The Chameleons have been back for a few years now. And by “The Chameleons”, I mean singer/bassist Mark Burgess (who strangely is going just by “Vox” lately) and guitarist Reg Smithies. Drummer John Lever died in 2017 and guitarist Dave Fielding has been apparently uninterested in rejoining. ChameleonsVox, which initially included Lever in addition to Burgess, seems to have fluidly become the “real” thing just by getting Reg back in the fold.
I saw ChameleonsVox twice in Berlin before the pandemic in 2017 and 2019 and enjoyed both shows. The Chameleons have played here twice in the last two years, but I missed both. I was excited for this show, all the more so when I saw that White Rose Transmission would be opening. That band was originally a collaboration between Carlo van Putten of The Convent and Adrian Borland of The Sound, another magnificent oft-overlooked 80s band. Burgess had produced the first two Convent albums and performed on a couple WRT albums, so I was kinda hoping I might see something special. Alas, there were no guest appearances. It was just van Putton on lead vocals and Thomas Marcin on acoustic guitar and occasional backing vocals. They mostly performed songs written by Borland. Marcin’s style was dynamic and emotive, and with van Putton’s full voice, they had a sort of acoustic gothic vibe. I loved the EQ on the guitar. The bottom end sounded heavy and haunting. They made a lot out of their minimal arrangements.
[White Rose Transmission.]
The Chameleons did not take long to hit the stage. They opened with the lead single of their new album Arctic Moon, “Where Are You?”, the best song they’ve put out since reforming. Their poetic politics are just as alive as ever. And while several of the songs in their set relate more to affairs of the heart, their socio-political side stood out the most. It’s amazing how brilliant songs like “Soul in Isolation” and “Swamp Thing” are still as relevant now as when they were written, and they rock. They ultimately played five of the seven songs from the new album, wisely skipping two of the more meandering tracks. “David Bowie Takes My Hand” wasn’t my favorite of the bunch, but Burgess said it was the Chameleons song that saved his life (providing no further explanation, other than that it helped him understand when fans tell him that this or that song saved theirs), which is certainly a way to hype a piece of art.
The setlist was a dream, including many of my favorites, even including “Paradiso”, which I’d specifically lamented not seeing when ChameleonsVox did their Strange Times (1986) set in 2019. In fact, it seemed like we got an especially long set, certainly longer than the shows I’d seen before and I think even longer than most other shows on the current tour so far. I’d wondered why they started so early, and it turns out it was probably that they wanted to play for nearly two hours before the local 10pm noise restrictions would go into effect. As is typical, several songs at the end of the show were extended considerably and included a number of teases of other classic rock songs.
[The Chameleons.]
It was great to see Reg playing these songs, and he was in good form. Truth be told, I preferred Dave’s parts, as they tend to be the more astral, sparkling, transcendent ones, but I always liked how they traded parts, and that dual-guitar interplay still defines the new songs. Stephen Rice played Dave’s parts note-for-note and proved himself just as skilled on guitar as he was on drums when I saw him at the 2019 show. Todd Demma’s drumming was great, and while Danny Ashberry mostly hid in the back to play relatively simple keyboard parts, he played acoustic guitar on the first half of “Feels Like the End of the World” (while a superfluous backing track played the string parts) and took Mark’s bass for the second half of “Second Skin” and all of “Don’t Fall”. Mark himself played the acoustic on “David Bowie Takes My Hand” while Ashberry played the bass part on his keyboard. While everyone played well and the show generally sounded great, the bass was oddly low in the mix. As a result, several times when I expected the beat to drop or the energy to kick up a notch, it didn’t really happen.
The Chameleons also released two EPs last year, although neither was especially notable. Of the songs that didn’t also appear on the album, they only played “The Fan and the Bellows”, which isn’t a new song. Tomorrow Remember Yesterday is five rerecordings of some of their earliest songs with slight updates, better production, and reduced tempos, but none are actual improvements over the originals. Where Are You? consists of another redone oldie, an early, alternate but similar version of the title track, and one other unremarkable, low-key new song.
It’s great to have them back at any rate, even if the difference between ChameleonsVox and The Chameleons seems to just be Reg. The new album is pretty good; it starts and ends strongly with their typical shimmering guitars and incisive lyrics, although too many of the songs go on way too long. I’m still happy to have it, and I’m happy that the band still feels alive and relevant. The crowd still skewed older, but there were plenty of people even younger than me. Mark appeared genuinely happy to still be doing it and grateful that we were still coming. If they continue to perform with this level of energy and their genre-defining sound, it won’t be hard to keep drawing a crowd.
Here’s the setlist:
01. Where Are You?
02. The Fan and the Bellows
03. Pleasure and Pain
04. Lady Strange
05. Perfume Garden
06. Looking Inwardly
07. Paradiso
08. In Answer
09. David Bowie Takes My Hand
10. Saviours Are a Dangerous Thing
11. Soul in Isolation [including teases of Buffalo Springfield‘s “For What It’s Worth”, The Doors’ “The End”, David Bowie‘s “Be My Wife”, The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby”, and The Smiths’ “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out”]
12. Swamp Thing [including a tease of The Beatles’ “Rain”]
13. Feels Like the End of the World
Encore:
14. Indiana
15. Monkeyland
16. Second Skin [including teases of The Beatles’ “Please Please Me” and Bowie’s “Be My Wife” (again)]
17. Don’t Fall [including teases of The Doors’ “Light My Fire”, Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel”, and something else I didn’t catch]
Scores:
White Rose Transmission: B
The Chameleons: A-
Arctic Moon: B-
Where Are You? EP: C+
Tomorrow Remember Yesterday EP: C
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