Artist: Tesla
Label: Sanctuary Records
Release Date: 9/11/01
Rating: 5 Skulls
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Title: Replugged Live Artist: Tesla Label: Sanctuary Records Release Date: 9/11/01
Rating: 5 Skulls |
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Reviewed by Solomon (6/11/02):
If I may borrow a few words from the insightful Bill The Cat, the prospect of listening to a live album usually makes me feel like saying "Ack! Thhpptt!" Come to think of it, before this newest live offering from Tesla, I've owned exactly one other live record, Dokken's Beast From the East. Don't laugh. That's a great album. The live interpretations of some of those songs, like "Kiss of Death" and "Alone Again," challenge the studio versions. Normally, though, live albums are a "ho-hum" issue with me. Live records just seem lazy. They're like "Greatest Hits" packages. They're a cheap way of fulfilling a recording contract or pumping consumers for cash without having to write any new shit, even if "live" releases sometimes contain new or rare tracks. Then there's the issue of quality. Live recordings, no matter how well they are mixed (or overdubbed, heheh) are never going to match the sonic perfection of a well-equipped studio. The concert experience is a "have-to-be-there" kind of thing. Why do I want to hear a concert I can't see? Why do I want another record with a bunch of songs I already have that sound better, anyway? Well, I guess there's a curiosity factor. When you pick up a live record, you get to hear how a band stacks up live from a more critical standpoint, even if the recording is "re-tooled" to a certain extent afterwards and, I take it, they usually are. It's a little difficult to put things in perspective when you're in the pit and the guitars are set to "thermonuclear" and the whole thing sounds like "SSS3$#%#ggthpt!"Tesla, I'm proud to say, has delivered the goods with their second live album overall and first album in seven years, aside from a few (sigh) "Greatest Hits" packages. The guys sound great on this, due at least in part to a very decent production job. Jeff Keith's scratchy wail may be an acquired taste, but he pulls the vocals off solidly. Even though some of the members formed other bands together (Jeff/Tommy in Bar 7), you'd think a band would be sloppy after not playing together for so long. Not the case here. The material is tight and doesn't stray too far from the original arrangements. Listening to RePlugged LIVE makes you remember how good this band was, and all the goodies you could ask for are here. The heavy metal gallop of "EZ Come EZ Go" stands out, as does the moody keyboard-backed "Changes." You can't go wrong with "Modern Day Cowboy," either. The first three songs on disk two is the best section of the set. The heavy groove of "Heaven's Trail" gives way to a smart-ass "Mama's Fool" and a kick-ass "Freedom Slaves." Even the ballads I used to hate (i.e., "Love Song") are tolerable.
The fact the songs remain so true to the original studio recordings is both a plus and a minus. A plus in that they deliver what a Tesla fan who is familiar with the cataloge wants, but bad in that the live performances don't give you anything special to chew on. Aside from the country pickin' of "Summer's Day," there's nothing new here, hence, I've run into the problem outlined above. In the end, there wasn't much else the band could do. Despite the fact guys like Frank Hannon are great players, I really don't want a twenty-minute guitar or drum solo on a Tesla record. The Steve Vai's, Joe Satriani's and Mike Portnoy's of the world can handle those duties. When you go to see Tesla play, you go to see a cohesive unit at work, and RePlugged LIVE captures this well. It would have been nice to get an unreleased tidbit or two, or a few new studio tracks thrown in, but for a live album, this is nothing to complain about.
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