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CHAMELEONS SETLIST Mad Jack Encore: WINGTIPS SETLIST Hit and Run CHAMELEONS TOUR DATES Dec 6 Bristol, UK Marble Factory Read More
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Chameleons keep their promises--
The recently-returned-to-action Manchester UK post-punk band (not the lizard) made good on their intent to return to downtown Kansas City ar recordBar, after a planned June appearance had to be scuttled day-of, after their van broke down en route from Denver, somewhere on the plains of Western Kansas.
The evening got underway with a different opening act than the one touring over the Spring; this time out it was Chicago-based darkwave electro-pop duo Wingtips in support of their recently released third full-length album, “On Trial’, released in October (via Artoffact Records).
The duo played their 9-song / 40min set in near darkness, with both dressed in black and amid some smoke, making it sometimes hard to see keyboardist / guitarist Vincent Segretario & vocalist Hannah Avalon (much less try and get a decent picture or two). The duo have been an act since 2015 with a debut record, “Exposure Therapy” released in 2019 and they even snuck into the area about three weeks ago without our knowledge, playing a mid-week show in Lawrence at the Replay Lounge.
From the opening “Hit and Run” (which also opens the new record), their music has a big goth dark synth sound (bigger than just the two members might portray) with a pop edge that keeps the songs accessible, while staying mostly underground. The pair didn’t work in their Secret Garden cover, nor the new album’s lead single, “The Break” but did feature “The Verdict” late in their set, a collaboration with muscular longtime sax man, Tim Cappello.
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2024 has become a year of Strange Times in reality, so it’s fitting that Manchester UK band Chameleons returns to live stages and radio airwaves, both to revisit their classic 80’s post-punk era material, as well give their fans some new music for the first time in over two decades.
“….Finally!!!” bassist and lead singer Mark Burgess said, elated and smiling , taking the stage to begin their headlining set. To recall, the band was scheduled to play this same venue back in June (after playing an initial reunion gig the year before with The Mission UK) but the group’s van stalled the morning the show between here and Denver.
So, the band was forced to cancel on short notice, with a promise that they would re-schedule We caught the openers that night, anyway, and as some consolation. We couldn’t be happier that the UK band kept true to their word and made KC a stop on their resulting Fall tour.
Burgess and guitarist Reg Smithies (along with newer recruits, Todd Demma– drums; Stephen Rice– guitars; and Danny Ashberry- keyboards) immediately launched into a full live playback of their third dark, complex, and ultimately last album (of that era), “Strange Times” played sequentially and in its entirety.
Despite the absence of Dave Fielding and missing drummer John Lever (who died in 2017), the band faithfully reprised their seminal album, with many in the crowd still remembering the old lyrics enough to sing along, especially on singles “Mad Jack” (which opens the record), first single, “Tears” and second side opener, “Swamp Thing”.
Although the band was well-known in Europe and the UK, they missed many radars in the US compared to their Manchester cohorts of the day- i.e. The Smiths, Joy Division/New Order, The Stone Roses- perhaps due to Strange Times not being available on CD until seven years later, in 1993.
The post-punk punch that begins the album does wane towards its end, towards the gentler and retrospective, as on “Childhood” and “I’ll Remember”, but energy again increased as the band played its brand-new song, “Where are You?”, released in May as a three-song EP via Metropolis Records. It’s also the first single from a planned new forthcoming full album, “Arctic Moon” and brought momentum up one last time before the encore.
Burgess didn’t say much between songs except to say how grateful he was to be playing live and to value the gift of time, something he said we all don’t have enough of, as he suddenly found himself in his 60’s.
The set definitely found its new gear on the encore, which was a whirlwind of other earlier hits beginning with their first song, 1981’s “In Shreds” which was still rapt in the urgency it had over forty years ago.
1982’s “Monkeyland” was next with its striking opening line,” I shake my head and shiver, they smile and then stab my back as they shake my hand”; 1983’s spanning “Second Skin” and finishing with the jangly opener from their first album, 1983’s “Don’t Fall” which might be their most Manchester-sounding track, as well as appropriately echoes the crying out anthemic sound of those rebel times (a la early Alarm, U2, and The Fall).
Chameleons, as their name implies; have managed to change shape to return strongly as a band, shifted with the times by releasing new music that brings a modern sheen to their classic sound, and brought new wiser and nuanced musical colors to the journey they began way back in 1981.
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CHAMELEONS at recordBar, Kansas City MO (2024-11-04)
CHAMELEONS at recordBar, Kansas City MO (2024-11-04)
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WINGTIPS at recordBar, Kansas City MO (2024-11-04)
| John C ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥X / twitter.com ♥ bsky.ap |
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