At 11 a.m. Thursday the sun was shining and the members of the pop group Color Me Badd had settled into their Park City hotel room. With nothing in particular to do, and one possibility in mind, they headed for the Alpine Slide. But after playing the afternoon away in Park City, the musicians turned to more serious business and headed for the ParkWest Amphitheater for their first Utah concert.
The crowd multiplied by the minute. Stereo upon stereo blared to the sound of Color Me Badd. The body search proceeded. Blankets were shaken and pockets checked, to ensure safety. Those in the crowd hurriedly shuffled into the marked areas, hoping to improve their chances of a nice hilly vantage point.The setting apparently pleased CMB. The singers had never been to Utah before, and they were awestruck by the mountains. Mark Calderon told the Deseret News before the concert, "It is so incredible. The scenery is beautiful, and I enjoy breathing the air. What a place to perform."
At 7:30 the chant began . . . CMB, CMB, CMB . . . until the announcer came out and introduced a new group by the name of Latin American Sound, a local combo including three boys and one girl. The group was chosen to open for Color Me Badd through a local promotion. The young performers offered an original rap-oriented style of music and were able to get the crowd hopping. Jason Tresner of Latin American Sound told Deseret News, "I would like to see more acclaim come to Utah and its rappers."
After their 20-minute performance, the crowd anxiously awaited the arrival of Color Me Badd. At 8:45, CMB appeared on stage, starting things off with an enjoyable "Roll the Dice."
CMB is, of course, first and foremost a vocal band, and the harmonies were masterful as their voices became one. But the group's showmanship also proved thoroughly entertaining.
At one point the quartet - Calderon, Sam Watters, Bryan Abrams and Kevin Thornton - sat down on four garbage-can props and launched into an a cappella version of Billy Joel's "The Longest Time," which led into their No. 1 hit, "I Adore Mi Amor."
And the dancing was fabulous. Wearing coordinated outfits and black hats, the four proved much time and careful choreography have gone into their movement and style. They were right on, and if they missed a beat it was not evident.
After seducing the crowd with their lyrics and insinuations, CMB left the stage while the band played, returning 15 minutes later to pump out more of the same energy that was feeding the Utah fans.
The instrumental interludes and breaks, disconcerting to some fans, were apparently necessary for the vocal-oriented band to keep up their high-energy performance. After the performance Calderon admitted, "This was the hardest concert I have ever done, due to altitude and trying to get my breathing under control."
The lights went up and the concert ended at 10:30 p.m., but that wasn't the end of the evening behind the scenes. Color Me Badd is interested in its fans and, with the performance over for them, the singers allowed pictures to be taken of them with those who had managed to snatch backstage passes, and those who just wanted a closer look.
As the ParkWest concert showed, the four highly personable young men in Color Me Badd are not only remarkably talented singers, they have also developed into fine dancers and on-stage performers.