Mad Cobra, Cubby Bear
Chicago, IL
January 18, 2003
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We arrived around 1030 pm and the place was pretty empty.    One blood was juggling and there were a few people lined up along the bars.  I grabbed a seat myself and had a bailey’s.    One Blood kept the vibes pretty mellow after a couple of  Version tracks, like the Diwali (after the show I figured they were just testing their tracks to play behind  Cobra, so I forgive them for mixing up the vibes when they shot from the Diwali version into some old time Rockers and had me reaching for my bar stool) until the first act took the stage around midnight.  
 
Slacky J told me that Dub Dis cancelled at the last minute, but Rocket and Bunny Jackson did a great job of getting the crowd hyped up.  Bunny Jackson has some serious skills and I think we’ll be seeing more of him.  His tall frame has a commanding stage presence and he can easily switch from DJing to singing. 

I have to commend One Blood here because after Bunny Jackson left the stage, they did a wonderful job of keeping the crowed hype and the vibes right during the break before Mad Cobra came on.  Sometimes the crowd gets anxious during these breaks, because it’s hard to transition them from standing facing the stage ready for a performer, back into dancing mode, but One Blood played some nice selections and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves dancing until exactly 1:05am when the featured artist entered the stage.
 
       Wearing  controversial tight pants and shell adorned hair (tight pants being the latest "bad man style" in Jamaica  for some reason that no one can quite figure out),  Mad Cobra performed all of his standard hits including  girl’s favorites:  ‘Tek Him’, ‘War’,  ‘Done Wife’,  ‘Tek Dat’ and ‘Flex’ as well as his well known bad man tunes like ‘Gundelero’, ‘Pet and Pamper’, ‘Plant It’ and his entertaining version of Eminem’s “I’m sorry mama”- “Go suck yu momma”.  He is a  rare Dancehall performer in that he has lyrics that please the women as well as songs that make the baddest of bad men jump up and dance.

   

A smart performer is one who knows how to get the audience to do some of his work for him and Cobra is exactly that.  Shortly into his performance he called for a ‘fat, slim and medium’ girl to come onstage and represent.  They each did their dance and then he called for a ‘white girl’ to demonstrate that white girls supposedly have no rhythm and therefore can’t dance.  He made little radar like beeping sounds as he scanned the crowd and pointed with his finger and stopped on someone in the front row looking suspiciously like yours truly.  She got onstage and flopped his theory by providing a wicked wine to the crowd’s delight.   “FOUL PLAY!!  She must have some n---- up in her SOME where!” Cobra countered.  “Look at her hair!”, pointing to the curly locks and asking for a ‘white girl with straight hair’.  Shortly his request was obliged and a girl who matched his description came onstage and proved his theory at last.

       Later he brought another big girl onstage and had a ‘white man’ do the work this time.  The crowd had a good laugh as the slim fan came onstage and got the big girl into position and gave it his best shot.  Cobra also had another girl and guy who volunteered to come onstage and do some positioning for the crowd.  A challenger (who the crowd informed Cobra was a male stripper) came and stood in line to work this particular girl.  He soon had her on the floor with her feet on his shoulders.  Last but not least,  Cobra chided the promoter Africano to come onstage and show the crowd what he had (same girl again, she must have been tired by then).  Africano reluctantly obliged.
           
Cobra left the stage around 1:45 and after not too much cajoling, came back with a long, long encore.  Throughout the show, Cobra had great communication  with the crowd.  For example,   female fan informed him that she just arrived and he made a special effort to both let her know that she must come earlier next time, but he also gave her and the rest of the lucky fans another long performance.

 
The band, coming at the last minute to fill in for the no shows, backed him well and for some of the riddims they didn’t know, like the Diwali and the Anything is Anything, the selector played the version CD.
  
Cobra reminded the crowd to be peaceful (after his last show on the Southside  in 1998 ended in gunshots rumor has it he was afraid to come back to Chicago!) towards the end of his performance.   One small but interesting side note, Cobra amazingly remained sweat free throughout his energetic performance…   I was sure he had run over in time as it had to be at least 330, but was very surprised when I looked at my car’s clock after leaving and saw that it was only 224.