Rhythm Nation comes to Columbus

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Chase Hedrick
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  The Tops in Blue World Tour 2011 performed for Columbus Air Force Base and the surrounding community Feb. 27 at the Mississippi University for Women Rent Auditorium.

This year's theme for the tour was "Rhythm Nation" featuring music from the early 1900's through the top hits of today. Bringing major genres from all over America the 2011 Tops in Blue team made up of thirty-six of the Air Force's most talented vocalists, musicians, dancers and technicians put up a show to remember.

"I am completely and totally overwhelmed. I'm overwhelmed by the talent the level of excellence, I mean, it doesn't get better," said John Almond, 14th Flying Training Wing honorary command chief. "This is world class talent!"

The excited crowd in the auditorium waved their hands and clapped to the beat throughout the performance, spurring the team to give it their all.

"The energy was really intense," said Airman 1st Class Maxwell Hulett, the band's drummer. "Performing for bases like this where the community and the base have such a close knit relationship really affects the band. It was a great crowd tonight, the energy from the crowd was fantasticand band reacted off that really well."

With only two more locations left to visit out of the nearly 140 performances during their 10 month long tour the performers and technicians were able to give their impressions of how the support given by Columbus AFB and the community stacked up against the other bases they've visited across 20 countries.

It was fantastic," said Hulett. "The food that was provided was fantastic. Everything that a base could do, in my opinion as an average joe on the team, was everything we could want a base to do."