Emporian returns for show at Natasha's

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By Joey Berlin

Friday, April 11, 2008

It’s been seven years since Aaron Thomas has played in Emporia, and in his own words, he’s “stoked” to see that streak come to an end Saturday night.

Thomas, an Emporia native, is the drummer in the Kansas City-based blues rock trio Cold Shot, which plays at Natasha’s Billiards & Lounge at 9 p.m. Saturday.

“We’ve been trying to book (Emporia) gigs, and none of the bars will hire anymore,” he said. “Everybody’s sticking to local bands. And so when Natasha’s opened up, we’ve been talking to them about booking us in there, and they finally got us in there.”

Thomas said the group mixes covers from artists like Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan with its blues rock originals, but the show format is determined by whatever the people who hired them want to hear. If the bar and its crowd wants Weezer or the Red Hot Chili Peppers, they’ll play something from those artists.

In the case of Natasha’s, he said, the band will probably be playing a standard blues rock format that will include most of its originals.

“Because it sounds like, from what we’ve talked to them, what we’ve talked to everybody else just hanging out at the bar... if your crowd’s more middle-aged, you’re gonna go for older blues rock,” he said. “If your crowd’s younger, you’re gonna go for some of the ’90s stuff. And they’re telling us to mix it up pretty well, so I think we’re probably just gonna do a little bit of everything.”

Thomas said Cold Shot has been together for about two years, but he joined the group about six months ago, teaming with guitarist/vocalist Brock Schwein and bassist Dave Kaleba. He said Schwein and Kaleba are friends of his, which makes it easier to know what to expect from them.

“And we have a lot of fun together, which makes it a lot better,” Thomas said. “It’s better than just being a hired gun and playing whatever gigs we get called to do each week. Because that’s one of the ways we’ve been making money, is just subbing gigs with different people around town, and that’s worked out pretty well, but it’s nice to have a good, solid group to play with.”