LIVE

Formed: 1984, York, Pennsylvania

Members: Patrick Dahlheimer, bass (born York, Pennsylvania, 30 May 1971); Chad Gracey, drums, background vocals (born York, Pennsylvania, 23 July 1971); Edward Kowalczyk, vocals, guitar (born York, Pennsylvania, 16 July 1971); Chad Taylor, guitar, background vocals (born Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 24 November 1970).

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Throwing Copper (1994)

Hit songs since 1990: "Selling the Drama," "I Alone," "Lightning Crashes"

The rock band Live (pronounced with a long i ) was formed in the band members' home-town of York, Pennsylvania, in the mid-1980s as an after-school project of four middle-school students: Chad Gracey, Patrick Dahlheimer, Edward Kowalczyk, and Chad Taylor. Theirs is a stereotypical rock and roll story: A small-town band is discovered and signed by a record label's representative and then goes on to international fame and fortune. Their second album for Radioactive, Throwing Copper (1994), resulted in overnight success; with the popularity of "Selling the Drama" and "I Alone," Live found an audience thirsty for idealistic, honest rock music with a message.

Live's debut album, Mental Jewelry (1991), is notable for singer Kowalczyk's propulsive, passionate tenor and the stellar, steady rhythm section of Gracey on bass and Dahlheimer on drums. On Throwing Copper, Live manages to keep their raw sound while smoothing it out with a clean, glossy layer. Throwing Copper landed near the top of the charts and earned the band a spot on the popular Lollapalooza tour.

In many respects, Live is an unlikely rock band because of its preoccupations with religion, spirituality, mortality, and hot-button issues. The powerful, muscular Throwing Copper features some hit singles, including the passionate "I Alone," "Selling the Drama," and the moving crescendo of "Lightning Crashes," whose elliptical lyrics tell the story of a classmate who was killed by a drunk driver in 1993.

Unfortunately, even though their next albums—Secret Samadhi (1997), which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart and The Distance to Here (1999), which debuted at number four—sold reasonably well, critics dismissed them as dry, joyless, and didactic, earnestly retreading the same thematically sanctimonious turf. Toward the end of the 1990s, renewed by the energy of popular nu-metal bands such as Limp Bizkit, Live went back into the studio to record their fifth album, appropriately titled V. On V, Live's anthems are delivered with a heavy hand and offer little inspiration despite the fervor of their message.

Live has yet to equal or surpass the majesty and power of Throwing Copper. Nevertheless, they continue to create rock music that aspires to grapple with serious social issues.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Mental Jewelry (Radioactive, 1991); Throwing Copper (Radioactive, 1994); Secret Samadhi (Radioactive, 1997); The Distance to Here (Radioactive, 1999); V (Radioactive, 2001).

carrie havranek