"FireHouse"/Double Platinum. "Hold Your
Fire"/1 Million Worldwide. 15 Gold or Platinum
records in 13 countries and over 6 million
records sold worldwide.
No question, FireHouse are industry heavy
hitters. And I mean now! Today! Still!
Welcome to the next new breed of heavy
metal's global reality. To celebrate what has
been a stellar six record career. Spitfire
welcomes the band aboard with a one-two
punch of soaring melodic hard rock, first this
live album and second, a spankin' new studio
spread hopefully in time to ring in 2001 in
champagne style.
"Bring 'Em Out "Live" is a perfect way to
commemorate FireHouse's reintroduction to
the American market. One forgets just how
many big, melodic hard rock hits this band
generated back in the heady days of hair
metal. In 1991 FireHouse won the American
Music Award for the "Best New Hardrock/Metal
Band."They beat out Alice In Chains and
Nirvana. And the band prides itself on how well
these songs stand up, and more importantly
how they've helped people get on in their lives,
specifically their love lives and even their
marriages.
The #5 smash ballad "Love Of A Lifetime",
which turned out to be the biggest wedding
song of 1991! C.J. Snare remembers fondly the
genesis of that track, "that was a big song for
of us, I'll never forget, I wrote that song on a
Fender Rhodes piano and I remember bringing
it to Bon Jovi and he said "put that song away,
it will ruin your career". I never found out what
he meant by that. But we were young, green,
and easily influenced, and we hid it away until
we had to pull it out as a possible ballad for the
label. It turned into our first gold single and
drove the sales of the first album up over
platinum and then double platinum and God, it
became this huge wedding song.
So it actually did the opposite. It gave us a
career (laughs). Even though first and foremost
we are a hard rock 'n' roll band, we feel that
this is the other end of what we can do within
the parameters of rock 'n' roll. It's really funny, I
have these big biker dudes come up to me with
tattoos all over them, and they look like pro
wrestlers or something, and they say, "you
know dude, "When I Look Into Your Eyes" is
my favorite song in the whole world". Or, "my
girl and I got married to "Love Of A Lifetime."
Guitarist Bill Leverty adds that, "people know
us for that song more than any other song".
Live, I think it's a lot heavier, a lot less
produced. You can really here the rawness of
the song; it just kind of stands up on its own.
It's a song about finding the right person.
"Bring 'Em Out Live" is also a reminder of just
how serious FireHouse took their chosen craft.
With producers like David Prater and Ron
Nevison meticulously constructing their studio
albums, the band has a lot to live up to once
they hit the stage. We definitely put work first
and we have a very professional attitude about
it. There was definitely some pressure with this
album because we could only record one
show. I mean, when you get over to Japan, the
first day you're all pumped up on a drama and
everything, but that jet lag will come up and
kick you in the ass. This was our second show
there. The first was Tokyo and this was Osaka,
in front of a crowd of about 1500. The label felt
that this would probably be a good place to
record because they could get the gear set up
properly with the trailer and the mobile unit. So
there was pressure. But the one thing we really
pride ourselves on is the consistency of the live
show.
And we have a lot of people, come up to us
and go, "you know, I've seen a lot of rock
bands, but every time I see you guys you
sound really close to the CD."And that's our
goal.The highlights of the set are many. Riff
rocker "Overnight Sensation" opens the show
on a slammin' note. Bill Leverty explains.
"That's a song from our first record that
everybody seems to like a lot. It's a positive
message song that says you can do anything
if you just follow your heart and go for it." C.J.
adds that "Overnight Sensation" represents
classic FireHouse. It has European overtones,
influences which we all cut our teeth on as we
were becoming musicians, always with a
strong emphasis on melody. We use the song
a lot to open the show. We've tried many other
songs and this one works best."
Elsewhere, you can hear the impact that the
band's lush commitment and relationship
songs have had on fans around the world. "I
Live My Life For You" is an unconditional love
song," says Bill. "It was the first single from
our third album and it sounds a lot heavier live.
We stopped during that song and you can hear
the audience screaming the words so loud.
That's really a highlight of this album.
I remember stopping and hearing everybody
singing and my skin just started to crawl. And
this is a Japanese audience, and they were
doing it word for word. "Here For You" is the
lone song where Bill puts down his cherished
Yamaha Pacifica and goes acoustic. "I use a
Yamaha CPX15, and it sounds really good live
and through a PA system cranked up. It
doesn't really feedback like a lot of these
acoustic electric guitars do. That's one of the
hardest parts about playing anything with
FireHouse acoustically, is that you have to
compete with the drummer, Michael Foster
who hits the drums harder than anybody I've
ever played with, He likes them coming
through the monitors real loud.
And our bass player also plays really loud.
Lyrically, "Here For You" is about how you'll
always be there for that person, that they never
have to worry about that. It's a commitment
song."Specifically, it's a testimony to family
love,"offers C.J. Bill and I collaborate on
everything. That's the first song I really tried to
write on guitar. You see, I'm a keyboard player
and a lot of the ideas I put down get
transcribed to guitar.
The same with "Don't Treat Me Bad" which
was a big hit for us in the United States. That
actually broke us and then it kind of went from
rock radio over to pop radio." Fitting then that
this melodic rocker closes the set. And also
fitting that the listener trails away with the
cogent impression of this band's grasp of vocal
harmonies.
It's no surprise that the record finishes strong
with an onslaught of the band's many hit
singles, some quite recent, quite graphically
demonstrating the ability of this band to remain
relevant, vital and creative. It all comes down to
tapping into the audience's love of uplifting,
hard-hitting music.
The above tracks are joined in the album's
second half by "Reach For The Sky", written
specifically about, and for, the band's live
following. "That's one of my favorites to perform
live," offers C.J. "It has a really good bluesy
shuffle feel and it gives me a good chance to
accent my range and exercise some of my
vocals chops at the end with a few little licks."
In addition there's "Acid Rain" an
environment-themed track that expertly bridges
the band's pop and rock feels, as well as
"Bringing Me Down". C.J. explaining that
people get into relationships - and hopefully
they don't stay in them forever - where one
party just debases and degrades the other no
matter what they do, and it just never seems to
be good enough. That was actually the single
for "Category 5." Which brings up a good point.
Given the scarcity on American shelves of
"Category 5", the band's last studio effort, this
is a good way to muscle up on a sampling of
that album's key tracks."I think we do have
heavy metal elements," reflects C.J. on the
band's contribution to metal.
"We were influenced by bands like AC/DC,
Judas Priest, Metallica, Scorpions, all kinds of
super heavy bands back then. Then you start
bringing in Aerosmith and Van Halen, some of
the American type rock bands, and I think we
are kind of a blending of those elements. I like
to think of us as Americana. We always put an
emphasis on hooks and memorable melodies,
plus a soulful quality, and we're glad when
come up to us and say "We love the way you
guys sound live, very close to the CD." We
take a lot of pride in that."
