About
Sharing is one thing, but spreading the love is even better. This website is dedicated to our love for the American rock band Live. It's a website by fans and for fans. Live fans are amazing and the most loyal people in the world and meeting with each other feels like a next generation big family! The love for these Pennsylvanian guys and their music is not only intense, but also intimate.
As soon as the lights go down you can feel the energy getting pumped up, In the front rows you can see the members join the stage. The crowd goes wild and before they've played any tune, you can feel the connection with the audience. Then the drums start to play, the roar of guitars and a bald-headed guy takes the mic and opens his throat. You're a fan and you love it!
To be a fan is slang for fanatic, which means belonging to the temple, a temple servant, a devotee. In the 17th century, calling someone a fanatic was a gentle way of implying that they were possessed by a demon. Well even when spelling Live backwards, I can ensure you we're not possessed, but we rather worship these four musical heroes. My definition of a fan is having a sense of belonging and we love to belong to Live.
But where does our sense of being a fan come from? Maybe it's something you grew up with, like a favorite show or music album. Or maybe it stems from a sense of loyalty to where you live, where you once lived, or a school you attended. But what about those of us who don't have that direct connection? Are you still a fan if you're a newcomer? Are you still a fan if you're not know all lyrics of all songs, or can say which song is on which album?
Maybe being a fan can start with something as simple as a friend pointing you in the right direction and saying, "Here, you're going to love this!" And before you know it, something you never knew existed is now one of your absolute favorite things.
Being a fan is like being part of a relationship. There's a meaningful connection and it makes you feel like you're a part of something special. When you truly connect with something enough to call yourself a fan, you're joining in a positive cycle where your enthusiasm allows the thing you love to continue. So go ahead - get a little fanatic, a little crazy, a little possessed and inspired. There's room for everyone, no matter what kind of fan you are!
At this website you can find several live recordings of shows from all over the world in audio and video format. However, all downloads are for free, if you like the music... ...buy the album(s)! Go to your local store or surf to Freaks 4 Live. For contributions or ideas, feel free to contact us.
You don't start a fan site because you want to serve and get closer to the object of your fandom. You do it because you want to serve and get closer to other fans
THEBAND
Patrick Dahlheimer (bass), and Chad Gracey (drums)
The band started in the early 1980's under the name "First Aid", as a trio of Chad Taylor, Patrick Dahlheimer and Chad Gracey. Ed Kowalczyk joined in 1984, when the group lost a talent show. They went through various different names, including "Action Front", "Paisley Blues" and "Club Fungus", before settling on "Public Affection" in January 1987. Gracey gave the band the name "Public Affection" based on a comment by his girlfriend at the time. When the band graduated from high school, they recorded a self-released cassette of original songs, The Death of a Dictionary, in 1989. In 1990 they released an EP of demos produced by Jay Healy, titled Divided Mind, Divided Planet, via their Black Coffee mailing list. The band played regular concerts at CBGB in New York City, which helped earn them a contract with Radioactive Records in 1991. In June that year, the band changed its name to Live.
Under the new name Live, the band entered the studio with producer Jerry Harrison (of Talking Heads) and recorded the EP Four Songs. The single "Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)" went to number nine on the Modern Rock chart and was followed by their debut album, 1991's Mental Jewelry, which Harrison again produced. Patrick Dahlheimer said, "So important to have somebody else in the room to help us, especially with arrangements. I mean, we were still learning how to write songs...Jerry just seemed to know everything...this guy's a wizard!" Some of the album's lyrics, written by Ed Kowalczyk, were inspired by Indian philosopher and writer Jiddu Krishnamurti.
After appearances on the MTV 120 Minutes tour, at Woodstock '94 and on Peter Gabriel's WOMAD tour, Live's second album, Throwing Copper, achieved mainstream success. The album featured the singles "I Alone", "All Over You", and the number one US Modern Rock hits "Selling the Drama" and "Lightning Crashes". "Lightning Crashes" also stayed at the top of the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for ten consecutive weeks.
