YOU STILL NEED TO GO SEE LIVING COLOUR LIVE

I just listened to The Chair in the Doorway again for the first time in awhile, and, hey, guess what? It’s still better than almost anything else released last year, or this year, for that matter. I think I’ve seen Living Colour live seven or eight times now, but the album gave me an itch to go see ’em again — these dudes really put on a good, old-fashioned performance, y’know? Like, with an ever-changing set list, and jamming and improvisations and showing the world they can play — y’know, like bands used to do. I don’t know why so many bands stopped doing that kind of thing, but I’m glad LC still do; at the risk of sounding like Yogi Berra, they never play the same gig twice.

The band has now made one of their shows from last year available for download on Livedownloads.com — you can get the mp3s for ten bucks, or the FLAC  files for thirteen. According to the show notes, “This was one of the only two Living Colour performances when two separate sets were performed with a brief intermission” — they first half of the set was old school stuff, and then the second half was the entirety of Chair (this was just before the album was released), plus some more classics for the encore. Download it here.

And while a good live recording of Living Colour is sweet, it’s not as sweet as the real thing, so here are LC’s upcoming tour dates, both in North America and abroad. If you have the chance to go see them and don’t, you are really robbing yourself of an awesome evening of music.

July/August East Coast 2010

July 28 – The Haunt – Ithaca, NY
July 29 – The Chance, Poughkeepsie, NY
July 30 – Harper’s Ferry, Boston, MA
July 31 – Jaxx, West Springfield, VA
August 1 – Tupelo Music Hall, Londonderry, NH
August 2 – Infinity Hall, Norfolk, CT
Please check with local venues to confirm show dates

LIVING COLOUR European Summer Tour 2010

08/06 LOKET (CZ) – Motorcylce Rock Festival
08/07 Cercemaggiore (I) – Baloma Bikers Festival
08/08 Rome (I) – Rock Night @ Rock City
08/10 ESSEN (D )- Zeche Carl
08/11 HANNOVER (D) – Bluesgarage
08/12 LEVERKUSEN (D) – Scala
08/13 ARNHEIM (NL) – Huntenpop Festival
08/14 AMSTERDAM (NL) -Paradiso
08/15 OUDENAERDE (B) – Feest in het Park Festival
08/17 VIENNA (A) – Porgy
08/18 WROCLAW (PL) – Alibi
08/19 WARSAW ( PL) – Proxima
08/20 KLAGENFURT (A) – FrieJazz Festival
08/21 NVIRBATOR (HUN) – Azfeszt Rock Festival

-AR