Tesla
May 3, 2015
Atlanta, GA
The Tabernacle
Back in 1988 a little ol’ band out of Californ-i-a made its way into my life with a song called “Modern Day Cowboy.” At 15 years old, Tesla made a huge fucking impression on me with a sound that was so different from any of their peers. They were making this really kind of organic, natural sounding hard rock/metal music that was very no frills and just balls to the wall good. Over the years I would follow Tesla’s career from opening act to seasoned headliners as they put out three of my all-time favorite albums: Mechanical Resonance, The Great Radio Controversy, and Psychotic Supper along w/ the stellar acoustic live album Five Man Acoustical Jam.
In those years I saw Tesla three times and those live shows have been forever embedded into my head as some of the greatest live experiences of my life, the last being on the Psychotic Supper tour in Atlanta on May 17th, 1992. It would be just weeks shy of 23 years before I would see Tesla live again and I can honestly say that I haven’t been this excited to see a band live since maybe Iron Maiden. The anticipation grew and the impatience did as well so when May 4th finally rolled around I felt like a giddy kid on Christmas morning.
I made my way to the Tabernacle where I parked my car and footed it over to the will call window. I picked up my ticket and after show pass (yeah, I know. Major fanboy moment) and headed into the venue. I made my way to the merch and I was a bit bummed at the lack of merch that the band had available. This was the last show of their makeup dates so this is not uncommon for any band to bet honest. I politely passed on the $11.00 beers and instead opted for the $5.00 water (up yours Tabernacle) and made my way to my seat situated center stage in the lower balcony. I knew absolutely nothing about the two bands opening so I was eager to give them an honest listen.
The first band up was a band called NoMara and their claim to fame is that their guitarist is former Evanescence/We Are The Fallen guitarist John LeCompt. Well, at least we know who we can blame for this because this band was absolutely terrible. First off, they looked and acted like a bunch of Affliction clothing/Axe body spray wearing, redneck frat metal dudes. Their songs were just horrendous and it was downright painful. They even had a song called “Tesla” which I’m guessing they thought was clever as it was full of hair band references throughout the song. Hell, in my opinion, the band should sue them just for dragging them into such a crappy song. I just had to say No Morea of NoMara.
Sledd was up next and these guys were quite the joke. Their singer looked like a white hip hop graffiti artist in cycling clothing while their keyboardist looked like someone’s dad who was just excited to be out on the road and awake past 9pm. This band, much like NoMara had ZERO redeeming qualities. They even have a song called “People Watching” which is to a “t” the main riff for the Iron Butterfly song “In A Gadda Da Vida.” Either these guys just think that nobody would recognize it or they just don’t give a flying fuck about ripping off one of the most iconic rock songs of all time. My guess is that I just don’t care because I’ll never listen to these clowns again. Why Tesla picked these two bands (if they indeed did) is beyond me but they definitely picked two bands that they would have ZERO problems making us all forget the minute they walked out on the stage.
Tesla took to the stage to a roar from the crowd as the band launched right into “MP3” off of their latest album, Simplicity. When a band like Tesla, with such a history behind them, opens with a new song off of a new album, that is a band that is making quite a strong statement. The song was an absolutely perfect opening song but then things just got shot through the stratosphere as Tesla slid right into “Edison’s Medicine.” This had the audience going absolutely apeshit as fists were pumping, bodies bounced around, and the crowd sang every word right back the band. “Gettin’ Better” was 3rd in the set and this seemed to catch everyone off guard as it seemed awfully early in the set but this 1-2-3 punch just had me smiling so big that even Mayweather couldn’t have punched it off my face.
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(All Photos by Michael Bradley – www.rockhousephoto.com)
The set was chock full of classics such as “Hang Tough”, “Heaven’s Trail” and “What You Give” and I have to say that no matter how many times in my life I have heard “Love Song” that hearing it this night was every bit as goosebump causing as it was the first time I ever heard it. Hell, I’ll second that emotion for “The Way it Is” as well. While the classics were fantastic as always, it was the more recent material like “So Divine”, “Sympathy”, and one of the biggest highlights of the set, “Life is a River” which featured bassist Brian Wheat on keys and guitarist Dave Rude on bass guitar.
The band as a whole played with such a youthful energy that just made everything they played sound even more timeless than they do on the recorded versions of their songs. Watching Jeff Keith on stage is like watching a kid in a candy store. He loves what he does so much and his voice was just so strong and full of power and soul. This was my first time seeing Tesla with guitarist Dave Rude. While I totally missed the insanity and unpredictability of former guitarist Tommy Skeoch, Rude’s playing compliments Frank Hannon’s playing so well and they really look and sound like they’ve been playing together for 20+years or so. Tesla brought their marathon set to a close with “Modern Day Cowboy” which had my face sliding clean off my skull. Jeff Keith thanked Atlanta for nearly 28 years of great times and without even doing the cheese “leave the stage” thing, Keith asked, “Do y’all want one more round?” The place erupted as Hannon walked up to his acoustic guitar drawing things to close with “Little Suzi.”
After nearly 23 years, I can honestly tell you that Tesla hasn’t missed a single fucking beat. Much like a fine wine, ok more like whiskey maybe, Tesla as aged and matured into this band that plays more like a timeless, classic rock outfit rather than washed up nostalgia act barely clinging on to their past greatness. The energy from that was emitting from the band was such a strong, positive, and moving energy and I just couldn’t help but feel the love. Tesla has always said that they were a band that was all about “the love” and this show proved that once and for all. Tesla is a band that loves their fans. They love the music that they make and that is something that is contagiously spread to their fans. So ask me just how good a Tesla show in 2015 can be? Ok, I’ll tell you. It’s really fucking good and it’s something that anyone, even the most casual of fans, can see and then walk away a diehard fan.
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