Extreme - Bristol Review

Just like that, and written up a day later than planned due to illness, 2023 as a gigging year has come to a close. It feels strange not having anything else planned for December, as the lead up to Christmas can often be busy, but having attended 44 shows this year I cannot complain - and it came to an end with two excellent nights out. I have already talked about The Almighty's storming of London, which will likely appear in my end-of-year rundown, but the following day served up something equally excellent when Extreme brought their latest UK tour to the O2 Academy in Bristol. The day itself proved to be quite stressful, as industrial action on the railways meant that the journey from London to Bristol took over twice as long as usual - and relied on a number of very tight connections which, thankfully, were all made. I was very glad to get to Bristol, then, and after a bit of late lunch at Wetherspoons and a trip to HMV I checked into the Travelodge. I ended up having a bit of a nap as I had not slept much the previous night due to finding out at about 4am that an already-disrupted day of rail services was going to be even more disrupted. The nap was welcome, then, and I headed down to the venue feeling fresher, ready for the 7pm doors. I have been into Extreme for quite a while and, prior to last weekend, had seen them live twice previously. Both of those shows had taken place at the O2 Academy in Birmingham - and both of them were excellent nights. The first took place in 2014, and featured the band playing Pornograffitti in full, whilst the second came in 2017 and featured a much more diverse setlist which included a surprising number of deep cuts. I also properly got into the Dan Reed Network at the 2017 show, so that gig in particular really stands out. What I took away from both shows, though, was just what a great band Extreme are. In Gary Cherone they have one of the best frontmen in the business and if guitarist Nuno Bettencourt is not in anyone's list of favourite guitarists then they simply have not been paying attention. That is not to take anything away from the rhythm section: Pat Badger (bass guitar/vocals) and Kevin Figueiredo (drums); but the success of Extreme has been built on the passion, songwriting, and performances of Cherone and Bettencourt - and they blew me away both of the previous times I had seen them. This latest tour marked Extreme's first shows in the UK since that 2017 tour, then, and it was made special due to the fact that they released their sixth album Six earlier in the year. It was the band's first album since 2008's somewhat disappointing Saudades de Rock and, in my opinion, Six bettered it by quite some way - with many of the songs channelling the classic Extreme sounds of the later 1980s and early 1990s. Extreme do not release many albums, so a tour supporting a new one was a must-see - and clearly many others thought so, too, as the Bristol show sold out surprisingly quickly, as did many of the other shows on the tour.

Before Extreme's set, though, the crowd were treated to around 45 minutes from the New York-based band Living Colour. I was meant to see Living Colour a number of years ago with Glenn Hughes, but they ended up ditching Hughes to tour with Alter Bridge instead - which led to the tour being cancelled. As such, I had never really bothered to check them out any further - and had only given them a cursory listen prior to Sunday's gig. Despite this, though, I enjoyed the band's set. I only knew a couple of the songs played, but the band's performance was captivating and they really rocked the large crowd. The strangest thing about their set, though, was how many covers they included. They opened their set with a cover of Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll - and throughout the set we also got a partial Prince cover, a Talking Heads cover, a hip-hop medley, a Dawn Penn cover, and everything finished up with a version of The Clash's Should I Stay or Should I Go. That meant that the band only played five of their own songs which, considering that they have been around since the 1980s, made very little sense. The Talking Heads cover made sense as their version of Memories Can't Wait appeared on 1988's Vivid, but the rest of the choices were pretty baffling. I would have much rather have heard more of the band's own material - as their genre-bending sound is impressive. Looking at the band's other recent setlists online, too, it seems that at their headline shows, which they fit in around Extreme's dates, feature hardly any covers - so I do not know why they made the decision to fill their support set with them. It was hard not to be impressed by the band's prowess, though. Vernon Reid (guitar/vocals) shredded and peeled off a number of funky riffs as if they were going out of fashion - and the band's eye-catching frontman Corey Glover, in a sparkly red and white jacket with matching dreadlocks, delivered an excellent vocal performance despite lacking room at the front of the stage. It was also great seeing Doug Wimbish (bass guitar/vocals) in his natural environment - having caught him with Tarja earlier in the year. Clearly I knew Cult of Personality, which also saw Glover venture out into the crowd and onto the balcony to sing with the fans, but perhaps the song which impressed the most was the poppy and funky Glamour Boys - with its excellent chorus and upbeat vibe. It persuaded me that I need to give their albums some further listens, and the band's overall performance impressed and got the crowd going ready for Extreme - even if the choice of songs played was odd.

