• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Best and Worst Live Bands

#21
Best:

Pink Floyd
Phish
P-Funk
The Meters
Beck
The Flaming Lips
Toots and the Maytals
Grateful Dead
Gregory Isaacs
Ziggy Marley
Abyssinians
Dub Syndicate
Primus
Oysterhead
Jamiroquai
Dirty Dozen Brass Band
The Wailers
(many more..)

Worst
Sublime (saw them booed off the stage 3 times - to drunk to perform)
Suede (absolute self indulgent horrible sheist)
The Cranberries (blah)
Disco Biscuits
 
#22
Best:
Primus - Seas of cheese tour was cool!
Rush - Any tour, never dissapointed
dixie dregs - These guys wail live, all virtuosos
metallica - Day on the green early 90's that was great.
Bela fleck & flecktones - Bela, Vic and co put on a great live show
opeth - Awesome material to hear live
Deadweight

Worst
mars volta: Ive seen them open for system of a down, and perfect circle. Sound mix awful both times, And i am a big fan of improv..they just dont do it for me. On the other hand their studio recordings are great!
 
#23
GOOD:

Metallica - good crowd pleaser band
Rush - same reason as Metallica
Coheed And Cambria - very tight
Dream Theater - almost sound identical to their CD's and they don't even get tired after 3 hours of playing

OK:
Led Zeppelin - not bad, but Page gets a tad sloppy sometimes, but the rest of Zeppelin rocks, and I only say Page because I've seen vids of him get sloppy from time to time

Guns N' Roses - not bad either, but Axl's voice cracks sometimes
 
#25
Definitely +1 for Chicago. Tremendous live band. Flecktones, Sweet Comfort Band (you wouldn't know 'em), James Taylor also fantastic in concert. EW&F were great. DMB were awesome.

Doobies were not so great, but it could've been an off-night. I was a bit bored with Victor Wooten's band when I saw them a few years ago. Played too long, too much talking, they even seemed to ramble musically at times. Granted, they're all monster players.
 
#28
Worst first ...
The CARS - truly abysmal
Boston - even worse than the car's

Those two were so bad, I can't even think of anyone else to put in the category.

The Best - man there's been so many good ones over the years.

Bowie - Serious Moonlight tour maybe the most professional show I've seen. Pretty much 100 out ot 100 for that one. TOP horns, Chester Thompson, Earl Slick friggin' amazing...

Crimson - Discipline Tour, Toad's Place.
gentle giant - Toad's
Billy Joel - Toad's doing his live album
Rundgren - Toad's (breaking one of the Utopia CD's)
Orleans with now Congressman from New York, John Hall - Toad's again ...

Damn - I miss Toad's Place.

Pretender's - Perdue University about 85 or 6. There I began my belief that Martin Chambers may be the best Rock Drummer alive, with the possible exception of Matt Abts.

The Tubes - Remote Control tour, some club near Providence Rhode Island
Los Lobos, Little Feat, Early ZZ Top, Deep Purple Machine Head tour, ELP at the Yale Bowl in Quad sound. Ultravox at Park West, Devo at Park West... Talking Heads in Sprinfield, MA for the Stop Making Sense tour,

Joni Mitchell - Shadows & Light tour at Tanglewood. Jaco, Pat, Lyle, The Chamber's Brothers. How can you miss with that band ... that is certainly one of the best show's I've seen. If I were to pick , the other two would have to be the King Crimson show at Toad's. Levin, Bruford, Belew and Fripp playing the unimaginable. The Head's in Springfield. near unimaginable but dance-able to! Not sure I could rank them although I think Joni's on top ...

man - so many great shows and that's the rock stuff of the top of my head. The jazz list, damn I haven't got time to type that one in...

There was a period, way back there when my wife to be worked for a ticketron outlet. We'd pay cash up front. When the system opened up, Millie the gal that ran the ticket machine would print a number of 'test prints'. No campin' in line for great seats back in those days... not many other fringe benefits to that job either ...
 
#29
Best:
2 local metal acts, Allegiance and SFD. Don't hear much from them nowadays.
They always put great performances on, both had great bass players IMO and because they were local, original and set in more intimate venues where real fan/band rapport was being built, they top my list for the best concerts I went to.

