The Chameleons rock the Radio Room with The Veldt

The Chameleons rock the Radio Room with The Veldt putting on full display what they are the most influential post-punk band to ever record.

The Sound, And Also the Trees, Mission of Burma, and The Chameleons: all lost, forgotten, or unjustly overlooked post-punk bands from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Some of them are still around in some form or another. One is not only still around, but touring America, recording a new album, and winning new fans, forty plus years since they crafted albums that served as the inspiration for newer, bigger bands, like Interpol, that wouldn’t exist without them. That band is The Chameleons, and if you are lucky enough to catch them on their current tour, you are lucky enough to witness the origin of an entire revived genre that swept America and the world in the early 2000s and continues to be a major force in rock music.

Like many bands that have a several decades long history, The Chameleons are touring in celebration of one of their classic albums. In The Chameleons’ case it’s their second album, Strange Times: an album that was released 38 years ago. The band has been playing the album straight through from its rocking first track “Mad Jack” through its dreamy finale “I’ll Remember” and following up that performance with an encore of rarities that culminates with their most recognizable hit “Don’t Fall” off their first album Script of the Bridge. It isn’t all old tunes though. The band plays their strong new track “Where Are You?” which lead singer, bass player, and band leader Mark Burgess announced at their recent performance at The Radio Room in Greenville, SC as being “the first single off their upcoming new album.” Unfortunately, Burgess also announced that they band is still currently “in the process of recording” suggesting that it will be a little while yet before its ready for release.

That was no matter though, as the band’s performance of their nearly four decades old album, the aforementioned Strange Times, more than made up for any disappointment at more new music being still on the hopefully not too distant horizon. A show stopping highlight occurred when the band played an extended version of “Soul in Isolation” one of the best tracks off of Strange Times. During the atmospheric center of the shoegazy track, Burgess snuck in snippets of lyrics from songs by The Doors, The Beatles, and Buffalo Springfield. Aside from betraying the age (and agelessness) of the band, Burgess revealed just how much The Chameleons were and still are rock fans as much as they are rock stars.

Speaking of shoegaze, North Carolina’s The Veldt opened the evening with a loud, distorted guitar swirl that has been described as “shoegaze soul.” With a sound that bounced between a drone not unlike The Smashing Pumpkins at their most buzzed out and My Bloody Valentine if they were a soul band, The Veldt were definitely a unique counterpoint to The Chameleons’ minimalist post punk riffs and rhythms.

It’s really a mystery why The Chameleons never reached the height of fame of contemporaries like Modern English, who really owe their career to one song and one song only. Burgess and company just never seemed to get that one career defining megahit to catch on even though they have plenty of songs in their repertoire that could easily play that role. “Swamp Thing,” “Soul in Isolation,” and “Don’t Fall” all could have been that hit. Instead The Chameleons remain the best kept secret, and most inspirational, gem of the post punk genre…at least to the music listening population at large.

Bands like Interpol owe their entire existence to The Chameleons. If you think that’s a hyperbolic statement, check out this video from 20/20 Sound on the influence of the band on the early 2000s post-punk/darkwave revival. Fans of Interpol, The Editors, and Slow Readers Club owe more to Burgess and The Chameleons than they can imagine, and so does the fan that catches them live on this current tour.