The Chameleons UK
The Middle East, Cambridge, MA
October 6, 2002

I made it to the Chameleons at the Middle East. Even managed to get Veronica to go, despite the fact that she had been in bed all day with a cold. The show was as brilliant as the last time I saw them, in San Francisco in November 2000. Such great songs, such great live sound. They had a percussionist with them this time, a shrill little Jamaican who spat out things like "Maximum respect Boston, ha-ha-ha" between songs. Must be a Chameleons fixture I'm just not aware of because a lot of people there seemed to know who he was. Anyway, the set started off with "Swamp Thing" and touched on "A Person Isn't Safe Anywhere These Days", "Pleasure And Pain", "Don't Fall", "Second Skin", "Less Than Human", "Intrigue In Tangiers", "Perfume Garden", "Caution", a great near-drumless version of "Tears", "Soul In Isolation", "Indiana", and "Anyone Alive". So so good. Even worth putting up with the thirtysomething bozos in front of me who sang the worst accompaniment to The House Of Love's "I Don't Know Why I Love You" I've ever heard.

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