Metallica blew me away in '93 (April 7th IIRC). They opened with Creeping Death, instant win for me. My only 'complaint' was they didn't use a local metal act to open. I think Kyuss opened...they didn't do much for me but thats a taste thing not a performance thing.

The Living End. Saw them at the Big Day Out February of this year. I'm not a big fan, but their set was awesome live and their stage presence unrivalled on the day IMHO. Plus I got some great photo's of the bass player too.

Worst:
BB. King. I'm not a big fan and went with my Dad. The band was tight and I was impressed by the musicianship, but on every guitar solo, BB would do this huge big slide up the strings before starting it and after about the 4th or 5th song I was hoping it would end. Their head shaking trumpet player was a hoot though, I thought his head was going to fall off sometimes :)

PS - My wife chastised me for not remembering to mention KISS in '96. They went off as well...
 
#35
Best - Weird Al, Primus, Vic, Mofro, and most artists I've seen at Festivals-maybe the sets are too short to get bored by lack of stage presence? Also Will Hoge was pretty good each time I've seen him. Marc Broussard was iffy but his bass player was really kickin'. Michael Buble was really good, he is really funny and his band is great.

I though O.A.R. was kinda of boring, they try to be a jam band, but don't really have the talent to pull it off. But glad to say I have never been to a really bad show by a professional band.
 
#37
Best Concerts I was at:

Pink Floyd at Radio City Music Hall 1973
PF The Wall Nassau Colliseum 1980
XTC at the Paladium 1981
Devo at Radio City Music Hall 1981
The Kinks at Felt Forum 1974
The Kinks at Hofstra Playhouse 1976
The Who original Quardophenia show Madison Sq Garden 1974
Talking Heads at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium 1984
Jeff Beck at the Metropolitan Opera House (early 80's I think)
Alanis Morissette Jone Beach 2004
Brian Wilson Carnegie Hall 2004

Concerts I left early from:

Jethro Tull late 80's at the Meadowlands (poor show)
John Mc Laughlin at Beacon Theater
Robin Trower at Beacon Theater
Bare Naked Ladies Jones Beach 2004


Shows that totally sucked were most of the first acts at the 24 Kinks concerts I'v attended over the years. Artful Dodger, Cockney Rebel, Tucky Buzzard et al
 
#38
Worst:
Parliament-Funkadelic- 1997
Herbie Hancock/Roy Hargrove/Michael Brecker- 2005

Rated worst possibly because expectations were so high for these legends. All I heard at both concerts was a lot of noodleing and dissonance.


Best:
Rush- 1981; Fantastic musicianship.
The Police- 1982; Energy & charisma + best drummer in rock.
David Bowie- 1983; Showmanship+musicianship.
Talking Heads- 1984; See "Stop Making Sense".
Stevie Wonder- 1986; It was Stevie and Nathan!
Prince- 1997; A non-stop dynamo with a kick-ass band.
Luther Vandross- 1997; Best voice I've ever heard live.

Smokey Robinson- 2001. This concert took place about a week after 9/11. No one was in the mood for entertainment because of what had just happened, but we had already purchased the tickets. After deliberating we decided to go despite our lack of enthusiasm. I’m glad we did. The concert turned our to be a cathartic experience for both the performers and the audience.
 
#39
Best
----
Green Day
Van Halen - 1984 tour
The Who
Metallica
Limp Bizkit

Worst
-----
ZZ Top - They sounded great, but were boring as hell to watch.
Van Halen - Women & Children First tour - DLR was so drunk they've have to stop songs...
Blink 182
 
#40
dls59 said:
..Sweet Comfort Band (you wouldn't know 'em)..
Click to expand...
I know'em. I've always liked Bryan Duncan.



Best - Russ Taff at the Center Stage Theatre in Atlanta 1987 or 88. The Way Home Tour, the band was absolutely smokin'.

worst - Black Crowes
Incidently it was the night the were kicked off the tour opening for ZZTop. They slopped through a couple songs (awful) yelled a few profanities directed at 'corperate sponsership'. Then left the stage early. After a couple mintues, Lenny Kravitz was brought on to play some songs on an acoustic to fill out the time.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back