Sometimes it even amazes Patrick Dahlheimer.

When it all began for his friends and fellow bandmates in Live, all they wanted to do was play their hometown of York, Pennsylvania.

Now all the world really is a stage.

Having just returned from a European tour, where they were billed above Pearl Jam, Moby, and Korn in a festival in Holland, they are just shaking there heads at the wonder of it all, says Dahlheimer. "It's an amazing feeling," he says. "initially we just thought about playing York, then Pennsylvania, then the East Coast and now we've played the world. It's really amazing."

"It's pretty international right now. We've always done amazingly well in Canada, and just did Mexico City for the first time. We do amazingly well in Australia. We just had one of the biggest tours of South Africa that's come through there in the last few years. The European tour was amazing. It just seems like Live is being accepted or finally heard on a worldwide level, which is scary. It's a great feeling, but its really bizarre to see all that hard work finally pay off."

The number of fans varies from country to country, he says, "but the universal reaction is the energy and motion people get from us. People tend to send that back."

And there's more good news. "After almost 15 years as a band, it still amazes me we can still get on stage and get excited," he says.

"We've always been about playing live for the most part. Getting on stage you have a set list, but what you do within that set list or how the audience reacts, or what bumps in the road come up that you don't know about, that leaves a little bit of intrigue for us and excitement."

Live brings honesty and raw emotion to that stage, Dahlheimer says. "I don't know how people will interpret that, but I think that's what we do. We are letting our hearts out and not holding back and musically-- we don't get on stage with pretenses. We are there and we represent ourselves as we are: human beings, people just like everybody else in the audience."

The band is playing in front of an expanded audience on their double bill with Counting Crows. "I wasn't sure how it would work at first when we started talking about it," Dahlheimer admits. "We knew the guys in the band were all cool and we hung out, but musically I wasn't sure what would happen until two months ago and we started doing festivals in Europe with the Crows."

He believes the two bands complement each other. "Both of the bands are about songwriting, and from there it's what different bands do with great songs. Somebody is going to have a heart attack by the end of the tour (he laughs) because everybody is pushing everybody else to work hard. I'm excited."

He believes that Live brings a new freshness to the mix. "We've been a band now forever and a half. I think all of a sudden that we are touring with two new players there's a new energy in the band. We all inspire each other on stage. If someone comes out with a new part, it's inspiring. That's inspired all of us to write and just be more productive."

Hopefully its like another chapter for the band, he says. "The first couple of records are one chapter and now we continue to be Live and do what we do with a little more spunk in it. We're still having a great time."

Long ago the band members came to realize that they are greater than the sum of their individual parts. "There is no doubt that Ed (Kowalczyk, vocalist) is an amazing songwriter. And I don't know anybody who plays the drums as well as Chad (Gracey). And Chad (Taylor) is great on guitar. The chemistry between the four of us, I don't know if its otherworldly or just the fact we've known each other all our lives."

What he hopes people take from Live's music is some sort of enjoyment. "Art is to be enjoyed," he says.

The Distance to Here is Live's latest artistic statement. Dahlheimer says the new album is being received the way he hoped it would be. "We've been doing a lot of leg work for it in Europe ever since it was first released," he says.

The goal was not to be tied down to the recording process, he says. "We just wanted to break free from that in making the album, and capture more of an energy, try not to be so sterile."

Is this Live's best album? "I think so, but being a father now I love all the albums. I love all my children," he says, laughing.

Jerry Harrison returned as producer, having previously produced the bands' Mental Jewelry and Thowing Copper albums. "Jerry brings himself to a project and that's a whole lot," Dahlheimer says. "He comes in and you think he's not doing a lot. But just by being there he brings this calmness and his organizational skills are really great."

Live has been writing their own chapters since 1994s Throwing Copper album (sales of 7 million copies) took off commercially, he says. "It really didn't fit with anything on radio. And Secret Samadhi (the last album) didn't fit, but it also was successful."

"It's the same with The Distance to Here album. It's not a huge radio hit, but people are loving it and buying it. Live is somewhere on the fringes of writing our own chapter of music. Every category or trend they try to put us in doesn't work."