EXTREME

After many MANY years, Boston hard rockers Extreme finally ‘Get the funk out’ to Vancouver …

There has been a noticeably resurgence in the last 4-5 years of bands from the  80’s finally making their way to the Pacific Northwest.    Hard rockers like Great White, Slaughter, Queensryche, Black Crowes, and Foreigner have all been doing shows up here in just this year.   I mentioned to my wife that I am headed to Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom (Courtesy of Live Nation) tonight to see two more, with New York legends Living Colour and Boston’s Extreme.  “Extreme?” she said, “I didn’t even know there were still a band.   Well that’s the kind of the answer I expected, especially if you don’t bring a tour to Vancouver since 1995 according to Setlist.fm.

Having broken my foot about 10 weeks ago, I was ready to get back to seeing concerts again and thought this one was a pretty safe one to be at to start.  I hobbled my way up the stairs of the Commodore Ballroom and much to my surprise, the place was packed and a sold-out show.  If you are an extreme fan or even an aficionado of guitar heroes, this one was definitely not one to be missed.

What is really cool about seeing this band live is that 3 of the 4 members of the band you saw back in the 80’s, are still going strong.  Gary Cherone (vocals), Pat Badger (bass) and, what I would have to say is the center piece of this band, is that of guitar extraordinaire Nuno Bettencourt.   Kevin Figueiredo is one drums and he has been around for awhile too since 2007.

They haven’t released many albums, only 6 actually in the last 35 years or so but have released one in 2023 simply called Six

The band hits the stage at 9:05 pm and they start off with one from Extreme II:Pornograffitti (A Funked Up Fairy Tale album with It(‘s a Monster).  This is a total 80’s -90’s head-trip.  I say this because this is exactly what this era was all about with the album cover in the background behind the kit and Nuno belting out some absolutely ripping guitar solos. Gary was wearing some sort of costume headgear and glasses with a patch.   He has short hair now, but his voice still sounds really decent as they rip into another Pornograffitti song with “Decadence Dance”.

But like I mentioned the real standout here tonight has to be watching one of the best guitar players still out there today, and that is Nuno Bettencourt.  The guy plays with such panache and precision, it was just jaw dropping.   Going through a montage of songs from the first Extreme album to the acoustic flurry with “Midnight Express”, to the ballistic finger fury of “Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee” , and the entire body of work from the mere 6 albums, you have to consider him one of the best out there today, if not the best.  I am not kidding, in the last couple of years I have seen wack of fantastic players, Like Steve Vai, Zak Wylde, Nita Strauss, Tim Henson, Plini, Synyster Gates and plenty more and this guy Nuno is right up there. He does all the talking for the band between songs and does a lot of background singing as well, and that says a lot.  I can’t rave enough about this guy   I had to laugh as he talked about the guitar players in the audience and that he sees some with arms crossed going “ya, I can play that no problem”.  I think to myself,  “yaa and maybe some can but he came up with all the catchy riffs in first place and does other stuff besides play the guitar.”

This is an extraordinary show however, with close to 2 HOURS with 21 songs played.   All the songs that they have likely been played a thousand times and you have heard before, like “Hole Hearted”, “More than Words” and of course they end song 18 with “Get the Funk Out” as the mostly lethargic Vancouver audience actually raised their fists a little (ya you read that right, Vancouver was not a crazy crowd at all).  They did play 5 songs from the new album, with “#Rebel”, “Other Side of the Rainbow”, “Thicker than Blood”, “Banshee” and 2 in the encore with “Small Town Beautiful” and “Rise”.  I heard alot of Eddie Van Halen licks throughout the show and you had to know it was coming, they did a encore of Van Halen’s “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”.   A special guest we all know joined into the song as Nickelback singer Chad Kroeger took the mic and sang on that like he was David Lee Roth.  Nuno ripped through Eddies licks flawlessly with the same tone, if you had your eyes closed you would not know the difference (yes, I saw Eddie play that song back in 1984, song 20 in Winnipeg).

I gotta admit, I really took my eye off the ball with this band in the past, even in their golden years with the Pornograffitti album.   To me 80’s, early 90’s hardrock/metal was the best years for guitar players, and after watching Nuno tonight, I was blown away.  Gary was pretty decent too and he hasn’t lost much of a step at all in the vocal department either, don’t get me wrong, total props to that cat too, and the rest of the band.  2 hour shows are RARE, as this is an excellent value, and a must see show if you like Extreme or stellar guitar work  especially like a generation X’er like me who feels the need to take a trip back into the glory days of rock’n’roll.  Funking do it and go see them!