Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991 TAG: 9102270338
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JUSTINE ELIAS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
But strobe lights, neon, and a fog bank of dry ice couldn't obscure the power of Living Colour's music - a rousing blend of heavy metal, funk, and soul.
The band's long fight for acceptance, built on two strong albums and years of touring, has been rewarded with fast record sales and two Grammy awards.
At a sold-out show Tuesday night at Virginia Tech's 3,000-seat Burruss Auditorium, Living Colour again demonstrated that the line between black and white music is easily crossed - and the barriers between black performers and white audiences are easily broken down.
"Do you want to party or what?" asked lead singer Corey Glover, and the young, mainly white audience screamed its approval.
In two tight, furious sets, Living Colour tore into songs from the group's new album, "Time's Up," and its predecessor, "Vivid."
The audiences went for the harder rock sound and socially aware lyrics of "Type," "Fight the Fight," and the band's biggest hit, "Cult of Personality," but Living Colour has more on its mind than defiant anthems to change.
The band's songs are about looking beyond the surface of things and people - a point well taken by hard-rock fans, who embraced Living Colour long before radio programmers felt comfortable playing music by new black artists.
Bass player Muzz Skillings and drummer Will Calhoun left the musical showmanship to founder and lead guitarist Vernon Reid, who brought the group together 10 years ago.
Despite Reid's commanding guitar work, the show belonged to Glover.
Glover's expressive voice is ideally suited to the slower blues-influenced songs, particularly "Love Rears Its Ugly Head," which sounds like a torch song standard with the heat turned way, way up.
The singer can prowl around the stage as well as any rock idol, but he wisely kept preening and between-song chatter to a minimum, except for a plug for the environmental group Greenpeace.
Living Colour has come a long way since its days as a club band and opening act - Reid and his band present themselves like veterans who know they are living up to all their promises.
Opening act King's X, a more conventional hard-rock trio, did little onstage to live up to its energetic album, "Faith Hope Love."
The Texas-based group, which will not be known for its versatility, hit the same note loudly and often in a 45-minute set. Every song was mined from the same vein - too long, too loud, too many prolonged guitar solos.
by CNB