Billy Cobham has been my drummer hero since 1980, the day a friend of mine handed me a copy of the latest Tama catalog featuring Billy on the front with his triple bass drum setup. I saw Billy 3 times before all back in the late 80's into the early 90's. He released two albums back to back with the same lineup, Warning in 1985 and Power Play in 1986. Both those albums are still my favorites from him.
It had been 20 plus years since the last time I saw Billy Cobham so I really didn't know what to expect. Reading up on his current lineup I knew long time Cobham guitarist Dean Brown was back in the band as well as Gary Husband (drummer for Level 42) on keyboards. He is also calling the tour Spectrum 40 as it's been 40 years since it's release and will be playing most of the songs from the landmark album. I also read that Billy turned 69 back in May which just blew my mind.
The band came out on stage and Billy Cobham sat himself behind his massive green sparkle Yamaha kit. For 4 songs straight he pulled out all the stops and tore thru a blistering workout behind the kit. I was in shock, the second song he played was Radioactive off of Power Play, probably my favorite Cobham song ever. Then right into a modern version of Stratus, very similar to the version he did on the Warning album. After the fourth song he finally came out front and introduced the band and said a few words before going back behind the kit for more fireworks! The one thing that really hit home was when my wife leaned over at one point and asked me "Does Billy Cobham have 10 arms?". And that's just it, even to my ears he sounds like that! Needless to say at age 69 Billy Cobham shows no signs of ever slowing down.
