Living Colour, the most pragmatic rock band of the ’80s and ’90s, made a triumphant return to South Florida last week. Just off the boat, literally, they just finished a tropical voyage on Shiprocked, one of the many “floating festivals” or music cruises that sail out of Miami. The crowd at the Culture Room in Oakland Park was at capacity by the time Living Colour took the stage, but before I get to their set, I have to give a nice ovation to opening act and local band Daybreak Embrace, which has a great musical future ahead of them. If you get a chance, go see these guys perform. The energy and sound they produce is a sure sign that rock-n-roll, is far from dead.
Corey, Vernon, Doug and Will walked on stage and were immediately greeted with deafening applause from the crowd. They started off with an energetic rendition of ‘Ignorance’ followed by some other LC classics.
The music was good, loud and full of the energy that one would expect from Living Colour.
Like most musicians, using their celebrity as a powerful tool to get a message across is expected, and it wasn’t lost on this crowd. ‘Who Shot Ya’ was introduced by Corey as a tribute to Biggie Smalls, but as the band raised their hands in the air and started chanting “hands up, don’t shoot” the message wasn’t wasted as the audience sand along and raised their hands as well!
The band has aged, and time has passed. Music has changed, and so has the technology encompassing it. I will say that the one constant regardless of decade, is the everlasting resonance that GOOD music continues to exude. They played for the better part of almost 2 hours and finished the night with the song and guitar riff which brought them to the Rock & Roll frontline, Cult of Personality.
Living Colour is definitely a band worth seeing, especially if you, like me, continue to go back to decades old CD’s and vinyl and yearn for good music. Well done gentleman!
