Live played to a full house of mixed undergraduates and non-Dartmouth affiliated concert-goers in Leede Arena last Saturday night.
Although the four piece band from Pennsylvania put on a good show, Saturday night's performance was their last engagement on their Secret Samhadi tour, and the band was obviously exhausted.
Still, Live looked very pleased to be playing at Dartmouth, and were warmly received by the crowd.
The band was preceded by Reef, a run-of-the mill English group emblematic of Britain's inability to produce traditional drums/bass/guitar bands of any merit. Although the crowd was surprisingly receptive to Reef, this band is heading the way of the Stone Roses.
Live mostly played tunes from their latest release, 'Secret Samhadi,' to the disappointment of most fans, who felt that older, better songs were not well represented. Avid Live fans also noted a distinct lack of energy on stage.
The band usually plays a ten minute version of "White Discussion" for their encore, but opted to keep the tune to its normal four minute length on Saturday. In addition, Live played a protracted set.
The vast majority of the crowd did not seems to mind, and at least three bodies were aloft crowd surfing at any given moment. Pauses between each song were filled in by choruses of cheers.
The band played most of the highlights from "Throwing Copper," their 1994 album. Lead singer Edward Kowalczyk's face constantly twisted as if in pain, and bass player Patrick Dalheimer's hair was dyed bright pink and done into pig tails.
A fairly complicated light show backed up the band. Large globes revolved on a massive white screen behind the stage, and strobe lights highlighted breaks between songs, as well climaxes and decrescendos.
Live looked close to complete exhaustion during their encore performance, but gave "Lightning Crashes," their last song of the tour, a worthy performance. Indeed, seeing the band pouring their last reserves of energy into the song was a special experience, and almost better than seeing them in a more energetic state.