The success of the singles eventually gained Throwing Copper the number one position on the Billboard 200 album chart on May 6, 1995, its 52nd week on the chart. It was the third longest gap between an album first charting and reaching number one, behind Fleetwood Mac's eponymous album in 1976 (58 weeks) and Paula Abdul's Forever Your Girl in 1989 (64 weeks). It is Live's best-selling album, having sold eight million copies in the US alone. In 1995 the band appeared on MTV Unplugged. Their set included a cover version of Vic Chesnutt's "Supernatural".
The success of Throwing Copper helped 1997's Secret Samadhi (co-produced by the band and Jay Healy) to reach the number one position in its debut on the US album chart. It took its name from Samadhi, a state of Hindu meditation. The album contained Modern Rock hit singles as "Lakini's Juice" and "Heropsychodreamer".
Jerry Harrison returned as co-producer for 1999's The Distance to Here, which entered the US album chart at number four and featured the hit single "The Dolphin's Cry". In 2000, Live embarked on a co-headlining tour with Counting Crows. On that tour, Counting Crows' lead singer Adam Duritz often joined Live for their performance of "The Dolphin's Cry", while Ed sang a verse of "Hanginaround" with Counting Crows.
On September 18, 2001, the experimental V (originally to be called Ecstatic Fanatic) was released to mixed reviews. The first single was "Simple Creed", which featured a rap from Tricky, but the events of 9/11, which occurred a week before V was released, meant that the melancholic "Overcome" received significant airplay and became the album's selling point. V reached number 22 in the US.
In May 2003, the band released the Jim Wirt produced Birds of Pray, which reached number 28 on the US album chart, boosted by the unexpected success of the single "Heaven", Live's first U.S. Hot 100 hit single since "The Dolphin's Cry".
In November 2004, Live released a greatest hits compilation, Awake: The Best of Live. Awake included "We Deal in Dreams", a previously unreleased song from the Throwing Copper sessions, a cover version of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line", and a new version of their song "Run Away" with Shelby Lynne sharing lead vocals with Ed. A deluxe version of the album included a DVD with 22 music videos and an interview with Kowalczyk.
In 2005, Live signed to Sony BMG Music Entertainment's Epic label. They released the album Songs from Black Mountain in June 2006. The album peaked at number 52 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and reached number three on the Billboard Independent album chart. The first single was "The River".
On September 14, 2007, the band released Radiant Sea: A Collection of Bootleg Rarities and Two New Songs, their first album since 1989 on their own Action Front Records label. The new songs were "Beautiful Invisible" and "Radiant Sea". Live recorded their first concert DVD in the Netherlands during two shows at the Paradiso on June 30 and July 1, 2008. Live at the Paradiso - Amsterdam was released on November 11, 2008 on DVD and CD. Also in 2008, the band headlined a US tour which also featured Blues Traveler and Collective Soul.
After a concert in July 2009, Live announced that the band would take a two-year hiatus to work on other projects. Ed recorded his solo album "Alive" and the other band members formed a group with Kevin Martin and Sean Hennesy of Candlebox called The Gracious Few. That band proceeded to record a self-titled debut album in California for release in September 2010. On November 30, 2009, Chad revealed that the "hiatus" could become a permanent split.
On June 8, 2011, Chad revealed that he, Pat and Chad would restart the band without Ed. The band returned from their nearly three-year hiatus on March 12, 2012, with Chris Shinn, formerly of Unified Theory, as their new lead singer. The new lineup performed before an invited audience at the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center in York. The band performed with new touring members, including Gracious Few bandmate Sean Hennesy on rhythm guitar and Alexander Lefever on keyboards. Live's first major tour with Shinn was as part of the Summerland Tour 2013, playing 35 shows across the US. Other featured bands were Everclear, Filter and Sponge.
Live's first album to feature Shinn, The Turn, was released on October 28, 2014. The album's first single, "The Way Around Is Through", was uploaded to YouTube on September 10, 2014 and officially released on September 16.
