"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."