Tesla/ Live In Thunder Bay Ontario(Oct 22 2005)

TESLA IN THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO

• Tour: 2005 Five Man Acoustical Jam
• Date: Oct. 22
• Time: 9:30pm
• Venue: Warp 9
• City: Thunder Bay

That above friends is proof of purchase that the Mechanical Resonance Cowboys known as Tesla rolled into Tbay playing a full on (kinda) Unplugged Set.

Fellow Blogger J asked for this review…so here we go!

So when Tickets went on sale Tbone pounced on Tickets quick as this show was gonna be sold out and by golly it did. Kinda funny and cool in the same breath that it took 15 years after the original 5 Man Acoustical Jam to reach these parts but then again up to this point Tesla never really played Canada that much. Sure me and Tbone caught em opening for Motley Crue back in 1990 in Winnipeg but for them to come here was a good score.  Tesla played this  dump called Warp 9 which is long gone in which originally was a movie theatre(Odeon Court). Little known fact that this was the building I had seen Star Wars back in 1977 with my Dad! Movie Trivia time Mikey Ladano!

So the Tesla dudes that being guitarists Tommy Skeoch/Frank Hannon,vocalist Jeff Keith,bassist Brian Wheat and drummer Troy Lucketta  stepped up to the stage and  the crowd went nut’s and the boys launched into Cumin Atcha Live and I tell ya it was like it was off the record. Keith’s vocals 15 years after the original release were clear and crisp and the dude did not lose an octave in that throat of his.

Once the opening tune was finished it was onto the current album and title of said record and that would be the tune Into The Now. Tesla was firing on all cylinders and this continued throughout the show as all of Tesla’s catalogue was played. Edison’s Medicine/Gettin Better/Paradise and one of the coolest ever swampy acoustic like opening riff’s and that would be Heaven’s Trail. Not to be outdone Heaven’s Trail was followed by Hang Tough.

A real cool part of the show was when Keith announced to the crowd that they were gonna jam around in which they did and when Bassist Brian Wheat hoped on the keyboards Guitarist Frank Hannon took over on lead vocals and sang The Beatles Get Back.

One of my personal fav’s from the Acoustical Jam album was Tommy’s Down Home in which Skeoch takes the lead vocal over for a quick hilarious acoustic rip of a track. The Lyrics are funny and Tommy man he ain’t no lead singer but man he can make a tune fun! I will say that Tommy is the real deal of Rock N Roll and Tesla has missed his edge since he left over the fact I do believe was he could never handle the Bass Player running the business part of the band. Too bad …Anyways below is a clip of Tesla unplugged from 2005. Since there was no decent Tbay footage(there is but the audio is brutal) Caught In A Dream  I posted…Check it out!

 

 The boy’s took a breather and returned for the encore but wait they put down the acoustics and returned with the electric guitars and cranked out a bad ass version of War Pigs that was played with perfection! So cool and So loud as our ear lobes had gotten accustomed to the twang of the acoustic guitars. From there Tesla brought out some local fella who jammed the huge hit Signs with the band and the whole place was rocking in a huge sing along with Keith.

Tesla ended the night with Little Suzi  and bid adieu to TBay!

Loved how the band stuck to the whole Acoustic Jam vibe and ramped up electric on War Pigs only to go back to the acoustic’s to close out the show..

This was a great show and not to many of its kind make it here especially a band from California. But even though it wasn’t until 2005 that the Tesla Tour Bus made it here it was well worth the wait.

By the way if your interested …I did review Tesla on there 1992 Psychotic Supper Tour that is around somewhere on this site…..