Ed Kowalczyk

The Nineties generated a laundry list of iconic albums, many of which still hold up today.  One of those albums was Throwing Copper from the Pennsylvania-based band Live, an album as instantly recognizable as Nevermind, Ten, or any other album from that era. That album spawned the band’s biggest hit in “Lightning Crashes,” and they rolled out a couple of other singles from that sophomore release. It was the success of Lightning Crashes that Live rode into their subsequent releases Secret Samahdi (in ‘97) and The Distance to Here (in ‘99). Those two albums each contained a notable single in “Lakini’s Juice” and “Dolphin’s Cry”, but neither managed to recapture the magic of “Lightning Crashes”.  Live’s music has endured over the past thirty years, but unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the band itself. Their history has been tumultuous, undergoing more than a handful of personnel changes, most notably the departure of frontman Ed Kowalczyk in 2009 (who eventually returned in 2016). In 2022, Kowalczyk became the sole original member after firing his bandmates and remains the only original member to this day.

Ed Kowalczyk

Live was a band that regularly made its way East and played festival dates in most (if not all) of the Maritime provinces. During those stops, I was personally able to hear them play the lion’s share of Throwing Copper, and that is my sweet spot for the band.  So, when the announcement was made that they would once again be touring Canada after almost two decades, as part of their Like a Rollin’ Thunder Tour,  it stirred up those nostalgic feelings. The tour also made the news, as Kowalcyzk’s former bandmates sent cease-and-desist letters, claiming ownership of the band’s name. Clearly not sharing the same nostalgic feelings.

The Damn Truth

There was a definite excitement in the air for the alt-rockers Live, but there was also a clear contingent of fans who were in attendance to support either Big Wreck or the Juno-nominated vintage rock outfit The Damn Truth.   I honestly can’t say I knew much about The Damn Truth when I walked through the doors of the venue, but it didn’t take long for my fandom to be established. Lee-la Baum’s lead vocals evoked those of Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick, and alongside bandmates Tom Schemer, Pierre-Yves Letellier, and Dave Traina crafted a set of snarling, hard-hitting rock songs that sounded like they were plucked straight out of the San Francisco psych–rock scene of the mid-Sixties. On this night, it was apparent why The Damn Truth’s eponymous album was nominated for Rock Album of the Year at the Junos, as the band’s performance was polished, poised and just oozed charisma. Lee-la Baum has bolstered the Canadian rock scene with a new and exciting voice.  This set certainly cemented my fandom of The Damn Truth, and I can’t wait to hear more from these Montreal rockers.

Ian Thornley

The second act on the bill is certainly no stranger to the Maritimes, having played here countless times over the years, and that band is none other than Big Wreck. This is a band that had its own struggles early on, having burst out of the gate with their debut album In Loving Memory Of…, a monster debut that gave us three of the most recognizable singles in modern rock with “The Oaf”, “That Song” and “Blown Wide Open”, a trio of prerequisites at any Big Wreck show. The band’s sophomore effort, The Pleasure and the Greed, contained some additional gems, “Ladylike” and “Inhale”,  but failed to recapture the magic of that debut album, and it led to their undoing in 2003.  A reunion wouldn’t happen until 2011, when Ian Thornley and Brian Doherty would reform Big Wreck, resulting in the band’s third album, Albatross. Since that 2012 release, they’ve released four additional albums, and with each subsequent release, frontman Ian Thornley has proven himself to be one of the pre-eminent guitar players on the planet.

Ian & Dave

For the band’s annual stop in the region, Ian, Chris, Sekou, and Dave distilled their career down into a succinct 9-song set that spanned the band’s entire career. That trio of hits from In The Loving Memory Of.…bookended the set, while modern cuts such as “Bombs Away”, “Believer”, “Dog With a Gun” and the iconic “Locomotive” filled out the list.  Also included in the set was “Come Again”, a Thornley track recorded during the Big Wreck hiatus years, which continues to be a crowd pleaser. The tandem of “Blown Wide Open” and “That Song” had the Scotiabank Centre singing its heart out, setting an incredibly high bar that had to be followed by the evening’s headliners, +Live+.

+ Live +

When that curtain dropped, revealing Ed Kowalczyk and +Live+‘s current lineup of  Zak Loy, Chris Heerlein, Johnny Radelat, and Nick Jay, the Halifax crowd was receptive and well primed with killer sets from Big Wreck and The Damn Truth.  “Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)” from the band’s debut album Mental Jewelry was a curious choice to kick the night off, but it also signalled what was to come.  In looking back through the +Live+ discography, you can quickly see that aside from “Lightning Crashes”, “Dolphin’s Cry”, “I Alone” and “Lakini’s Juice”,  there aren’t many other “hits”.  Don’t get me wrong, there are some deeper cuts, such as “Selling the Drama” and “Freaks”, which fans will appreciate, but this set felt largely hollow and self-indulgent. Even the inclusion of the newest track, “Leave the Radio On,” failed to recapture the energy and magic of their earlier works, and had some people saying it sounded like dad-rock you’d hear at a summer barbecue.

Ed Kowalczyk

Peppering your handful of hits throughout the set makes sense, but holding onto that gem until the bitter end is a foolhardy endeavour for a band that hasn’t released new music in nearly two full decades.  Riding a wave of nostalgia is all well and good, but when you don’t have the catalogue to support it, it quickly wears thin. By the time +Live+ returned to the stage for a three-song encore, scores of folks had already headed for home or were actively headed for the doors.  Having caught the band in those early days, it was safe to say that this show failed to live up to those past + Live + shows, and certainly fell short of the performances of the supporting acts.  While Throwing Copper was one of those iconic albums of the mid to late Nineties, it can’t be a crutch that is rested upon for the duration of a band’s career.

+ Live +

Big Wreck

The Damn Truth