| A trivia contest both nights allowed the
faithful to win Cold t-shirts and the new live CD (both yours truly and Allison were lucky
winners!) From brief conversations with other attendees people seemed to have traveled
from all parts of the country to attend. The band
sounded absolutely tight and performed songs not heard in years with seemingly flawless
fashion. The same dynamic, high energy performances were present with all members showing
just how much fun it was to be together again. The songs have all aged beautifully
from the time of their original composition. They are just as strong musically today as
before their break up. This strength shows that The Cold, while always known for
their live shows, had significant musical talent to back their popularity.
T-shirts and the new live CD were available and sales
seemed very brisk with lots of people wanting commemoratives to mark the occasion. The
crowd seemed mostly in their thirties and fourties but there were some younger people
attending as well. Could Babs be Britney Spear’s secret weapon? Both Louisiana
vixens have sported the catholic schoolgirl motif with Barbara pre-dating Britney by close
to two decades.
Kevin updated us on Vance’s new gig as a reporter on
The Daily Show. TDS was kind enough to mention the reunion shows on their
internet mailing list so that Vance’s new fans could have an opportunity to see him
as we have all known him. Most of us know that Vance is Ellen Degenere’s brother but
we didn’t learn until now that Ellen’s favorite Cold song is "Quit
It"!
Local media appearances publicizing the shows included
Vance on WWL-TV’s Morning Show and both Kevin and Vance on radio station WTIX.
Articles also appeared in Gambit Weekly and The Times-Picayune.
A very nice touch by Barbara on Saturday night was the
posting of photos of her kids on the keyboard stand. Very cute kids from a very cute mom!
Barbara looked great with a modified bob hairstyle and short black skirt and black
blouse for the first set on Friday. She had recently suffered an injury to her left knee
so unfortunately her dancing was limited. However, there were times where it seemed that,
despite the pain, she couldn’t hold back and gave us a glimpse into the past with a
spurt of fluid movement. Her voice and inflections were better and stronger than ever and
her tremendous charisma and natural charm transported us all away.
Vance must have a contract with the Devil as he does not
show that any time has passed since the early eighties. His bass lines were dead on and
"The Look" was definitely in force. It was certainly easy to see why he was a
hit with the fairer sex then and now. While Vance never sang as much as the others he
performed both "Friday on My Mind" and "Parnell Pitcher" each of which
were crowd favorites.
Bert sounded and looked excellent with only a peppering
of gray showing that any time had actually passed. As Bert sang some of The Cold’s
more popular tunes including, Thanks A Lot and Cleveland, both were included in the two
night sets and sounded just as fresh today as ever.
Kevin was his old indomitable self - playing lead guitar
and singing terrifically. He provided us a take-off of James Brown and his famous routine
of being unable to stop performing (replete with "Cold Sweat" towel!) and he had
a rather deft touch with his patter, as we (and the band) occasionally had to catch our
breath between the energizing songs.
Chris appeared as if he were ready to put back on the
football pads and play some downs as he was in great shape. He played and sang brilliantly
keeping the songs at their original pace and intensity. During the last show on Saturday
night it was Chris who helped to elicit the last vestiges of his band mates energy as he
propelled them through a remarkable three encores until they had literally run out of
songs to play!
The Cold also gave us a couple of surprises as during the
second night they launched into a cover version of the theme from "That Seventies
Show" and on both nights had arranged for a mini-dance solo with a friend of Weston,
Barbara’s oldest son. He was fantastic as he bounded across the stage in a controlled
frenzy.
Both nights proved to be overwhelming successes –
fifteen years after last playing regularly together The Cold were still able to draw full
houses of fans eager to hear the band live again. How many other bands who never
(unjustifiably or not) made it nationally could pull off such a triumphant return to
center stage?
At one point late in the second set of the
final night Barbara asked the packed crowd, "If we did this again in another 10 years
would you come?". The response was a thundering "YES!" from the crowd. To
which Babs teasingly retorted "Liars!" and flashed her always enchanting smile.
Then, apparently overwhelmed by the crowd’s favorable response she asked again,
somewhat shyly, "Would you really?" Yes, Barbara, believe it, they would
– it’s only hoped it will not take another ten years to prove it!
(Click on the pics below to see full-size)
|
