diff --git a/lib/server.js b/lib/server.js
index 454a1f784..f3a47dca1 100644
--- a/lib/server.js
+++ b/lib/server.js
@@ -171,8 +171,9 @@ var createSocketIoServer = function(webServer, executor, config) {
 
 
 exports.start = function(cliOptions, done) {
-  // apply the default logger config as soon as we can
-  logger.setup(constant.LOG_INFO, true, [constant.CONSOLE_APPENDER]);
+  // apply the default logger config (and config from CLI) as soon as we can
+  logger.setup(cliOptions.logLevel || constant.LOG_INFO,
+      helper.isDefined(cliOptions.colors) ? cliOptions.colors : true, [constant.CONSOLE_APPENDER]);
 
   var config = cfg.parseConfig(cliOptions.configFile, cliOptions);
   var modules = [{