Review: Rock band Live thunders through decades of discography at Rivers Casino

The past month has given the Pittsburgh area a chance to rock out with a whole buffet of 1990s bands. Lucky us.

The latest entry in this summer of late-20th-century rock was Live, a band from York, Pa., with a handful of enigmatic alternative radio hits, many from their 1994 album “Throwing Copper.” Unfortunately, the past decade has brought plenty of tumult to the band. After several exits, re-entries and lawsuits from different founding members, the band’s current last man standing is guitarist, songwriter and lead singer Ed Kowalczyk.

On the plus side, the current lineup backing Kowalczyk can play Live’s discography with plenty of vigor, as they demonstrated on Friday night at the Rivers Casino Event Center on the North Shore.

As Kowalczyk promised several songs into the show, they tossed the whole audience into a “time machine,” leading us through more than three decades of discography. That journey began with the opening song, “Pain Lies on the Riverside.” Fittingly, it was the first track from Live’s 1991 album “Mental Jewelry.”

They didn’t hesitate to bring on the sing-along songs. “Selling the Drama” was up next, a tune with calm verses that explode into a raging chorus. Kowalczyk’s bellow and a ringing guitar solo really did, well, sell the drama.

Keeping the audience cheering, they moved into another hit from “Throwing Copper.” “All Over You” showed off the other side to Kowalczyk’s unique voice; he can bring bombast, but there’s also a passionate vulnerability in the quavering way he sings certain songs.

After focusing on the music, the singer’s first words to the audience came midway through the fourth song, “Iris.” “How are y’all feeling?”

As “Iris” wound down, he let out a joyful whoop. “Good to see you guys. Everybody beveraged?” he asked.

Taking that time machine nearly to the present, Live kicked into “Lady Bhang (She Got Me Rollin’),” a funkier number from just last year. The singer did some groovy little spin dance moves as the other members of the band jammed.

Their 1999 hit “The Dolphin’s Cry” got the crowd revved up again for straight-up classic post-grunge rock. The whole band went wild with a splashy ending, and Kowalczyk waved his arms like he was casually conducting along with them.

They followed that with a brand-new unreleased song, “Leave the Radio On,” a more spare, nostalgic offering backstopped by a drumbeat and sentimental guitar.

The last six songs of the set all charted to varying degrees on the Billboard Alternative Rock chart. The whole crowd got to their feet for “Lakini’s Juice,” which chugged its way along to a crescendo amid fog and crimson stage lights. After the political anger banger “White, Discussion,” the band took a brief pre-encore intermission.

The three-song encore started with “Turn My Head,” with a surprisingly pretty start and an arena-rock-style second verse. Then came the two biggest heavy-hitters.

“I Alone” was not Live’s highest charting song, but it carries on of the strongest legacies. It sits at No. 62 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the 1990s list and still gets regular airplay on alt rock stations, including The X. The tune was screamed by the whole crowd in a moment of pure concert catharsis.

Bringing it home, “Lightning Crashes” started off soft (like many of their songs), but it built and gathered into an epic finale. And it got another loud sing-along from the crowd. Not surprising; it peaked at No. 1 on both the Billboard Alternative Airplay and Mainstream Rock charts (and was No. 473 on this year’s WDVE Memorial Day 500).

“I like to do this every night, send this last song out to every one of you as a prayer, a meditation, a fortune cookie, whatever you believe in or don’t. … I just want y’all to have that good health, prosperity and all the good things that come with it,” Kowalczyk said before launching into that final song.

After a rough few years for the outfit, this stacked group of players seems to be having a great time and pleasing crowds playing together live, as Live.