The Temptations Delight San Angelo

SAN ANGELO, TX — Thursday night, The Temptations performed in San Angelo at the Foster Communications Coliseum. According to unofficial gate counts, the concert attracted over 2,600 attendees. The concert was underwritten in part by Jim Bass Ford.

The stage configuration allowed the audience a closer view of all performances with the stage positioned about a quarter of the way forward from the west wall of the arena. The floor and stands were packed full in a semi-circle in the stands around the east side of the coliseum, in addition to the premium floor seating.

Local contemporary hits group Funky Munky opened for The Temptations just after 7 p.m.

A horn section composed primarily of Angelo State University musicians and faculty accompanied the Temptations. Putting the event together was truly a community effort.

Before going on stage, Larry Braggs, who joined The Temptations in 2013, said the quintet feeds off the audience energy. “It’s not a matter of being nervous anymore. It’s about ‘game time.’” Braggs said if early on, if there are no signs of the audience engagement, “We have to up our game,” he said.

The group had no problem keeping the crowd engaged, right up and until Otis Williams, the last of the original Temptations announced, “And now we’re going to sing the national anthem of The Temptations, ‘My Girl.””

The crowd went wild.

Leslie Bass Gossett recalled a time in the 1980s when she was at a Temptations show in Vegas. “They pulled me up on stage and I sang with them,” she said. Leslie was able to get reacquainted back stage during the VIP meet-and-greet.

In the audience was Curtis Wheeler. He said he was 62 years old. “I remember The Temptations since I was 14 or 15,” he said. “They had music for everybody. It’s something that touched you. And still to this day, when you hear that music, it takes you back to that moment in time when you first heard the song.” WATCH:

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Standing next to Wheeler was an older gentleman, Rubin Ross. He too remembers The Temptations in his teens and early adult years when serving in the military.

"They’ve had a great influence on me. Actually, I’ve tried to imitate them. I could sing back then. And a lot of them songs, I sang with another little singing group we had,” he said. When he heard The Temptations were in town, he said he had to go.

“It was a great show. It brought back a lot of memories. I mean, it took me back to when I was 14 and then when I was in the military,” Ross said.

Ross served as an ordinance loader on the aircraft carrier USS America. “We had a little portable record player, and I’d listen to The Temptations way back then,” Ross said.

Ross said The Temptations sang songs that bring people together, and he wishes there were more young people into their sound. “It’s so much better than the rap we have today,” he said.