Sayreville, NJ/Boston, MA/Atlantic City, NJ, March 26-28, 2009 Options

[SJN1279]

I figured we'd consolidate this mini-tour into one topic.

March 26, 2009 - Sayreville, NJ (Starland Ballroom)
www.starlandballroom.com

March 27, 2009 - Boston, MA (House of Blues)
http://www.hob.com/apps/search/index.asp?q=boston

March 28, 2009 - Atlantic City, NJ (House of Blues)
http://www.hob.com/apps/search/index.asp?q=atlantic+city

Tickets are on sale now for all shows and if anyone wants promo flyers for the dates, please contact me on this board. Thanks!

[WaiterAtCliftons]

Well I know never to buy Right or Left balcony at the HOB atlantic city anymore. I basically only saw Ed and Chad T the entire show. Usually I would be on the floor but the wifey is 7 months prego so that was a no-go. Great show, love the new setlist. When I heard Gas Hed I just about screamed like a little girl.

[SJN1279]

http://www.metal-revolution.com/plugins/co...hp?content.2105

Live, 26th April 2009, Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, New Jersey, USA


Live is one of those bands who hit it big in the 90’s selling over ten million copies of their Throwing Copper album, but who afterwards never managed to repeat the success. However the band has released a number of good albums since then proving that the commercial success is not a measure for quality, relevance or most importantly – passion for playing music.
When they have chose name Live for the band they had from the start an obligation to be a band which delivers the goods when playing live. Luckily for them they did get a reputation as an outstanding live band, but after more then eighteen years in the game I was wondering if they will still be able to start the spark which lightens a live show and none the less to keep the fire burning.

So I hopped the plain over the Atlantic to New York City, and then took a train to New Jersey. After an hour of the bumpy ride in the Jersey train I have arrived to South Amboy, a tiny provincial town, which looked abandoned and half dead on this Thursday evening. Trying to get a cab from there was quite a task too, but after fifteen minutes of ride in a local cab I have arrived to Starland Ballroom, which is placed by the road in the middle of nowhere.

Entering the venue it was clear that the place was packed, after all Live are still biggest in their homeland. Beautiful and very old fashioned American venue has a capacity of bit over two thousand and it looked like it was very close to sold-out this evening. Be it that 99,9% of the crowed were locals the atmosphere was very friendly and relaxed and by the time the band started the show it felt like Live too were one of the locals here in Sayreville, NJ.

The band opened the show with a one of the two new tracks from their 2008 live album Live At The Paradiso, “Purifier” – a groovy, soulful and melodic track, which was followed by one of the songs band hasn’t played live in a long time, “Gas Hed Goes West” from their 1997 album Secret Samadahi.
The sound of the band was clear yet powerful from the start, but it took the band few songs to really get into the music and by the time they played another song which was neglected at Live shows in many years, “Top”, everything seemed to be clicking perfectly.

Interestingly enough it was one of the songs from their last studio album Songs From Black Mountain, that really got the show cooking, "Sofia" came and at that point there was no coming back. It looked like each next song got the crowd going more and more, be it sing-along of “The Dolphin's Cry” or blistering power of “Lakini's Juice” which even got ever-cool Chad Taylor jumping around like crazy.
Experiencing “Lightning Crashes” live makes this song even better and between the crowd singing and intense finish of the song, goose-bumps were unaviodable.

After the band left the stage the first time, Ed Kowalczyk came back to stage alone to perform acoustic version of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin' In the Wind” and while the cover version itself offered nothing new, it was Kowalczyk’s unique voice and the way that he projects energy while singing, that mad this very enjoyable.
While everyone in the band did a good job it is Kowalczyk who is the star of the band and the one who’s singing, movements and none the less charisma, steal the picture.

As mentioned above it did take the band few songs before everything clicked together, but once it did it was a blast. And this band does know the imprtance of their realtinship with their crowd and it was fun to hear Kowalczyk congratulating a girl in the front row on her 400th (!) Live show. “That's more then me” he joked “I missed few back in the 90's, you know”. This band is a live band and they know it.

Next time the band left the stage was 95 minutes into the show and they didn’t come back for another round, as they so often do. They left the crowd wanting more, perhaps not because they didn’t played longer, but mostly because while they played, they played so well. And maybe because we so badly wanted to hear that cover version of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk The Line”.
Live most definitely lived up to their name this evening.

[5/6]


SETLIST:
01 – Purifier
02 - Gas Hed Goes West
03 – Forever
04 – Top
05 - Selling the Drama
06 - The Distance
07 - Sofia
08 - Hold Me Up
09 - The Dolphin's Cry
10 - Lakini's Juice
11 - Turn My Head
12 - I Alone
13 – Heaven
14 - Lightning Crashes
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15 - Blowin' In the Wind
16 - All Over You
17 - Run to the Water
18 - White Discussion