The Color Red Show Review
Chicago: 10.29.2002
Seeing Red
I had the distinct pleasure of seeing The Color Red in Chicago at the House of Blues on October 29, 2002. They demonstrated that they can belt out the songs on this Johnny K produced gem of their album Clear almost as well live as they sound on the album.
In a rather odd pairing opening for the much harder act Flaw, they had to diffuse an aggressive crowd as well as perform their set. Jon Zamora was more than up to this task, interacting directly with various, unruly members of the Flaw chanting crowd. In the future, I would hope their booking agent would try to pair them with acts where audiences would appreciate them more like Mad at Gravity, Hoobastank, Audiovent or other alternative/active rock bands. As you likely know, they were supposed to tour with Alien Ant Farm this summer, but due to the tragic AAF bus accident, this sadly did not come to fruition. Alternative crowds would enjoy them more than metal crowds and would help their case at getting much needed alternative radio airplay. They risk being categorized wrong if they play with acts like Flaw in the future.
The set list included most of the best songs on the album; the only disappointment was the exclusion of Clone. All of these songs have interesting, emotional lyrics and the tandem of Jon Zamora’s distinctive voice coupled with the back-up vocals of his brother Marc Zamora, who also anchors the band with his strong bass playing, are pleasant to the ear and thought provoking to the mind. The guitar tandem of Billy Meyer and Adrian Verloop stand on opposite sides of the stage, play in sync with each other while never even gazing a look at the other. This is rather impressive and shows how long they’ve been playing with each other. All of the songs they played were good, but The Other One stands out a little above the rest. This is a good thing, because they plan to release this song as their next single. I would strongly urge their label to organize street team efforts to assure this song gets the Alternative radio airplay it justly deserves. The band’s music and performance is certainly worthy of better promotion in this regard.
I’d suggest you pick up their CD which, like Mad at Gravity’s Resonance and Pulse Ultra’s Headspace, is among the most underrated and unrecognized gems of 2002. Listen to it a few times, you never need to hit skip track on this album, it’s consistent yet each track has it’s own different personality. Overall, The Color Red’s show was enjoyable and if they pass through your town you should definitely go check them out. I look forward to the next time they come through town and hope to see them again and do a formal interview at that point as they’ve proven themselves to be a worthy addition to my music collection and a good use of my time. I hope you do too….
The Color Red Setlist
01 Cleansing
02 Your New Self
03 Sore Throat
04 Everything New
05 Wrong Replacement
06 The Other One
07 The Nothing