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Best and Worst Live Bands

Best-
Jethro Tull
Placebo
Green Day
Yes
The Strokes
The Hives
The Features
Kings of Leon
John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers
The Ivories
The D4
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
The Shout Out Louds

Worst
Van Morrison
New Found Glory (supporting Green Day)
The Maccabees (supporting The Strokes)
The White Rose Movement (supporting placebo)

Chronicle said:
yeah the best concert people can see today is Tool. they rock so hard live.

Nice, going to see them in 2 weeks :D

anyone know hu supporting them in Britain?
 
Best:

RHCP. Small club in late 1989 before they got huge. Unbelieveable. I was on a high for days.

AC/DC. The 100% dedication to kicking ass really pays off.

The Who, especially the Quadrophenia show in 1997, and the last tour with The Ox. This year was great too. The 1982 "farewell" and 1989 "Tommy" tours? Not so great.

Prince, front row for Musicology tour in 2004. Wow.

U2 in early 1983, War tour.

King Crimson, especially Thrak tour in 1995/6, but 1984 for Three of a Perfect Pair wasn't too shabby either.

Metallica, And Justice for All tour in 1989. Fantastic in all respects, and kept playing even after a third of the crowd had left, thinking it was over. Too bad they stopped caring a few years later.

The Rolling Stones, Giants Stadium Sept. 27. My expectations were pretty low, but holy crap! :bassist:

Los Lobos.

Page/Plant in 1996.

Tool.

Drive By Truckers. Why can triple lead guitar only be pulled off by Southern bands?

Banjo Mosele, Gaborone, Botswana, summer 2003. African Jazz/pop/funk with a rock edge, on location. Oh, yeah!

Javanese gamelan orchestra, summer 1992 in Yogyakarta. Think Miles Davis' "In a Silent Way" has atmosphere? Try this.

The worst:

The Cars, 1984. Yep, the others are right. Some girls near me were in tears with disappointment.

Bruce Springsteen with E Street Band, last two tours. I love The Boss, but could barely stay awake.

And about the controversial Mars Volta. I saw them a few years ago, and the playing was unbelievable, but the sound didn't work so well. The guitar was especially harsh and screechy. So I won't lump them with the worst, but they didn't match my high expectations.
 
Best:

Tiny Hawks-(Local Providence band, my favorite at the moment)
Jonathan Richman-(Great guy, great personality, great voice, excellent guitarist with some sweet sweet dance moves.)
Lungfish-(I don't know how many know them, but they are amazing!!!)
Japanther-(Oh man, noisy but dancey, with a vague sense of melody. It's hard to describe but it's awesome.)
An Albatross-(Their live shows are full of obnoxious indie-kids pretending to mosh, but their prescence and sound is unprecedented. They pull off what most spazzy, shredding fashion-core bands can't, playing grating music and making it awesome.)
Black Cross-(Classic hardcore performance, invited all 15 people at the show on stage for their set.)
Lords-(Mountain of amps + Southern hardcore=awe inspiring.)

Worst:

Ted Nugent-(I may not be his target demographic, so I could be missing something. But from the back row of an arena, he looked like a buffoon and sounded terrible. But, I will never understand Nugent.)
Lynrd Skynrd-(Classic band? sure. But they didn't do it for me, they just sounded hok and had 'has-beens" written all over them)
Blue Meanies-(Drunk off their keisters, sounded terrible.)
*bunch of random pop-punk/ska-punk bands*-(too many to mention.)
AIDS Wolf-(Pretty self-explanatory.)
 
Best:
Mudvayne @ CBGB - amazing show.
Incubus - after Dirk, still amazing, love Ben's style.
Sevendust - unbelieveable crowd interaction, just great.
RHCP - amazing show, saw them @ Continental Arena two nights in a row with Mars Volta.. which leads me...

Worst:
Staind - just bad sound.. the band was pretty tight.
Mars Volta - dont get me wrong, i love their studio stuff, but their sound @ the continental airlines arena was simply terrible. Although, ive heard some great things about their show from many people, so im not going to judge. But the show that i saw.. thumbs down.
 
Best:

Gov't Mule saw'em once in Raleigh and once at some school in VA.

Kenny Wayne at the Cat's Cradle in Chapel hill.

Queens of the Stone Age House of Blues in Myrtle Beach.

Worst:

Turbo Negro opened up for QOTSA at House of Blues. Just not my thing.
 
