John Schlitt and Divine Connection perform in Shillong on Saturday. Picture by UB Photos

Shillong, Jan. 28: The West met the East as John Schlitt, the lead singer of Christian band Petra from the US and the Nagaland-based band Divine Connection rocked Shillong today, lifting the young and the old to spiritual ecstasy.

Living up to the Biblical name Petra (the rock), Schlitt lit up the minds of the listeners today with spiritual songs like There is someone who loves you just the way you are while the band members of Divine Connection linked the lowly to the supernatural with their genre of music at the East-meets-West concert also known as the Rock for the King Concert at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Polo here.

While the international gospel rock singer belted out one number after another with Michael Hill on guitar, the audience swayed to the music at venue, where many international rock bands have performed in the past.

Other popular numbers which included Lord I lift Your name on high and A thousand words were added attractions.

It was a unique meeting of musicians as for the first time, Schlitt performed with Divine Connection, the Christian band from Kohima.

In November 2004, the original band member of Petra had performed in Shillong to a packed audience.

The crowd was huge at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Polo in 2004 which had prompted other international secular bands to visit Shillong and organise rock concerts in subsequent years. It was in 1986 that John Schlitt joined the international Christian rock band, Petra which was formed in 1972. Schlitt joined Petra after overcoming drug and alcohol addiction.