During 2014-2015, Ed embarked on a worldwide tour playing acoustic "unplugged" shows celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of Throwing Copper. Zak Loy accompanied Ed on this tour, playing guitar, mandolin, pedal steel and backing vocals. In 2016 when Ed rejoined Live, Loy was soon after invited to join the group as a touring musician.
On October 24, 2016, Chad and Ed, along with singer Zoe LaBelle, took part in an interview for WVYC. Although the primary reason for the interview was to promote new music by LaBelle that Chad had worked on, it marked the first time that the two former bandmates had publicly appeared together since 2009. Fueling speculation over a possible reunion, the Live Facebook page returned on November 16, 2016, with an early picture of the band's original lineup and a new logo. On the same day, Ed's Facebook page was also updated with a new profile picture and cover photo both displaying the same logo from the band's page. Despite the changes on Facebook, the band's website remained black until December 9, when a countdown was posted suggesting new information would be released on December 12. Later that day, Live's Twitter and Facebook pages announced that the band's original lineup had reunited with tour dates in 2017.
In autumn 2018, they released the singles "Love Lounge" and "Be a Giver, Man". On October 12, they released their new EP: Local 717.
Ed Kowalczyk
Edward Joel Kowalczyk was born on July 16, 1971 and is exactly one week older than his fellow band member Chad Gracey. Ed grew up in the small town of York, Pennsylvania and attended William Penn Senior High School in the York City School District, where he met the other three members of what would become Live. Father Ed, a teacher at the local Northeastern High School and mother Mary, a legal secretary had another son called Adam.
He saw the band "First Aid" play at the local talent show and invited himself for rehearsals the next day. Since then the four were inseparable and that friendship still forms the basis of the band. Artists that were of great influence to Ed are R.E.M. and U2. Bands who Live would often be compared too at a later stage.
I will never forget my first U2 concert. It was 1987, JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. It was as if they took us to church. There was so much love from their music and passion.
Ed remembers that it was also the moment he realised he was doing something similar and wanted to keep doing that. "I'm living proof of the impact that a rock and roll band can have on an individual." As far as looks go, Ed really showed his chameleon side. Chad Taylor recalls how Ed used to look: "I met Ed in middle school. He scared the hell out of me: with his long hair and "OZZY" written on his left hand." Lot's of youngsters in York were totally in to heavy metal, but because the guys went to a more or less "black school" Ed didn't really fit in with his heavy metal looks. "I believe he even smoked hash and always thought he was just a creepy guy. Which is funny, because if you see him today, well he did clean up quite ok," says Chad.
Over the years Ed was crowned with really shortened hair, dyed blonde hair stiff with hair products, curly hair with an enormous beard and in between those all the - very well known and almost his trade mark - a bald head. And despite the fact that Ed is in the full spotlight as the singer and songwriter of the band, there is little known about his character. During interviews he talks your ears off about his music and religion, but when you ask him a personal question he smartly knows how to direct the conversation back to music in general, or Live's music in particular. From the little things about his personal life he does share in interviews you can make out that he really wasn't the ringleader when he was young. "I've always been somewhat of a loner; an independent person that sometimes has had a hard time integrating in the real world," so Ed says, "Making music in a band was my ultimate form of therapy, because it forced me into a position where I can get into very intense relationships with people. But at the same time I can easily be left alone for several weeks without a lot of contact with the outside world. I'm happy the way I am right now."
As the lead singer of Live, Ed fronted one of the most successful American post-grunge bands of the 90's, coming to prominence with their 1994 sophomore album, Throwing Copper. With his bald head and intense eyes, Ed cut a distinctive figure, but what separated him from other 90's alt-rockers was his utter earnestness: he adopted U2's open-hearted stance as his own, preferring sincerity to irony.
