TESLA, the iconic hard rock band from Sacramento, California, has announced new dates for its spring/summer “Let’s Get Real!” tour.
“We are so excited about getting back to performing ‘real’ live concerts again,” states TESLA guitarist Frank Hannon. “There’s nothing like the energy of being in the same spontaneous moment with an audience of people. TESLA has always taken pride in being a high-energy live band, relying on performances without any backing tracks or pre-recorded help.”
May 05 – Del Lago Resort & Casino – Waterloo, NY
May 07 – Penn’s Peak – Jim Thorpe, PA
May 08 – M3 Rock Festival / Merriweather Post Pavilion -Columbia, MD
May 10 – Aura – Portland, ME
May 12 – Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom – Hampton Beach, NH
May 13 – Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom – Hampton NH
Jun. 11 – Thunder Valley Casino Resort – Lincoln, CA
Jun. 17 – Q Casino (Back Waters Stage) – Dubuque, IA
Jun. 18 – The Pageant – St. Louis, MO
Jun. 21 – The Louisville Palace – Louisville, KY
Jun. 23 – Lakes Jam – Brainerd, MN
Jun. 24 – Treasure Island Resort & Casino – Island Event Center – Welch, MN
Jun. 26 – Des Plaines Theatre – Des Plaines, IL
Jun. 29 – Hard Rock Live (Tulsa) – Catoosa, OK
Jul. 01 – Harrah’s Stir Cove – Council Bluffs, IA
Jul. 02 – -Ho-Chunk Gaming Wisconsin Dells – Baraboo, WI
Jul. 04 – National Cherry Festival – Traverse City, MI
Jul. 09 – Matanuska Brewing Company – Eagle River, AK
Jul. 12 – Red River Valley Fair – W Fargo, ND
Jul. 22 – Yakama Legends Casino – Toppenish, WA
Jul. 23 – Little Creek Casino Resort – Shelton, WA
Jul. 31 – Indian Ranch – Webster, MA
Aug. 02 – Cape Cod Melody Tent – Hyannis, MA
Aug. 03 – Bold Point Pavillion – East Providence, RI
Aug. 05 – Hard Rock Casino – Gary, IN
Aug. 06 – Monroe County Fair – Monroe, MI
Aug. 08 – Full Throttle Saloon – Sturgis, SD
Aug. 20 – Shoeshone-Bannock Casino Hotel – Fort Hall, ID
Aug. 21 – Northern Quest Resort & Casino – Airway Heights, WA
Aug. 26 – MGM Northfield Park – Northfield, OH
Sep. 09 – House Of Blues – Dallas, TX
Sep. 10 – House Of Blues – Houston, TX
Sep. 12 – Wagner Noel PAC – Midland, TX
Sep. 13 – Lubbock Memorial Civic Center – Lubbock, TX
Sep. 15 – The Aztec Theatre – San Antonio, TX
Sep. 18 – House Of Blues – New Orleans
Tickets for all dates can be found here.
Last month, TESLA released the official lyric video for their latest single, “Cold Blue Steel”. The clip, directed by Brandon Gullion and produced by Hannon, is raw and high electric energy that takes fans back to the roots of TESLA.
Hannon stated: “‘Cold Blue Steel’ is influenced by current events of the world, just like our debut single ‘Modern Day Cowboy’ (1986),and touches on the subject fairly and open-minded by asking ‘what’s to blame?’ when it comes to violence in the world. More importantly, the recording and production of the song and video are kept raw and real, just the way TESLA fans want to see and hear us. We are survivors and have been rocking for 35-plus years.”
The 2022 radio remix version of “Cold Blue Steel” is being offered as the version for the airwaves with the guitars and vocals being cranked up louder and with the raw energy being preserved. Frank explained: “Some folks were reluctant to play the track with its explicit lyrics in the verse, so I created a clean version for radio with a bleep. As a bandmember and being the producer, we approve of these changes and really love the remixed audio enhancement for radio play. This is TESLA in real honest form and independently producing our music for the first time as an official release.”
Originally released last August, “Cold Blue Steel” is the first TESLA song to ever be produced by the bandmembers themselves.
“Producing ourselves is allowing us to creatively record new music and keep it as raw and real as possible,” stated Hannon.
Last December, Hannon told Let’s Rock that the lyrics to “Cold Blue Steel” have been partially misinterpreted by some fans.
“We’ve been getting a lot of flak from people that only hear the couple of verses in the song, thinking it’s about gun control,” he said. “And in a way it is, but, really, it’s so much deeper than that, the lyrics. We try to definitely not take sides and be political but we wanna sing about a situation. Something like what we did with ‘Modern Day Cowboy’ in the ’80s; we sang about foreign lands and terrorist demands and ‘bang bang, shoot ’em up’ and how that attitude was still happening in the world at that time, being a gunfighter, cowboy situation, but we’re not pointing fingers. And that’s the same way with this song, but some people only hear parts of it and have been giving us some shit about it. But if you listen to the lyrics, it’s asking a question, ‘What’s to blame? Let’s get real.’ And the song is really about people that you give ’em an inch, they take a mile — whether it’s a politician, whether it’s a crook, whether it’s a police officer. And we support our police.”
He added: “There’s evil intentions in all parts of life, and that’s what the song is really about — just observing and asking the question, ‘What’s to blame?’ It’s not talking about ‘take away guns’ or any of that shit. But it started off just being a fun poke at Ronnie Van Zant. That last lyric in the song, ‘Just like Ronnie said, ‘Let’s dump ’em to the bottom of the sea,’ that’s where the song started for fun. And then we took it and tried to make it a little bit more serious.”
Asked if the arrival of “Cold Blue Steel” means that there is a new TESLA album in the works, Hannon replied: “Yeah, it’ll end up on an album, but we’re gonna just do one song at a time. Instead of trying to cram for a test… Making an album is almost like a test — you’ve got a deadline on it and there’s all this pressure and you’ve gotta try to finish it by a certain date. And then what you end up doing is cramming the songs. So we’re not gonna do that. We’re just gonna write a song when we feel it and have fun with it. And then when we have a group of ’em, we’ll put it out together as a collection on an album.”
Last September, TESLA drummer Troy Luccketta announced that he would “take a little time from the road” to spend with family and friends. He is being replaced at TESLA‘s gigs by Steve Brown, the younger brother of former DOKKEN drummer Mick Brown.
TESLA is:
Frank Hannon – guitar
Brian Wheat – bass
Jeff Keith – lead vocals
Dave Rude – guitar
Steve Brown – drums
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