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Best and Worst Live Bands

I have seen a lot of great shows: Rush, King's X, 311, Sevendust, Prince, STP (with clean Weiland), Rage Against the Machine, U2 (back in the day), Primus, Faith No More, Pearl Jam.

But I have seen some REALLY bad ones, especially recently: Audioslave (Cornell's voice was done after 3 songs), Less than Jake (weakly limped through 50 minutes as headliner), Coheed and Cambria (Claudio only sang about half the words and was pitchy to say the least), U2 (Popmart tour, awful).
 
Best:
One of the best I've seen is los straitjackets , I went to see Dick Dale at Rams head live and they opened for him. I actually enjoyed their set much more. I mean how could you go wrong with a band who wears mexican wrestling masks, speak in spanish, have synchronized moves sometimes(not anything stupid, go to youtube and search los straitjackets and casbah to see what I mean) and play surf rockabilly.

Worst: eh, I haven't many shows so this is kinda hard. Well, there was a show at my high school last year and the first band that played were really bad, every song the guitarist had a solo(which all sounded the same), the singer sounded flat, plsu they thought they were amazing and they smashed a small acoustic guitar on stage, talk about being full of yourself. Also, Dick dale was good,by far not the worst, but I was disappointed at his show.
 
Best:

Rush. Any time. Anywhere.
Metallica - esp. in '88.
Jazz is Dead
Primus
Widespread Panic (I know, they're inconsistent, but they killed in Pittsburgh)
The Clarks (local guys, always good)
Tom Petty (go ahead and laugh - in 2005 his band was tremendous)
Pearl Jam
The Rolling Stones (high energy, played well, huge production)
GnR (they pretty much define rock-n-roll for me)

Worst:

Black Eyed Peas (my garbage disposal sounds better)
Jane's Addiction (I love them, but they sounded like ass - I blame the venue)
Dave Matthews (their tours have become routine and boring)
Vinnie Moore (opened for Rush in philly, RTB I think, holy crap what a mistake that was!)
 
Best:
Living Colour
Dave Holland
Christian McBride
Rollins Band
Don Caballero
Mars Volta
Harriett Tubman
Hiromi
Remember Shakti

Worst:
Barkmarket- (anyone remember them?) despite some cool odd time signatures from the drummer, the vocalist screamed a lot, the guitar was brash and out tof tune, and the bass player played a Pbass, tone knob cranked, with a pick, through a chorus pedal, into a Peavey 1x15 combo amp. As soon as they played the last note of the last song, they left the stage.

Hole-I worked security at a festival. Courtney made all the crew and staff leave the backstage area. She insulted the audience.

16 Horsepower- THe singer was stoned and the "rhythm section" played the same root-5th pattern for 3 minutes while the singer tried to tune his banjo. The bass player had an upright with a P-bass pickup at the end of the fingerboard.

Hondo-Crappy local band.
 
bassist 4 life said:
Queensryche is awesome live too, watch Operation:Livecrime....

I forgot about them - I saw that tour, they were great. They have an outstanding drummer. One of their recent albums was pretty bad (forget the name), but I really want to check out Mindcrime II. Their local show was just cancelled two nights ago.
 
Cowboy Mouth. I saw them at the Voodoo music fest a couple weeks ago. So entertaining. I wasn't familiar with them, but I'm so glad I got to see them. I've never seen a band own a crowd like they did. People were going bonkers over them, and rightfully so. If you have the chance, check them out. If they're consistent, and I think they should be, you will have an absolute blast.
 
Good:
Green Day
Nine Inch Nails
Stone Temple Pilots
Aerosmith
Kenny Wayne Shepard
The Who
Incubus
Audioslave
Jane's Addiction
Offspring
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Yes
Live
Story of the Year


Bad:
Anti-Flag (they were on before Story of the Year at Warped Tour, not my choice)
 
Best:
Rush--Nobody does it better
Genesis ('80s)--Wow, freakin' wow
The Who--Pete and Roger still jumping around, and not seeming like a joke at this point
Primus--great showmans ship

Worst
Yeesh, there may be more bad than good.......but they're all better than me!
 
Best shows I've ever seen-
Bjork !- Not really a band (although she played with the most diverse group of backing musicians I've ever seen!)- she is absolutely amazing live (though I imagine you have to like her music to begin with!)

Iron Maiden- each member of the band has more energy (and in many cases talent) than most bands that are half their age!

Blonde Redhead- especially recently, their performance is spotless and they are amazing to watch (probably one of the best looking bands ever, to boot!)

Deerhoof- the drummers energy really carries this band, so when hes on its absolutely insane

Nels Cline Singers- Some of the greatest musicianship I've ever seen, and done in just a small warehouse with a bad PA (hes playing this Friday, I can't wait!)

Planes Mistaken For Stars- when they still had their old line up with Jaime and Matt on bass and guitar, they were the best live band I ever saw- so much passion and energy, they would drive audiences crazy (in a good way)

Get Hustle- when they still had both the organ and keyboard they were mesmerizing live, they are still good now but their music has changed so much...


I don't really tend to remember bad shows for very long thankfully (as I've played so many bad ones myself!)- I have found that, apart from Bjork + Maiden, I simply prefer shows in small spaces (most of the ones I've listed were in the same warehouse space in Denver)- and I imagine the bands probably feel the same way, they can play off of the energy of the crowd as they are not on some giant stage with blaring lights in thier eyes!

Karl