Ed performed John Lennon's "Imagine" with Slash in 2003 at "Peace on the Beach", a rally to protest the coming War in Iraq. In 2008, he appeared in a video with will.i.am from The Black Eyed Peas, John Legend, Scarlett Johansson, and Nick Cannon, supporting U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama and appeared at campaign rallies for Obama with will.i.am. Ed is a member of Canadian charity Artists Against Racism and has worked with them on awareness campaigns.
Ed established a solo career in 2009 and has had success with the solo album "Alive" in 2010. In 2012 he recorded "The Garden" and in 2013 Ed released another solo album titled "The Flood and The Mercy". Over the past 7 years Ed has continued to tour as a Solo artist and with a touring band. In 2014-2016 he embarked on an extensive tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of Throwing Copper, playing acoustic concerts across the U.S., Europe and Australia.
In late 2016 Ed and his Live band mate Chad, Chad and Pat all reunited and the original Live line up returned.
Ed has worked with musicians Stuart Davis and Glen Ballard and singers Anouk, Neneh Cherry, Adam Duritz of Counting Crows, Red Wanting Blue, and Shelby Lynne. He featured on the song "Evolution Revolution Love", from the 2001 Tricky album Blowback. He collaborated with Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth (ex-Talking Heads, then performing as The Heads) on the song "Indie Hair" from their 1996 album "No Talking, Just Head".
He appeared in the David Fincher film "Fight Club" as a waiter who serves the characters of Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter, his only film acting credit to date.
Ed is married to Erin and has 2 daughters, Ana Sofia and Nastasha and a son called Paul.
Chad Taylor
Chad David Taylor was born November 24th 1970 in Owing Mills, Maryland. That not only makes him the oldest of the four band members of Live, but also the only one not born in Pennsylvania. The Taylor family moved to York when Chad was a little boy and where he went to kindergarten at Jacob L. Devers. At the age of 5 he was building blocks there with... Yup, Ed Kowalczyk. At his 10th birthday Chad's father, David, gave him a guitar as a present. One which Chad still owns by the way. Live's guitarist played the trumpet during his time attending high school; it's how he learned to read notes. His music teacher tried to get Chad to try the piano at one point, but that wasn't a big success.
Around the age of thirteen, Chad met Patrick Dahlheimer and Chad Gracey in school. They formed the band "First Aid" with which they entered in on talent hunts and school shows. After a while, former kindergarten buddy, Ed Kowalczyk got involved in the band which was then named "Public Affection". One day after his Seventeenth birthday Chad played his first official concert show, in a full house of 400 people. Story goes that when classmate Dana flashed to him and his fellow band members Chad decided he's never wanted to do anything else than play in a band.
Chad's father played an important role in the early days of the band: he was the one moving all of the bands gear to wherever they needed to go and he also made the cellar available for the band as a rehearsal room. "I've always believed in my boys, like I call them, had something special, something different. That's why I've always travelled to there shows, helped them buy some gear and drove them all over the place," is what David Taylor said years later. He even called David Sestak (who until a couple of years ago was Live's manager) to tell him that he 'really needed to listen to this band', because otherwise he would commit the biggest mistake of his life'. Sestak came out to a show and was very pleasantly surprised: he thought that these four should start making an album of their own. Because the guys didn't have a dime to spend, Chad came up with the idea to sell stocks of $100 a piece to friends and family. That way they collected the $5,000 that was needed to create the album, that was named "Death of a Dictionary". The demo was noticed by Gary Kurfirst, former director of Radioactive Records and until recently became manager of the band. On his label the band completed their first real debut album, with the name "Mental Jewelry".
It needs to be said that the life of a rockstar didn't only bring success to Chad. As a consequence to his guitar playing and physical efforts he can't use a certain muscle group in his left shoulder like he should. This repetitive strain injury (RSI) set in because Chad used to lift his left shoulder during playing the guitar. Physical therapy and acupuncture made sure he doesn't have any severe pain to that shoulder anymore, but the shoulder will never be the same.
