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It was cold. Very, very cold. For the end of June, it was cold.

But Bella Cain was hot – decently hot.

It might be odd to say that I was expecting a lot from Bella Cain, but I was. WAMI’s 2014 Country Group of the Year has been billed as one of the busiest Top 40 Country cover bands in Southeastern Wisconsin. Which maybe isn’t saying a lot; I’m not sure. I have no idea how many Top 40 Country cover bands there are in Southeastern Wisconsin.

What I am sure of is that Bella Cain, despite being a cover band, brings its own special sauce to its music and performance. I’d listened to a couple of its shows before heading into Tuesday night’s performance at the Miller Lite Oasis.

It was different. I’m having such a hard time pinning it down. But here it goes.

When you hear the term "cover band," you think of a band that performs a song like the original artist, right? In fact, you mostly expect that. It might even be disappointing when that doesn’t happen. Because the point of being a cover band is to make people sing along, jump around and dance like maniacs.

There’s an expectation that a cover band does it like the original because the originals are hits for a reason. To loosely quote my friend, Dan Walsh, we like songs because the songs are sing-able with memorable choruses.

So here’s the thing about Bella Cain: It turns this idea of covering a song exactly as it was recorded a bit on its side. The band keeps the feel, the energy and the bones of every song it performs. But it also twists the song into something of its own making by adding five-part harmonies and shifting everything just the tiniest bit.

And it works for Bella Cain. Really well.

Truth be told. I kind of wanted to not like the group because it was cold and I was miserable.

Despite that, and the fact that at least 90 percent of the super-packed Miller Lite Oasis was there to see the headliner Kip Moore, Bella Cain brought it, and the crowd was rewarded.

That said, Bella Cain did have some problems. And for that, I feel bad because it wasn’t necessarily the band's fault. This is the third show I’ve reviewed this year at Summerfest. The first two artists had sound issues, and Bella Cain suffered the same fate.

I can’t tell if the issues were because the sound techs are side stage instead of back of the house, but it’s really been a detracting factor. And tonight, Bella Cain got mired in it for a while. The first 10 songs were bogged down by swallowed up vocals and some serious reverb on the bass level. Disappointing.

Regardless, Bella Cain’s style, essential sound, and heart made it through those troubles. The fact that it is a cover band probably saved it from losing the audience due to sound problems. The crowd knew pretty much all of the songs in the set, and that helped tremendously – it’s easy to sing along when the song is popular even if you can’t really hear the lead vocals.

The high point of the set came towards the end when the band did a killer rendition of Lee Greenwood’s "God Bless the U.S.A." complete with a rousing audience sing along.

Recently, Bella Cain has moved from covering songs to writing them. The band performed one original on Tuesday night called "Something About Ya," a modern country pop song with cross-over potential. Its original sound puts the band square in the game … if it can find someone to pick them up.

I wanted to be able to tell you more about Bella Cain – some background, some great tidbits – but the group didn’t interact with the audience all that much. No storytelling. Also, Bella Cain didn’t respond to a request for information or a request for a quick post-show interview.

Overall, it was a decent set. When Bella Cain’s pulls out more original material, I’d probably check it out again.