Skillet, those hard rocking musicians who made becoming a "monster" so popular in recent weeks, made their first visit to Troy's historic Hobart Arena on Friday night as part of their current "awake & alive" tour to support their recent album of the same name.

Yet, despite hitting the throbbing vane of mainstream success with their current singles "Monster" and "Hero", Skillet is far from what would be considered a newcomer to the musical game. Together over a decade, and formed from the remnants of several other bands, Skillet front man Jon Cooper noted prior to the show that the name initially came from their fragmented beginnings of being thrown together like a stir fry in a skillet. Cooper quickly warned any future rock stars to put a bit of effort in their namesake for fear of spending the rest of their life known for cookware...jokingly of course.

But before the thousands of fans heard one single rift inside Hobart, many had already been a part of a Skillet live performance, thanks to the band's pre-mainstream "past life" as a struggling christian rock ensemble, and their visits to The Avenue at Tipp City's Ginghamsburg church. Yes, there were a large number of christian rock fans, but it was the newbies to Skillet's music that perhaps enjoyed the show the most...complete with all the bells and whistles one would expect from a bonafide rock star. With their new rock hits like Monster, which is also the into song to the Troy Bruins minor league hockey team that calls the arena home, and Hero which can be heard on the NBC sports telecasts of NFL football (not too shabby!) the rock was loud and hard from the grand opening all the way to the encore...even with a special acoustic cover and marriage proposal on stage smack dab in the middle of the show!

Just as the amps were cranking out tune after tune, Skillet's roots as a christian rock band showed through in multiple instances, including one particular instance where Cooper noted his affection for heavy metal leading to his confession that he "just likes to talk about Jesus". Cooper's message was clear...christian rock can be fun and entertaining too...something that Skillet has no doubt mastered in their decade together.

In the end, the show was a great two hours of rock, entertaining both the christian music and mainstream rock fans all rocking their faces off along the banks of the Great Miami River. We wish Skillet all the success they can choke down as their album continues to climb the charts and receive major mainstream rock airplay across the county. Hopefully we will get another glimpse of the band in the near future because after all, I just like to talk about Skillet.