Tesla Live at First Avenue in

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REVIEW BY: Mr. X

It's been awhile since I've been able to contribute to the best rock-n-roll forum in the world. A lot of great bands have come through the twin-cities the past few months, but none of them with the set list of the greatest hard rock acoustical jam band: Tesla.

First off, the venue was First Avenue… if the management had a clue, they would figure out that every hard-rock "old school" band sells out this place, but alternative is still in style here so rock and roll bands are booked in our larger, more friendly, suburban suburbs where the capacity maxes out at 50+ (not including the mullets). I was lucky this time and got to see a great show in beautiful downtown Minneapolis.

Jumping into the set at their 7:30 start time (“Dancateria” starts at 9:00 so everyone has to leave), they cranked out their latest single, not sure what it was, but it has some local play on 93X here in MN and KNAC.COM every once in a while. It's a great song that might have some life to it.

Maybe it was me, maybe it was the horrible set list, but the rest of the night was like a Miller Lite. Don't get me wrong, I love Tesla, have their entire catalog, but this show was boring. I saw them in ’92 on their first headlining tour, with STP and Megadeth opening for them, you know what -- they sucked then as well. Not that they aren't great musicians, but they have zero stage presence. They played several of the new songs, which sounded great, and some of their old stuff, but not the really good old stuff. The combination of a bunch of stiff musicians and just scratching the surface of an extensive library was enough for me.

I hate to say it but I couldn't wait to hit the road. I apologize to all the fans, but this concert was bad. The band sounded great but so does my cassette player -- I was hoping more from a live concert. This was one of the first dates of the tour; hopefully they'll improve.