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LIVE: Top 5 Gigs Of All Time

• 20th Oct 2014

We have to be honest, we’re a little bit embarrassed to admit that before this feature we’d never actually heard of LIVE before. We’re not quite sure how, as it transpires that the US rockers from York, PA have sold over 22 million albums worldwide. They’re set to release their new album ‘The Turn’ on 27th October which also marks the 20th anniversary of their 8 million selling record ‘Throwing Copper’ so we caught up with drummer Chad Gracey to ask him about his top five LIVE gigs (see what we did?) of all time:

1) The Talent Show
The first show PD [Patrick Dahlheimer – bass], CT [Chad Taylor – guitar & Vocals] and I played together was our middle school talent show in 1985. We won and bought pizza that night! That started it all.

2) The Chameleon
Our first sold out show was at the Chameleon in Lancaster, PA. If you were a local band and sold out the Chameleon in the later 80’s/early 90’s you were well on your way up.

3) CBGB’s
Any one of the many many shows we did at CBGB’s has to go here. We got signed out of this legendary venue. Our very first show was on a Sunday in 1989 and we didn’t know it at the time but it was Sunday punk rock matinee. We pulled up in front of the place in our van from York, PA and were scared to death that all the punk rockers standing out front were going to be our audience. It turned out we played to 10 bored New Yorkers. Thanks Hilly!!

4) The 120 Minutes Tour
Any of the shows we played on the 120 minutes tour in 1992 with BAD, PIL and Blind Melon. A baptism by fire is what you call this. We were in our very first bus, on our very first tour playing with Mick Jones (Clash, BAD), Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols, PIL) and Blind Melon. Talk about having to step it up to fit in on this tour. We rose to the occasion every night!

5) Hollywood Rock Festival, Rio De Janeiro Brazil
We went on right before a band called Sepultura. Brazils biggest heavy (HEAVY) metal band. The audience was not too impressed with us. They were hurling liter water bottle filled with urine onto the stage. I took one in the gut but kept going. We were saved because our song Pain Lies on the Riverside was in a huge ad so when we played the song the crowd was into it.

NOVEMBER TOUR DATES
5.11 / Koko, London / Tickets