Extreme and Living Colour Brought Their “Thicker Than Blood Tour” to Hartford, Connecticut’s newly renovated Webster Theater on August 11, 2023

August 13, 2023
International Concert Reviews, International Galleries
by Jody Wilk Photographer/Writer

Extreme brought their Thicker Than Blood tour to Connecticut’s newly renovated Webster Theater in Hartford, Connecticut supported by Living Colour. Extreme is celebrating their sixth studio album which is getting killer reviews. The album, Six, was released June 8, 2023. Extreme is showcasing their favorite songs from it on this tour.

The night kicked off with the award-winning Living Colour. Living Colour formed in 1984 and is best known for their hit song, “Cult of Personality”, which won a Grammy in 1990 for Best Hard Rock Performance. Living Colour is fronted by the charismatic and soulful, Corey Glover. Corey sports long dreadlocks, and a voice that you can’t forget. They make each show unique by changing up the setlist every night. Playing a mix of original songs, cover songs, and medleys, they kept the crowd singing along to some of your late 1980’s and early 1990’s favorites.

The night started with a cover of Led Zeppelin‘s “Rock and Roll”, which got the crowd singing along right from the start. Doug Wimbish’s hip hop medley really brought me back to my youth. I can remember staying up late at night recording hip hop and rap mixes off the radio. They were songs in this medley from the great originators of the genre, such as The Sugar Hill Gang, Grand Master Flash and Melle Mel. During the middle of the set, they played a cover of Prince‘s “Nothing Compares 2 U”, in the wake of Sinead O’Connor‘s passing a few weeks ago. The song was originally written by Prince but was Sinead’s breakthrough hit when she covered it.

Corey came into the pit and stood at the barrier singing to the crowd during “Cult of Personality”, and then during the last song he walked through the entire crowd to the back of the venue, escorted by security singing “Should I Stay or Should I Go”. At the end of the song, he looked confused as to how he was going to make his way back to the stage because the place was so packed. Living Colour put on a soulful performance that kept the crowd entertained for the entire set.

Living Colour is:

Vernon Reid – Lead guitar, guitar synthesizer, backing vocals

Corey Glover – Lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar, occasional backing tambourine

Will Calhoun – Drums, percussion, keyboards, samples, backing vocals

Doug Wimbish – Bass, drums, guitar, programming, backing vocals

Setlist:

1.Rock & Roll (Led Zeppelin cover)

2.Desperate People

3.Middle Man

4.Doug Hip Hop Medley (White Lines/ Apache/ The Message)

5.Ignorance is Bliss

6.Nothing Compares 2 U (Prince cover)

7.Open Letter (to a Landlord)

8.Type

9.Times Up

10.Cult of Personality

11.Should I Stay or Should I Go (The Clash cover)

Extreme came out on stage and on the screen behind the drum riser, there was a huge digital version of the Gorilla that is pictured on the cover of the new album. Extreme is always an exciting band to see live as they use the whole stage in their performance to entertain the fans. They started the night with “#REBEL”, a song off of their new album, Six, which was released in April of this year. Based on the reviews this album has been getting on social media, they are still able to produce killer songs, AND perform them live. They followed up “#REBEL” with “Decadence Dance”, and “It’s a Monster” off of 1990’s Extreme II: Pornograffitti album.

Gary is known for running around, interacting with the crowd, and putting on an energetic stage show, and this night was no exception. During “Play with Me”, he climbed up on a stack of speakers.When he jumped down, had a little bit of a stumble, but picked right back up and kept going. The house was packed elbow to elbow and was a sweaty hundred or so degrees. They slowed things up a bit and Kevin came out from behind his drum kit up to the front of the stage on an abridged version of his kit. Nuno got on an electric-acoustic guitar for “Tragic Comic”, and “Hole Hearted”. Extreme touched on music from pretty much every studio album, even Saudades de Rock, from which they played “Take Us Alive”. They played five songs off of Six.

“Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee” got off to a false start. Nuno got about 10-15 seconds in and stopped and said the mojo wasn’t right and he “didn’t hear the crowd screaming”. The crowd obliged, he started over, and the song went off without a hitch. They ended their main set with the fans singing along to “Get the Funk Out”. After a short break, the guys came back out for a three-song encore, lifting you “up, up, up, up” with the killer new tune, “RISE”. After doing a photo with the crowd behind them, they proceeded into the pit to greet the fans in the first few rows. This has been a common occurrence at their shows, so work your way up front at the end of the show and you might even get a high five from one of the guys.

With a packed house, on a sweat-filled night, Extreme put on a killer performance including songs from almost every album to a crowd of hardcore fans. Nuno was on point, as always wowing the crowd with his guitar wizardry. Living Colour had the crowd singing along to almost all of their songs. The Thicker Than Blood tour runs through Aug 29 in the USA then goes over seas through December 19, and then Extreme will be on The Monsters of Rock Cruise in March of 2024.

Extreme is:

Gary Cherone – Lead Vocals

Nuno Bettencourt – Lead Guitar, backing vocals

Pat Badger – Bass, backing vocals

Kevin Figueiredo – Drums, occasional backing vocals