It’s not very often that we here in sunny Southern California are graced with the amazing talents of Sacramento’s legendary blues based rockers Tesla, in fact I think they’ve only made it this way four or five times in the last decade. When word hit that they were doing a string of dates in the southland I made a point to do everything in my power to catch their performance or die trying. As fate would have it, this round found me picking up the show at the HOB in Anaheim. I figured this being the last of the dates this tour and outside of the L.A. scene there wouldn’t be quite the claustrophobic turn out as the other So Cal shows. Boy was I ever wrong! Turns out that this was the only completely sold out gig in the four nights they played. I couldn’t believe how jam packed it was and the crowd…well they were rude and pushy as hell and it took me damn near a half an hour to convince these people to let me through to the front of the stage so that I could shoot the band. Word is there were 1100 people in attendance more than half of which were drunk and the temperature was an easy 100 degrees solid throughout the night. Evidently there’s a shit load of Tesla fans in the Anaheim area. I know I was ecstatic to be in attendance myself and once the show began it made every ounce of discomfort all worth it.

Prior to the masters of the blues riff taking the stage I caught the tail end of the opening band called Cinder Road (thanks to the bumper to bumper traffic I was subjected to on my 2 hour drive, I arrived late). Never heard of these guys before but I must say they fit the bill perfectly and were a lot of fun and full of energy. They can best be described as having a definite old school arena rock flavor while tipping their hand to the now. I hope to hear more from these guys in the not too distant future.

All guns blazing, Tesla hit the stage with a crash of thunder and immediately the crowd went insane with appreciation of the down and dirty blues rock sounds. The band kicked things off with a couple of new tunes from their latest release. First up was the title track “Forever More” followed by the severely emotional rocker “I Wanna Live”. As the night progressed we played the new to old to new again game and as expected they catered to the crowds more nostalgic side but left enough room for a few surprises here and there. Although I’m sure there were some songs excluded that fans were hoping to hear, myself included, they only had a two hour window to dish out all the meat and potatoes that they could and let’s face it, they literally have enough hits to play three full sets and then some. Among the fan favs were “Modern Day Cowboy”, “Heaven’s Trail”, “The Way It Is”, “What You Give”, Signs”, “Little Suzie”, and “Love Song”. I was personally really happy that they included “Into the Now” and as the finale in their encore “Mama’s Fool” and of course “Edison’s Medicine”.

It’s hard to believe that these guys have been at this for more than 20 years. They sound just as incredibly potent as they always have. Vocalist Jeff Keith still has an amazing set of pipes for a guy who hit 50 this year, his raspy voice is perfectly suited for the band and while many of his peers struggle to hit the highs, Jeff is a well oiled machine in every respect; hell he sounds and moves better than the majority of up and coming snot nosed kids trying to leave their mark on the world today. Guitarist Frank Hannon is equally at home with his abilities and plays an acoustic guitar unlike anyone I’ve ever heard. His electric side is pretty impressive as well; virtually flawless and a truly heart felt injection of emotion and passion. The rest of the guys, bassist Brian Wheat, drummer Troy Luccketta and guitarist Dave Rude round out this tight fit unit with fervor that is unmarred in today’s industry making Tesla one of the greatest blues rock bands in all of history. I can’t wait until the next time they come my way. That may be too long though and I might just have to make a drive north to Sacramento come late January and catch these guys in their home town!

-Priest