Shadowbox Live Academy

ShadowboxLive: A Tribute to Joe Cocker: Mad Dog & Englishman, Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 15, 2015

EXUBERANCE - ex-u-ber-ance/ig'zō ōb(ǝ)rǝns/ noun - That with which ShadowboxLive performs “A Tribute to Joe Cocker: Mad Dog & Englishman.”

Featuring nine different lead vocalists, as many as a dozen musicians - including a four-piece horn section from Columbus’s own Jazz Arts Group - and up to 15 backup singers gathered around three mics, ShadowboxLive’s tribute to Joe Cocker epitomized exuberance.

Never was this more apparent than in the troupe’s high-octane rendition of “Delta Lady.” The song was as rambunctious as Cocker, who died late last year at 70, and featured not one - but two - false endings, as the performers player, sang, shouted, jumped and generally plowed their way though Cocker’s 1969 powerhouse track. 

This delivery was so electrifying that it resulted not only in the false endings - which Auntie Sound Bites, attending her second performance, said wasn’t done the first time - but a reprise at show’s end, capping the final performance of what one Shadowboxer called “the best show we’ve had in years.”

“Delta Lady” kicked off a second-half, four-song, literally show-stopping run that also included “Catfish,” “You Can Leave Your Hat On” and “Let’s Go Get Stoned” that featured the best of what this revue had to offer. And what it had to offer was virtuosic musicianship, knockout singing, on-stage charisma - and yes, exuberance - that kept the sold-out crowd rapt during songs and offering loud, heartfelt applause after nearly each one.

The on-stage energy was so high, even the guys banging tambourines when it wasn’t their turn to sing did their job with such hair-swingin’, booty-shakin’, house-rockin’ enthusiasm it was infectious.

There were a couple of misses - despite impassioned deliveries, sappy ballads such as “Up Where We Belong” and “You Are So Beautiful" seemed out of place in this show - but “A Tribute to Joe Cocker: Mad Dog & Englishman” was virtually all hits.

Just like Cocker himself, the super-talented Shadowbox performers, clad in colorful, 1970s hippie regalia, covered a wide swath of rock ‘n’ roll royalty, including the Rolling Stones (”Honkey Tonk Women”), Leon Russell (”Tight Rope”), the Beatles (”She Came in Through the Bathroom Window”) and Blind Faith (”Can’t Find My Way Home”) among others.

The lead vocalists - both men and women - were wise and didn’t attempt to imitate the inimitable Cocker. Instead, they brought their own voices to the songs and delivered them with confidence, verve, elan and panache (read: exuberance) and each one of them blew the sold-out house’s collective mind.

And let’s not forget the backup singers. This gang of women - with a few men thrown in for good measure - shook, dance, clapped and harmonized their way through the concert with sheer joy and almost stole the show. It’s a testament to the killer core band and lead singers that they managed to turn in performances powerful enough to pry eyes and ears away from this magnetic bunch.

It seems unjust that players and singers this gifted are stuck at a Columbus non-profit, where they wait tables before performances and at intermission. But it’s the good fortune of the city’s residents that they are. Shows such as “A Tribute to Joe Cocker” make Sound Bites feel incredibly lucky to have such an institution in his hometown.

Grade card: “A Tribute to Joe Cocker: Mad Dog & Englishman” - A-

So, last month @jmujaneway asked me the following question:

“Hiya! Someone at lunch said there’s a debate as to which Shakespeare character spends the most time dead on stage. I figured you’d know! Please help?”

I offered up my best guesses (Caesar and Desdemona) and then you guys took over, with @nellololol going to far as to do some in-depth research and provide us with some line counts. This was far too fun to leave alone, though, so I’ve done my own line-counting and here are the results!

Now, Bassianus and Humphrey are somewhat debatable, as they can conceivably spend part of their “dead” time hidden in a pit or behind bed curtains respectively. However, I have seen both languish on stage in person, so they are included. Conversely, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Romeo and Juliet production that actually included the “real live body” of Tybalt in the final scene, but I have heard of those that have, and that have similarly had a “real live body” of Caesar in the funeral scene.