Living Colour at the Belmont

After watching my Orioles lose the second game of the ALCS, I was more than ready to head downtown for some music. Surprisingly, Living Colour was playing the Belmont, rather than Emos. This was the first time I had ever seen an act of this size, at this venue. I was also surprised at the fact, that this show was scheduled during the second ACL Festival weekend.

Temple Underground

This time around, the opening act was local Austin band, Temple Underground, led by local drummer Brannen Temple. I have seen Brannen perform a number of times, and he is a formidable talent. This band plays a unique style of rock/funk/jazz fusion similar in feel to Living Colour.

They played for about 45 minutes, and I was impressed with the level of musicianship. My only complaint was that the vocalist's singing hard to discern in the mix. Of course, this may have been compounded by the fact that my friends and I, were watching from the balcony, upstairs, as you can tell from the photos below.

Living Colour

Eventually, Living Colour took the stage. They clocked in at about 2 hours, with the following setlist.

As always, they delivered the goods, and played a good mix of old and new material. The latter coming from a new album, which they are about to release.

For the encore, Cult of Personality, the energetic Corey Glover grabbed the wireless Mic, and travelled through the crowd, eventually working his up the steps right next to where we were standing.

After the show, I was impressed, because once again, the band was graciously available for the meet and greet. I was able to one again talk with Vernon a few minutes, about our one degree of separation through Arthur Rhames, John Esposito, and Jeff Siegel.

All in all, it was a great night of music, on a cool autumn night in Austin. What could be any better?

Living Colour at Emos

Hard Proof

The openers were an Afrobeat band, from Austin, Hard Proof. I think I recognized some of the musicians in this band from Black Joe Lewis. They played all instrumental songs, with a big wall of sound, and a heavy Afro-Cuban beat, driven by a drummer and 2 percussionists.

Living Colour

My real reason for being at the club though, was to see Living Colour. Almost 4 years have passed, since I last saw the band. This was also my first trip to the new Emos location, next to Antones. The club had moved off of 6th Street about a year ago.

This tour is a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the band's first album, Vivid. Even though I had jotted the setlist down on my iPhone, it was already posted when I looked.

If you look at the setlist, you'll notice that they also played 2 songs from Time's Up, as well as covers.

The sound was good, and the audience receptive. A very good vibe floating around the room last night. The Muse was present, and she rewarded us with a gift.

Post Show

After the show, I got to speak to Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish, while poor Corey was surrounded by fans. I couldn't find Vernon at first, but eventually spotted him talking to two other people. I got to reintroduced myself since we are connected by a mutual friend. We then had a little convo about the FNG Podcast. (You should listen to it, if you don't already).

Couldn't have asked for a better night.