|

Posted in music | tour dates on August 3, 2009

Mark Burgess (The Chameleons) played Boston, playing Brooklyn & Philly (dates, tix, video & stuff)

by Bill Pearis

Mark Burgess

Former Chameleons frontman Mark Burgess is playing The Bell House in Brooklyn on Monday, August 10 (tickets on sale now) and the Blockly in Philadelphia the next night (tickets on sale too).

The Chameleons (or The Chameleons UK as they were known in the U.S) were among the cultiest of '80s cult bands, musical contemporaries of U2 and Big Country who never achieved their level of success due somewhat to a string of label woes that would fell almost any band. Their influence, however, has far outstripped their sales, and you can hear echos of their sound in such bands as Interpol, Editors, Blacklist and The Horrors. Their 1983 debut album, Script of the Bridge is post-punk classic, equal parts angsty roar and ethereal guitar interplay. Their other two '80s albums are pretty great too, especially 1986's Strange Times which contains what might be their best-ever song, "Swamp Thing." The band broke up shortly after that.

The original line-up (Burgess, drummer John Lever and guitarists Dave Fielding and Reg Smithies) reformed in 2001 after a decade apart, releasing a new album, Why Call it Anything?, in 2002 and toured America, including mindblowing shows at Knitting Factory and Southpaw that were a dream come true for many fans, me included. The band split again in 2003, and Burgess for a while revived his post-Chameleons band, The Sun & the Moon, but has since adopted the moniker ChameleonsVox when he plays live.

As for these American shows, it's interesting how they came about. Originally Burgess was coming to the U.S. only for a personal visit:

.......

The British post-punk singer had plans to be in Maine later this week, but could find only direct flights into Boston from his home in Manchester, England. So he went online to research the Hub. When he noticed the Chameleons UK were among the top friends on the Hennessy's Upstairs Rock Club MySpace profile, he sent the club a message asking where to spend the night.

"I told him, 'I'll put you up in a hotel room if you play a show,"' said Hennessy's booking agent and longtime Chameleons UK fan, Sean Flynn .

Burgess agreed. He asked Flynn to round up some local musicians to jam. The lineup for what could be the coolest gig of the summer consists of Worcester-based indie band the Curtain Society backing Burgess for a set of Chameleons UK songs, with opening sets from synthpoppers Lifestyle, Shawn Saindon and Ryan Dolan of Maine's Hiss & Chambers, and both Aaron Perrino of Dear Leader and the Daily Pravdas' David Jackel .

The Curtain Society, which often plays Chameleons UK songs in their sets and even released the band's most recognizable hit, "Swamp Thing," as a B-side in 1996, jumped at the chance to play with one of their idols.

"It's always seemed like a miracle that we would even get to see Mark or the Chameleons play live, since I started getting into them after they had broken up already," said Curtain Society singer/guitarist, Roger Lavallee . "Now to think that we would be playing these songs with Mark is just beyond a dream come true." [The Boston Herald]

Big Takeover writer Tim Bugbee was at the The Boston show had this to say:
Without as much as a soundcheck or practice session, the band launches straight into "Swamp Thing," a signature track if there ever was one. The ante was high, and the band delivered straight out of the gate, with Mark on sole vocal duties (he would play a 12 string guitar for "Less Than Human"). Aside from some early jitters, the band played a most solid backdrop to Mark's moving vocals, which found him reaching deep within to release the inner demons. Guitarist Roger Lavallee in particular had a difficult job to recreate the sound of both Reg and Dave, and did so quite well, deftly using a delay pedal when needed and ripping off leads with abandon.
It's a bit up in air as to who Burgess' backing band will be for the Bell House and Philly shows -- his first in the area since 2003 which were a couple of solo appearances the year after that 2002 Chameleons reunion -- but it will be a full band. Says Burgess, "The whole thing is rather spontaneous, I'm not exactly sure what's gong to happen, which of course makes it all the more interesting."

Some video from Burgess' Boston show, and some classic Chameleons performances after the jump....

Mark Burgess w/ Curtain Society - "Swamp THing" - Boston 7.21.2009

The Chameleons - Up the Down Escalator

The Chameleons - Monkeyland

The Chameleons - A Person Isn't Safe Anywhere These Days

Tags: Mark Burgess, The Bell House, The Chameleons
posted at 12:49 PM on August 3, 2009 in music | tour dates | Comments (22)

Comments (22)

Any Chameleons fans in the vicinity would do well to attend these shows...the boston show was ridiculously good...

