Living Colour

Able to blend metal, punk, funk, jazz, and even some P.E.-style hip-hop into a potent hard rock groove, Living Colour enters its fourth decade as a band in 2014. After all these years, Vernon Reid, Corey Glover and company can still pack a mighty wallop, as their most recent studio album, The Chair in the Doorway attests, but their greatest strength has always really rested in their ability to conjure up interesting sonic textures, even during the densest of metal songs. This is certainly due to Vernon Reid’s preference for colorful chord voicings (à la Jeff Beck, Hendrix, or Van Halen) that give levity to riffs that would be leaden in the hands of lesser guitarists. Add Glover, still one of the better singers in hard rock, and a rhythm section that packs power and swing, and you’ll understand why “Cult of Personality” is still relevant today.

Thu., Jan. 2, 8 p.m., 2014