Extreme / Living Colour – Manchester Academy – November 30th 2023

 

As a wise man once sang, well the weather outside is frightful… Riding high on the back of what is, to my ears, the best album of their career so far, Extreme breezed into town on a biblically cold Manchester night, and thoroughly warmed the cockles of every member of the sold out crowd at The Academy.  Not only that, they also brought along fellow funksters Living Colour and between them delivered a cracking gig from start to finish. 

Despite the conditions and traffic, I still managed to arrive at the venue just as Living Colour took the stage, and started with a thunderous rendition of Led Zeppelin‘s Rock N Roll.iCloud Photos (6) The already packed audience were immediately in the palm of their hands. It’s a surprising choice of opener, but it’s soon followed by Middle Man and my personal favourite by them, Type. Not surprisingly the majority of their short 40-minute set is dominated by tracks from the albums from which they are pulled, Time’s Up and Vivid. 

 

 

In addition, they also deliver a couple more covers, a brief snippet of Jeff Buckley‘s Hallelujah and a fantastic medley to celebrate their love of hip hop. Their funky run through of White Lines, Apache and The Message gets everyone warmed up and happily singing along. Though, one minor gripe is that with such a short set, i’d have preferred to lose the covers and hear the likes of Glamour Boys or Leave It Alone instead, which were absent tonight.

During their set, it dawned on me that my first ever visit to this venue was to see these guys on 1993’s Stain Tour. Blimey, we’re all getting old! With that in mind, it was great to hear Ignorance Is Bliss from that era. Sadly, after Love Rears Its Ugly Head, Open Letter To Landlord, and Cult Of Personality, their time was indeed up and had flown by in no time. I really need to see these guys play for a lot longer next time.   

Half an hour later Extreme exploded onto the stage with It’s (A Monster) and it’s clear from the off we’re in for an energetic treat over the next two hours. Frontman Gary Cherone covers every inch of the stage twice before the end of the first chorus. Guitarist Nuno Bettencourt is still a virtuoso riff meister general and maintains a swaggering cool to match his ability. Original bassist Pat Badger and long-term drummer Kevin Figueiredo provide a solid base (no pun intended) keeping the whole thing together.

 

Following a sing-along to the exuberant Decadence Dance, they delve into the superb new album, Six. The first of a dozen from it tonight is the pounding #Rebel. This isn’t just a case of playing the new stuff to promote the new album. All these new songs deserve to be played alongside their platinum-selling predecessors. Indeed, for a band to come up with an album as strong 35 years into their career is quite an achievement. The packed, full house here tonight, and audience familiarity with the new songs is a testament to its quality.  

Then it was back in time for the next four tracks. It was great to hear Hip Today from the criminally underrated Waiting For The Punchline again. It was an album released when Extreme was battling the musical tides post-grunge. The subject matter was close to their hearts at the time. “Hip today..but you’ll be gone tomorrow” pretty much sums up their predicament at the time.

Following that, it was back to the very start of their career with a medley from their 1989 debut. It was great to hear Wind Me Up live, yes it’s cheesy, but it’s one of the most infectious songs in their canon. Likewise with the frenetic Play With Me. The guitar solo in it is still awesome, even if I do still picture the Beethoven scene in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure as he plays it. 

Then Nuno breaks out the acoustic guitar for the new track Other Side Of The Rainbow from the new album. They deliver the vocal melodies perfectly, these guys really can sing, who needs autotune? Following that, Hole Hearted generated the biggest audience reaction so far, as we all sang along as if no one was watching its chorus. After that, it was back to 1992’s Three Sides to Every Story for a couple of belters. Cupid’s Dead is first, and then the highlight of the evening for me, Am I Ever Gonna Change? I’ve loved this song since first hearing it 30-odd years ago, and it’s still a great heavy, proggy belter tonight too. 

 

The acoustic guitar is out again after that. Gary and Nuno deliver the delicate Hurricane perfectly before we get the inevitable More Than Words. It’s unsurprisingly a communal singalong, though also a communal film-along. I must be getting old, but I really don’t understand this filming on your phone lark.. just live in the moment, people!! From there on it’s rockers all the way, newbie Banshee is great live in particular. Nuno then delivers his party piece solo Flight Of The Wounded Bumblebee, before the main party comes to an end with a brilliant Get The Funk Out. 

Returning for a couple of tracks from the new album to round the night off, they get poignant for a moment. Following a brief Eddie Van Halen tribute snippet of VH‘s Women In Love,  the encore starts with Small Town Beautiful. They seamlessly segue this into the Slade-like singalong Song For Love from Pornograffitti. They then round the night off with the powerful Rise, arguably the new album’s best moment. As you can probably tell, this was a great gig. I hope both bands hit these shores again very soon. It’s been far too long since I saw both of them! 

Extreme Setlist:

1 – It’s (a monster)

2 – Decadence Dance

3 – #Rebel

4 – Rest In Peace 

5 – Hip Today

6 – First Album Medley – Teacher’s Pet/ Flesh N Blood/ Wind Me Up/ Kid Ego

7 – Play With Me

8 – Other Side Of The Rainbow

9 – Hole Hearted 

10 – Cupid’s Dead

11 – Am I Ever Gonna Change

12 – Thicker Than Blood

13 – Midnight Express

14 – Hurricane 

15 – More Than Words

16 – Banshee

17 – Take Us Alive

18 – Flight Of The Wounded Bumble Bee

19 – Get The Funk Out

Encore:

20 – Small Town Beautiful/ Song For Love 

21 – Rise