2024 marks the 40th anniversary of Living Colour and 2025 will be Extreme’s 40th anniversary. The two iconic 80’s bands played Downtown Los Angeles’s newest venue the Bellwether. The tour began last year. Living Colour opened with 10 songs. Living Colour is Corey Glover (Lead Vocals), Vernon Reid (Guitarist), Will Calhoun (Drums), and bassist Doug…
2024 marks the 40th anniversary of Living Colour and 2025 will be Extreme’s 40th anniversary. The two iconic 80’s bands played Downtown Los Angeles’s newest venue the Bellwether. The tour began last year. Living Colour opened with 10 songs. Living Colour is Corey Glover (Lead Vocals), Vernon Reid (Guitarist), Will Calhoun (Drums), and bassist Doug Wimbish joined in 1992 after original bassist Muzz Skillings left. The group took a five year hiatus between 1995 and 2000. From their debut album Vivid co-produced by Mick Jagger they performed three songs “Middle Man,” “Glamour Boys” and the closing song was “Cult of Personality” which won three MTV VMAs and a Grammy. They also performed the title track to their second album Time’s Up, the first with Wimbish. There was also a medley of “White Lines (Don’t Do It ), “Apache,” and “The Message” paying homage to Wimbish’s time as the Sugarhill Records in-house bassist. This lineup has released five albums together. Living Colour is as fierce as ever.
Extreme took the stage around 9:20 playing a 20-song set. From 1985-1994, Extreme was founding members Gary Cherone (Lead Vocals), Nuno Bettencourt (Guitar), Pat Badger (Bass), and Paul Geary drums. Mike Mangini became the drummer in 1994 for two years before the group took an 11 year hiatus with the exception of a few one off shows. Extreme reformed in 2007 with Kevin Figueiredo as the drummer. Not long after the band broke up, Cherone became the third singer of Van Halen and two years later Van Halen III would come out and the band would do one tour before disbanding. Bettencourt would release a solo album in 1997, two albums with Mourning Windows, another two albums with Population One which would become DramaGods which released one album (2005) and Figueiredo played on it. In 2007 Bettencourt would release one more album, this time as part of supergroup Satellite Party with Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell which also had Figueiredo on drums. Extreme released four albums before they broke up and since released one in 2008 and the latest last year titled Six as it’s their sixth album.
Extreme opened with “It(‘S a Monster)” from their second album Extreme II:Pornographiti and played classics like their number one hit “More Than Words,” “Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee,” and “Get the Funk Out,” the last song before the encore. Extreme also played all four singles from the new album; “Banshee,” “Rebel,” “Other Side of the Rainbow,” and “Rise” which was the second song of the encore and final song of the show.
A number of musicians were in the audience including Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, keyboardist Steve Ferlazzo who played with Extreme in 2004 and was part of Bettencourt and Cherone’s other groups, Dennis DeYoung guitarist August Zadra, Earth, Wind, and Fire guitarist Serg Dimitrijevic and actor/singer Paulie Z.