustic Guitar on some songs. Then they played a great video congratulating Petra for 60 years of music. The video featured actors and musicians. Included in the video was Kevin Sorbo, Michael Barnes of Red, Steven Curtis Chapman, Tobymac, Mac Powell, Tait, Chaotic Resemblance, Josh McDowell, Jay Sekulow, Rex Carroll of Whitecross, Phil Keaggy, Michael Sweet of Stryper, John Cooper of Skillet, and more. Then another FCA speaker came up to speak about the organization.
Petra was finally going on stage and this is what we came for! This was my first time getting to see this band live and I was thankful for the opportunity. John Schlitt is a great frontman. He really knows how to work the crowd and entertain. The keyboardist, John Lawry, brought a keytar for some of the songs. They introduced the band and told us that Bob Hartman was the only original member since the band formed in 1972. Because they have been making music for over 53 years, there is no way they could play all of the hits and fan favorites so they played a medley of songs that started and ended with It Is Finished. That was a lot of fun. Then John Lawry did a fantastic keyboard solo. He has three keyboards, a synth, and a keytar. As he was ending the solo, Chris Borneo went into a great drum solo.
Bob sang Lucas McGraw. a bluegrass song with acoustic guitar that is on the first album. It is a fun song that the older crowd seems to enjoy. Bob explained why he wrote that song in 1972. He then went on to play some acoustic songs and the bass player played an electric violin. They played their version of Lord I Lift Your Name On High but then they played a lot of deep cuts that the crowd thoroughly enjoyed. The encore was All Fired Up and He Rose. Bob gave a speech and thanked everyone for 50 years of support. John Schlitt walked off the stage and made his exit before the end of the last song.
