The Urban Rockstars at The Subterranean - 9/28/00
Reviewed By	Eric J. Olsen
The Opinion
Um...okay, just a second, let me gather my thoughts. Sorry about that, but I was left speechless by The Urban Rockstars performance at The Subterranean. Their name is not a misnomer, these guys are rock stars. For a little over an hour, they took the audience on that emotional high that only true performers can reach. Every song they played was an original. No covers for these guys. All of them played with amazing intensity and musicianship. The Urban Rockstars are truly a band. Watching them on-stage, you can tell that they enjoy what they're doing and take pride in the performance. Veteran bands would be envious of the stage presence The Rockstars have. All seven of them played as one. Which is even more impressive when you learn that they've been together less than a year and have had only seven or eight live shows. But their polished performance indicates that they spend a lot of time rehearsing and honing their craft. Paul Mabin is a front-man. He understands that role and delivers the goods. His powerful voice rises over the music and reaches out to the audience. The trick that makes Paul such an impressive performer is that he does this without overshadowing the other members of the band. Although, it would be pretty difficult to overshadow this group of musicians. With Mike Drost and Craig Elliott on guitar (with Mike also doing double duty providing back-up vocals), Jo Ann Daugherty on keyboards and back-up vocals, Sheri Lewis providing back-up vocals that really complemented Paul's voice, and Shawn Sommer on bass along with Sam Nead on drums laying down a killer groove, these guys are one hell of a band. The intensity and energy that they played with was unbelievable. If you only paid attention to the stage (and how could you not), you'd think there would have been a stadium crowd in attendance with the amount of themselves The Urban Rockstars put into the performance. There was no going through the motions. They were there and they came to play. And play they did. With that kind of raw power, you'd better check them out now while they're still playing clubs, before you have to go to a scalper (I'm sorry, ticket broker) for nosebleed seats when they do play stadiums. The only downside to the show was that, as can happen in small clubs, the sound wasn't always that clean. At times, the vocals and guitar were drowned out. But unlike at Allstate Arena, if the mix isn't right, the crowd can yell out and get it corrected (which they did). Whether it's straight-ahead rockers, ballads, or "bluesy little numbers," The Urban Rockstars give the audience what they want, a great time with amazing music. When they're on stage having a good time, it's infectious. The crowd has no choice but to enjoy themselves. Laying that against a backdrop of kick-ass songs, The Urban Rockstars have definitely found that little something extra that is the difference between a great band and an amazing one. And for those unfortunate enough to have missed the show, it was broadcast on the web at liveonthenet.com. They have it archived, so if you missed the show, you really should check out the archived recording.
Nutshell Review
Great songs, amazing performance, even the Russian judge would give them a "10."
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