MammaryVest said:
System of A Down is a miserable live band, their sound is horrible, and in my experiance they play it off like they would rather not be there. The Mars Volta is actually an unbelievably good live band, only you have to see them in a club with their original drummer, and they atually have to play some of their songs.
I saw both SOAD and the MV play together, and they both played amazingly. They put on great shows but SOAD especially rocked. Contrary to this statement about them "not wanting to be there", they obviously enjoyed themselves and ate up the crowd's energy.
 
Best: Primus! the hallucinogenetics tour was really awesome between the sets, the performance w/ les stomping around and the charisma thye project. SOAD and dream theater were really good too. Green Day (warning tour) was surprisingly good-- they definately had a lot of energy and the sound was good as well. Worst:A big surprise (to me at least) was tower of power. They are sucha good band but the show lacked enthusiasm.
 
Sunset Greets the Moon (Link Removed) is a "local" band that has the most amazing, energy filled shows around. Each show basically turns into a giant dance aprty - and when they come to my town everyone seems to be more into them than when they play elsewhere. I've seen them countless times. THe music really doesn't capture their live sound.
Emergency! - Link Removed these guys also aren't captured by their studio sound. When I see them ,my best memories are being crammed in some guys living room and whenever Emergency! played, the whole place goes crazy.
 
I really haven`t seen many shows.

Best:

Primus
Incubus with Dirk
The outlaws...this may have been the best I have seen, and I totally wasn`t expecting it.
Shaffatullah(sp?) Khan...$10 to see a dude shred on the sitar and tabla. :hyper:

Worst:

90%+ of locals bands around here.
 
My Favorites covering an eclectic mix of genre/Best IMHO:

Iron Maiden - their energy is quite simply unmatched today in Rock/Metal
King Diamond/Mercyful Fate - Raw, amazing musicianship
Doobie Brothers - Really good at playing music they've played for decades and loving it still.
Aerosmith - Not even really a fan of theirs, but fantastic live performers.
Reverend Horton Heat - Second place for energy, following of course Iron Maiden
AC/DC - These guys will play well and entertain the crap out of you...in a good sense.
Mudvayne - Ryan and Matt are amazing to watch/hear in person
Journey - Hate the songs but love the singing. Steve Augeri is better live than Perry was recorded, seriously.
Tim McGraw - I despise modern country, saw him at the H-D 100 year anniversary party. The band was absolutely incredible.
Stabbing Westward receives honorable mention.

Not up to par (worst):
Black Sabbath
Metallica - Haven't seen them since the Black album, hopefully things are better but I suspect their popularity is more marketing hype
Godsmack - Boring music in an amphitheater setting. Guitar sounds awesome though. Might be better suited to medium-large clubs.
Foreigner - ughh
 
5stringFanatic said:
Best:
Mudvayne @ CBGB - amazing show.
Incubus - after Dirk, still amazing, love Ben's style.
Sevendust - unbelieveable crowd interaction, just great.
RHCP - amazing show, saw them @ Continental Arena two nights in a row with Mars Volta.. which leads me...

Worst:
Staind - just bad sound.. the band was pretty tight.
Mars Volta - dont get me wrong, i love their studio stuff, but their sound @ the continental airlines arena was simply terrible. Although, ive heard some great things about their
show from many people, so im not going to judge. But the show that i saw.. thumbs down.



:eek: HollyCrap, i can't believe someone else actually said they enjoyed incubus without Dirk........Ben kicks serious A$$
:bassist: :bassist: :bassist: :bassist: :bassist: :bassist:
 
The best live show I've seen was Medeski Martin and Wood last year. Amazing

Satriani was good too

Worst? Meatloaf. The only concert I ever walked out on (and it was free). That guy was God awful that night. I think he was either really sick (but still obnoxious) or was plain drunk\stoned. He didn't sing on key all night. His background singer was awesome and carried the show.

Garth Brooks. Saw him in Birmingham years ago and the sound was truly horrible - sounded like a trainwreck in a tin can...
 
Peter Squire said:
What was with the Cars? I really like their albums, so what was so poor about them live, if someone can explain??

I saw the Cars in the 80s, and it was awful. The songs sounded OK, but the band themselves sucked. They took the stage, Ocasek laconically said: "We're The Cars, from Boston" or something like that, and that was it. Absolutely no stage patter at all throughout the show. It was like the crowd didn't exist. They stood there almost motionless, just going from one song to the next. :scowl:
 
MammaryVest said:
System of A Down is a miserable live band, their sound is horrible, and in my experiance they play it off like they would rather not be there.
I totally agree. Everyone had me hyped up to see them, and I thought Disturbed buried them live.

Also, Disturbed was genuinely thankful that people were there. System really couldn't have cared less. They came across as arrogant asses, with absolutely zero crowd interaction. No more SOAD purchases for me.