For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: Living Colour Plays the Arcadia in November 1990

By Robert Wilonsky Fri., Aug. 12 2011 at 6:30 PM

This one's special. I found it late last night, buried in one of the Internet's dustier corners, marked only "Living Colour - Dallas, TX - 11-27-90." It didn't say where. So I thought maybe it was that extraordinary Bronco Bowl show I reviewed for the Times Herald, drenched in sweat and knee-deep in the mosh pit. (Couldn't be helped; we were swept up in a tidal wave roaring out of Vernon Reid's amp.) But, no. That show was on March 9, 1991. Fact-checked it here, a remarkable repository for those as rock nostalgic as I. And the shows at the Cotton Bowl, opening for the Stones, were in November 1989.

So off to the dusty, leather-bound Observer archives. And there was the ad, next to a profile of Ice, Ice Baby: Living Colour for two nights at the Arcadia Theatre, which we watched burn to the ground five years ago.

A better-sounding boot you won't find; says the note that comes with, the soundboard tape was a gift from guitarist Vernon Reid to an Italian fan, who traded it to someone who eventually shared it with the rest of the class. He (she?) continues: "Great show, they do a nice reggae intro to 'Glamour Boys' and Vernon has cool jazz runs before 'Open Letter.' "Otherwise the band kinda tears it up, as usual. Corey gets on the crowd about being a bit sleepy. Crowd is very distant on the recording, so hard to tell what's going on!"

Alas, it's just a wee bit incomplete -- no "Cult of Personality," say, which surely made the set list on this tour in support of the recently released Time's Up, which, for some reason, I was arguing with Pete just the other day holds up better than Vivid anyhow. Great Clash cover to boot. Now, who's got that Los Lobos-Steve Earle show?

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LaceyB

**boo hoo** Bob Dylan *sob sob* Aww shit, nevermind.

i was at that los lobos/ steve earle & the dukes show ... went well past 2am

Sleepy Head

I went to that show. The rendition of When Love Rears Its Ugly Head was so good it hurt. If my memory is correct, there was some sort of blacklight backdrop on the stage. Corey writhed around in love-agony and gave it up. If there wasn't a lot of crowd noise, maybe it was because we all had to have a smoke after it.

drumTrey

That Living Colour and Kings X show at Bronco was mind-numbing in '91. But my burning question is: where can i find the Waterboys show that is also mentioned on the flier?? Mike Scott remains one of the most prolific and unheralded songwriters of the last 25 years.

scottindallas

My thoughts exactly. When I was a child, I listened to children's music, but,...

What of the Waterboys?

Pat Boyack

Saw them with 400 people in a warehouse in Salt Lake city in early '89, then at the fairgrounds a year and a half later with Primus. Both times they didn't look very thrilled to be in Utah. Primus kicked their ass, too.

PeterM

Care to share the boot?I was at the Living Color/King's X show at the good ole Bronco Bowl. Wild show!

PeterM

....and I still have my ticket stub...

Bob Ackerman

I'm pretty sure I was at that show.

Dr. D

Time's Up, not close.Saw them in Austin with Bad Brains opening in 1993 at the Texas Union Ballroom. BB had everyone in a froth, then the LC show was so intense that a pumped-up Vernon Reid stage dove twice, taking out my buddy next to me in the second row on the second one. Epic show.