I first became aquainted with the band Live from their music video for Operation Spirit off their first album (Mental Jewelry) that was a staple on MTV during my senior year of high school (91-92). A quick note for the younger readers of this blog: MTV used to air these “mini-movies” of bands playing their songs which were called music videos. Some videos where artful renderings full of metaphors, while others were shot hastily during a live performance at weird angles that were edited and printed in about five minutes that left you searching for the Dramamine. But as kids, we ate this stuff up. So much so, that MTV said screw you and started replacing music videos with the crap you see now. Thanks you pricks.
Anyways, the previously mentioned Live video featured our young hereos running around a beach playing and singing, angry and…shirtless. And I hated it. I actually loathed these guys. So much so did I hate this video, I refused to acknowledge for an entire year how much I really liked the actual song. Why did they have to be shirtless? Who decided that it would be a good idea for the entire band to be shirtless? And how arrogant of them to ruin their song for me by deciding that in order to give an edgier song even more edge, that they should take their shirts off. Yeah that’s the ticket. Seriously, to this day, I really wish rock stars would remained clothed, in videos and on stage. Unless of course your name is Neko Case, Liz Phair, or Cat Power. In those cases, feel free to get naked. But if you have a penis, please keep your clothes on.
Eventually I overcame my fear of these shirtless wonders and their music actually occupied much of my time during my college years. Their first two albums (Mental Jewelry and Throwing Copper) are still favorites of mine and even the third (Secret Samadhi) is pretty damned good as well. However, their last three (four?) albums haven’t done much for me and I pretty lost interest in them and they dropped off my musical radar about a decade ago. But to this day, I’ll still put on their music because it holds up well over time but I figured that they were a band that was finished. So, when I heard they were coming through town, I decided to see them one last time before they faded from existence.
So that is how I found myself at their concert last night at the House of Blues. And much to my surprise they proved they still have some relevance, at least as a touring band. They still can draw a crowd, playing to a sold out show in Dallas on a Wednesday night. Having not had a true radio hit since the mid 90’s, this is no small feat. The crowd was as you would expect: mid 30’s soccer moms and guys with pot bellys trying to relive their youth and still show they could rock out when needed. Thankfully the band was there to oblige.
Live has always been known to be great…um…live…and last night they certainly delivered on those expectations. This was my fourth time seeing them (94, 95, 97) so it had been almost 12 years since we occupied the same four walls and I wasn’t sure what to expect. They opened with a song totally unfamiliar to me and I was starting to worry they would focus most the nights setlist on songs from their more recent albums. Thankfully those fears were put to rest quickly as they ripped through three of my favorite songs in succession: Top, Gas Hed Goes West, and Selling the Drama. This quickly got the crowd revving and Ed Kowalczyk did a great job the entire show of keeping the audience involved. He is certainly a front man who does his job well, and his voice hasn’t lost one bit of range over the years. He did a masterful job using his voice to change the melody and tone to really trick up the songs just enough to give them a new and refreshing twist. The band spent the rest of the evening playing mainly from Throwing Copper and Secret Samadhi and the filler songs were the meatier tracks from their last few albums. Even the songs I didn’t know well, I knew, so I was thankful that I could stay engaged for the entire two hours they played.
If I had any complaints, it was the overuse of the word “Dallas” by Ed. We get it, we live in Dallas. You’re in Dallas. It seemed as if every two songs we got “How you feeling NOW Dallas?” It got old after the first time, but I promise, that I heard that phrase, or some variation thereof, at least 7 times last night. But of course, the minions eat that stuff up. And please tell me why that whenever anyone who is “famous” and is on-stage, no matter how dumb of a joke they tell, people go bonkers for it and laugh like it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever heard? You know, like a Dane Cook audience. Thankfully Ed is not a comedian by trade and did spend his time mainly being the great rock-star that he is.
After nearly 20 years of making music and playing in front of crowds, who knows what lies ahead for Live. They seem to really enjoy their place in the rock n roll arena and they could comfortably continue down this path for the next several years. Or they could just as easily retire satisfied knowing that were a successful musical act for nearly two decades. Who knows how long they can continue to live off past glories, but I guess if Styx can do it, anybody can.
Overall, it was a great show that ended well before I was ready for it be over. And we were even treated to an extended encore that featured…wait for it…a shirtless Ed. It was a fitting ending to the show. They came into my life shirtless and depending on how their careers pan out from here, there is a chance they might exit that way.
