Gig review: Extreme + Living Colour at Enmore Theatre, Sydney

Live Review: Extreme and Living Colour at Enmore Theatre, Sydney, September 12 2023

By PAUL SOUTHWELL

THE co-headlining Thicker than Blood tour by Boston’s Extreme and New York City’s Living Colour rolled into Sydney for the second last night of the Australia leg –  and sold out a few hours before stage time. Extreme were last at the Enmore Theatre in 2018, co-headlining with Mr. Big’s first tour here, while Living Colour have visited our shores a number of times, including a 2014 sold out Soundwave sideshow with Alter Bridge. All of these bands have a common thread of highly respected musicianship. While it has been around 15 years since Extreme last released new material, their latest album, Six, has been a roaring success.

It is fair to say that Living Colour gave Extreme a run for their money. They kicked off their set with three excellent tracks from their third album Stain. Vocalist Corey Glover’s First Nations-flag inspired attire offered a striking contrast to his flowing dreadlocks, whilst guitarist Vernon Reid’s clothing was comparatively understated, although his guitar playing this evening most certainly was not. Opening with “Ignorance is Bliss”, drummer Will Calhoun launched straight into thumping his drum kit in tandem with the virtually incomparable bass master Doug Wimbish, as the rhythm section got the vibe moving, alongside Reid’s tension-inducing yet strangely melodic note choices. It was almost as if jazz free form improvisation met with metal song structures, given the use of chromatics, accent notes outside formal scales and a dash of partially falsetto vocals. But the precision with which they do it is something to behold in a live setting.

“Go Away’ continued with the jazz metal feel, as Glover’s vibrato was reminiscent of Mike Patton. Wimbish added finger taps to bass figures whilst Reid unleashed fast hand-picking parts and associated facial expressions, as he played. “Ausländer” contained a variety of guitar tones, ranging from suitably brittle or abrasive, to wah pedal infused, plus some deftly executed time signature changes.

Material from their classic debut album Vivid followed, commencing with the fast-paced “Funny Vibe”. The tightness of the band was evident in the interplay between various sections, with plentiful displays of musicianship from all band members during this track.

A cover of “Nothing Compares 2 U” followed, with Reid adding chiming guitar parts and the audience sang along to the chorus as Glover stood at the front of the stage. These ushered in a stunning, soulful performance of “Open Letter (To A Landlord)” whereby Glover’s vocal prowess and repetition of opening vocal phrases took on a gospel revival feel, before the band rock mode kicked in, with the heavy guitar riffing morphed into parts with whammy bar dips, harmonics and fleet fingered scalar runs from Reid. Living Colour are uniquely tight rhythmically, such that the band still lands on key notes when needed, even when going on outside musical explorations.

Doug Wimbish introduced a medley of covers to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop’s birth. It was appropriate given his involvement with the Sugar Hill Records imprint and also acknowledging the late scene pioneer, Sylvia Robinson. Melle Mel ‘s “White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It)”, The Sugarhill Gang’s “Apache (Jump On It)” and the Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five hit “The Message” all featured.

Glover’s vocal scatting over Reid’s jazzier chord selections popped out of the live mix, during the hit “Love Rears Its Ugly Head”. Again, the transition between bright clean sounds and distorted sounds were perfectly performed, with a dash of post chorus, wah infused guitar. It also saw more outside chords choices mixed with whammy bar purrs and some fun joking stage interplay between Glover and Reid. “Type” showed off the hammering dexterity of the rhythm section, easily shifting gears into interludes for the repeated lyrical figure. Reid’s guitar playing was again chromatic, mixed up with chordal bits and scalar bursts.

To close the set, the track from Vivid that put Living Colour on the global music map in 1988, “Cult of Personality”, was performed with utmost authority, a precise barrage music mixed with social commentary. Reid’s fluid blast of chromatics, whammy dives, alternate picking, and chordal parts were further entertaining by Glover jokingly tackling Reid into the stage wing post guitar solo before reprising the chorus.

Living Colour. Pic: Paul Southwell

Opening the set for Extreme, a rumbling portion of John Barry’s “Sacrifice – Hail to the King” from the 1976 King Kong soundtrack was played over the PA. Nuno Bettencourt set off some howling guitar feedback from his signature reverse headstock Washburn N4 [stickered 4N] guitar, fed through a Van Halen reminiscent flanger effect sound to effectively introduce the opening track “It(‘s a Monster)” from the hit Pornograffitti album. Front man Gary Cherone, decked out in a sports jacket, wide lapelled collared shirt, bandana, and slightly flared trousers, kicked his microphone stand around to the audience to sing along, whilst Bettencourt, with left leg resting on his foldback wedge, had the guitar positioned for some fast and intricate soloing.

Bassist Pat Badger strolled around his part of the stage in 10-gallon hat and black vest. Both his and Bettencourt’s back vocals added significant harmonies to Cherone’s strong vocal skills, as he glided around the stage, crouched, jumped and launched off the drum riser without missing a cue. That energy and pace continued throughout the show, with next track “Decadence Dance” seeing the audience singing along. Meanwhile, Bettencourt’s virtuosity showed through, combining rhythm figures and lead soloing parts chock full of finger tapping patterns and open harmonics, with interchangeable ease.

