SEPTEMBER 24, 2005 @ THE MESSALANSKI PERFORMING ARTS CENTER IN OAKLAND, ME

MY LAST PETRA CONCERT!!!

Well, I saw Petra. The mini-road trip was a success, save for a few family issues that were quickly resolved. We went up in my brothers SUV which gets like 13 MPG and it costs me and my brother Steve, Dan, and Steve's friend Alex a total of $120 total for gas!!! Once we got there, I took one of the reserved rooms and put it under my name and my credit card. My aunt didn't like that and got pretty ticked. Not sure why, I was the one paying and responsible for it. Anyways, that only cost us $15 each which was a steal. Now onto the concert review:

The concert was absolutely 100% SOLD OUT...and Petra rocked pretty good. John and Bob did a great job ---for their age anyways. :) They did a much longer show than the one Bill and I went to in '03 (an hour and a half as opposed to one hour), which was pretty cool. I had a great time and I was somewhat happy with the setlist. There were only a few hiccups as John is getting older and his voice is not on par with how it was say 10 years ago, but it's all good. I'm looking forward to the live album where hopefully if he has a few setbacks he can come into the recording studio and go over a few rough spots. The first couple of songs, they sounded a bit rough as they started off with 2 songs I don't really care for--- live anyways--- (It's All About Who You Know and Amazing Grace) but once they got to "Dance", it rocked pretty well. I was surely headbanging to that heavy riff at the beginning. They even played Enter In and it was pretty good. I loved the guitar solo live on that song. After a few songs, I was really getting into it doing air guitar solos and headbanging with this other kid causing people (e.g. GIRLS) to look at us and smile. I think they enjoyed our performances just as much as Petra. heh. Anyways, it really got sweet when they did this 15 song long rock medley, including Sight Unseen, Midnight Oil, MINEFIELD (I went nuts when they started that one, even though they botched the keychange, lol), Think Twice, I AM ON THE ROCK (another killer song), like 5 others songs, This Means War (John's voice always sounds the best one this song), and ended with It Is Finished of course...and I love when Bob and Greg do the ending to that song with guitar and bass. Sounds sick! They also played Jekyll and Hyde of course. Then they did something I never seen before at 5 other Petra concerts I've been to. An acoustic ballad set, with Bob on acoustic and Greg on cello. They did a bunch of songs, a couple which surprised me including Rose Colored Stained Glass Windows, For Annie (really well done part), Coloring Song (John's voice is definitely not meant for this song!), Love, No Doubt, and others. Somewhere in the setlist, Beyond Belief and Creed were played as usual...and Bob played the guitar solos perfectly on both. Once John really got into it, the last few songs were pretty good...then they did "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" and John's voice sounded as strong as it did back in 1997 when it was first recorded. The crowd really got into it too. I loved the crowd response. Then of course they went off stage...and about 2 minutes later came back on for an encore. They immediately went into "He Came, He Saw, He Conquered"---one of my favorite Petra songs of all time...and to me it was the best part of the concert. Bob played the solo perfectly just like he did when he recorded it almost 20 years ago. Right afterwards Bob had some words and then prayed for the crowd and asked them to pray the prayer of salvation, which was cool. Then they ended with "The Holiest One" (I think, or some praise song from PP2). I went outside afterwards and got a Petra sticker while my brothers and aunt went to get autographs. I decided, well, I've met them like 5 other times, I don't feel the need to meet them again. Overall, a rather expensive but enjoyable trip. It was the last time and all I want now is a live recording of one of their last concerts to remember it by (which will be out in a few months). This has been on great ride and I'm glad they are going off with a bang.

Best concert memory: Me and my brothers headbanging singing along to the songs together, belting out every lyric, probably the best we've ever got along.