Extreme & Dan Reed Network – Academy, Birmingham – 17th December 2017

Tonight kicked off with the awesome Dan Reed Network. With Extreme having the hit, “Get the funk out”, having Dan Reed Network support them is an inspired choice as there’s plenty of funk in their music. Dan Reed and his band clearly love performing and seem to be having just as much fun as the audience during their set. It’s clear they’ve got a lot of fans here tonight and they understandably go down a storm with the fans tonight.

Then it was time for Extreme. Since they haven’t released any new material for quite a few years now that meant there was no risk of the dreaded “and now we’ll play something from the new album” followed by apathy from the fans – instead what we got was basically a greatest hits set. Surprisingly one of their biggest songs “Get the funk out” came very early in the set and really helped get people in the right mood. When it comes to showmanship and the entertainment factor, Extreme really hard to beat. Considering the audience will have been a mix of fans and people who only know the hits, their performance did well to keeep everyone focussed and enjoying the show. The set ended with “Decadence dance” before they came back on and kicked off the encore with “More than words”. The show ended with a cover of Queen’s “We are the champions”. It’s a brave move for a singer to take on a Queen song since Freddie Mercury had such a great voice, but Gary Cherone did a fantastic job. An excellent end to a great night with top performances from both bands.

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About Sean Larkin

I like taking photos