Like rolling thunder chasing the wind, Live are coming back again. Can you feel it?
After a planned hiatus in 2009 devolved into a tense and acrimonious split, no one thought the band that defined the sound of '90s rock would ever play together again, least of all frontman Ed Kowalczyk. “I don't think anyone expected us to get back together, us included, for a long time,” Ed says.
“So to be back together really feels so great and there's a new energy to our relationship, a new energy to the music.”
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Reunited in their original line-up and with their disputes in the past, Live have embarked on a global tour and Ed says the band is the best its been in years. “We've only done maybe seven or eight shows but the fans have said that they can feel it, they can see it that we're having a blast,” he says.
“I think the break did us well; we all went off to do different things and we came back stronger as a band and I'm really grateful to be back together. You add all that in and it feels better than ever, it really does.”
One of the first stops for Live outside The States will be Australia in November where they play just three shows, all of them outdoors and under the stars. “This tour is unique for us because we're playing all outdoor venues, which we've never done in Australia and so for me I love playing outside,” Ed says.
“I think the amphitheatre setting is such a wonderful-sounding environment and everyone seems to be happier being outside under the stars, so it's really coming together perfectly.
“We've always been a band that plays our hits, so we'll be doing the songs people like to sing-along with and we'll try to get to every album a little bit. We're celebrating the 25th anniversary of our first album 'Mental Jewellery' this year, so I'm sure we'll play a few more songs from that album, and we're also doing a couple of covers in the set.”
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It was Live's seminal sophomore album 'Throwing Copper' released in 1994 that launched them into the pantheon of rock gods. Looking back on the making of the now-definitive record, Ed recalls a feeling among the band that they were on the edge of something great.
“There was a palpable excitement around that album that nobody could deny,” he says.
“It was also such an exciting time in music in general... it was still the beginnings of the 'Nirvana revolution'. [In] the early '90s there were incredible bands and incredible songs on the radio, so we felt like, 'wow, we're really in a moment here where we're doing our best work'; we were in the right place and it feels [sic] so exciting."
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The reunion of Ed with bandmates Chad Taylor (guitar), Patrick Dahlheimer (bass) and Chad Gracey (drums) has also brought about a wellspring of new original material from Live, with plans for releasing their next studio album in mid-2018.
“We started writing almost right away when we got back together,” Ed says. “We've got about five or six new songs and we're shooting to have something done for a mid-next year release. Whether that will be a full album or if we put it out in pieces, we're not sure [but] we're going to have some fun with it.
“We don't have the pressure of a humungous record company going 'hey man, we need an album before you can do anything else'; we don't want that so we just started playing. We knew that we'd get out there and the fans would inspire us and we'll take that energy and see what happens, but we're feeling pretty good.”
LIVE Tour Dates
Wed 15 Nov - Riverstage (Brisbane)Fri 17 Nov - Sidney Myer Music Bowl (Melbourne)
Sat 18 Nov - Roche Estate (Hunter Valley)
