[Article] A youthful Live aims its musical passions..., The Morning Call 1992 Options

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Another 1992 article about Live.

A YOUTHFUL LIVE AIMS ITS MUSICAL PASSIONS AT WISDOM OF THE AGES
By JONATHAN VALANIA
The Morning Call
Apr 26, 1992 at 12:00 am

Not everyone can carry the weight of the world," sang R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe on "Talk About The Passion" from the band's 1983 debut, "Murmur." That hasn't stopped Live frontman Ed Kowalczyk from giving it a go.

Kowalczyk is nothing if not passionate, and like a post-teen-age Atlas buckling under the weight of the world's problems, he seems at risk for a hernia. War, racism and pollution are all pondered on "Mental Jewelry," Live's sometimes-ponderous debut on Radioactive Records.

Produced by Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison, "Mental Jewelry" has shipped a healthy 400,000 units and actually sold an estimated 250,000 -- impressive figures for such a serious young band's debut.

Buttressed by staunch support from MTV, Live also earned a support spot on the music-video channel's largely successful 120 Minutes Tour -- which also included alternative music luminaries like B.A.D. II and Public Image Limited. The tour was scheduled to conclude this past Friday with three sold-out nights at the Ritz in New York City. But York-based Live will continue to hit the road with a performance Thursday night at Moravian College in Bethlehem and then head for Europe. (The band is currently being considered for a "Saturday Night Live" guest spot in late May, according to the band's management.)

Combining a jazzier R.E.M. sound with the lyrical overreach of U2, Live comes across like a young Alarm. But passion is a poor substitute for emotion, and that's what's lacking in Live's often-overarching and abstract explorations of liberalism's most tired cliches.

Live is not without its laudable aspects, however. There is no denying that the band has musical chops, and Kowalczyk's husky bleat lends considerable conviction to the lyrics.

Live seems to appeal to listeners looking for heroic earnestness. So it's a judgment call as to what you make of song titles like "Operation Spirit" and "Take My Anthem" and lyrics such as "Hope is a letter that never arrives/Delivered by the postman of my fear" and "This is not a black and white world/To be alive I say the colors must be swirled." One man's salvation is another's affectation.

So, let's look for meaning in this meaningful band.

Asked if he is a spiritual person, Kowalczyk said during a recent telephone interview, "I don't really know what that word means. If it means questioning the norms in your daily routine, I guess I am."

Are you religious?

"Not in the sense of going to church or being under some (denominational) label."

What about the photograph in the recent issue of Musician magazine showing the band standing in front of a sign that says "God Is Love"?

"I don't really know why we did that. I just thought it would be a good picture."

Do you read?

"Not much, some magazines here and there."

Have you seen any good movies lately?

"The best movie I saw in the last two years was 'Jacob's Ladder.'"

What would you say to criticism that you come on a little too messianic?

"All I can say is that you are not in here. I'm not going to justify that ... because you are not inside me."

Live -- which also includes Chad Taylor, Patrick Dahlheimer and Chad Gracey -- started out in York when the band members were 8th grade classmates as Public Affection, and eventually recorded an independent release, "Death Of A Dictionary" on their own label Action Front.

Although Kowalczyk doesn't remember much about it, the band played under the Public Affection moniker at the Funhouse in Bethlehem three years ago for about 10 people. (Organizers for Thursday's Moravian College show expect most if not all of Johnston Hall's 1,700 seats to be filled.)

It was at that time that the band's current manager Dave Sestak of Media 5 Productions, Easton, got involved with the band.

"They had been sending me tapes and calling me almost weekly to get me interested," said Sestak during a telephone interview from his New York office earlier this week. "We could sense that there was something special about the band. At the time they were seniors in high school."

Sestak began shopping for a record deal in 1989, but Live found few sympathetic ears at first. "The subject matter of the songs was a lot for some people to digest, and most turned us down," says Sestak. That changed last year when Radioactive Records president Gary Kurfirst came to see Live play at CBGB and made an offer. "He wanted to put them in the studio immediately," said Sestak.

The band subsequently changed its name to Live. "We were thinking up a title for the new record and we asked ourselves, 'Do we like Public Affection,'" Kowalczyk recalled. "We decided we didn't." Then with a laugh, Kowalczyk added, "We're thinking about changing our name for every record."

Today Kowalczyk and crew are undeniably a much better band. But for a group whose median age barely breaks 20, they come on like the Doogie Howsers of rock 'n' roll -- straight from junior high school to graduate studies in high-minded music. Listening to "Mental Jewelry," you get the impression that these guys never had a girl break their hearts in a million pieces; never went to a kegger and hurled all over their sneakers, that they never even had a pimple -- all the juvenile joys and traumas of teen life that inform adulthood and make it real.

Still, a recent unplugged performance of "Pain Lies On the Riverside" in the studio of WMMR-FM in Philadelphia was delivered with an intensity that would make many bands envious.

And even if Live reaches for existential answers that are well beyond the group members' years, if not beyond the human condition all together, there are worse crimes than naivete masquerading as wisdom.

Live will perform Thursday in Moravian College's Johnston Hall, Locust and Monocacy streets, Bethlehem. An opening act expected to be announced this week will open the show at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m. For information, call 861-1491.

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