Taken from Friends of Live

Live plays Dutchess Stadium tomorrow.


August 24, 2007

Live lead singer Ed Kowalczyk just missed that tropical storm in Hawaii last week by hours. Oh yeah, and don't forget about the earthquake.

"We left right before it got there, and there was also the earthquake after we left, so it was like, 'Wow, this is really kinda nasty down here,'" Kowalczyk says. "We had beautiful timing."

Another beautiful thing is the fact that Live, the Counting Crows and Collective Soul are all going to be at Dutchess Stadium tomorrow.

Live isn't out hawking a new album; the band is having fun on this tour, and Kowalczyk says the set list, which takes an hour to run through, is packed with fan favorites both new and old. Hits that put the band on the map, including "I Alone," "Lightning Crashes" and "Selling the Drama," are all fair game.

Go! reporter Sandy Tomcho caught up with Kowalczyk via phone and spoke about Live's 2006 album, "Songs From Black Mountain," its fan club and Chris Daughtry.

What's it like to be on the road with Counting Crows and Collective Soul?
It's pretty great. There haven't been that many shows. We started around July 2, but everybody's gettin' along great. There's great guys in all the bands.

I heard you really like playing in ballfields. Really?Yeah. You know they're great venues. I was really not knowing what to expect, but the way they set them up is really sorta like a kind of mini amphitheater, but it doesn't have a roof, so it's more open. It's really an interesting setup, and, I have to say it, it's actually pretty cool.

"Songs From Black Mountain" sounds different from past albums. It's warmer. Does that reflect the change in label or that you guys are in a different place?I think it was way more about just what we wanted to do as a band and where we wanted to take the sound of the band for that particular group of my songs. It just felt like it needed a more organic approach, with the guitars being bigger and beautiful, but not necessarily with the crunch they had in previous records. So, it was a palette change rather than a real significant move for the band, because it's the same songwriting style, it's just we decided, "Hey, let's try this with the amps. Let's try this with the guitars. Let's not necessarily hit people in the face with these. Let's let them do a different thing." But, I like hitting people in the face (laughs).

Open-handed or closed-fisted?Open-handed. Lightly (laughs). Our fans in particular are like, "Is this the way the band is gonna sound forever?" The truth is, I never know what the band is gonna sound like record to record because we go with the flow and see where we're at. I would imagine the next thing around we'll be in a different frame of mind and we'll probably want to rebel against what we've done.

Chris Daughtry appears on the track "Mystery," which he sang with you more than a year ago on "American Idol."I was basically doing studio work and remixes during that period of the "American Idol" thing, and Chris actually asked if he could do it. He said, "Hey, we did this really cool version of 'Mystery' and we put these cool harmonies together in my hotel room and we did it on the show and wouldn't it be cool if we had a version of that the way we did it together?" And I said, "You know what? I'm in the studio and I'm actually doing remixes right now, so why don't you stop by." It was really fun. Our voices did work really cool together.

Do you guys still keep in touch? Have you taken him under your wing?
We do. We probably talk on the phone at least once a month. He's on tour and I've been on tour, and it's funny because half the time it's about our voices and what we're doing to keep them strong. "Hey, man, I found this new Chinese herb that's got licorice in it and it helps your voice." It's kinda funny that way. It's more like singer-to-singer stuff.

You guys offer lots of great benefits to your fan club members, more than many other bands. Do you see that paying off?Yeah, we do. And it's something that we've always been into doing because when you subscribe to a fan club, I always look at it old-school. I was a member of the KISS fan club, and you used to get really cool stuff. It's a gesture that says, "You're important to us. You mean something to us." And we're gonna be doing more of that, and we're also going to be making more things available to people who aren't necessarily "Homespun" subscribers, too. I'm not gonna give any more secrets away because there really is something cool coming. We'll keep it like that. Just keep checking.

If you Go! ...
What: Live, Collective Soul and Counting Crows
Where: Dutchess Stadium, Route 9D, Wappingers Falls
When: 6:30 p.m. Aug. 25
Tickets: $49.50
Call: 454-3388
Visit:www.ticketmaster.com
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/.../-1/ENTERTAIN08

This post has been edited by SJN1279: Aug 24 2007, 11:11 am