LIVE play The Grove of Anaheim Oct. 1
Live will be hitting the City National Grove of Anaheim on Oct. 1, performing not only new songs from The Turn, but even some oldies but goodies from their early albums.
“One thing I want to clarify, we didn’t actually get together to be Live,” lead guitarist Chad Taylor said. “Patrick (Dahlheimer), Chad (Gracey) and I were saying, ‘Okay, we need to make music,’ and in order to do that, trust me, you don’t want to hear one of us sing, we need a singer. It just so happened Chris (Shinn) knew Live songs. It just sounded incredible with him singing and we thought, ‘Oh, wow, this was a twist on what the initial intent was.’”
Lineup changes, although common, often pose a minor threat to bands. But what about when it’s your frontman, your singer, the voice of the band? Fans might backlash claiming this isn’t the band they know!
However, Live, with new singer Shinn, have not only managed to reel back in devout fans from their 25 years in the music industry, but have built a new fan base with their classic 90’s post-grunge meets modern electric hard rock.
“Some of the fans of course think it’s totally added a new energy and some, of course, rebelled against it,” Taylor said. “It’s been an interesting experiment in both the social aspect of being a band and also the creative aspect of being in a band.”
With the rekindling of what was thought to be only a memory, Live burst back onto the scene with the album The Turn, released in 2014, providing the first experience of Shinn as a member. His voice truly is a gift to the “new” group, bringing not only the remembrance of where Live started, but revamping it with a heavier, yet still sultry, sound.
“The aspect that there’s a silver lining in front of a sad story, that some friendships were lost, the silver lining is that we have a renewed spirit from making music,” Taylor said.
The first release from the album, “The Way Around is Through”, speaks to the audience and truly recognizes the difficulties and changes the band has faced. This song became the much-anticipated sign that Live was going to make it out alive, and perhaps more successful than ever.
“I knew that when we were recording that song and writing it, there was some spark and the initial energy that propelled Live and then moved us forward,” Taylor said. “I really thought that that helped set the tone for the rest of the record.”
Even with a new sense of self and an obvious change in the sound of the band, Taylor recognizes that Live will always be Live, because you definitely can’t perform a show without the always-loved “The Dolphin’s Cry.”
“I’d probably tell you that the process of learning and rehearsing the older Live songs had a direct influence on the making of The Turn and the way those new songs sound,” Taylor proclaimed. “This is the first time in our career that I can honestly say the band itself was its own influence.”