Living Colour  - Wayward Sons - Jared James Nichols

On probably the hottest day of the year so far, it seems a bit mad to spend the evening in a packed venue with a steadily increasing temperature. But tonight is a special one, with Living Colour playing their debut (and most critically acclaimed) album in its entirety. It’s hard to believe it’s over 30 years since seeing them open for Anthrax in support of the album. What an unlikely pairing that was!

But before getting to Living Colour we had two fine support acts. The venue’s early curfew meant that American blues-rocker,Jared James Nichols, had a surprisingly early start, coming on at 6:30pm. The timings clearly caught many out, with a sparse crowd initially. But within a few songs it was thickening up.

Opening with uptempo rocker ‘Last Chance’ it’s unusual to see a guitarist in this genre playing without a pic - but that certainly doesn’t stop him from giving his guitar a good thrashing. At times he looks like a young Ted Nugent - albeit a friendlier version! The first half of the set is drawn from his second album ‘Black Magic’. The slightly funky ‘Honey Forgive Me’ stands out, and it’s ended with a nicely placed snippet of the Allman Brothers ’Jessica’.

Another highlight was an older track ‘Can You Feel It?’, with the rhythm section keeping the song bouncing along while Jared conducted a sing-along. But best of the night for me was the latest single ‘Nails In My Coffin’, a slow but powerful ballad, and he thanked Radio 2 for giving it some airplay. It bodes well for a new album. One more before a cover of Mountain’s classic ‘Mississippi Queen’ ends the set. The queue of people waiting to speak to Jared at the merch stall suggest he’s picked up a good number of new fans tonight.

Wayward Sons come out to a healthy crowd and launch into ‘Alive’, the opener from their excellent debut album. It’s followed by a stomping version of ‘Don't Wanna Go’ with frontman Toby Jepson whipping up some crowd participation - a common sight throughout the set. He really knows how to work a crowd. Not to mention having a crackin’ voice too! He tells us that Glasgow’s like a second home to him and proceeds to tell a story about when he once wore a kilt at a gig - but I’ll spare you the details! 😂

‘Ghost’ is next, with great melodies and busy drumming from Phil Martini at the back. The first of three new songs ‘Any Other Way’ follows, with ‘Little White Lies’ and ‘The Jokes On You’ coming later in the set. The pick of these three for me was ‘Little White Lies’, a mid-paced number with a great, melodic, guitar hook. In between, we had the outstanding ‘Crush’ - kicked off by the “The voluptuous Sam Wood” on guitar - and straight ahead rocker ‘Small Talk’.

The set ends all too soon with the brilliant ‘Until The End’ and Toby threw his guitar from centre stage to a nervous looking roadie down at the side. A superb set and the band left the stage to great applause. The new album ‘The Truth Ain’t What It Used To Be’ will be out on 11 October - really looking forward to that... and some more shows in support of it.

By the time Living Colour appear, The Garage is packed and they receive a huge cheer before kicking off with ‘Ignorance Is Bliss’ which gets the crowd moving, and it’s an immediate reminder of what accomplished musicians this band are. And Vernon Reid in particular appears to be in playful mood tonight, providing some physical comedy as well as blistering guitar.

The familiar excerpt from Malcolm X’s ‘Message to the Grass Roots’ speech leads into the stop-start riff from ‘Cult of Personality’, a monster of a tune. ‘Vivid’ was a breath of fresh air when it was released in 1988, with its fusion of rock and funk – I played it to death - and it offered up a real variety in songwriting styles. Pretty much all of the songs have stood the test of time and the social issues tackled across the album are just as relevant today - sadly, things haven’t moved on much, with Trump getting a particular mention later on.

Highlights of the ‘Vivid’ set for me were ‘Middle Man’ (the first song Vernon and Corey wrote together), the super funky ‘Funny Vibe’ and ‘Which Way to America’. ‘Open Letter (To A Landlord)’ featured a long intro with Corey displaying his vocal range. For me at least, it was a bit over the top, but the crowd in general lapped it up and chanted his name at the end of the song. And there were some big crowd participation moments too in ‘What’s Your Favourite Colour?’, ‘Glamour Boys’ and a happy birthday sing-along for drummer, Will Calhoun.

With a 10pm cut off time, there was still time for a few more songs - ‘Love Rears Up Its Ugly Head’, a speeded up version of ‘Elvis Is Dead’ (with a bit of ‘Hound Dog’ too) and finally, an excellent version of ‘Type’.

The Glasgow crowd gave the band a great ovation, clearly appreciated by the band who spent a few minutes shaking hands and hugging fans before heading off. Time for everyone to make their way outside to cool down!