Nov. 18, 2000: Turku, Finland

Reviewed by: Niko Ringvall

Petra came to Finland at 11/18/2000 with the following members:

• John Schlitt - Lead vocals
• Lonnie Chapin - Bass, vocals
• Kevin Brandow - Guitar, vocals
• Louie Weaver - Drums
• Bryce Bell - Keyboard

Well, Louie had his Mickey Mouse shirt on and this time he had covered his hair with a white scarf.

Their gig took place in Turku, the former capital of Finland, at a festival known as "Land On Sight." That's the biggest Christian Youth happening in Northern Europe. There were about 20,000 youngsters that night. Petra started playing at 9:40 p.m. local time.

The beginning was really surprising: The whole stage was almost completely dark at first. Actually, the first band member we saw was Lonnie, standing on some huge speakers with his bass. Then silence was broken by Trent, who started playing some chords. Soon after he had started, John began reading Numbers 4:22-26. After John had finished, Kevin started the intro on "I Waited for the Lord on High" and then all the lights went on. It sounded and looked really great.

The whole concert went really well. Petra played many of the old, classical songs, such as "Creed," "He Came, He Saw, He Conquered," "Beyond Belief," and "Judas Kiss." They also played "The Longing" with electric sounds! Actually, they never switched away from the distortion channel, which surprises me. Petra played all the original versions of the songs. The only differences were on "The Longing" and "Beyond Belief." Louie surprised us in the end of "Beyond Belief" with his incredible drum solo, which lasted for 30 seconds (that was the only difference in "Beyond Belief").

John even had a small speech. He wanted to say, that It's really cool to be a Christian. It takes a lot courage to be a Christian. And we all should tell the others about Christ. He made us all sing with him a couple of songs, for example "Hello Again!"

The end of the gig was as surprising as the beginning. After their encore song, which was "Right Place" (we had to applaud awfully long time before these guys got back on the stage) everyone else except John and Lonnie left the stage. Then Lonnie got behind the keyboard (I didn't know that he could play keyboard as well) and they performed "I Stand in Awe of You," one of the most popular spiritual songs in the USA. We sang it all together, even that we Finns didn't know the words so well.

Anyway, those guys played very well and I'm really happy that they made it to Finland.

Now, to you who haven't yet seen Petra live, when they next come to your area, don't miss their concert. It's well worth seeing! These guys really play with the Holy Spirit!

Set List

• I Waited for the Lord on High
• He came, He saw
• The Creed
• (Here's a song, that I haven't heard before, so I don't know the name, but I think it was Son of Man or something like that)
• Judas Kiss
• Ancient of Days
• Hello Again
• We Need Jesus
• I Waited for the Lord on High (yes, for the 2nd time)
• Enter In
• Dance
• If I Had to Die for Someone
• Beyond Belief
• Lord I Lift Your Name on High
• Right Place
• I Stand in Awe of You