Four black musicians who mastered heavy rock and reclaimed it, that was pretty much the pitch when Living Color came along around 1988. That, plus the involvement of Mick Jagger, who produced the first demos and played a bit of harmonica on debut Vivid.
And, for the connoisseurs: the founding role of guitarist Vernon Reid, who had made his name in the wild freefunk maelstroms of drummer Ronald ‘Shannon’ Jackson’s band. At that time, the early eighties, Reid lived in Groningen for a while, where he purchased a banjo. Look, you now read a regional newspaper for that kind of thing.
Living Color is active intermittently these days. The current tour, which takes in packed halls, revolves around the thirtieth anniversary of the third album Stain. A dark, committed record, and the first with the feline-playing Doug Wimbish on board, a demigod in bassist circles.
Right at the beginning of the set, Talking Heads covered it Memories Can’t Wait released to the sold-out crowd. Reid’s equipment failure prompted the rest of the band, bassist Wimbish in the lead, to engage in some serious jamming, which made up for the false start.
Judas and ‘Platoon’
The integral implementation of Stain learned that those songs still stand up in the stripped-down live versions. Singer Corey Glover, also actor ( Platoon Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar ), looked like the illegitimate son of funk pioneer George Clinton with his colorful suit and ditto dreadlocks.
He grumbled a bit about the early time of this Sunday afternoon concert – “It looks like a children’s party, hence this suit” – but was otherwise the showman who promised his outfit, while his voice has hardly suffered from age.
This way everyone got their place in the spotlight – drummer Will Calhoun in a drum solo illuminated with luminous drum sticks. Yet, even without the banjo, guitarist Vernon Reid was the main trendsetter with his spectacular solos, in which all kinds of influences and colors were present. Rock according to Living Color is not exactly monochrome, let alone ‘white’.
This was also evident from the choice of cover: Here I come by reggae singer Barrington Levy and a medley with early hip-hop classics White Lines and The Message. “We do this for fun,” said the broadly smiling Wimbish (who played on the originals, that’s why).
Then finally the big Living Color hits Cult Of Personality and Love Rears Its Ugly Head came along, the fun was complete for all parties involved.
Concert: the American band Living Colour Seen: 10/12, Iduna Drachten Audience: over 600 (sold out) ★★★★☆