I've put up three vids of the show on youtube:


Less Than Human:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOQf_ehA220

Tomorrow Never Knows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSqN8QzEMOA

Soul In Isolation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en4QkGfpwxo

and there are more photos @ my site
http://narlus.zenfolio.com/p886214979

Posted by Tim Bugbee | August 3, 2009 12:58 PM

man, i hope they play nostalgia.

Posted by Anonymous | August 3, 2009 1:03 PM

I heard there were like 300 people at this show in Boston last week, true?

Posted by Anonymous | August 3, 2009 1:13 PM

very nice writeup but Mark Burgess has been in the area 2 times since the reunion. He opened for the Cinerama at the Knitting Factory and he also played with Yves Altana at Maxwell's.

Posted by Renee | August 3, 2009 1:22 PM

this song is legendary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcD54bv59OE

show where so many of those early 2000 bands got their sound.

Posted by Anonymous | August 3, 2009 1:24 PM

oops I meant to type Cinerama not the Cinerama!

Posted by Renee | August 3, 2009 1:26 PM

Renee,

wow... i totally forgot he opened at that Cinerama show.

Posted by bill p | August 3, 2009 1:30 PM

"wow... i totally forgot he opened at that Cinerama show. "

and he was there! :)
(they happened in 2003)
Updated slightly, thanks!

Posted by brooklynvegan | August 3, 2009 1:41 PM

I'm not sure there were 300 ppl @ the Boston show, but the room was pretty packed, especially considering this was a word-of-mouth show (I only found out about it five days before it happened). And they did play 'Nostalgia.'

I've got other photos from the show here:
narlus.zenfolio.com/p886214979

and also uploaded some videos (search for 'mark burgess' and you'll find 'em).

Posted by Tim Bugbee | August 3, 2009 1:49 PM

I'd love to see the guys from Bell Hollow as Mark's backing band but I would assume that he is going to bring in the band that backed him in Boston.

Posted by BrooklynRocks | August 3, 2009 2:20 PM

too bad the backing band is so god-awful. hopefully marty wilson-piper will make another appearance to add some talent.

Posted by Anonymous | August 3, 2009 4:06 PM

I hear Andy Rourke might show up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBJoYWhJbRk

Posted by Anonymous | August 3, 2009 4:23 PM

Since he lives in brooklyn its entirely possible.

"I hear Andy Rourke might show up".

Posted by Anonymous | August 3, 2009 4:41 PM

@anon 4:06 just remember they only agreed to back him a few days before and had no practices at all with Burgess. Pretty good given all that.

Posted by Anonymous | August 3, 2009 4:48 PM

Burgess asks people that add him as a friend on Myspace if he can stay at their place for free? That's pretty resourceful.

The first three albums are classics (not just cult classics, or classics of their genre- legitimate classic of the era) but i've always been partial to Strange Times as my favorite.. the material they were working on for their 4th album that ended up as The Tony Fletcher EP is impressive as well

i'm definatley going to this show.. Hope they play "Perfume Garden" and "Second Skin"

Posted by Anonymous | August 3, 2009 4:51 PM

The Boston Show was incredible and the backing band was ridiculously good...so whoever said they where awful you obviously were not there.

Posted by Anonymous | August 4, 2009 11:35 PM

LA tonight, should be amazing

Posted by gh | August 30, 2009 10:06 PM

were are the chamelions playing friday 4th december 2009

Posted by Anonymous | November 25, 2009 4:16 PM

Looks like I'm the first to post on Boston C-VOX 2010 show.

The power of wisdom of years matched with intact youthful charge defined Burgess's performance. The band was near perfect note for note with a tighter than Chameleons discipline. We were all at the alter including the young musicians. They showed both camaraderie and respect in their totality of expression.

Based on what I saw, I am sad to say that the next show will be a much bigger venue. This could spiral big. Bono should come to one of the shows for some pointers.

Posted by James | August 3, 2010 8:20 AM

That's 'altar'. But hey the unintended alternative meaning works just as well. All altered last night for good.

P.S.: What a sweetheart of a human being Burgess is...made himself available to all... even the woman with the stack of his entire discography to autograph.

Posted by James | August 3, 2010 8:27 AM

Islam is a religion of peace

Posted by منتديات | February 24, 2011 5:36 AM

guys only like the yyy's cover cause pitchfork has been slobbering over it. It's the only reason the album received an 8.

Posted by سعودي كام | February 25, 2011 10:00 AM

Leave a Comment

What's Going On Today? BV Events Contests

Recently

Recent Comments

Recent Galleries

Most Popular

Recent Features

Browse Categories (or Browse Tags)

Blogroll

Blogroll Links

More Blogroll Links »

Dwnld & Stream