Live

One Liner: Holy crap, this is really that band, the Live from the mid-90's that was one of my favorites ever.
Wikipedia Genre: Alternative rock, post-grunge, hard rock
Spotify Says Similar To:  Collective Soul and Tonic (so far, this addition to the data on my reviews has been terrible)
Home: York, Pennsylvania (although a friend told me they rehearse in East Austin regularly)

Poster Position: 7
Slot: ?

Thoughts:  Man, Live was one of my top bands of all time when I was in high school and college.  I have a clear memory of a time in high school, on a youth group weekend with my friend Cary's church, where a kid broke out Mental Jewelry on their discman and we plugged in some garbage speakers I had and just wailed "Pain Lies on the Riverside" at top volume.

That track actually comes in at #3 on their most popular from that 2011 album, at 742k streams, behind both "Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)" at just over 1 million and "The Beauty of Gray" at 1.2 million.  Weird, I figured this one was the most listened to from this album.  Whatever, the whole album was great 90's alternative rock happiness.

And then Throwing Copper, that album was literally in my top ten albums of all time for years.  That is the one with all the hits you remember.  1994, and you were listening to "I Alone," and "Lightning Crashes" and "All Over You."  Hell, you may still be listening to those now on the alternative rock stations on the radio.  There was a period when I worked at youth camp when I would sing a song at the nightly roundup, with some friend accompanying me on acoustic guitar.  One year, I chose "Lightning Crashes" and got to witness the odd mix of joy and revulsion that comes from singing the word "placenta" to a crowd in a quiet room.

That one is, by far, their top hit, with 26.2 million streams versus "I Alone," which comes in second at 11.8 million.
In a slight surprise, these dudes have continued to make music over the past 20 years as well.  I know 1997's Secret Samahdi and 1999's The Distance to Here, but after those, I thought the band broke up or something.  But no, there is V (2001), Birds of Pray (2003, nice cheesy Christian pun there), Songs from the Black Mountain (2006), and then two live albums mixed in there.  Some of those had minor hit tunes like "Lakini's Juice" from Secret Samahdi (which always reminded me of a Tool song), but the largest was "Dolphin's Cry," from The Distance to Here, with 9.3 million streams.

OK.  Watching that video and hearing that songs makes me think that I know what happened to the band.  Creed.  This sounds and looks kind of like Creed.  I think people realized that Creed sucked, and so Live just got rolled up in the same tortilla.  Whatever, even if they appear Creed-esque in this video, I still think their early tunes are great.

As for the most recent album, let's give it a whirl.  Songs from a Black Mountain, from 2006, and if this were their only album, then I would likely skip out on the show at ACL.  Its not terrible, but it just doesn't have any of the fire and urgency of their good stuff.  Bland.  And the world agrees, with most songs showing streams in the 200k range.  But, unless a new album is forthcoming, I'd fully expect that we are going to get a greatest hits show.  Looking forward to it.

Recommendation?  YES