\nReplugged Live<\/i> is the album that documents what most fans of
\nTesla thought they’d never get the chance to see. Once word came
\ndown a few years ago that Tesla had thrown in the towel (for
\nwhatever reasons were rumored – and there were a few), it seemed
\nlike there was too much bad blood between the five guys in the band
\nto ever get them back together. Ah, but times change, and the
\npublic’s cry for Tesla to come back together were finally heeded –
\nbut would the magic still be there?<\/p>\n
This two-disc set taken from various concerts during Tesla’s
\n2001 tour (including a selection of dates from LaCrosse, Wisconsin,
\none of the few cities singer Jeff Keith salutes from the stage)
\nshows a band who still have their chops musically, and still know
\nhow to put on one helluva show. It also occasionally shows the
\nweakness that could undermine the band, though those moments can
\ndiffer, depending on which period of Tesla’s career one thought was
\nweak.<\/p>\n
If you’re keeping score at home,
\nReplugged Live<\/i> touches on all of the band’s releases,
\nincluding “What U Give,” which was only on the best-of
\nTime’s Makin’ Changes<\/i>. What’s interesting is not that the
\ngroup’s weakest effort
\nBust A Nut<\/i> only has one track culled from it, but that the
\nsong, “Mama’s Fool,” is one of the surprising points of the whole
\ndisc in its strength and the band’s performance. It’s almost as if
\nKeith and crew went out of their way to show the audience what they
\nmissed with this particular album.<\/p>\n
\nReplugged Live<\/i> breathes new life into several songs in this
\nfashion. When
\nPsychotic Supper<\/i> was released, I really didn’t appreciate
\nthe track “Song & Emotion” as a real tribute to Steve Clark
\nfrom Def Leppard – but after years of wisdom (as well as watching
\nthe “Behind The Music” episode of Def Leppard more times than I’d
\nlike to admit), the true beauty of this song comes forth, and “Song
\n& Emotion” is allowed to stand on its own. If only some other
\ntracks, like “Edison’s Medicine” and “The Way It Is,” had been
\ngranted the same magical touch.<\/p>\n
\nReplugged Live<\/i> pulls many tracks off of Tesla’s two big
\nalbums,
\nMechanical Resonance<\/i> and
\nThe Great Radio Controversy<\/i>, but it’s what the kids want, so
\ngive it to ’em. Besides, most of these turn out to be the best
\nmoments of the whole show, especially the numbers from
\nMechanical Resonance<\/i>. (I do wonder, though, why Tesla chose
\nto resurrect “We’re No Good Together” and why not, say, “Rock Me To
\nThe Top”.) Admittedly, some personal preference will come into play
\nfor the listener – I still haven’t totally warmed up to songs like
\n“Heaven’s Trail (No Way Out)” or “Hang Tough” – but there’s going
\nto be more than enough material on this disc to leave you smiling.
\n(And, yes, Virginia, drummer Troy Lucketta actually
\ndid<\/i> play a solo during the concert’s opening number “Cumin’
\nAtcha Live”. Why, I don’t know.)<\/p>\n
What’s interesting about this album is that while you’ll find
\ntracks you don’t particularly like, you can’t imagine
\nReplugged Live<\/i> being as complete an effort without them. I
\ndon’t know how Tesla pulled that off, but a number of bands would
\nlike to know that secret.<\/p>\n
Where
\nReplugged Live<\/i> hits snags is in two areas. First, some of
\nthe shows seem to feature the band when Keith’s voice sounded more
\nragged than it usually does. On songs like “EZ Come EZ Go” and
\n“Hang Tough,” sometimes it seems as if Keith is having difficulty
\nmaking it to the high notes a la Steven Tyler. Admittedly, I didn’t
\nexpect note-for-note precision – the guys in the band are 15 years
\nolder than the group which recorded
\nMechanical Resonance<\/i> – but one has to imagine there was at
\nleast one other show which had Keith sounding in better voice.<\/p>\n
The second is, ironically, the hardest to explain. While
\nReplugged Live<\/i> has the feel of the most complete Tesla show
\none could imagine, it’s not the most engaging listen.
\nProduction-wise, it’s fine; performance-wise, it’s fine. But
\nenergy-wise, it’s too easy for the listener to push the disc to the
\nbackground and let their memory go onto auto-pilot. So while this
\nis a disc that fans have been begging for, it’s also one which
\nlisteners might only dig out from time to time.<\/p>\n
Don’t get me wrong;
\nReplugged Live<\/i> is a welcome disc from a band who never got
\nthe credit they deserved, and is a nice stepping stone into the
\ngroup’s new future. But it’s also a disc which needed a little more
\nheart to keep the listener’s fists pumping in the air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6142],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-37166","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tesla","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37166"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37166"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}