Izvajalec: Tesla
Založba: Frontiers Records
Izid: 2010
Trajanje: 78:32
Ocena: 3.5/5
This is definitely a live album made for the true Tesla fans. In 2008, Tesla put out the DVD “Comin’ Atcha Live!” and with it confirmed their return to the scene. It was a great DVD, or rather it still is a great DVD, highly recommended, because the quality of this band remains undeniable and spotless when it comes to their live shows, even after the comeback. New guitarist Dave Rude slotted right into the shoes of the long-gone Tommyja Skeotcha. Hannon’s guitar work once again blows you away across the board. The band sounds as tight as it gets.
So why would “Alive In Europe” be strictly for the band’s fans, then? Simple. It’s a single CD with a “lacking” setlist of just 15 songs. Considering Tesla shuffled their repertoire quite a bit on the last European shows of the “Forever More” tour, there could easily have been even more usable material for the CD. So “Alive In Europe” isn’t exactly an album that will win over new fans, especially European ones! But these days that wasn’t really the band’s goal anyway, even though you immediately start thinking about the profit a move like that could bring in.
To be honest, on the flip side the album did deliver some really interesting live gems. Standing out among them is one of the strongest moments of “Bust A Nut” (1994), the dark Shine Away! The band’s decision to include their “Five Men Acustical Jam” hit on this live album is interesting too, namely the cover of Five Men Electrical Band called Signs. On the older songs it turns out that Jeff Keith’s vocals have actually thinned out, something we could already notice on the “Comin’ Atcha Live” DVD, although I have to stand up for Jeff here, since he sang with a sore throat on the DVD. Remarks about the singer’s nobler vocal tone are confirmed right away by Modern Day Cowboy, where he gets very brittle in the more demanding (higher) passages. Still, Keith keeps that recognizable raspy, venomous tone that’s all his own and one of the key trademarks of Tesla’s music.
The fact is the crowd isn’t as fired up as what we see on the “Comin’ Atcha Live!” DVD. Apparently we in Europe have cooled off a bit toward the band, and of course they’ve got only themselves to blame. Their absence from European stages was simply too long. Still, fans of the band haven’t forgotten songs like the best-known classics Love Song, Modern Day Cowboy, Lill Suzie, where the crowd really wakes up. Tesla play fantastically! The work of both guitars is once again chiseled out of the noblest stock of true erogenous vibe, Luckretta is unstoppable in his muscular drumming thuggery, Weath holds down a rock-solid fat bass foot throughout the material!
The new songs from the albums “Into The Now” (2004) and “Forever More” (2008) hold a special place on the album. There are six of them in total. And Jeff Keith sounds a lot more convincing vocally on them than on the older songs. The way this CD wraps up is a provocative move too! It ends with the song Into The Now. That song’s fantastic wrecking-ball riff, taken from the album of the same name, still can’t really stand in for the normal flow of events you’d expect on a live release like this. It confirms that this time “Alive in Europe” is a live compilation of material recorded on the European leg of the tour. So we can miss Cumin’ Atcha Live, plus Rock You To The Top (both played on the last European tour) or further EZ Comes EZ Goes, Edison’s Medicine, Freedom Slaves. Paradise (also played on the last European tour) is replaced by The Way It Is from “The Great Radio Controversy” this time, where Keith’s distinctive singing style stands out especially. Anyway, everyone will “go soft” when the conductive energy of Tesla’s pounding shakes them through the classics Hang Tough, What You Give, Heaven’s Trail, which expand the classic repertoire alongside the “absolutely mandatory” Love Song, Modern Day Cowboy, Lill Suzie.
“Alive In Europe” is a perfectly decent release as a compilation-style live album. It’s graced by the excellent onstage execution of the Tesla material, which nobody doubted for a second. Since it’s material that’s been picked over, the album can’t boast true Tesla representativeness. For that, it absolutely should have come out as a double CD. But it’s something. It keeps up the high quality, the high level! Something we demand from such a great band! So of course it belongs (at the very least) in the CD collection of every true fan of this band!
Zasedba
Jeff Keith – vokal
Frank Hannon – kitara
Dave Rude – kitara
Brian Wheat – bas kitara
Troy Luccketta – bobni
Seznam skladb
1.Forever More
2.I Wanna Live
3.Modern Day Cowboy
4.Heaven’s Trail
5.What A Shame
6.Shine Away
7.Love Song
8.What You Give
9.The Way It Is
10.Breakin’ Free
11.Hang Tough
12.So What!
13.Signs
14.Lil’ Suzie
15.Into The Now
