Extreme & Living Colour | August 24, 2023 | House of Blues | Anaheim, CA – Concert Review & Photo Gallery

Review by JoJo Anthony
Photos by Joe Schaeffer

There’s something special about a great double bill featuring two fantastic bands. That’s what I experienced seeing Extreme and Living Colour together at the House of Blues. I have to say that this is the one show I was extremely excited to see all year and I wasn’t disappointed one bit. Now I must state that I haven’t seen either band in concert since the late 1980s.

The sold-out show started with New York rockers Living Colour hitting the stage for the highly enthusiastic crowd. Surprisingly opening their set with Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll,” the band wasted no time energizing the audience. Lead vocalist Corey Glover still has the pipes and he can still hit the high notes. He screams with all the intensity of the late great James Brown. Guitarist Vernon Reid is a shredder who combines some great funk elements to his playing.

Most of the band’s 45-minute set focused on their first album, 1988’s Vivid, which, for me, is one of the all-time greatest hard rock debut albums. “Middle Man” and “Desperate People” were fantastic. The band slipped into a verse of “Nothing Compares to You” by Prince before rolling into my all-time favorite Living Colour song, “Open Letter (To A Landlord).”

The band paid tribute to the 50th anniversary of hip hop. Bassist Doug Wimbish introduced a medley of songs that included “White Lines” by Melle Mel. Living Colour closed their set with the amazing “Cult Of Personality,” which had the crowd in a frenzy. The musicianship of this great band was showcased in this song especially from Reid and drummer Will Calhoun. They ended their performance with a fired-up rendition of The Clash’s “Should I Stay Or Should I Go.”

After a brief intermission, Extreme wasted no time and hit the stage with a powerful rendition of “It‘s a Monster” and they followed that up with “Decadence Dance” from their second album, 1990’s Extreme II: Pornograffitti. What hit me right off the bat was how good this band sounded on the very first song. I could hear every voice and instrument with such clarity and guitarist Nuno Bettencourt’s tone cut through like a razor.

One of the highlights was the performance of “Rest In Peace” from their third album, 1992’s III Sides To Every Story. This album is still one of my favorite releases from the 90s. I enjoyed the video of the song played on the big screen during the performance. It brought back some great memories.

Extreme performed a medley of songs from their 1989 self-titled debut album, that  featured “Teacher’s Pet,” Flesh n’ Blood,” “Wind Me Up,” and “Kid Ego.” Extreme weren’t afraid of featuring acoustic-based songs like “Tragic Comic,” “Hole Hearted,” and “Other Side of the Rainbow” from the band’s most recent release, 2023’s Six. Bettencourt, lead vocalist Gary Cherone, and bassist Pat Badger have a natural three-part harmony, which distinguishes Extreme from many other bands.

They did their best to represent music from all six of their albums like “Midnight Express” from their fourth release, 1995’s Waiting For The Punchline. Of course, as expected, there was an intimate performance of the band’s number one hit “More Than Words,” which had the audience singing most of the song. A good song just lasts forever.

“Flight Of The Wounded Bumble Bee” featured the amazing guitar work of Bettencourt. The guy is one of the most impressive guitarists in the field today. Throughout the set, he dabbled with various Eddie Van Halen licks, acknowledging his love and respect for the late guitarist. Extreme closed the main set with “Get the Funk Out” and the energy filled the room. This song is just fun and showcases just how talented the band is. It was a very long and fulfilled show that touched on numerous aspects of their 30-year career.

The encore consisted primarily of songs from Six. “Small Town Beautiful” is a slower paced song that reminds me a bit of older Aerosmith album closers in the 70s. The performance of “Rise” was my most anticipated song of the evening. I know I wasn’t alone in my excitement to see Bettencourt play the amazing guitar solo and he certainly didn’t disappoint. This song also featured a powerhouse performance from drummer Kevin Figueiredo.

They shot some video for “Thicker Than Blood” and ended the night with “Here’s To The Losers” and its great sing-along chorus. Extreme is by far one the better sounding bands who fall into the classic rock genre. The members have all kept themselves in great shape and their stage performance is just as energetic as was over 30 years ago.

Cherone has the amazing stage presence as many of the greats and at times you can see who his heroes are. This show is, so far, my favorite concert of 2023. I highly recommend you get out and see Extreme live.

~ Living Colour Photo Gallery ~