As you might know Ed usually takes up the biggest role as it comes to writing new material. The other three band members do bring in their part though. And because he's a guitarist. Chad does a lot of writing too. He for example is the founding father of the well known riff in "Lakini's Juice", which was born on a late evening after a couple of bottles of wine. Also the quite unconventional chords to "White, Discussion" come from his hand. People often say of Chad's guitar work, that it's not that theoretically underlined: He doesn't really look at what chords are 'good' or 'wrong'. He just goes with his gut feeling and plays with pure passion. "Pat and myself express ourselves with our instruments as to where Ed does it with words. I rather leave the lyrics up to him and only read them once they're finished. Poetry and books are great, but I feel more attracted to songs," Chad said.
These days Chad is also active on the movie front where he has recently co-produced a feature length film titled "Home". Chad has also assisted in developing shows for a range of other television networks, like HBO, Discovery Channel and others. Most recently he has produced the debut album of his younger brother Adam. Chad also appears on the album playing guitar.
Chad is married to Lisa, a yoga practitioner. They have three children, Ruby Lou, Scarlett and Delilah. They live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Chad is a principal partner in the company Aurora Creative Group, which has developed shows for The History Channel, Discovery Channel, Telemundo, Food Network, HBO and Speed Channel. In addition he co-produced the feature films Home and Another Harvest Moon and was executive producer of the video The Barkan Method: Hot Yoga which features his wife Lisa.
Patrick Dahlheimer
Patrick Michael Dahlheimer, was born on May 30, 1971 in York, Pennsylvania. Patrick has played bass guitar since he was twelve and was inspired (just like the other band members of Live) to start a band by his music teacher Don Carn. Carn played bass himself and as said by Patrick himself "his teacher was of great influence to his technique".
Simultaneously he learned by playing along with records of The Specials and Duran Duran. His technique in the early years of Live can be described as 'funky' and very present: on Live's debut album Mental Jewelry Patrick's bass lines stand out more than for instance on Secret Samadhi. Patrick explains that change himself:
These days I don't feel that I need to fill up a lot of 'space' within the songs. Some parts just fit better when they are plain and simple. Sometimes you can make a point by leaving out notes.
The difference in experience is also reason to that change he says:
Songs like "Take My Anthem" and "Mirror Song" have a more or less individual bass line, not really distracted from the drum or guitar parts. That is merely because we didn't really know better at that time. Not that I was naive or anything, I just did what felt right. And that approach can turn out to work really well. These days I sometimes wish I could still make my music in that way. But that seems to become much harder after all these years.
For the outside world Patrick is known as 'the funny one'. When asked if his personality indeed differs that much from the rest of the group he responded: "Different? Let's just say there's no one like me." Different or not, according to Chad Taylor, Patrick is definitely the one person you need when you are 'in the mood for lots of fun and hysteric laughter'. The image of the clown of the group is also somewhat confirmed by the tour diary the band wrote during their 2000-something tour: Patrick always has the funny faces in the pictures or finds himself in the most awkward situations.
Despite his image, Patrick is always very serious in making music and his work with instruments. He can enthusiastically recall why he chose a specific bass instrument for that one song and how much the sound of the song is influenced by his choice. At one point it he owned about 30 different bass guitars: quite a difference with that one bass he had during the recording of Mental Jewelry. Patrick said:
After we recorded the whole album I walked into a store in Milwaukee where they sold a bass of about 4 thousand dollars. When I tried it, I needed to buy it. Only problem was that our total budget for Mental Jewelry was about 10 thousand dollars. Luckily I persuaded the shop owner to lend me the guitar for a while. I went back to the studio and rerecorded ALL songs on the album with the new bass...
Patrick is maried to Jackie and they have a daughter Marley.
Chad Gracey
Chad Alan Gracey was born in the local hospital of York, Pennsylvania on July 23rd, 1971 exactly one week later than fellow band member Ed. Chad taught himself how to play the drums, without any lessons. He used to listen to records in his bedroom and tried to play what he heard. Chad always played drums with bare feet, something which he continues to do. Chad also played the saxophone for over 10 years, but unfortunately he has since forgotten. So a thrilling sax solo is something we won't see him do anytime soon.
