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

[Joe]

Just one note.. I was floored by Gas Hed.. never would have bet I'd hear it live. By 'first three' I was referring to the one before and after. I'm trying to like the new ones, I've learned it takes time for me.. but the dance moves were just so distracting, and that scarf.. He was just so.. hmm.. I dunno. The new songs don't seem to bring out the best, for me at least.

Chad and Pat switched for Boston as well, something new I guess. The shirt did come all the way off for Boston (wife was happy). If I had to guess, I'd say the setlist was the same as NJ.. but I didn't write it down. It does look the same from what I remember.

[SJN1279]

Good show in AC to end out the week of shows. Some notes:

-Show was officially sold out

-I sat in balcony which was pretty mellow during the first half, but more intense in the second.

-Same setlist as Starland, but Top and Forever were reversed.

-Ed was having technical issues for a good part of the show and not happy about it.

-The guys sounded good, and the new songs sounded better after two days of practice.

-The guys didn't bow at the end of the show, which was weird.

-Bring on the Summer Tour!

[Kymra]

I was at this show too and loved it. Extremely surprised to hear them alter the set with songs like Gas Hed and Top.............christ, Gas Hed is one of my all-time favorite Live tunes. Purifier was a cool opener. And of course WD was a great close. I'm fired up and can't wait to get to AC. I wouldn't mind if they played the exact same set in fact.....one or two additional surprises would be nice, but the same set wouldn't bother me at all (not every day I say that).

Ed took the time to give a girl in the front props on this being her 400th Live show! That is hard to comprehend. I thought I was devoted - last nite was number 52- but I seem like a freaking amateur compared to this chic. Anyone know who she is and if she posts on this board? I'd love to hear about her experiences and how she went about getting to such a staggering number.

FYI ON SET TIMES / OPENERS: IMO, Bear Hands is damn good and worth checking out. Not comparable to Live at all, buy I dug their sound. Have a bit of a Modest Mouse thing going on. I missed the band that opened the show, and Bear Hands came on second and started around 8:30ish I think (a little fuzzy on the time). It wasn't a long set, but really solid. Live started about 9:25-9:30, and played til a few minutes after 11.

Oh, so it's up to 400 now?

Amazing how they rack up SO fast...if you all believe that, I have a bridge to sell you!!

Anyhow - this is all GREAT news. I am happy to hear it. Interesting spot for Gas Hed to be played, no? Kinda more of an end of show bust out...but I will DEFINITELY be seeing them again this summer, for sure!

[crazy1]

Wow...last night's show was great. I'm glad they took out Dance With You and put back in White, Discussion! Purifier is great and I loved Hold Me Up and Gas Hed in concert!!! Top is a great addition to the setlist. Had a great nite except for the jackass that threw gum in my hair. Bad karma. Lucky for them it didn't stick!!!
Earlier before the show my friend and I were walking back to our room and Ed walked past us. We saw him standing at the elevators and decided against bothering him.


Can't wait for the summer tour!!!!

[brianblank]

I've been without internet this weekend until today, so I am a little behind and have a lot of forum reading to catch up on, but here is my review of Friday nights show in Boston...

The music gods were watching over us, Snowmageddon passed through Colorado on Thursday evening/Friday morning, so we weren't sure if we were going to make it out of town or not. We awoke at 3 am to drive to the airport for our 6am flight to Boston. There was no way to tell how much snow fell over night due to the howling wind, some places were bare others had 2+ foot snow drifts. We headed out on to the empty icy roads and made it to the airport. Our flight actually took off on time and we were on our way to Bean Town. We arrive in Boston to sunshine and warmth, a nice change from the ice, snow and 10 degree weather we left behind. We made our way to our hotel on the T, checked in and headed out to explore Back Bay and the MIT area of town. The venue was about a 10 minute walk from our hotel so we headed over about 6pm. The line was pretty long, they opened the doors about 6:45, a little earlier than scheduled. We made our way inside and tried to find where we wanted to be for the show. The crowd in front of the stage was about 4 deep, but we weren't very interested in being down there, we scoped a spot on the side of the stage along the rail but by the time we got there the spot was taken, so we headed up to the second level and got a spot on the rail near the stage, a great view of the stage from above and great sound since we were at eye/ear level with the speak stack.

