Living Colour Strings Along With Nuances

There aren’t many hard-rock bands with the nerve to do a deadly serious version of Tracy Chapman’s “Talking ‘Bout a Revolution.” And and even fewer with the skill to pull it off. But for its final encore on Thursday at the Palace, the NYC-based quartet Living Colour did exactly that, pumping up the volume on the the modern-day folk song and turning it into what the folks out there in radioland like to call a “power ballad” along the lines of Aerosmith’s classic “Dream On.”

Now a revolution proceeds on two legs, with one foot in the past and the other in the future, to paraphrase Chairman Mao. And that’s certainly the case with Living Colour, whose debut album “Vivid” was recently certified gold (sales of half a million).

This in itself wouldn’t mean much, and neither would the high-volume riffslingin’ that made up most of Thursday’s hour-plus set. It’s the subtle nuances that make Living Colour interesting: a fever-dream rendition of Talking Heads’ “Memories Can’t Wait,” an encore from punk band Bad Brains’ songbook, the James Brown-derived chunk o’ burnin’ funk “What’s Your Favorite Color?” and the 16 tons of social commentary in themes ranging from urban renewal to xenophobia.

‘Course it helps that concussive drummer Will Calhoun, bomb-dropping bassist Muzz Skillings and high-velocity guitarist Vernon Reid can all play the bejeezus out of their instruments. It also helps that singer Corey Glover takes his cues from soul singers instead of the scream machines that usually front bands of this ilk.

Oh, the group’s members are all young black men, which is immaterial, but helps explain their idiosyncratic approach to what has hitherto been a mostly whiteboys’ idiom. Talk about stealing it back.