Still Acoustically Sound; Tesla Rocks the Ogden

Jenn Cohen | December 1, 2011 | 1 Comment

by Sal Christ

Photos by Derrick Hornyan

Twenty years after the initial release of Five Man Acoustic Jam, the guys of Tesla still bring a crowd to their feet. In celebration of what many consider to be a culturally defining moment in music, the band kicked off the release of their newest album, Twisted Wires, a collection of some of their best work that’s been stripped down to nothing more than acoustic bare bones.

Playing to a packed house at the Ogden Theater on Nov. 2, not a single person failed to sing along or bob their head as the quintet took to the stage wearing Denver sports jerseys for both the Colorado Avalanche and the Denver Broncos. Opening up with “Comin’ Atcha,” lead singer Jeff Keith found it impossible to sit still – the man still possesses that signature vocal range and energy levels to make anyone blush. The first half of the show was devoted to some of the band’s older work and while Tommy Skeoch is no longer part of Tesla, Dave Rude has most certainly filled his shoes in a way that perhaps no else could. In an interview a couple of weeks prior to the Denver show, Brian Wheat – Tesla’s bass guitarist – talked about the upcoming tour, Twisted Wires, and confirmed that work on a new studio album has begun.

SC: Are you guys looking forward to the tour? I mean, it’s been a little while.

Brian Wheat: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I mean, we haven’t played acoustic in a long time, so it’ll be fun.

SC: Yeah. Is there any reason why you guys decided to do that now? I know it’s the 20th anniversary of Five Man Acoustic Jam.

BW: That’s a big reason and plus our new record is very acoustic-based, so they both kind of tied themselves together to make an opportunity to go out and tour.

SC: That’s great. Janie had sent me a copy of Twisted Wires and it’s pretty good. The couple of new songs that you have on there – how did those come about?

BW: One was an old song that was from the first album we ever recorded called, ‘Better Off Without You,’ and we just got around to doing it. You know, it was just lying around in the vault. Then the other one is a brand new song and Frank and Tim and Jeff wrote an instrument track and that’s kind of what Jeff wrote to and it wound up being ‘Second Street.’

SC: That’s great. How long did it take you guys to record all of the songs and just work on the album, in general?

BW: Some of the stuff was early stuff in the vault that were the last recordings of Tommy Skeoch with Tesla, which half the record was recorded in 2005 right before he left.

SC: Oh, wow.

BW: At that point we were just recording our songs acoustically because we only had a live acoustic version of some of these songs recorded, so you know we went in and recorded a bunch of our songs acoustic in the studio, so that was half the record. The other half of the record were these old songs we revamped and then some were different recordings of our other songs that were more stripped down. The whole thing was a couple month project.

SC: Oh, that’s not bad.

BW: But half the album is from 2005, so it’s the last recordings of the five original guys in Tesla.

SC: Okay. Well, I’m sure that that’ll be a fan pleaser.

BW: That’s kind of why we did it. I mean, there’s been talk of this box set that we have on hold and really it’s because of this problem between us and Universal as to who owns it, who can put it out on this label, we want to put it out on ours, who can do a better job promoting it, so that stuff originally was going to be in the box set. There’s so much stuff in the box set that we decided to put it out as its own entity.

SC: Well, rock on. I guess, in terms of the future with Tesla, are you guys working on any new material?

BW: Yes, we are writing a brand new studio record right now. The process is starting and the band is getting together a lot more starting next month and hopefully we’ll have a new record out starting the summer of next year.

SC: Oh, great.

BW: Yeah, and you know, a world tour to follow at that point.

SC: So right now, it’s kind of a … almost a teaser for the fans.

BW: Well, it’s a teaser celebrating the 20-year anniversary of Five Man Acoustic Jam. Our last record was in 2008 and it’s 2011, so we like to give the fans something every couple years. We have a pretty hardcore fan base, so give them something to tide them over for next couple of years. Absolutely.

SC: Definitely. With the exception of the hiatus you took – the first breakup and then getting back together – you guys have pretty much been together almost 30 years.

BW: Yeah, pretty much.

SC: I mean, is that something you thought you’d being doing for that long?

BW: I don’t know. Back then, I never thought of that. If you asked me that back then, I couldn’t get past the fact that we had a record in the stores, so you know. As I sit back now, in hindsight, it’s a pretty amazing accomplishment. Me, Frank, Jeff, and Troy have been together since 1984. Me and Frank have been together since 1980.

SC: Wow.

BW: So, me and Frank have been playing together for thirty years. With Jeff since ’83, so it’s a long time, isn’t it?

SC: Yeah, but hopefully it’s been worth it.

BW: I think it has. I don’t think anyone would question that. I mean, everyone respects each other and enjoys playing together. We don’t hang out like we used to, but we’re in our 40s and 50s and we’ve got families, kids, and lives. We manage, when we get together, to play good music and we still enjoy playing music together. Fans still come out to see us play, a good amount of people still buy our records, so as long as that continues we’ll continue to make music and play together.

Note: Tesla, indeed, still makes and plays well together. The Denver show also saw performances of “Second Street,” as well as covers of Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You” and “I Love You” by Climax Blues Band. Still, no Tesla concert would have been complete without the band’s cover of “Signs” by Five Man Electrical Band during the three-song encore. Keith was booed momentarily while strutting back on stage in none other than a Raiders jacket – not exactly a Denver-friendly team. Still, the fans stuck around for pictures and autographs in the lobby post-show despite the freezing temperatures awaiting them outside – proof that Tesla’s still going strong.