The opening band, Bare Hands?, has musical talent, however, the lead singer...shouldn't sing. He was awful, but the band sounded pretty good, kind of a Killers, Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand sound. Talking with some friends after the show, they said the drummer is a really nice guy, but the lead singer needs to 1) bathe and 2) sober up some. Advice to the rest of Bare Hands, get a new lead singer.

Even without internet access, I had heard that new songs were played the night before (thanks Dan and Nick) so I was pumped for Live to take the stage. The guys came out to Old Blind Barnabas by The Blind Boys of Alabama over the PA system and launched in to Purifier! I can't say that the new tracks are my favorites, but it was nice to hear something different than the same old set list. And then the guys rolled into Gas Head, Forever and Top!!! Gas Head was great to hear off of SS and Top simply ROCKED!!! Then the guys settled into the typical set list for a few songs and then broke out, what Ed said was 1 of 2 highlights from his life, #1 the cover of Rolling Stone and this one at #2 writing a song for a decent porno movie, Hold Me Up Yes, it sounds like a song from the mid 90s, but it really rocks and makes me wonder why they never released it. I hope they continue to play it in concert. Hearing Hold Me Up made the entire trip from Colorado to Boston totally worth it. The guys really seemed to be having a great time, Ed was sounding great, Pat was doing his Pat thing, we couldn't see CT or CG very well, but when we could see CT, he was tearing it up and Adam was singing his ass off, very nice. Others have said that the venue sounded good, we could really tell from where we were standing, since the stack was about 10 feet in front of us, but I have to say that Ed's acoustic guitar was turned up to 11. Blowin' in the Wind was a nice change of pace and W,D is always an amazing closer. The band left the stage a bit abruptly at the end of W,D but no one moved from where they were standing, I really thought the guys were going to come back out for another song or 2, especially once Old Blind Barnabas came on the PA system again, but alas the house lights went up and security opened the doors.

BTW, it looked like Ed had lyric sheets for Gas Head, Top and BITW taped to his "monitor", (I added the quotes since the monitor wasn't plugged into anything.)

Hopefully this is the beginning of something great for the band, they have been in a bit of a rut lately, but playing some new material and breaking out some "old" tunes in concert is a great change and I hope there is more in the works.

Talking with some folks "in the know" after the show, there is a summer tour in the works, Waterboy was rehearsed by the band before Ed arrived from his solo date in NYC, DWY was on the set list but was replaced with W,D (thank goodness, W,D rocks!) and Adam is doing a small show in PA "soon".

More once I have a constant internet connection,
Brian

[VoodooLady]

BTW, it looked like Ed had lyric sheets for Gas Head, Top and BITW taped to his "monitor", (I added the quotes since the monitor wasn't plugged into anything.)

i noticed this at starland too, and wonder if it was a lyric sheet.. who cares though!!

[Joe]

He did say the band had 'memory' issues after all these years!

[brianblank]

My recording from Boston is up here: http://www.fansoflive.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2553

Enjoy,
Brian

[+Ed+]

Waterboy was rehearsed by the band

Fuck off

[Good_Pain]

The wife has had the new baby so we are on for a summer tour. These song changes have me pumped already. Can't freakin' wait.

[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
----------------------------------
15 - Blowin' In the Wind
16 - All Over You
17 - Run to the Water
18 - White Discussion

[LiveForNow]

Stumbled upon these today...

Sayreville, NJ

All Over You - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxFf1-m6y90

Lightning Crashes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vLmIwrI-OI

Blown' in the Wind - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci8OZ6UpFtU