ROCK N ROLL EXPERIENCE - Cold / The Drama Club 3/21/09

This particular show was interesting based on various amounts of irony...the ones that come to mind right off the bat are, on this particular night I was going to see reunited rockers COLD, yet it wasn't really that cold outside, infact, the day prior was the start of Spring, & Cold frontman Scooter Ward's side project, The Killer & The Star opened before COLD took the stage, & I swear to god, no ironic pun here, but The Killer & The Star are so much like Coldplay that it's crazy, & what would be the odds of the singer from COLD starting a band that sounds like Coldplay? The other interesting footnote of the night was, the first 2 bands had the most action on stage left, which is where Supernik from Burn The Fields & The Drama Club's rhythm banging guitarist both stood, & these 2 guys beat the hell out of their guitar, jumped about on the stage, & a huge part of their performance was not only musical, but also physical!

Ok, so with that little blurb out of the way, The doors opened at 8 PM & a line snaked around the entire club...the show was sold out & it was a Saturday night in downtown Towson, Maryland, so it was a party waiting to happen! Local favorites Burn The Fields took the stage first & played a relatively short, but tight set & the next act on the bill was Pennsylvania's own The Drama Club!

The Drama Club took the stage under the cover of darkness & in all honesty, the bulk of their set was very dark, they used limited lights for most of their set, & their music reminded me at times of TRAPT meets Papa Roach...when I compare them to Papa Roach, I don't mean the rock/rap stuff the band started out doing, but the more recent straight up rock incarnation of Papa Roach!

Lead Singer Nick Coyle had some sort of accident previous to this show & his arm was in a sling that was tucked appropriately inside his shirt & he apologized for this limited movement onstage at this show, but it was due to his injury. Randy Elmy is a monster behind the drum kit & he was honestly the guy I couldn't take my eyes off of...he didn't miss a beat, he filled in each song nicely with solid timing & steady beats, & he's popping all over the place while he plays which makes him an interesting guy to watch during the bands live show! The Drama Club played a relatively short set as well, they took the stage, rocked hard, then vacated to the back merch table where they signed autographs, took pics with fans & played the part of rockstars all the while without the typical asshole rockstar attitude, which was quite pleasant!

What I gathered from The Drama Club's short but rockin' set was that they are a radio friendly sorta band, they have well written songs, & they have a good shot at building a strong following for themselves, based after the stage show I saw, the songs I heard & the bands overall performance & excitement for their art!

The Killer & The Star were next on the bill & I'll be the first to admit it, this set bored the core of this sold out crowd & it's simply because it was like taking a hard rock show & having Coldplay in the middle...piano driven songs with no guitar do not work are rock/metal shows & this was a strong case in point...Scooter's songs were good, but it just didn't work well for a hard rock show, so after a short set that seemed like it would never end, the stage was cleared, Terry's Michael Myer's mannequin was put into place & COLD's show was about the begin!

The Crowd was ready to rock @ 11 PM with COLD, but what happened was, they showed a 20 minute documentary on the bands history & it was well put together, but it kinda got a little boring after a few minutes because it was put together well, just it was pretty cut & dry & bland for the most part. The documentary covered the entire bands history for the most part & when the band took the stage, I thought it was pretty cool how the video screen showed the cover of what cd each song came off of as the band played their set!

"No One", "Stupid Girl" & "Wicked" were the obvious crowd pleasers of the night, & the band played a good set...in all honesty, I saw them back in the day when they first broke & they really haven't changed at all...they played well, did what they do, there was no huge changes, & what I gathered as I watched them play on that stage was, sure, the band had decent success, they had a good fan base, but when the band split, certain members went further, shined brighter than others, & with the possibility of COLD remaining active as a band, it's a win/win situation for music fans, because each member went on to do their own thing with different acts & it's nice to see that the 4 original members can still get onstage & jam without killing each other!

What I definitely enjoyed at this show was something I'd never seen before....Terry's custom Ibanez was decked out in "Soprano's" style..it had Tony & the crew hand painted on it & the inlay of the guitar read "Bada Bing"...any true fan of the Soprano's would appreciate that axe!