In A Venue Or On A Computer Near You

03/05/1998 2:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Dave DiMartino

York, Pennsylvania’s premiere spiritual power band Live just kicked off the second leg of the tour promoting their latest album, Secret Samadhi, the follow-up to their multi-platinum album Throwing Copper. Although they have been touring hard since February, they have managed to keep their fans connected via their two extremely comprehensive websites: singer Ed Kowalczyk’s, and the Hole In The Universe. While waiting to make their first appearance on The Tonight Show, bassist Patrick Dahlheimer and drummer Chad Gracey had quite a few interesting points to make about their loyal fanbase, the Internet, differentiating between the artist and the celebrity, and the differences between Secret Samadhi and previous works.

According to Dahlheimer, Netscape approached lead singer Kowalczyk and asked him if he would put up a site that contained the feel of the band’s current album and catered to Live’s fans and their interest in their world tour. So, after the site called Hole In The Universe was launched, Ed continually updated the site from the road. He wrote briefly about specific Live performances, and included pictures. What more could a fan ask for? Well, at the Hole In The Universe site, fans can also find a few VRML-rendered meditation and art gallery rooms. On the official Live site, there's everything from downloadable audio and video clips, tour and album info, and a vast collection of magazine articles. Even though the band intended to keep up their official site on the same schedule as Hole In The Universe, Dahlheimer said "it just got to be so much information for one site, that when you logged on, you would just get lost." Touring and maintaining have also created a few complications to the website process, but Dahlheimer added that "Ed’s [Hole In The Universe] kind of offsets it [the official site]."

Live also sees the Internet as a great means of "contacting a buttload of people. It is one of the most immediate ways for us to inform our fans. I guess we have just been lucky a guy named Jimmy Lange has been putting [the official site] up for years. We have just started to do a lot of new things like digital video clips." Dahlheimer and Gracey didn’t seem too impressed with the current download time on video clips, but they see a bright future for Internet and computer technology. "[In a few years video will be] streaming, right into your house."

Although long, the Samadhi is their first "proper tour." After kicking off a U.S. "theater" tour last February/ March, Live left the country and only recently came back to finish things up. "This is the first time that we’ve gotten reaction to this batch of songs from Samadhi. It’s really cool, man. Listening to the record and knowing the songs, you wouldn’t think that reactions would be at the same level or the same vibe as our earlier records because it is a little more toned-down. It worked out really well." After touring with Luscious Jackson, the band is also really pleased to have played with really cool bands. "They’re a good bunch of girls and one fellow," Dahlheimer began. "It was nice having nice people out with you, people you can just hang out with and talk to."

In light of recent events involving the tragic death of Princess Diana, it seems timely that on Secret Samadhi the song "Freak" deals with what Dahlheimer calls "trash TV and tabloids." Just then, Gracey chimed in and affirmed that Jenny Jones was playing on the dressing room TV. "It’s actually just human nature. I understand both sides of it. I understand that there is a want and desire and curiosity to see those things. However, I also understand that it becomes a detrimental thing. I’m kind of split down the middle." Being in a band as big as Live also has its parallels to this growing issue of the legitimacy of trash journalism. Dahlheimer explained their stance best by stating "I think as an artist or celebrity that you need to decide early on in the game where you’re going to stand. I think that song is based around that and it pokes fun at what we do—how people take it seriously and then from the outside start to look in."