Last night I went to an Extreme concert at Casino Rama in Orillia, Ontario. I wasn’t an especially big fan of the band—I’ve always liked their music—but never really considered going to one of their shows. My favourite album of theirs is probably III Sides to Every Story. There is a 3-part opus at the end of the CD that was very unusual for a rock band of the time. It was very theatrical. That album also had my favourite Extreme song featuring my favourite Nuno Bettencourt solo, Rest In Peace:
When they released their latest album Six I marvelled at the excellent guitar solo that captured everyone’s attention in the song Rise…
…just like everyone else did. Including Music expert Youtuber Rick Beato:
…but still I was skeptical. I only went to the concert because my son has become a big fan of the band—thanks to my TPS co-host Victor—and he made me promise that if they ever played in or around Toronto we’d go to see them. So we went, and boy am I glad we did!
Unfortunately for the band, their days of filling arenas and stadia seem to be behind them—at least in Canada anyway. This show was at Casino Rama’s Entertainment Centre where the capacity is 5,000 seats and it was definitely not sold out.
Fortunately for us, this show was at Casino Rama’s Event Centre where the venue was relatively intimate and the sound was perfect for the show we were about to see.
The opener was Living Colour and if I was only a marginal Extreme fan, I was even less of a fan of Living Colour. As is the case with probably 90% of those reading this blog, I only knew one of their songs:
But they were good! Great musicianship, and their singer Corey Glover put on an impressive vocal performance! The man has pipes! Here is the only picture I took all night:
Despite me only knowing the one song, their set was short enough that I could appreciate the musicianship. They ended with their hit followed by a rocking cover of The Clash’s Should I Stay or Should I Go which I appreciated.
While their performance was good, their sound was off. A little too much low end which drowned out some of the other good stuff going on. But hey…they did their job as the opener. They warmed the crowd up without stealing the show. Not that that was likely to happen.
When Extreme took the stage the energy went up to 11 and they put on a proper rock spectacle! They didn’t stop for two hours!
Gary Cherone is a wildly underrated frontman! He was all over the stage gyrating and dancing and moving that 63 year-old frame like he was still 29. He had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand.
The rest of the band was tight and sounded great. Nuno and Pat Badger‘s gang vocals made everything sound all-the-more epic while drummer Kevin Figueiredo kept the energy and tempo up. Even when things slowed down for crowd-favourites More Than Words and Hole Hearted the venue remained electric. It was like they were shooting a music video for each of their songs. Their energy was off the scale!
Then there’s Nuno. What can I say about him that hasn’t already been said a million times? Nothing…it’s all been said…but I’ll say it again here. Nuno Bettencourt is arguably the greatest rock guitarist living today. That’s no hyperbole. He’s legit!
When I told people I was going to this concert many people wondered out loud if he could pull off that solo from Rise live. Nuno played that solo note-for-note with the same speed and accuracy as the recording.
I can confirm that Nuno Bettencourt is a guitar god on another level! Most musicians lose a step or two as they get older. At 58, not only has Nuno not lost a step, he’s creating more than ever and he’s making it look easy!
There is no question that Nuno is the face of that band. It made me think back to other examples where the band leader wasn’t necessarily the lead singer. You’ve got Neil Peart as Rush‘s drummer who was arguably the face of that band, and you have Eddie Van Halen. I don’t think anyone would argue that he wasn’t the face of Van Halen. What do they both have in common? They’re both inarguably all-time greats at their instrument. I think Nuno is in that league.
Extreme don’t even try to hide that this is The Nuno show. During song breaks, Nuno is the one who stays on the stage and talks to the crowd telling funny stories while the others take a breath or change outfits. I don’t think Gary said more than two sentences (more than words ;P) the entire show. Nuno played entire pieces by himself on stage. Just him and his guitar. And while this is happening you felt like you were witnessing greatness akin to Eddie himself.
At some point during the show, Nuno even stopped playing and began complaining about hearing a buzzing from his guitar, so his tech brings out a different guitar—an EVH Frankenstrat—and the band kicked into a wild cover of Van Halen’s Ain’t Talking About Love. It was the perfect homage to what was certainly Nuno’s childhood hero.
I can’t say enough about this show! Nuno is legit. Extreme are legit! If you want to witness a real throwback rock’n’roll show, I suggest you find out if/when Extreme are in town. You won’t be disappointed.
It was one of the best concerts I’ve ever attended. You can now count me as an Extreme believer.
What are you thinking?