I doubt there are a ton of Tesla fans on this board, but looking back at some old posts, there are easily enough to have a bit of discussion.
IMO, they are one of the best bands to come out of the '80s. They are one of a handful of bands to be lumped into the "hair metal" genre that probably should not have been (and I'm not bashing "hair metal" by any means--just saying they didn't really fit that lable). I would say they are a straight-up hard rock band with well-written songs that often tended to cover some fairly deep topics.
I discovered this band when their debut album, Mechanical Resonance, came out. I saw the video for Modern Day Cowboy on MTV and thought the song was great. A short time later, I saw them open for Def Leppard on Lep's Hysteria tour. And while the Tesla guys were new to the big stage, they held their own and put on a great show that piqued my interest enough to make me go out and buy the album.
I consider The Great Radio Controversy to be one of the best hard rock albums ever. Just a great album from start to finish. And I love that it was longer than the typical album back then and that they didn't cut songs just to make it shorter. Even the deep cuts from that album are pretty good. And the accoustic recordings from their one-off club shows from that tour that spawed Five Man Acoustical Jam basically created MTV Unplugged.
Psychotic Supper is less consistent to me, but still had some great tracks. But I lost interest after that. Despite that, I was bummed when the band went on hiatus and appeared done for.
I was surprised and thrilled when they released their live album, Replugged Live, in 2001. It reall captured the great live energy this band has, and it was great to hear them playing again. 2004's Into The Now was a HUGE surprise. A lot of '80s bands had tried modernizing their sound in the early 2000s, only to fall flat and fail. To me, this album was a resounding success. It sounded modern, but somehow still retained the classic Tesla sound at the same time and did not at all sound like a "sell-out" or a failed attempt to make an older band sound more current. To me, there are three standout albums from the early 2000's that successfully achieved this: Into The Now, Scorpions' Humanity: Hour I, and Dave Meniketti's self-titled solo album. Those, to me, are easily the top-3 hard rock albums of that decade.
I think the band kind of lost a step after that. The Real to Reel disks were really cool "live" studio recordings of some older classic songs that influenced the band and were performed really, really well. But Forever More, to me, was just so-so. And having seen the band live a couple of times, sad to say, but JK's range is really diminished. As high as he sings, and in the style he sings, that is hardly surprising. But sad nonetheless. Still, I really like these guys and feel they are one of the best bands to come out of the '80s. Having grown up in the Bay Area and having lived in the Sacramento area for almost a decade now, it's odd that I have never met them (well, aside from my plane ride with Frank Hannon a couple of years ago) and have never seen the Frank Hannon band. I suppose I will have to remedy that at some point.
Anyhow, discuss...
Topic: Tesla (band) appreciation thread (Read 4425 times)
