Soul Band Live Tackles A More Spiritual Side With Latest Album

Chad Taylor, guitarist for the band Live, is thrilled to be returning to The Gorge.

“It’s a really spiritual place,” he says from a cellular phone on his tour bus. “So, I think it kind of goes hand in hand with Live’s music.”

A four-man band whose sound is based on guitar spitfire and the emotive vocal yo-yos of their lead singer, Live has a penchant for waxing theological.

While their platinum album “Throwing Copper” hinted at their spiritual leanings with songs such as “Selling the Drama” and “Lightning Crashes,” a look at Live’s latest effort - “Secret Samadhi” - leaves no doubt they’re headed down a soul-pondering path.

The title itself is a Hindu reference to spiritual realization. The songs “Graze” and “Ghost” make reference to the transient nature of life as well as what comes after it.

“I think music and spirituality have always gone hand in hand - back especially into the early blues,” Taylor says. “I think we’re just continuing in that tradition.”

With Taylor on guitar, Edward Kowalczyk on vocals, Chad Gracey on drums and Patrick Dahlheimer on bass, Live first formed as a “weekend project for boredom” back when the boys were mere eighth-graders growing up in York, Pa.

Now, a decade later, they remain friends first and a band second, Taylor says.

“I think most bands are auditioned - it doesn’t go any deeper than the fact that guys want to be in a band that is successful,” Taylor says. “We’re a band that’s founded on a very open passionate relationship. This is the thing that makes Live completely unique from any other band in the world.”

Although they avow no specific religious doctrine, Kowalczyk has spent much time delving into Eastern philosophy and currently studies under a guru named Adi Da Samraj.

But for Taylor, it is Live itself that provides him with devout experience.

“I really get into what I’m doing in a more spiritual sense after the first 75 or 100 shows (on a tour),” he says. “All the physical movements and actions become so second nature. You don’t have to really think about playing your instrument, and it becomes much more of a spiritual process for me.”

Not surprisingly, Live has been batted around by some for what might be considered New Age hoo-ha.

But Taylor casually dismisses such criticisms: “I think when you express yourself that pure and that simple, I think it scares a lot of people.”

He also points out that this is a group of guys who, when they last visited The Gorge, spent the day on Jet Skis ripping up the river below the amphitheater.

“We’re four pretty normal humble guys,” Taylor says. “We’ve never sat in the bus with monks’ robes on and chanted. We’re definitely out here having a good time.

“And at the end of the day, no matter what we do as musicians or as artists, we’re still a rock and roll band.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT Live performs at The Gorge Saturday with Luscious Jackson and Manbreak opening the show at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $26.25, available through Ticketmaster. For locations, call (509) 928-4700. Or to order by phone, call (206) 628-0888.