Extreme made their debut appearance at the Piece Hall last night, supported by Terrorvision. Extreme were very impressed with it as a venue, expressing how beautiful they found it.

★★★★☆ (4/5)

EXTREME PERFORMING AT TK. MAXX PRESENTS… HALIFAX THE PIECE HALL 2024
PHOTOCREDIT: JOHN HAYHURST

Unfortunately, due to issues with roadworks and busy traffic I got to hear Terrovision on the way in but didn’t actually manage to see them which was a pity as they sounded fantastic and I know what a great live act they are.

The gig was not a sell out which was disappointing as Extreme are a very good live act, to begin with those that did attend seemed a bit flat and the first few songs felt harder work than they should have been for Extreme. However, the band didn’t let that put them off and worked hard at getting the crowd going, which they did incredibly well by the end. The slow start is why I don’t think this is a five out of five gig.

Sing alongs to Wholehearted and More Than Words were always likely to happen, and were both excellent, but the really impressive part was how they got the crowd singing and participating in many of the other songs, both slower and rockier.

Extreme have recently released some new music and played some of it last night, how was it? It’s actually really good, more to the Wholehearted end of their cannon but still impressive, so good in fact I am going to investigate it on a well-known streaming service.

A few Queen intros to songs also got the crowd going with some sing alongs and the tribute to Ozzy to close was excellent together with a bit of stairway thrown in to start More Than Words they clearly revered those who had gone before and wanted to show that. Get the Funk Out also had the desired effect of getting them crowd going to close off the main set before the encore.

The band themselves formed in the 80’s which means either they’ve perfected time travel or they are ageing very well as they looked a lot better than any rock band that’s been going for about 40 years has a right to. Sartorial elegance was also high on the agenda, Nuno explaining his recent decision, while in Nashville, to expand his hat collection, and very cool it was too.

Gary’s voice has also held up really well, he can still hit every note perfectly and he can throw rock star shapes with the best of them while, as I said, really getting the crowd going. Nuno was in storytelling mode, playing fantastically well, saluting all of the guitarists in the audience and generally really engaging the crowd. He did try to exchange e-mail addresses with the entire audience for the purpose of forming a band with them not something you see every day.

I am disappointed more people didn’t get to see this gig as they really missed out on a rock band at the top of their game who have an impressive back catalogue and who haven’t lost any of their talent.