Think you’re culturally literate and stylistically diverse? Try keeping up with Vernon Reid, longtime lead guitarist for resurgent hard-rock combo Living Colour and a founder of New York’s influential Black Rock Coalition. Phoning in from a hotel room in São Paolo, Brazil, where he has two notebook computers whirring away on the desk, Reid references Ridley Scott and Blade Runner, William Gibson and Neuromancer, the Star Wars planet-city Coruscant and noirish sci-fi cult flick Dark City inside of five minutes, just to convey his impressions of a gray morning in that sprawling city. Reid’s in Brazil as part of an ongoing tour in support of The Chair in the Doorway, Living Colour’s fifth and latest studio album, released on Megaforce this month. The band’s first effort since its 2001 reunion effort, Collideøscope, is subtle, bluesy, futuristic and funky. In other words, it’s a Living Colour record—though certainly a more mature, introspective sibling for the band’s brash 1988 debut, Vivid. (more at timeout.com)Tickets for Living Color Oct 30th are available here.
