Boston’s golden funk-rockers, Extreme, brought their greatest hits, fan-favorites and a few brilliant covers to their home-away-from-home at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom in New Hampshire on August 24. Together now, for over thirty years, the band demonstrated their impeccable ability to engage with their fans while weaving their uncanny musicianship together – for over two hours of pure musical joy.
Master of the house, Gary Cherone (lead vocals), had the audience eating from his hand as he strutted and danced continuously from stage right to stage left. Nuno Bettencourt (guitars, vocals) impressed by flawlessly combined rock, funk and metal licks and riffs on his iconic axe. Pat Badger (bass, vocals) and Kevin Figueiredo (drums) proudly held down the bottom-line as an impressive rhythm section team. Badger also proved to be quite the capable vocalist as he chimed in for a few lines between Cherone’s and Bettencourt’s tandem vocal assault. After a string of dates that had Extreme visit Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Virginia, New York and New Jersey with a seemingly standard, hits-only setlists – those in attendance in New Hampshire were treated to a festive, reworked setlist that drew from all of the band’s records. Highlight’s from the set included, “Warheads”, “Get The Funk Out”, “Rest In Peace”, “Little Girls”, “Hole Hearted”, “Peacemaker Die” and covers of Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, “We Are The Champions” and a raucous “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting” a la Elton John.
Photos and words by Marc Lacatell
