First Live Album review, should be a doozy
Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Cumin' Atcha Live. First exposure to the band Tesla. That, and hearing Modern Day Cowboy on the radio, which would also become one of my favorite songs ever. Really hope its here. Beyond that, I don't especially know a lot of their songs, so I'm a little excited to possibly discover some new to me tracks. So lets do this
Cumin' Atcha Live / Truckin
Bluesiness is strong, however the slide/lead guitar tone is a little, off. This is a great arrangement of the classic song, not a strait acoustic version, but the truckin version. Good opener to set the mood, but not without its flaws
Tied to the Tracks
The guitars still sound a little funny, kind of takes away from the groove in the intro. Vocals also sound very forced in this one, where as they sounded much more natural in the opening. The groove takes back over though as the guitars start to harmonize better. They need to turn the treble down on that thing
We can Work it Out
Oh, Beatles cover time. Guess that makes sense since this performance was in London. They do a faithful version, all on point. You've heard this song, just imagine Jeff Keith singing it
Signs
After turning it around in the cover, they flip another Uy in their popular cover, as Jeff sounds like he's pushing a bit. Band sounds great. overall its just kinda here. This is a song I haven't been able to take seriously thanks to memes
What You Give
Missed opportunity in the intro of the song to use the deeper toned acoustic, instead of the lead. Jeff goes between good and meh again and it makes deciding if this is good or not difficult. I do like the riff for this song, has a really nice flow to it. Jeff is known for his signature highs, but he legit sounds like he's being chocked out in the chorus. Unfortunate
California Summer Song
Beach music time, appropriate to the title. Makes me wanna head over the hill to Santa Cruz or Monterey and just relax with a drink, watching the waves. I've used this analogy a lot but its a perfect campfire song, except here I guess it would be a perfect Beach Bonfire Song
Forever Loving You
You'd expect a ballad to translate well to acoustic, and it has. However, its boring. Take that with a grain of salt however as I'm a little jaded to love songs so maybe with a different mindset I'd enjoy it more. For now its the snooze fest of this release
Miles Away
That intro is thick and heavy, me like. For the first time here, the lead guitar sounds better as it's more properly contrasting the bass tones. Tightest the band has sounded I would say, all just works very well. Definitely favorite song so far
Paradise
Somewhat exotic sound to the intro, with the dual guitars and Piano. After the good intro the song falls back into the boring territory. I'm probably wrong but some parts sounded a little off tempo, that could just be the tonal contrast not always meshing well playing tricks on my ears. Following Miles Away I was hoping we'd hit a good stride. Sadly no
Call it What You Want
Constant pedal melody feels like its building up, the bridge continues that. Chorus hits and it just sort of falls flat, with it also being short. Second chorus is better however. This is a case of a song not really translating well to acoustic
Stir It Up
I like acoustic music, I have entire playlist dedicated to it, but the majority of these songs are boring in this format. Doesn't help this song has a few sour chords that sound mangy on acoustic. It gets better when the full band joins in but its to late to Stir up positive emotions
Into the Now
Back to the up tempo, thankfully. Back to heavier as well. You can feel the hair metal vibes in this one you'd expect. Yes, its an acoustic set, but that doesn't mean you can't let your essence through, which for the most part, to me, they failed. If the more of the performance was along the lines of this song, it would have been overall more enjoyable
Love Song
Hey, They cheated! The song has a nice duo acoustic intro. But goes once again to the boring territory. It builds up, then the CHEAT! Electric guitar is forbidden, someone get Davie504 on the line, I need his direct line to the police. This is one of their biggest songs however, and you want a payoff when that happens, but Jeff absolutely loses it during the sing along, to the point I think he kind of gave up and let everyone else just do it. I know that's common in live settings but you can tell the difference.
Finally, we get to Modern Day Cowboy! Wait, they, they didn't do it? Oh.... well anyway this album was ok. It had some bright spots but more often than not it just sort of fell off. It did succeed in however in convincing me to dive into Tesla more so than I already have. As for this album though, its just kind of, meh
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