Extreme/Take Us Alive(2010)

Do not Judge a band because they had a huge Acoustic Ballad(More Than Words) that sold a ton at the time of its release as a single(1991) and then vanished after Kurt Cobain and his ripped up Cardigans demolished a whole Musical Genre in One Grunge Swoop!

Extreme to my ears have always been a solid band and to prove this theory I have purchased all their stuff including this Friggin Fantastic Live Album that was recorded in the bands hometown of Boston in 2009!

Anyone who owns an Extreme album and there are a few of you out there  do know that these cats can play the Rock N Funk and add textures to a track(Horns/Tempo Changes) plus the fact that there lead and backing vocals are top-notch! One of the few bands that can actually Sing and sound the same live as in the studio!

Extreme/Take Us Alive proves this point!

Extreme is..

Gary Cherone – lead vocals
Nuno Bettencourt – lead guitar, 6 and 12-string acoustic guitar, brass/orchestration arrangements, keyboards, piano, backing and lead vocals
Pat Badger – bass, acoustic bass guitar, backing vocals
Kevin Figueiredo – drums, percussion

Nuno! What a resume!

Hear are the tracks featured!

“Decadence Dance” – 8:12
“Comfortably Dumb” – 5:23
“Rest In Peace” – 5:21
“It’s A Monster” – 5:29
“Star” – 5:42
“Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” – 7:59
“Medley: Kid Ego/Little Girls/Teacher’s Pet” – 6:00
“Play with Me” – 9:06
“Midnight Express” – 4:10
“More Than Words” – 7:26
“Ghost” – 4:51
“Cupid’s Dead” – 6:58
“Take Us Alive” – 6:04
“Flight Of The Wounded Bumblebee” – 1:51
“Get the Funk Out” – 7:37
“Am I Ever Gonna Change” – 6:57
“Hole Hearted” – 4:13

Wowzer’s! Look at that track listing! Thats a Greatest Hits Sonic Funk  Rock Assault if I ever seen one!

Shall we discuss a few of these Tunes?

The show opens with Decadence Dance and were off! Love the interplay between the Guitar and Bass playing the same notes at the end of each verse! Makes it heavy and make no mistake Bassist Pat can play the 4 String and provides real good backing vocals but no one ever says that! Props here for a Fella who over on Stage Left to Badger goes by the name of Nuno who  is well…. a Virtuoso! Watch the video below to prove my Findings!

All those fun-loving Extreme tracks are here like Rest In Peace/Get The Funk Out/Hole Hearted. Nuno and Gary though don’t rest on their laurels as they prove that they can still write new stuff that fits right in as Star and Comfortably Numb(a great song title) are added in the set and the song’s don’t dip in quality!

The boys dip right back into the fist album with a medley that includes Kid Ego and some Van Halen like riffage in the tune Teacher’s Pet. You can hear how the writing of Gary and Nuno has advanced from album to album.

Nuno though can play that guitar as Flight OF The Wounded BumbleBee proves! Man oh Man Nuno solos off the hook and everything is wrapped up in One Minute 51 Seconds! Boom! Done!

Take Us Alive is a Fav of mine on this album.

This shows you Extreme’s diverse Music Muscle as Nuno picks faster than Mike Ladano clicking the mouse on a computer for yet another order from CDJapan! Drummer K Fig drives the pace with some hyper swing action that propels the tune. Love Cherone as he’s all over the stage with some pretty decent energy and watch him at the 2 minute mark of the video(above). Yea-Haw is all I will add!

This is a must own Friends…..