Riding on a crest of overwhelmingly positive reviews of their new single and video “WHERE ARE YOU?,” UK’s legendary post-punk band The Chameleons added another leg of USA dates to their tour celebrating their groundbreaking 1986 album, Strange Times.
The Chameleons play Strange Times in full at Black Cat on Saturday, August 17.
Celebrating their 1986 breakthrough album Strange Times, which spawned the singles “Tears” and the alt-rock club staple “Swamp Thing,” The Chameleons have been playing the album in its entirety, something that vocalist/bassist Mark Burgess ever thought he’d do.
“I initially wasn’t a huge fan of album performance tours,” Mark said. “I believed instead that they ought to have been confined to one-off, special events.” Marking the difference between the highly personal experience of enjoying an album alone with a “good pair of headphones” versus the collective social coming together at a concert, he mused that, in general, the track listing of an album doesn’t take into account a live show’s needs for crest and drama.
“Performing Strange Times changed my mind,” Mark said. “For one thing, the album marked a significant evolution by the band both in its sound and the maturity of the writing. Secondly, it’s a challenging album to perform live and thus, it’s much more fun to play. When all is said and done, we look forward to recreating this particular album for our North American fans!”
Watch The Chameleons perform “Swamp Thing” live on KEXP via YouTube:
New single “Where Are You?”, The Chameleons’ first new music in over 20 years, generated lots of excitement on both sides of the Atlantic. The EP landed the band a spot in the Top Five of UK’s Physical Singles chart — a first ever for the band.
“It’s exciting to finally be putting out fresh Chameleons material for the first time in over twenty years, although initially I found it quite daunting,” Mark said. Released via Metropolis Records in conjunction with Strange Times Entertainment, the EP was called “gorgeously loud post-punk goodness” by The Big Takeover and “as anthemic and hooky as you might expect… there’s real electricity in the recording” by Brooklyn Vegan.
Watch the official music video for “Where Are You?” By The Chameleons on YouTube:
Long cited as a hugely influential act, having inspired the likes of (The) Verve, Oasis, White Lies, The Slow Readers Club, Interpol, The Killers, and Editors, among countless others and known for their transformative musical catalog and intense and emotionally charged live performances, The Chameleons have created a legacy that extends beyond their four studio albums. Following their debut single In Shreds in 1982, the band released three seminal albums: the widely acclaimed Script of the Bridge (1983), cited by many sources as a masterpiece way ahead of its time, its follow-up What Does Anything Mean? Basically! (1984), Strange Times (1986), and Why Call It Anything? (2001).
The Chameleons are Reg Smithies (guitar), Mark Burgess (bass, vocals, lyrics), Stephen Rice (guitar), Danny Ashberry (keyboards), and Todd Demma (drums).
The Chameleons
W/ Vision Video, A Cloud of Ravens
Black Cat
Saturday, August 17
Doors @ 8pm
$40
All ages