One month after he bought his first drum kit he and Patrick started working on setting up a band. Together with the other band members he graduated from William Penn High School in 1989. From that moment on his focus was fully on the band. In an interview Chad once mentioned that if he had gone to college he'd probably have become a doctor or parapsychologist. Besides that he said he was sure that one way or another he would've found his way in to music as that is where his heart is drawn to.
Chad comes across as a calm person: maybe he needed some time to get used to the life of a famous rock star. During his drumming he magically changes in to a very passionate musician and he totally gives himself on the drums. It's therefore not a big surprise that "White, Discussion" and "Lakini's Juice" are Chad's favourite songs to play. And the recent "Sofia" even inspired Chad for a very danceable intro to that song. During one show he uses about 10 pairs of drumsticks, but it also happens that he needs 3 pairs for only one song!
It's said, Chad is the band member that's mostly in the background (even literally on stage). But he doesn't seem to mind that at all: "I'm not jealous about all the attention Ed gets, I love my place out of the spotlight", he says. When someone once asked him what talents you need as a drummer, he replied:
Have a solid technique and don't try to catch any attention. The drummer is the centre of the band, not its face.
That is also emphasised during the The Distance to Here tour: for the first time we see Gracey put behind a glass 'fish tank'. But he has a very good reason for that: the sound intensity on stage needed to be decreased dramatically and well Chad can't really turn down a volume dial. Luckily he's usually seen on the large video screen at the bigger venues, which gives you a great view on how intensely he plays the drums.
While Chad isn't the most extrovert person in the band he does have several other important roles within the band. Chad explains:
I don't really get myself involved in the process of song writing, but I do organize. Probably I'm the one in the band deciding if a song is getting on the record or not. I think of myself as the most critical: if I don't like a song or can't find the right drum beats with whatever the rest is playing, then I don't want to have anything to do with the song. Ed and Chad Taylor sometimes have an idea that they are both very enthusiastic about, and if I then don't like it they hate me for it. But most of the time it turns out to work out best for the band...
Bootlegs
Select an era down below to view other shows
I Alive
1994-05-16
The Roxy, Los Angeles, CA
The 99x Studios
1994-06-03
Cat's Paws Studios, Atlanta, GA
Aldous Huxley
1994-07-31
The Edge, Orlando, FL
The Sting
1994-10-06
New Britain, CT
Walk the Starlight
1994-11-19
The Academy, New York, NY
Yorksters in Boston
1994-11-22
Orpheum Theater, Boston, MA
MTV Unplugged
1995-02-15
Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY
All Over You
1995-02-20
Alabamahalle, Munich, Germany
Stage
1995-03-14
Lehigh University's Stabler Arena, Bethlehem, PA
Club Gino
1995-06-09
Stockholm, Sweden
Videos
Woodstock '99
In Rome, New York, the band plays during the Woodstock '99 festival. The festival was attended by more than 400,000 people. In addition to Live, the audience can also count on live performances by James Brown, Metallica, Elvis Costello and Muse, among others.
The American rock band Live plays on East Stage and plays eleven songs. They end the set with 'I Alone' and then treat the audience to 'Lighting Crashes'. One of the hits from the 1994 album Throwing Copper.
Links
| Freaks 4 Live Official website of the band |
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| Ed Kowalczyk Official Ed Kowalczyk website |
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| Livefanclub NL Official dutch fanclub |
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| Fans of Live Great Message board |
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| Live Fuss Live site catering for fans in Australia and New Zealand |
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| Facebook Live Official Facebook page |
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| Facebook Ed Kowalczyk Official Facebook page |
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| Facebook Chad Taylor Official Facebook page |
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| Facebook Patrick Dahlheimer Official Facebook page |
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| Facebook Chad Gracey Official Facebook page |
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