The first track off Six to get an airing was “#Rebel”, with Bettencourt going straight into the riff, and Cherone’s stage presence in top form. The song built pace into the solo, with high notes, incredible guitar technique and a solid amount of attitude. The combination of flash, taste, and in-the-pocket sense of timing continued with “Rest in Peace”, the Hendrix-inspired track from the epic III Sides to Every Story album. Using some backing tracks of opening strings and horns arrangements elsewhere, was fine in context of the musicianship clearly on display. Lighting was impressively done too, ranging from bright white to red, blue, green and gold hues, with Bettencourt spot lit at stage left, in variety of colours, as tapped harmonics rang out.

The groove of “Hip Today”, together with a droned riff, prominent bass parts and Bettencourt’s quad box thump sound adding air movement to lower register notes made circular guitar runs stand out in the mix. Then, a crowd-sing along to vocally driven version of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” rolled into the stomping song groove of “Play with Me”, with half-rapped vocals in the verse juxtaposed with harmonised vocals during the chorus. Bettencourt’s blues rock staples in the rhythm figure quickly changed to fast tapping runs, pull-offs, and a comical cartoon theme reference before a neo-classical sweeping masterclass of a solo.

A complete change of pace came with Six track “Other Side of the Rainbow” that saw Bettencourt with a wide brimmed hat and 12 stringed acoustic guitar. The band then convened at the front of stage, with Figueiredo on a stripped to basics acoustic kit for “Hole Hearted” to loud audience sing-along, with Bettencourt’s open string and chord parts ringing out nicely to the bouncing rhythm figure shuffle. The stage was blue lit, and with harmony vocals again masterfully sung, rock mode soon resumed as Figueiredo commenced the groove drum figure from “Cupid’s Dead”, during which Cherone joined him at the side of the riser to sing a portion of James Brown’s “(Get Up) Sex Machine”, and a pop hit lyric about cheating lovers, before Badger started off the bass part, and Bettencourt took to the rhythm guitar figure with a well-rehearsed funk rock feel before a note perfect rendition of “Eruption”.

A percussive backing over the PA then saw the performance of Bettencourt solo piece “Midnight Express”, with sweeping octaves, flamenco bursts, rapid fire string pull-offs, and suitable tension in melodic note choices before he was joined by Cherone to duet “More Than Words”, encouraging another audience sing-along with the audience virtually singing the first verse for him.

The band returned to the stage for “Banshee” from Six. A vast array of pinch harmonics, harmony vocals, and a swift solo from Bettencourt with lower register slinky rolling guitar lines leading up into higher tapped notes to join climbing phrases. To finally wrap up the main set, classic hit track “Get The Funk Out” had the venue jumping, enjoying singing along as Cherone jovially moved across the stage, making all sorts of amusing innuendo laden gestures in reference to the song lyrics. Bettencourt’s fluid tapping ascending patterns to pedalled funk soloing, unison bends morphed into the breakdown part in solo acting as a funk infused bridge returning to the chorus. Pure rock bombast at its best.

Returning for the encore, Bettencourt lurked near his cabinets beside the drum kit to gently play the introduction to Van Halen’s “Women in Love”. The tone, with notes ringing out and floating harmonics, was a perfect precursor to the first song of the encore in “Small Town Beautiful” from Six. It made sense given the solo was a compact Bettencourt showcase, tastefully done, complete with wide vibratos, muted runs, and artificial pinch harmonics. It also worked to go straight into the vocal harmonies for the chorus of “Song for Love”, over a simple drum beat pattern, then distorted guitar lines and descending open string lines.

For the final track of the night, Cherone stood with his microphone stand wrapped over his back awaiting the starting riff to the monster track, “Rise”, from the latest album, which some say has reinvigorated guitar internationally. Bettencourt paced around his stage area, getting into the opening riff with unbridled energy. “Rise” is a great track with a recognisable half yodelling chorus, bookended by a hammering riff, which is lyrically cutting of today’s music industry, as only Extreme can do with their own brand of cheeky sarcasm. Soon enough, with left leg on the foldback wedge, Bettencourt positioned his guitar for the now legendary guitar solo introduced by a steady stream of Van Halen inspired tremolo picking. All eyes were on Bettencourt as he unleashed the dipped whammy bar fills, rapid string pull-offs and muted low end string digs, leading up to the incredibly paced string skipping, wide hand stretches. Going straight back into the song’s riff, the solo, and in fact the entire show had been flawlessly delivered.

Extreme are a brilliant live band and every tour here sees them in better form than their last appearance. They rose to the challenge of hitting the stage after Living Colour, and put in a set that was close to two hour’s worth of music. Extreme are a well-oiled, live machine and one of the few bands that is worthy of carrying the torch of the late great, Edward Van Halen. Sensational stuff.