Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: April 28, 2010
Album length: 78:32 min.
Genre: Hard Rock
This is definitely a live album made for true Tesla fans. In 2008 Tesla released the DVD “Comin’ Atcha Live!”, confirming their return to the scene. It was a great DVD, or rather it is a great DVD, highly recommended, because even after the comeback this band’s quality when it comes to their live shows remains undeniable and unblemished. New guitarist Dave Rude has slipped right into the boots of the long-gone Tommy Skeotch. 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? 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 have been even more usable material for the CD. So “Alive In Europe” isn’t exactly an album that’ll win you new fans, especially European ones! But these days that wasn’t really the band’s aim anyway, even though you instantly start thinking about the profit a move like that would bring in.
To be honest, on the flip side the album did serve up some really interesting live gems. Standing out among them is surely the dark Shine Away, one of the strongest tracks off “Bust A Nut” (1994)! The band’s decision to put their “Five Men Acustical Jam” hit on this live album is interesting too, a cover of Five Men Electrical Band called Signs. On the older songs it turns out Jeff Keith’s voice has actually thinned out, which we could already notice on the “Comin’ Atcha Live” DVD, though I have to stick up for Jeff here, since he sang with a sore throat on that DVD. Modern Day Cowboy confirms the remarks about the singer’s finer vocal color right away, as he gets very fragile in the more demanding (higher) passages. Still, Keith keeps that recognizable raspy, venomous tone that’s uniquely his and one of the key trademarks of Tesla’s music.
The fact is, the crowd isn’t nearly as fired up as the one we see on the “Comin’ Atcha Live!” DVD. Apparently Europe has cooled on the band a bit, and of course the band has only itself to blame. Its absence from European stages was simply too long. Still, fans of the band certainly haven’t forgotten songs like the best-known classics Love Song, Modern Day Cowboy and Lill Suzie, where they really do wake up. Tesla play fantastically! The work of both guitars is once again carved from the noblest stock of true erogenous vibe, Luccketta is unstoppable in his muscular drumming banditry, and Weath keeps a solid, fat bass foot planted through the whole material!
The newer songs from “Into The Now” (2004) and “Forever More” (2008) hold a special place on the album. There are six of them in total. Jeff Keith sounds far more convincing vocally on them than on the older songs. The way the CD wraps up is a provocative move too! It ends with the song Into The Now. That track’s fantastic, wrecking-ball riff, taken from the album of the same name, still has a hard time standing in for the normal flow of events you’d expect on a live release like this. That confirms that this time “Alive in Europe” is a live compilation of material recorded on the European leg of the tour. So we’re left missing Comin’ Atcha Live and Rock You To The Top (both played on the last European tour), or further on EZ Comes EZ Goes, Edison’s Medicine and Freedom Slaves. Paradise (also played on the last European tour) gets replaced by The Way It Is from “The Great Radio Controversy” this time, where Keith’s trademark singing style stands out especially well.. Then again, everybody’s going to go all soft when the conductive energy of Tesla’s thunderous crackle zaps them through the classics Hang Tough, What You Give and Heaven’s Trail, which broaden the pool of classic repertoire alongside the “mandatory” Love Song, Modern Day Cowboy and Lill Suzie.
As a compilation live album, “Alive In Europe” is a thoroughly decent release. It’s graced by an excellent stage execution of Tesla’s material, which nobody doubted for a second. Because it’s cherry-picked material, though, the album can’t boast truly representative Tesla coverage. For that it would have had to come out as a double CD. But it’s something. It keeps the quality high, the level high! Something we demand from such a great band! That’s why it absolutely belongs (at the very least) in the CD collection of every true fan of this band!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 8.0 / 10
Track list:
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.Lill’ Suzie
15.Into The Now
Lineup:
Jeff Keith – vocals
Frank Hannon – guitar
Dave Rude – guitar
Brian Wheat – bass guitar
Troy Luccketta – drums
