First of all, let me review the 2 opening bands: Manic Drive and Flight Patterns.

Manic
Drive used to be a rock band that I really liked. They have added a lot
of keyboard tracks and added a dance kind of feel to even the older
songs. They just plain suck now, and the crowd did not respond well.
Unless Manic Drive seriously head back to the rock territory, I won't
buy anymore music from them.

Flight Patterns, the band of
Michael Sweet Jr., was on next. They are a pop-punk band similar to
Stellar Kart or Reliant K. If you like those two bands, just buy their
CDs. You will hear nothing new from Flight Patterns. They were just
bland, and the audience did not seem to care. For me, those were the 6
longest songs I have ever had to endure. Why in the world Stryper will
not hire better opening bands beats the heck out of me! They could have
taken Saint or Guardian or a number of other bands on tour with them,
but they bring us crap!

Anyway, I wasn't there for the opening
acts--I was there for Stryper. The boys finally hit the stage at 9 PM
and played for about 1 1/2 hours. They played a lot of songs from
"Murder By Pride" and the crowd loved the tunes. They played some from
every album except for "Against The Law". They even did one song from
"Reborn".

Here's the songs I can definitely remember:

Loud N' Clear
Winter Wonderland
Soldiers Under Command
The Rock That Makes Me Roll
Reach Out
To Hell With The Devil
Calling On You
Free
Honestly
The Way
Rockin' The World
More Than A Man
The Reign
Open Your Eyes
Eclipse For The Son
4 Leaf Clover
Piece Of Mind
Alive
Murder By Pride
My Love I'll Always Show

Tim was on bass and sounded as good as ever on both the old and new
songs. I like Tracy, but Tim just has a different energy on stage. He
was definitely excited to be playing in Nashville!. Oz seems to be
singing more, and his voice is probably stronger than Michael's these
days. Both Michael's and Oz's solos were tight and ripping! Robert
was....well, Robert! The Visual Timekeeper was up to his usual antics
and having the most fun of anyone on stage! But, he always seems to
be! Michael did not go for many of the screams, and the ones he did do
seemed to be pre-recorded. There were even some times where he would
just stop singing in the middle of a verse and run off to the side of
the stage. I'm wondering if his throat is giving him trouble.

But, regardless of some vocal flaws, Stryper on their worst day is
still better than many bands on their best. It was cool to see the
Yellow n' Black Attack back in action!

Oh, and on a side note, I got to meet Troy Thompson of Bride there. He had driven down from Louisville to see the show!

They did "The Reign" off of "In God We Trust"? Awesome! This is the first time they've included a song from that album on this tour! Would've loved to have heard that!

It kind of threw me at first because I wasn't expecting that song. I would have expected "In God We Trust" (old or new version) or even "I'm Always There For You" as a crowd sing-a-long.

I think it's AWESOME that they played "Rockin' The World" as well!

BTW, I agree with you 100% about the opening bands. I have no idea why Stryper insist on getting crappy opening bands for every tour!

I think that the setlist overall was amazing. Considering this was being played at a venue noted for being a nightclub with a lot of liquor, and sometimes having a rowdy crowd, the songs definitely presented the gospel to people who needed to hear it. Sure, a lot of Christians were there to hear their favorite band, but there were a lot of non-Christians in attendance who just loved Stryper from their hair-metal days. They even did the Bible toss-out. I did, however, notice one of them got ripped to shreds and thrown back down from the balcony.

This tour came to neighboring states but always at a time when I had something else going on. Oh, well maybe they will expand the tour next year and someone in Iowa will wise up and book them.

Flight Patterns is only on tour because of Junior and boy everyone that has posted about them and thier performance is saying that they aren't that good.

I like(d) Manic Drive but like Chris said I've noticed a more keyboard/dance sound. Thier first album rocked and then Reset & Rewind only had a few rock tunes. Don't know if they are trying to reach a different audience but they probably won't gain any new rock fans.

Thanks for the review. Going up to Vegas to see them in 2 weeks. Looking forward to it. Probably will pass on the opening acts though.

I wanted to go but the money wasnt there for me..... However I did get to see the Foo Fighters live on Facebook last night watched 2 hrs of it, it was a cool experience

It sounds like I will be bored to tears by the open acts, oh well.

Regarding Michael's voice, when I saw them on the to hell with the devil tour, his voice was shot. That is why I'm glad they have two days off before I see them in Dallas

We had the meet and greet passes, and it also gave you first in line priveleges. Even with that it was tough getting cloes and the place got packed. So we sat through the first two acts to keep our places. My feet were killing me.

Seems like a good show, all things considered.

Just missed them over here last week, though.

Here is the correct set-list from the Nashville show(no "The Reign" or "Rockin' The World"):

SUC
MBP
Loud and Clear
The Rock That Makes Me Roll
Reach Out
Calling On You
Free
More Than A Man
Alive
POM w/Kimberly Dahme of Boston
4LC
Eclipse For the Son
Honestly
Open Your Eyes
All For One
My Love I'll Always Show
The Way
-*ENCORE*-
THWTD
Winter Wonderland

Regarding Michael Sweet's vocals...

At the Montreal show I had taken notice that Charles Foley, their keyboard player, who is not very visible on stage was helping Michael on vocals. Much of the audience thought it was pre-recorded vocals, but it was clearly Foley belting it out where Michael seemed to not be singing some notes. Michael mentioned that the show would not have been possible without Foley. Oz has a good voice but if you leave him sing alone you're going to have a SinDizzy vocal sound. Michael's range is very difficult to duplicate. It must be very strenuous on his voice to sing in the 4th octave throughout the whole tour.

Age is the enemy. I sing in a fairly high register. When I was young I had great range. As a worship leader now, I just cant do what I used to could do. And when I do pull it off I am sore for 2 days. Its just life. Props to Mike for doing what he does.

Plus Michael wore spandex back in the day... the snugness helped him sing in a bit higher range too, I'm sure!

I never saw Stryper live back in the day, the broke up shortly after I got saved. I've seen some of their concert footage here and there, and I'd say that Michael sounds better now than back then. Of course, we can all be off one day and on another. Over all I think they sounded a lot tighter. Oz amazingly sings the higher harmonies with Michael. The keyboardist needs to be given an award for his vocal help as well. Or at least 5th member honors.