30 March 2026, Turun Konserttitalo

If you thought that Christian Rock band PETRA were over and done, I’ve got news for you - they are back, have released a brand new album ”Hope” earlier this year, and are touring the world again. As I’m writing this, the band is in Finland and they finished their gig in Turku yesterday. I was there, and this is my report.

The venue where Petra played was the current home of The Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, a very civilized hall with seating and ushers in neat uniforms. I knew this and wasn’t expecting a rowdy rock concert experience. The ticket sales hadn’t been too great, and I’d estimate that about one quarter of the hall’s capacity was sold. I’ve seen Petra twice before, back in 1991 they played in Helsinki and the venue was probably close to being sold out. In 2000 they headlined the Christian ”Maata Näkyvissä” festival, and played to thousands of people. The couple of hundred people in Turku must have been a bit disappointing, but the band seemed happy to play for us anyway. As guitarist Bob Hartman said, ”good things come in small packages”, when he thanked the crowd.

Now with three members (Hartman, vocalist John Schlitt and keyboardist John Lawry) of their most successful era back in the line-up, this was a truly a comeback. The rhythm section was filled by two younger guys, bassist Greg Bailey and Drummer Cristian Borneo. The three core members are all around 75 years of age, but you could be forgiven for thinking that they’re a few years younger.

The band began their show with a couple of early nineties hits, ”Destiny” and ”Dance” and the hard-edged opener of the new album, ”Filthy Lucre”. A hard rocking start for sure, and John Schlitt impressed with his strong vocal performance. He did start to struggle a little as the show went on, but compared to many other singers who are 10-15 years younger, he did very well. The setlist was cleverly paced with little breathers between here and there, solos and an acoustic ballad segment where he didn’t have to belt at the top his lungs.

While many of us were there for the classic Petra songs, the band didn’t rely on nostalgia alone. It was the ”Hope Tour” after all, and a selection of new songs were played: the aforementioned ”Filthy Lucre”, ”Kiss The Coals”, ”Deliver Us” and ”We Rejoice In Hope”. For me, the Holy Trinity of Petra albums is ”This Means War”, ”On Fire” and ”Beyond Belief”, and I did get to hear a few songs from that era too: ”I Am On The Rock”, ”This Means War”, ”He Came, He Saw, He Conquered”, ”Creed” and ”Somebody's Gonna Praise His Name”. There were even a few songs that dated back to the era before John Schlitt joined the band, including the two encores, ”Adonai” and ”It Is Finished”, both from the album ”Beat The System”.

The acoustic segment was quite nice, Greg Bailey switched from bass to cello and Bob Hartman played acoustic guitar. The medley consisted of very early songs like ”The Coloring Song” and ”More Power To Ya” as well as somewhat newer ballads. The acoustics of the venue got to shine with these more quiet songs. Otherwise I thought the sound was fairly drum-heavy, with the keyboards sometimes disappearing to the background.

And speaking of keyboards, John Lawry’s solo got a few laughs from the audience, as he used funny samples and sounds during it. The most comical moment of the concert was before the encores, when the band headed to the backstage, but the door was apparently closed and they couldn’t get in! A bit of a Spinal Tap moment!

Review & photos by Kimmo Toivonen

More photos: RockUnited.Com @ Facebook