When 9pm rolled around the lights went down and Extreme hit the stage with the funky, up-tempo It ('s a Monster) - one of six songs from the aforementioned Pornograffitti featured in the set. Extreme also featured a handful of covers in their set, but they were generally just snippets of such - used to augment or introduce other songs in a fun way. The best thing about the set for me, though, was the amount of new material played. No less than seven songs from Six made the cut - which shows that the band are really standing behind this latest album. It has been getting good reviews and the new tracks came across well live - with #Rebel coming in early, after the aforementioned It ('s a Monster) and a particularly raucous version of Decadence Dance, during which Cherone encouraged the crowd to sing the opening few lines. The crowd, of course, sang loudly - as they did throughout the whole of the night. The atmosphere was excellent from the off, with even the new songs being sung pretty loudly by the crowd. It was great to see them greeted so warmly but, of course, the old favourites received many of the largest cheers. Rest in Peace certainly got everyone going, with another strong crowd interaction moment, whilst a medley of a few songs from the first album allowed for a few deep cuts to be thrown in all together. The only song from the debut which was featured in full was Play With Me, which included one of Bettencourt's best solos of the night. Trying to pick his best guitar solo is fruitless in reality, but I have always loved the one in Play With Me. He played like a man possessed all night and even played a big part vocally on some of the quieter songs. The tone was briefly lowered during Other Side of the Rainbow and Hole Hearted, with Cherone even adding some additional acoustic guitar to the former, but in general the set was a hard-hitting one. There was another acoustic segment to follow, but the early up-tempo ballads were more of a jolly sing-a-long - before the snappy Cupid's Dead and the muscular riffing of Thicker Than Blood returned to something more traditional. That second acoustic section was not too far away, though, and Bettencourt was soon left alone on the stage for his showcase Midnight Express - before he and Cherone duetted on the delicate Hurricane. Mega-hit More Than Words then proved to be another huge sing-a-long and it set up the crowd for the last part of the band's excellent show - which kicked off with the groovy Banshee and the country rock of Take Us Alive. Following Bettencourt's precise shredding on Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee, the main set then came to a close with a barnstorming rendition of Get the Funk Out - with lots of excellent bass playing from Badger and plenty more singing from the crowd. The cheers of the crowd called the band back, though, and a two-song encore followed which was largely made up of new material. A mash-up of the new Small Town Beautiful and the older Song for Love kicked off the encore in sing-a-long and laid back fashion, but it was Six's lead single Rise that really put its stamp on the night - the riffy song impressing with its huge chorus and jaw-dropping guitar solo. It was a great end to the show and with all this new material played the band seemed rejuvenated. The setlist was:

It ('s a Monster)

Decadence Dance

#Rebel

Rest in Peace

Hip Today

Teacher's Pet/Flesh 'n' Blood/Wind Me Up/Kid Ego

We Will Rock You [Queen cover]/Play With Me

Other Side of the Rainbow

Hole Hearted

Cupid [Sam Cooke cover]/Cupid's Dead

Everything Under the Sun - Part II: Am I Ever Gonna Change

Thicker Than Blood

Midnight Express

Hurricane
More Than Words

Fat Bottomed Girls [Queen cover]/Banshee

Take Us Alive/That's All Right [Arthur Crudup cover]

Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee [Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov cover]

Get the Funk Out

-

Small Town Beautiful/Song for Love

Rise

Sometimes seeing two gigs in two days can lessen the enjoyment of the second one, particularly when the first one was so good, but that was not the case this past weekend. Extreme more than lived up to The Almighty's showcase the day before and delivered a set which shows why they are a band who should be much more well known than they actually are. Each time I have seen them they have raised the roof and I sure that they will continue to do so. It has already been announced that they will be returning to the UK next year for a one-off London show with the Scorpions, which I will look into going to, but hopefully the band's next headline tour will not be too far away - as they really are on fire at the moment with the new album behind them.