Live: Whatever happened to 90's alternative rockers behind the album 'Throwing Copper' and the hit singles 'Lightning Crashes' & 'I Alone'

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0:00 - Introduction/Early Days
4:00 - Getting signed/Mental Jewelry
6:14 - Throwing Copper Era
11:30 - Secret Samadhi
13:10 - Distance to Here/Labe Issues
14:43 - Kowalczyk leaves
15:40 - Live Reunion

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#live #throwingcopper #edkowalczyk

I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.

Made up of singer and guitarist Ed Kowalczy, guitarist Chad taylor, bassist Patrick Dahlheimmer and drummer Chad Gracey. The roots of the band dated back to 1984 in York Pennsylvania, where all four members grew up and met. Their musical beginnings started in the 8th grade when Gracey, Taylor and Dahlheimer played in an instrumental band called First Aid. Ed Kowalcyzk was the last member to join after being encouraged by a junior high music teacher to form a band for an eight grade talent show. Kowalcyk ko-WALL-chick originally wanted to join the band as just a guitarist, but they already had someone who played lead. The band knew he could sing and talked him into becoming the singer and rhythm guitar player. His audition would consist of him belting out a Duran Duran tune. Taking the stage name Public Affection they developed into a competent live cover band those early shows saw band play sets heavily consisting of songs by Psychadelic Furs, Violent Femmes, REM, U2, & Bryan Adams. Kowalcysk would tell the LA Times “We all learned a lot from a book about U2,”, referring to the book “Unforgettable Fire” by
Taylor would add “We related (to U2) so much,. “Reading the biography was in many ways like reading a story about ourselves, except with different names.” By 1987 the band started writing their own material and Rockstar fantasies weren’t far from the members minds with Chad Taylor telling the LA Times Ed and I would sit in the back of our classrooms,“and instead of working on, like, calculus, we’d think about the kind of tour bus we’d have.”

While school may have afforded the members a place to daydream it was also instrumental to their success. The members would credit several music teachers with helping them learn song arrangements, orchestration and music theory that they would rely on to craft their songs.
Another piece of the puzzle was their hometown of York, Pennsylvania. A working class town where harley davidson and caterpiller factories employed a lot of the town’s faithful, it served as an inspiration for their music., the members parents thought a career in rock n’ roll seemed unattainable. One of the first gigs the band had was at the inaugural dance at the temple beth israel in York. The band followed it up with another gig at the temple selling tickets at $4 a piece. Before they knew it 400 people paid the ticket price to see the band. Some people had to be turned away at the door. That’s when they knew when they were onto something. The band was soon booking gigs at local venues and landed them a manager in David Sestak who initially refused calls to work with the band. It wasn’t until Taylor’s father phone Sestak and according to Spin Magazine stated’ either you’re going to listen to the band or you’re going make the biggest mistake of your life.” Sestak liked what he heard, but he told the band they needed an album so they could go to record labels and try to get a contract.
The band was business savvy. They raised $5000 in cash from family and friends who bought shares in their debut record at $100 a piece. They were essentially junk bonds. That seed money would help the band release their record 1988’s “The Death of a Dictionary. Under the monicker Public Affection. It would be released on their own label and sold at shows and local record shops. It’s estimated they put out about 2000 copies of their debut record. The song “Good Pain” would show up on their follow up release, their first album under their new monicker Live. In 1989, during their senior year the band was at a crossroads do they continue to pursue music or go to college. The band would given themselves two years to make a career in music.
Their first release according to the washington post would peek interest of a local journalist who would predicted the band w