The Backstory

My first 8084 concert was in 1990, in my role as a “Lost in the Midwest” columnist for the east coast-based hard rock magazine Tough Tracks magazine. It was an assignment that allowed me to continue churning out reviews while I was away from Boston, during a summer internship in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Vermont-based 8084 was one of the top touring bands on the hard rock club circuit; I covered their performances at the local stop on that circuit, Paolo’s.

Well, after achieving a bit of success during their genre’s heyday, 8084’s legend continued to grow, most recently with occasional concerts around Vermont, drawing huge crowds for special evenings of the band’s original, old-fashioned, guitar-driven melodic hard rock music, headlined by musicians who hadn’t lost a step since their younger days. Well, if they’ve lost a step, it doesn’t show up in their music, at least.

The band actually got its start years before my first 8084 concert, in 1982, with the current line-up of Randy Smith (lead vocals and acoustic guitar), Andre Maquera (guitar and vocals), Frank Barnes (bass and vocals), and Gary Spaulding (drums and percussion), plus the late Charlie Hawthorne.

Album Review of 8084: Live 4play

Live 4play is a classic live album, channeling all the energy of the band’s live performances. Yet, despite the live aesthetic, 8084 went to great lengths to ensure that the recording quality was exceptional, suitable to be interspersed with studio recordings on a radio or personal playlist. That’s something I’d posit isn’t the case for a lot of live albums, including some very famous ones. 8084 recorded several concerts to ensure they could select album-worthy versions of every song, and it’s apparent. Of course, there’s still that live feel, with the occasional crowd noise, particularly at the beginning and end of some songs, and there’s a little clever between-song banter at the beginning of a few tracks. But perhaps most importantly for a live album, Live 4play captures that live-show energy level that’s hard to duplicate in a studio.

Sonically, 8084 most easily recalls ’80s rock ‘n roll, that era of energetic live performances, soaring vocals, crunching guitars, and melodic tunefulness. Randy Smith’s vocals do, indeed, soar – and man, can he ever hit the high notes! – mixing well with guitar-heavy songs and more spacious melodic rock songs alike. When the songs soar, I could place 8084’s songs back-to-back with Giuffria. On other tracks, the Vermont rockers sound a bit more like the Dokken-to-Warrant melodic hard rock cohort. Throughout, though, there’s a timeless, classic rock flavor that’s gritty and grounded in decades-spanning rock tradition, recalling rock bands that used significantly less AquaNet than the aforementioned outfits. My point is that, despite the temptation to make the obvious, easy, lazy comparison to ’80s rock bands, 8084’s music is really more timeless arena rock than poppy ’80s hard rock.

Studio versions of most – but not all – of the songs on Live 4play can be found on one of 8084’s first three studio albums, spanning 1986-1991, all currently just available for digital download at the 8084 website: the band’s self-titled debut album from 1986, the 1989 release Love & War, or the 1991 EP Satisfaction Guaranteed. (A Satisfaction Guaranteed CD is part of my personal collection.) The remaining songs can be found by exploring 8084’s music on Spotify, either from the band’s 2005 digital album The Last Great Train or via its more recent Spotify singles.

Live 4play – a hefty 15-track disc, so I won’t be going strictly song-by-song with this review – begins with a 35-second hype-tape styled countdown “Intro” before launching into the lo-fi, distorted crunchy guitar opening of terrific, thumping disc-opener “Learning 2 Live.”

“Hold On” is an uptempo vox and axe-driven number with an energy and tone that reminds me of an amazing yet somehow criminally underappreciated melodic hard rock band, Danger Danger.

The opening chord of “Badman” reminds me just a bit of the main riff from Rick Springfield’s “I’ve Done Everything For You” before veering off into its own identity. After the opening, 8084 utilizes an attention-grabbing voice-only opening verse, then provides catchy, high-energy musical support with ample whammy and a memorable rhythm that makes this one of my personal favorites on the disc.

Sticking to the “whammy” theme, “Lonely at the Top” actually begins with some whammy-focused between-song banter before the music starts. The song itself is a soft, airy ballad with guitarwork akin to what you might find in a similarly-paced Dokken ballad and vocal harmonies in the chorus. The cool thing about a hard rock slow song from a talented band like 8084 is that the guitarwork is so interestingly textured.

Next up is another of my favorites on the album, “She Comes to Me,” one of the most hook-laden tunes on Live 4play, and the one song that prominently features a Bon Jovi-esque talk box, used in all its “wah-wah” glory to artistic perfection. Aside from being unavoidably catchy, “She Comes to Me” is just so damn fun!

“Alright” is a somewhat more straightforward rock song that utilizes a hint of vocal gravel more often than it soars, as the music and vocals express sensitivity that suitably accompanies the lyrics. “When I Think of You” keeps the tone soft, even moreso than “Alright” but paced and styled more like a melodic hard rock ballad.

The energy level immediately jumps back to 11 with “Rosita,” as lively vocals combine memorably with recurring guitar squiggles – not exactly a hook, but it serves the same purpose – resulting in a memorable song that strikes me as a likely crowd favorite.

“I Can’t Feel You,” one of the band’s more recently-penned songs, released as a single in 2018, is flavored a little differently from the older songs in the collection. It’s more modern, clearly showing that the band has remained musically up-to-date, writing rock songs with updated sonic sensibilities in a way that will still appeal to longtime fans. While great music is timeless, it’s songs like this one that’ll be more likely to gain traction on forward-looking playlists.

In the same vein, I get the same more modern vibe from the cooler, ’50s/’60s rock-influenced strummer “Yesterday,” on which the vocals are crooning in nature, voicing heavy lyrics worth listening to. This particular song is also more recent, a 2009 release from Randy Smith’s solo Bittersweet album, which also spawned this 2011 YouTube video.

The jangly opening of “Hideaway” brings the energy level – and the guitar intensity – back up to arena filling levels.

Live 4play closes with “Surrender,” a solid, stylistically familiar guitar rock ballad with crunchy guitars, a soaring voice, and rhythmic noodling in the guitar bridges that ranges from standard hard rock act riffs to fast-paced fingerwork to some eerie, hauntingly-tinged stretches, always, of course, finding a comfortable path back to the chorus. The song is a fitting ending to a long-form album like this, setting the listener down gently and pleasantly. Aside from the fact that you’ve just listened to 65 minutes of music and probably need a bio break, “Surrender” returns your musical mindset back to a good place to “rewind” and listen to the album all over again.

More Recently

8084 actually just dropped a new single – “Vegas” – to Spotify and YouTube on October 15th.

8084 was also nominated for a New England Music Award in the Rock Act of the Year category. Voting has concluded, and NEMA winners will announced during a ceremony in Foxborough, MA on November 12th.

Looking Ahead

8084 live performances tend to be events, so they’re well worth making an effort to attend. Right now, the “Live Dates” page of the band’s website lists a single date: Saturday, November 4th at the Higher Ground Ballroom in South Burlington, Vermont. Obviously, check back periodically for new concert dates to be added.