’40 years later and we’re nonetheless having enjoyable,’ says Tesla frontman forward of Bethlehem live performance | Leisure News

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Tesla will not be exhibiting any indicators of slowing down.

Singer Jeff Keith continues to be having fun with the experience.

“It’s 40 years later and we’re still having fun, people are still coming out,” he tells 69 News. “It’s a rockin’ show and we’re playing all the Tesla classics, some of the new ones and, sometimes, we pull a rabbit out of a hat and play one we haven’t played for a while.”

Tesla is about to carry out January twenty third on the Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem. The band usually are not strangers to that venue — or the Lehigh Valley. Tesla headlined the occasion middle in 2014. In 2015, they opened for Def Leppard and Styx on the Great Allentown Fair. Tesla returned to the Queen City in 2016, the place they rocked the PPL Center with Def Leppard and REO Speedwagon. The group additionally carried out a number of instances on the former Crocodile Rock Cafe in Allentown within the early 2000s and Stabler Arena in Bethlehem a decade earlier. 

The generational shift in Tesla’s fan base will not be misplaced on Keith.

“Kids are discovering the band on all these platforms and they’re coming out and showing up,” Keith says. “It’s great to see younger people in the audience that are not from back in our day. We got our fan base that’s been there from the start, but it’s always awesome to see young people in the crowd and sometimes I read their lips to remember lyrics and stuff because they know them better than I do.”

Keith also says the band has learned to put their health first. 

“We’ve been doing clean and sober since 2004. And so I found out by doing that, the most intoxicating thing is performing live on stage,” he says. “We just try to take care of ourselves; we’re getting a little bit older, we get knocked down, we don’t get up quite as fast as we used to. But you know what, you got to kind of find your way through the forest and not get knocked down.”

Fan-favorites like “Modern Day Cowboy,” “Hang Tough,” “Love Song” and Tesla’s rendition of PhD’s “Little Suzi” are virtually assured to make it right into a typical Tesla set record. But the group will not be content material with simply trotting out the hits. Keith says they’re at all times engaged on new concepts and typically these concepts change into a part of the present. 

“We love to still write music instead of just playing what they call ‘your catalog.’ We like to still create music,” Keith says. “If we come up with something new, we’ll throw it into the set and see how people are biting on it.”

The band has no shortage of new material to pull from. Tesla has released seven albums and a handful of singles since reuniting in 2000. Their EP, “All About Love,” dropped in 2024. It contains four versions of the title track, a live rendition of “Walk Away,” and the instrumental tune “From the Heart.”

“(Guitarist) Frank (Hannon) said why don’t you come over and we’ll hang out, no pressure, and next thing you know, the songs started evolving,” Keith says of the EP. “I love to write about love; it’s something we can never have enough of and the (music) started growing into what it came out to be.”

Naturally, a conversation about music turned to “Signs.” The song — a cover of Five Man Electrical Band’s 1971 hit of the same name — was released as a single from Tesla’s 1990 live album “Five Man Acoustical Jam” and remains a staple of rock radio. Keith says the band was surprised by its success.

“We were out with Motley Crue and had a couple of nights out on the road and we found a club that let us play some bar songs and some covers, acoustically, and next thing you know, we ended up recording with a 24-track mobile truck, had the cameras, and had it on the shelf for months,” Keith recalls. “Me, (former guitarist) Tommy (Skeoch) and Frank went to a radio station and played ‘Signs’ live and all of a sudden they were going, ‘man, the phones are ringing off the hook’ and the guy from the record (company) said we got a whole night of this.”

“Five Man Acoustical Jam” would go on to become Tesla’s third platinum-seller. Their 1986 debut album, “Mechanical Resonance,” also went platinum. Tesla’s 1989 sophomore effort, “The Great Radio Controversy,” has been certified double-platinum.

“The part I love about recording something that’s live is, first of all, I forget it’s even being recorded, so I’m not even thinking about it, but that’s the fun and beauty of it,” Keith says. “But you gotta have the material. So, making a studio record, that’s what you’re basing off of and then go out and play it live. I love both. They’re two different animals and I love both animals. I love building songs, putting a record together and I love playing them live.”

Keith says a brand new album will occur in some unspecified time in the future, however proper now the band is wanting ahead to getting again on the street. 

“We’re brothers and we love making music and we love going out and playing it live and the people are still coming, people are still showing up,” Keith says. “The day you take the fun out of it, what’s the use?”

Tesla performs Jan. 23 at Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem. Tickets value $64.35. Show time is 8 p.m.