Living Colour - On Stage at World Café Live
Performance
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Living Colour - On Stage at World Café Live
Performance
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Living Colour's 1988 debut album, Vivid, is one of those rare albums that instantly captured my amazement the first time I heard it - and it has never let go. Where many enduringly great albums can take a while to grow on you due to a complexity and uniqueness that will keep them from ever becoming stale, Vivid, and especially the powerhouse lead single "Cult Of Personality" completely blew me away on the very first listen. Four black guys, with dreadlocks flying in every direction, dressed in wild multicolored clothing, and throwing down some of the most righteous hard rock of the decade - now that's something you see all the time. I say it was about god damn time! Living Colour was (is) much more than just a hard rock band though. They expertly attack rock, funk, and jazz with equal abandon. Their albums can be impossibly diverse in sound and styles, combining such elements as Caribbean pop ("Glamour Boys"), funk anthems ("Funny Vibe"), and balls to the wall hard rock like "Desperate People". Lyrically speaking, these guys were as politically charged as they come, but also tackled the familiar subjects of love and loss with equal fervor. I have only seen Living Colour in concert once before, back in 1993 at the late, great, Hammerjacks nightclub in Baltimore, Maryland, during the band's Stain tour. I remember coming away a bit disappointed by the performance, probably because the songs were played more free form and sounded less distinct than what I was used to on the albums. They also broke up about a year later, so the band's chemistry wasn't exactly at it's peak during that tour. Living Colour reformed the Stain line-up, with Doug Wimbish on bass, back in 2000, and released their last new studio album, Collideřscope, in 1993. On Stage at World Café Live captures the band performing at the World Café Live nightclub in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 16, 2005, for a show that was filmed for PBS television. Unfortunately, all you get on this DVD is the 11-song, one-hour, set that was put together for that show. The band actually played a 20-song, career-spanning, set that night. Don't ask me why they could not have put the whole set on this DVD, especially since this is the band's first and only concert video. What a waste of a good opportunity. The shortened set on this DVD kicked off with two of the heaviest tracks from the Vivid album, "Desperate People", and "Middle Man". Frontman Corey Glover looked like he had just come from a house painting gig, as he was dressed in a pair of plain, tan coveralls, with a bandana around his neck, and another one covering his head. Wimbish's addition to the band in 1992 fulfilled the requirement that you must have long dreadlocks to be in Living Colour, which would neatly explain that short-haired Muzz Skillings dismissal from the band in 1991. Hey, they gave him three years to grow that shit out. Wimbish not only brought an impressive set of dregs to the band with him, but also two of the nimblest sets of fingers to ever grace a bass guitar fretboard. Turns out the guy can sing a little too, as this performance debuted an excellent new song, "Bless Those", featuring Wimbish on lead vocals, and Reid throwing down some pretty rare slide licks. Reid's guitar work was as powerfully eclectic as ever, and the band sounded incredibly tight this night. Hopefully this new number hints of a new album on the horizon. A few highlights for me were Glover's exceptional performance during "Open Letter (To A Landlord)", especially his gospel-preacher style improv to close out the song, as well as "Love Rears Its Ugly Head", with Wimbish playing some other-worldly stand-up bass. Half-way through "Glamour Boys", Glover carries his young son out on stage with him, and sings the rest of the song dancing with him in his arms. He humorously ends the song with "And this is why I am not!", as he points at the boy. Oh, the sacrifices we make for our children. The production quality of this disk was superb. The show was filmed in High-Definition and the widescreen picture looked immaculate. Two audio options were provided, Dolby 5.1 surround, and PCM stereo and they each provided a clear and accurate reproduction of the performance. The level of the Dolby mix was very low, but once I cranked my surround amp up a little extra to compensate, the mix sounded powerful, with plenty of deep bass, and good instrument separation. The only extra features were a short interview with Vernon Reid, which also ended up being spliced in between some of the song performances, a photo gallery, and a preview of other On Stage at World Café Live DVD releases. This edited set left me somewhat unsatisfied, but it was good enough to get me back interested in the band again. I look forward to a new album, tour, and full-length concert DVD from the mighty Living Colour. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - November 2007 |
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Running Time: 58 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - May 2007 |