Many students try their hand at forming rock bands while in middle school.
But very few go on to any kind of success. Live is the exception.
Members of the quartet, which performs at 7:30 tonight at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, are only in their 20s, but they’ve been together for more than a decade.
Vocalist Edward Kowalczyk, guitarist Chad Taylor, bassist Patrick Dahlheimer and drummer Chad Gracey formed a band called Public Affection in York, Pa., in 1985.
In October of 1989, they played the first of many shows at New York’s legendary club CBGB’s. A year later, they met Phil Schuster of Radioactive Records, who signed them to his label. By March of 1991, the renamed Live was in the studio with Talking Head Jerry Harrison, who would go on to produce their first two albums.
Having a long history together has helped them deal with success, including a gold debut album, “Mental Jewelry,” and 1994’s six-times platinum “Throwing Copper.” They were named Rock Artist of the Year at the Billboard Music Awards in 1995 and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone as Reader’s Poll winners for Artist of the Year in January 1996.
“By the time we started recording in 1991, we had already had a lot of turmoil along the way,” said Dahlheimer by phone from a tour stop in Indiana, Pa. “We knew ourselves, and knew how the others would react in certain situations. We can just read each other. With success, it helped to have the others around, because they were in the same boat.”
Empathy with its audience has helped Live to flourish. Marc Weingarten wrote in Request, “Live connects with its fans on a deeply personal level. The band members, particularly lyricist/vocalist Kowalczyk, have never shied away from sharing their fears, hopes and dreams with their audience.”
With the success of “Throwing Copper,” including the hit singles “Selling the Drama” and “Lightning Crashes,” Live faced a tough challenge when they and co-producer Jay Healy went into the studio to record their current album, “Secret Samadhi.” Still they had a goal in mind.
“We knew sonically what kind of record we wanted to make,” Dahlheimer said. “We wanted to make better use of space and dynamics. Also we wanted to spend more time on the sounds that were going on tape.”
Alec Goege wrote in Rolling Stone, “The band sounds stronger than ever. Live have gained an early reputation for tackling the `big issues’ (birth, death, love), and `Secret Samadhi’ delivers, but with a difference … the tone is never judgmental.”
Each member of the quartet has a hand in creating Live’s sound.
“We’ll write a song from within us,” Dahlheimer said. “Ed’s pretty prolific, and Chad (Taylor) and I come in with ideas, then the four of us sit down and hammer out a song.”
Live has just started the final, three-week leg of its “Secret Samadhi” tour. Since January, they have been around the world twice, with concerts five nights a week. Still that’s shorter than their 18-month, 252-show “Throwing Copper” tour.
The group will take a few weeks off, then will reunite in January to begin writing for its next album.
“We’ll try to get a record done as soon as possible, but only when it feels right,” Dahlheimer said. “We’re trying to avoid a big-time gap between records. It was two years between our last two albums, and we want to whittle that down a bit.”
Tickets for Live, with opening act Reef, are available at the Cumberland County Civic Center box office or by calling the box office at 775-3458 or Ticketmaster at 775-3331.
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