EXTREME and LIVING COLOUR
Written by Debbie Irene Ide
Photos by Joe Guzman
Saturday, February 17th the House of Blues in Dallas became the House of Rock as Boston based music act Extreme took the stage to entertain a sold-out crowd.
As I watched from the railing at the front of the stage, a red glowing gorilla face appeared as the backdrop. A tribal beat of African drums ushered in the roar of the crowd welcoming Nuno Bettencourt
on guitar, Gary Cherone on vocals, Pat Badger on bass and Kevin Figueiredo on drums.
I looked back over my shoulder to see a balcony full of grown men standing at the railing with their outstretched arms, as if they were about to sprout wings and fly to the stage. The response to seeing
Extreme in Dallas after 16 years was overwhelming.
The band emerged and fed the ravenous crowd musical delights until they landed on the highly anticipated hits “More Than Words” and “Hole Hearted”. Expertly weaving new fan favorites from the
recent release SIX and songs made famous more than 30 years ago, Extreme lit up the stage like fireworks. Gary Cherone vocally and physically bounced effortlessly around the stage and Nuno
astounded everyone with his flawless, fast and fierce arpeggios.
Nuno took a few moments to speak candidly with the audience about his very expensive hat. His endearing story of how it came about was funny and lighthearted. He seemed very at ease launching
fiery guitar licks as well as jokes.
I was excited to run into my friend Russ Hewitt whose recent album features Bettencourt on the title track, Chasing Horizons. A most exquisite pairing.
Living Colour opened the show with very solid hard hitting rock songs like “Cult of Personality” which brought them acclaim as the opening track from their debut album Vivid released in 1988.
I expected the crowd to dissipate after Extreme played their certified gold chart topper “More Than Words” but what I didn’t expect was how many people chose to stay till the very end, and then some.
After closing their set with Rock/Funk heavy hitter “Get the Funk Out” a two song encore followed but that wasn’t the end. As a track of “Here’s to the Losers” from SIX played, Cherone, Bettencourt and the band stood at the stage handing and throwing out pics and drumsticks.
Fans flocked to the stage to hand them posters to sign and fill them with love. There was so much love and appreciation you could almost
taste it. As soon as the song ended and the band left the stage, the rest of the audience did an about face and headed for the door satiated. It was an epic night on all accounts.
