BY HUGH WELSH
Drive east on Interstate 70, and he is commemorated by a sign: Blue Springs, Home of David Cook: American Idol 2008.
"It used to be all you heard was David Cook this, and David Cook is banging that," said Peter Shelton, a Blue Springs native with a politician's nose and big, burly, apocalyptic eyebrows. "When it's all said and done, Vedera is what will be remembered about Blue Springs."
Shelton was one of many who attended the shoulder-room-only show this past Saturday night at the Beaumont Club. Vedera, a quartet with roots in the KC suburb, released its second album, Stages, digitally in October on Epic Records. A physical version is coming out in February of '10.
As Vedera's performance neared, something became apparent among a handful of late arrivals: These ladies didn't wear their hair long and blond but black and lopped close to the scalp. Temperatures outside hovered well below freezing, yet at least one gal wore dark stockings and a wavy above-the-knees skirt reminiscent of Vedera's leading lady.
After May made her entrance, they were among the ones guilty of cheers so uproarious it delayed the first song. "How's everyone feeling?" May gravelly asked the crowd after it calmed. "Ready to feel better?" Rumor was that May's speaking voice had been wracked all week by illness.
Vedera opened with "Greater Than" and "Taking Chances" from Stages. Projected behind the performers were interlocking images of stars and tree limb silhouettes. While May's voice was enchanting, it was clear she was straying from her upper register.
That changed with "Loving Ghosts" and "Forgive You," which unfurled like a thousand breakups and makeups. Afterwards, May's unshakeable grip on the mic loosened. She smiled.
For the remainder of the show, May's vocals were boundless; they jabbed, galloped, murmured and flummoxed. Vedera's repertoire included a slowed-down rendition of Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down" and an acoustic performance of "Moments Rewound" with only May and lead guitarist/May's husband Brian Little left onstage.
In a 90-minute show, Vedera, in addition to exhausting every song from Stages, devoted some of its set list to a newly available Christmas-edition EP and to its debut album, The Weight of an Empty Room.
Perhaps the biggest difference between Vedera today vs. the band (then known as Veda) I remember watching on a side stage at 96.5 FM's Buzz Beach Ball event four years ago is its maturity. May's voice no longer soars never-endingly, nor is it subservient to overcooked instrumentals. The music - driven by Brian Little's nuanced lead guitar and Drew Little's no-frills drumming - acts as a life-giving pulse.
It's no coincidence that Vedera's second album is titled Stages. If May and her bandmates were once cocooned in promise, they have now achieved flight.
While the second opening act, Audiovox, was forgettable, the first opener, Another Holiday, was not. Sporting ramshackle beards, sweater collars and St. Nicholas paunches, Lawrence-based Another Holiday was a celebration of the Christmas spirit.
In fact, following a performance of "The Longer You Last," I observed what appeared to be a man of the cloth hugging a guido. Another Holiday's strength lay with lead singer Katlyn Conroy, whose talents were unfortunately too often drowned out by instrumental overkill.
With each song came more synthesizer, more keyboard, a trombone, a shaker, a trumpet, bells - it made for an over-ornamented Christmas tree. What a shame, too. Conroy's voice was no mere precursor to the angelic reaches of Kristen May's vocals; its suppleness warranted an ovation all its own.
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