Tim SchumannStryper at the Plaza Theatre
Is there any other way to spend Halloween night in West Texas, other than an evening celebrating 40 years together with none other than Stryper? Well, that was certainly the case here last Thursday night at the lovely Plaza Theatre in downtown El Paso, Texas when Michael Sweet and Company brought their 40th Anniversary Tour to the borderland. Now personally, I never took to them back in their heydays, but of course as a fan of metal, who didn’t know who Stryper was, but those uniforms they wore, just like Warrant wore, remember that? All on their knees and their first name on the sleeves of their jackets, yeah well that was a huge turn off for me. And with Stryper, it was Christian Rock, mixed with some heavy metal, so again, not for me, not even a little bit, but again, that was 40 years ago, things change.
To my surprise, there are 3 original members, Michael Sweet on Guitar, Robert Sweet doing the honors on percussion, Oz Fox on Guitar and Perry Richardson on Bass, who replaced Tim Gaines. Conceived in California in 83, first release in 84 which was The Yellow and Black Attack and latest one this year is When We Were Kings. Between these two, 13 more full length albums, 10 million sold worldwide and a couple of gold albums to boot, not to shabby. What I found interesting was that something happens for these guys every 10 years starting in 83, break ups, reunion tour that landed them a multi record deal in 03 and in these past 11 years they have put out 7 of the 15 in total, yep, the boys have been busy with no signs of slowing down.
Show started at 8 sharp, no opener. Now they play two sets with a 15-minute intermission, the first set is all classic Stryper which consist of 10 crowd favorites like Soldiers Under Command and To Hell with the Devil. The second set is all their newer releases with a little Breaking the Law, a Judas Priest cover thrown in for good measure. Michael Sweet was in full command of the stage, Oz Fox, as most of us is getting old as he sat in a chair during his performance, but certainly didn’t diminish his acute skills on lead guitar, super fun to watch. Perry Richardson and Robert Sweet, the backbone of the outfit, I’m not sure if it gets any better than these two. Robert with his kit sideways as the Visual Timekeeper, truth be told, I’ve always been a fan of the kit sideways, you can see the drummer a whole lot better, I like that. In closing, 22 songs in total, 1250 fans thrilled to the bone, Me included, I enjoyed the message and was saddened I didn’t catch one of the New Testament bibles Michael tossed into the crowd right before they did Soldiers Under Command, just kidding, to busy photographing. They have been on tour for a minute now and wrapping it up next week on the 16th at the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach, SC. As always, I recommend this show highly and of course, I’ll see you at the next rock show.
Review and Photography by Tim Schumann
Set List / Set One
Loud N Clear
You Know What to Do
Soldiers Under Command
The Rock That Makes Me Roll
Free
Calling On You
To Hell with the Devil
In God We Trust
Always There for You
All For One
Set Two
Reborn
4 Leaf Clover
No More Hell to Pay
Yahweh
Sorry
The Valley
This I Pray
Divider
No Rest for the Wicked
Breaking the Law
When We Were Kings
Sing Along Song
