1) All Over You
2) Selling The Drama
3) The River
4) Mystery
5) They Stood Up For Love
6) Run Away
7) Love Shines
8) Lightning Crashes
9) Sofia
10) Lakini's Juice
11) The Dolphin's Cry
12) I Alone
13) Heaven
14) Show

ENCORE
15) The Beauty Of Gray
16) Run To The Water
17) Shit Towne
18) White, Discussion
19) Dance With You

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It looks a lot like the Hartford show's setlist. Five new songs, all of which we've heard. I was happy to hear Shit Towne, The Beauty Of Gray and White, Discussion. The band seemed into it in general, but you could tell that the Chads and Pat really enjoyed the high energy, older songs much more than the new stuff. I was watching for that all night. The new tunes don't sound too bad in concert, but when you put them up against TDC, TBOG, RTTW and WD, there's no match.

It was a good show that was worth the $32 I paid at the door. I remember when you couldn't GET tickets at the door. The venue's capacity was 2160 and I bought my tix at the venue about 45 minutes before LIVE went on and I got seat #645. I'd say there were about 800-900 people there at most. Of course, this show wasn't too heavily promoted at radio, etc. It was about a 7/10 out of the LIVE shows I've seen.

The Worcester show was so much better than the Hartford show! Mostly because I just had to get out of work and walk two blocks to the venue, instead of driving an hour to Hartford. The crowd in Worcester was better also, there wasn't all the pushing and fighting. The show was pretty much the same, except they came on by 9:30 so the wait was much less. They played the same setlist, but they didn't play Turn My Head. It may have been because there is a curfew in Worcester (most of Mass I think) that they have to be done by 11:00. I got to meet a few people from here, which was very cool! Ed said they would be back! I can't wait!

"Live at The Palladium" by Scott McLennan

Live made its return to the concert stage throwing copper in the form of the one-two opening punch of "All Over You" and "Selling the Drama."

Those were just two of many songs plucked from Live's best-known album, 1994's 'Throwing Copper,' but the band dug deep into its catalog to sustain a crisp two-hour show Tuesday at The Palladium.

The hits-to-audience size ratio seemed out of whack, as roughly 600 people turned out for the band's return to action. But that did not deter Live from unfurling a confident performance, one laden with new songs from the forthcoming album "Songs from Black Mountain."

The Worcester stop was the last of a short tour Live embarked on before heading off to Europe for a spate of shows in preparation of the May 9 release of "Songs from Black Mountain." And singer Ed Kowalczyk promised a full year of shows once the record drops.

Formed in 1988 when Kowalczyk, guitarist Chad Taylor, bass player Patrick Dahlheimer and drummer Chad Gracey were still in middle school in their native York, PA, Live has gone through various permutations ranging from angry alt-rockers to friendly adult-contemporary popsters.

In concert, Live looks and sounds quite comfortable, absorbing all the different textures of its music and weaving them into a cohesive whole. The five new songs seemed like natural extensions of the band's earlier work (or maybe the old songs are undergoing a graceful aging). The Latin rhythms of the new "Sofia," for example, sounded like a close relative to the Eastern pulse of the older "Lakiniís Juice" that followed it.

Kowalczyk has never been a classic rock front man. Though he is a strong singer and engaging presence, he willingly hangs himself out in front of the audience like a romantic, spiritual seeker who is at times wounded, at times defiant and always stuck in a to-and-fro between asking questions and positing answers. He tosses out big themes in songs but rarely seems like the sort of larger-than-life characters we are used to seeing in rock bands. This is a guy singing from the pews rather than the pulpit.

And he wasn't necessarily that guy during the "Throwing Copper" days. Back then his confidence almost got the better of him. Today when he sings "I Alone," the performance is one of torment and far more compelling than when it sounded like Kowalczyk was suffering a messianic complex.

Just as the singer has matured, the rest of Live has grown too. The band's vocal harmonies are richer and its playing honed to razor sharpness. That went a long way in terms of making memorable tunes - "They Stood Up for Love," "Run Away," "Dolphins Cry," "The Beauty of Gray" - even better concert pieces.

Live created a very uplifting show leading into its encores, which turned surprisingly political with a return to "Throwing Copper" that included the conservative-bashing "(Expletive) Towne" and "White, Discussion."

But after so many songs about seeking beauty, love and truth, Live had to end on a positive note, and did so with the tender "Dance With You."

The Rhode Island band Zox opened for Live. While sharing a positive vibe with the headliners, Zox's music lacked the tension and fire necessary to make its competent tune craft memorable.