‘Cover Drive’ Exceeds cover band expectations
A version of this article appeared in The Rotunda
The most recent band to play at Longwood was Cover Drive, an exciting Barbados-based group, featuring vocalist Amanda Reifer, guitarist Barry Hill, bass guitarist Jamar Harding and backup vocalist and percussionist Thomas “T-Ray” Armstrong. They work in several different genres, including reggae and pop music.
This performance was very energetic and vibrant, performing their original songs including “Twilight” (the song that topped the official pop charts in the United Kingdom), “Whatever Suits You” and “Wrong Side,” as well as covers of other popular songs such as “Let’s Get It Started” by the Black Eyed Peas, “Here Comes Trouble” and “Rastaman Wheel Out” by Chronixx and “Hurricane” by Bob Dylan. They also played the unreleased songs “Grapefruit Perrie” and “Everybody” from an upcoming album of theirs.
The band members, particularly Thomas Armstrong and Amanda Reifer, made it a point to interact with the audience. Armstrong selected a girl from the audience and sang “Hurricane” for her. Amanda Reifer took a young man from the audience and danced with him to “Grapefruit Perrie.” After the performance, Alani Battle, the freshman who Armstrong sang “Hurricane” with said “It was really good,” and that it exceeded her expectations of being “just another cover band.” Her favorite song was, “probably ‘Hurricane’.’”
Armstrong, the drummer, said that “We love all our songs, but one of our favorite one is “Grapefruit Perrie.” Reifer agreed, and she said that it “has really good energy.” Armstrong also expressed his love for the Chronixx songs that they played.
The performance that Cover Drive put on was amazing, however, they do suffer from one problem, and that is speaking and enunciating clearly when they are singing. In particular, the audience sometimes had issues hearing clearly what Amanda Reifer was saying. This was mostly between songs, however the song in which it was most evident was “Hurricane.”
Except for that small issue, Cover Drive put on a great show for Longwood University Students!
