Living Colour performing during the Summerland Tour 2021 at the HEB Center in Cedar Park, Texas on July 11, 2021, with Vernon Reid, Corey Glover, Will Calhoun, and Doug Wimbish. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)
Formed by English-born guitarist Vernon Reid, Living Colour grew out of the Black Rock Coalition, a non-profit co-founded by Reid, for black musicians wanting to play rock and roll. Living Colour’s early musical excursions were an experimental mix of instrumental tangents, jazz jams, funk fusions and punk rock attacks, in contrast to their later major label releases.
Living Colour’s line-up became a fixture in 1986 consisting of Vernon Reid, vocalist Corey Glover, Muzz Skillings on bass, and Berklee College of Music graduate Will Calhoun on drums. Performing regularly and honing their skills the band released their debut album “Vivid” on May 3, 1988, which became popular after MTV began playing the video for the song “Cult of Personality. The album charted well at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and led to performances on Saturday Night Live, a Grammy Award and a support slot on The Rolling Stones’ Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour.
With their second album “Time’s Up” failing to live up to the first the band played a show at Lollapalooza in 1991 and released an EP of outtake entitled “Biscuits” to raise their profile. After which Skillings left the group to be replaced by Doug Wimbish, whom with the help of released the ambitious “Stain”, which reached No. 26 in the U.S. charts.
With such a plethora of musical influences the band couldn’t agree on a single musical direction and disbanded in 1995. They returned five year later in 2000 and played a live show using Calhoun’s and Wimbish’s drum and bass project Head>>Fake in which Reid and Glover made appearances. Despite critical acclaim their Living Colour’s fourth studio album failed to chart, and Sony released a extensive career spanning best-of compilation titled “Everything Is Possible: The Very Best of Living Colour”.
In 2006 Living Colour including Skillings for the first time in 14 years played a party Jack DeJohnette threw for his wife, and followed the show with a week-long European tour. The band’s fifth full-length album “The Chair in the Doorway” was released in 2009 landing an No. 159 on the Billboard 200 and was followed by a worldwide tour.
Haven’t seen living Colour since 1995. They haven’t lost a step. Show was insane. Check em out.Setlist for the show at the HEB Center
Great band, great set. Lucky to get to see them at a small venue so close to home!
It was one of the most unforgettable nights of music I have ever experienced. My expectations were fairly high, I thought; but LC absolutely blew me away.
Absolutely amazing band. 30 years since I last saw them live and they remain as good as they were then. Corey Glover's voice is amazing, Vernon Reid is above and beyond anything that Tom Morello has ever done, Doug Wimbish is the grooviest, funkiest bassist I've ever seen and Will Calhoun hits as hard any any drummer there is.
Living Colour didn’t disappoint as they pounded through all the hits from Vivid and the best of the rest.
Incredible performance.
Excellent, marvelous, amazing, brilliant, moving, incredible... impossible to find a word for this concert. Two hours of Living Colour. A show I will remember all my life. Thanks guys, you are the best band on earth!
Phenomenal, just like always. Unfortunately for the band, but fortunately for us, the crowd was pretty sparse, allowing any view you wished for. The sound was excellent also.
Great show as always. sound was excellent, song set very good. a must see. our 4th time.
We had such a good time and Living Colour are still so much on form. Awesome show.
- Type
- Desperate People
- Ignorance Is Bliss
- Open Letter (To a Landlord)
- Love Rears Its Ugly Head
- Time's Up
- Cult of Personality
Living Colour shared the stage with Everclear, Hoobastank, and Wheatus at the HEB Center. They continue across the United States with the last stop at the Shaky Knees in Atlanta, Georgia on October 23, 2021.
Living Colour
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Photos by Ralph Arvesen
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