Extreme with King’s X at the House of Blues

Extreme with Special Guests King’s X at the House of Blues, Chicago

Extreme’s Take us Alive 2008 tour is the bands first tour in 13 years. After an extended hiatus the band decided to take on the air waves again and thankfully came out with an album for the tour than just doing a reunion gig.

The House of Blues in Chicago is not a big sized venue by any standards but still attracts the best acts. Reached there around 7 PM and saw a lot of  rockstars out there including Kip Winger, Gilby Clarke, Glen Hughes, Mark Slaughter who were all there as part of Rock n roll fantasy camp. The gig was sold out and there was hardly standing room. (Lot of beer-guzzling fat moms in the audience trying to relive the 80s.)

King’s X, as expected, played loud. Real loud. Doug Pinnick’s band is one of the most underrated bands of the 90s. They should have been huge but things never worked. Remarkably, the band is still 10 albums over and going strong. King’s X brought the place down with their heavy setlist which included germs like Dogman, Born to be loved, Black Friday and Groove Machine. Ty Tabor’s drop D tuned guitar packs one of the heaviest tones I have ever heard and the quality of their live show simply blew away the audience. This was a great show in itself. Well worth the money.

Next up was Extreme. After an excruciating 40 minute wait, the opening notes of Comfortably Dumb hit and Nuno’s signature funky rhythms interlaced with intense shred began. I thought Gary Cherone sounded great and the combination of Pat Badger and new drummer Kevin was real solid.

Just when you though it could not get any better, Nuno pulled out an acoustic and played a blistering version of “Midnight Express”. You have to listen to this one live to believe it! Predictably, this was followed by “More than words” – all cell phones out for this one.

Nuno’s stage presence was awesome as always. Some of the funnier moments of the show included Nuno remarking that “Doug Pinnicks favourite song with Nuno singing is Midnight Express.”

The “Play with me” solo was another highlight of the night for me as Nuno makes it look effortless. Here is the setlist, best as I can remember it (I didn’t write it down):

Comfortably Dumb
Decadence Dance
Rest in Peace
Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
Star
Play with me
Midnight Express
More Than Words
Ghost
Cupid’s Dead
Take Us Alive
Get the Funk Out
Am I Ever Gonna Change
Hole Hearted