Wednesday, April 24: Vescera, "Blackout in Paradise"
Michael Vescera had been working the circuit for a solid 30 years before cobbling together an ad hoc group of Italian musicians and forming a band with his name up front. “Blackout in Paradise” opened Beyond the Fight with a “Painkiller”-esque drum intro before moving towards steadier and more traditional territory. The tune was everything one would expect or look for from the singer, who was consistent as ever in his dramatics. If anything, the tune was perhaps a bit too conservative- to be sure, Vescera had been at it a long time and by then knew how to modulate his performance, but by the same token he was so consistent as to border on rote. “Blackout in Paradise” was perfectly fine, and probably the best one could’ve hoped for given that it came from a journeyman singer fronting a bunch of no-names, but that also made it too far from essential to really take hold.
