Not Good Live Bands

[jaywa]

It was this big festival show in either 81 or 82. Opened with UFO...awesome half hour set. Firefall was next, and you couldn't even hear them. Blue Oyster Cult, whom I had seen less than a year ago and were awesome, stunk up the joint even worse. The drummer, who was spot on at the last show I saw, seemed wasted and was literally throwing sticks at his drums and cymbals, and the rest of the band phoned it in. Heart was not great, either. They had just fired Roger Fisher for breaking up with Nancy Wilson. Howard Leese played lead, and he was OK but just OK, and they sounded competent but really uninspired. Fortunately, Cheap Trick saved the day with a blistering set the day after Robin Zander got arrested for assaulting a female police officer. It was as if they were the only ones taking the show seriously.

Wow talk about a mismatched slate of bands. They must have been trying to get something in there for everybody. Funny what you said about BOC... I remember driving around Chicago years ago listening to this tape in my guitarists' car and it was a live recording of what was literally the worst band I had ever heard in my life. I asked the guitarist who it was and he kinda got this "What the Eff" look on his face and said, "DUDE... this is Blue Oyster Cult, man!" I remember the drumming in particular being horrific and the vocals not much better.

I would also have to regretfully add Kings X as a major live disappointment, primarily for the fact that they were ridiculously, sadistically over-the-top too loud for the venue. We're talking full arena backline and P.A. in a hotel ballroom holding no more than 700-800 people and everything turned to 10. Disgusting. I left after 4 songs.

 

[JimmyM]

Ya, a buddy of mine walked out from a 700-800 seat club King's X played at. Puke inducing. Ty had 4 Mesa stacks, and Doug (not dUg at the time) had 4 SVT 810's. two SVT, and two Fender Dual Showmans. Craziness! Me, I stayed, but man, that was a hard concert to stay through.

 

[stambroker]

Flecktones were amazing when I saw them!

Bad live:

-Joan Jett & the Blackhearts (although it's the modern incarnation, so I didn't expect much)
-Blink182 (TERRIBLE)
-Bad Religion (and I love them, just the performance was super off)

Suprisingly good, when I expected bad:

-The Offspring
-Maroon 5
-Toadies

 

[ffutterman]

Flecktones were amazing when I saw them!

Bad live:

-Joan Jett & the Blackhearts (although it's the modern incarnation, so I didn't expect much)
-Blink182 (TERRIBLE)
-Bad Religion (and I love them, just the performance was super off)

Suprisingly good, when I expected bad:

-The Offspring
-Maroon 5
-Toadies

I like the idea of mixing surprisingly bad and surprisingly good shows. Here are some from the full shows I've seen (not ones I saw bits of as a theater janitor):

Bad:

Live - They were playing in Delaware, so yeah...not a high point for their careers
Dave Matthews Band - I don't smoke and Dave was completely trashed for the whole show
Live 8...the whole thing - I was at the Philly show. Blistering hot, none of the acts were good, and the layout was such that I couldn't even see the stage despite being pretty close to the front. They also had the Pink Floyd video feed from Britain on the schedule, but opted to have Rob Thomas on stage instead. The high point of the day was seeing a shirtless drunk urinate on the leg of a woman he apparently didn't know.

Surprisingly Good:
Randy Newman - He conducted an orchestra to his movie scores for the first half, with video clips of the movies playing behind. Second set was him at the piano. I got the ticket for free from a friend and thought "Meh, why not" and the show turned out to be awesome.
Devotchka - I had never heard of the band 'til I saw them open for Gogol Bordello. I immediately bought as many of their cds as I could after the show.

 

[jaywa]

Interesting re Dave Matthews Band. Sometimes I feel like their drummer's ridiculous talent is going to waste in that outfit.

 

[bass12]

I don't know if I'd say it was "bad" but I was disappointed after seeing Chaka Khan a few years back at the Montreal Jazz Festival. My two main impressions were that Chaka was screeching way too much (and not always on key) and that she must be dating the bassist because he seemed to be the only one playing fills (and playing them in every gap available). When I heard (local veteran vocalist) Kim Richardson performing a free outdoor show immediately afterwards I remember thinking, "now THAT'S a singer!".

 

[ArtGuy9516]

The Sisters of Mercy saw them about 3 years ago. I couldn't hear any of Andrew's vocals at all but could hear "the band" on the chorus...could have been a bad mix but I the mix was good enough to tell what songs they were playing. Additionally the opening act (Hypernova) sounded great

Jane's Addiction saw them when they were opening up for Iggy. Perry changed all of the lyrics of their set to songs filled with expletives. I heard after the show that they were pissed because they wanted to play at an "all ages" venue. Iggy was OK

Rage Against the Machine I was subjected to their nude Lollapallooza set in Philly. IMO their decision to have PMRC written on the chests was a little dated. It would have been cooler if they stood there with feedback or something.

 

[ffutterman]

Interesting re Dave Matthews Band. Sometimes I feel like their drummer's ridiculous talent is going to waste in that outfit.

Yeah, I'd have to agree. Dave does some cool stuff on guitar, like what he plays on So Much To Say, but Carter really seems to be a cut above the rest of them musically.

The one nice thing about that show was that they played Drive In, Drive Out, which is probably the best song for showcasing what Carter can do. I do really like their studio stuff up to the Lillywhite Sessions or so, but they were disappointing live.

 

[Foamy]

Only concert (of any genre) I've ever walked out of was Green Day in Oakland a few years back. They sucked hard.

 

[smcfarland1337]

The Roots are amazing live.

 

[Joey3313]

reel big fish aint too great live

it was a fun gig but they wernt doing too good

I realize this post is from over 2 years ago, but I've seen Reel Big Fish since that time, and they were bloody amazing! Crazy tight and active!

 

[Kmonk]

The worst concert I went to was KISS in 2010. I was a huge fan in the 1970's and have seen them about a dozen times over the last 30 years. The last few times I saw them I noticed that they take a lot of time between songs with Paul Stanley talking to the crowd and pausing at about every second, third or fourth word. It always went something like this "People............... This is a song............... that was on an album................ that we released way back...................in 1977............ " You get the idea. He did this after almost every song. It averaged out to about a minute and 30 seconds to as much as 2 minutes between songs. It might not seem like a lot but to people in the audience, it seems like an eternity. Anyway, in 2010 there was a company called Simfy Live that recorded the show off the board. As you entered the venue, you could purchase the entire show on a flash drive for $25 and pick it up on the way out at the end of the show. Since my son I went to the show together (his 6th time seeing KISS), I decided to buy the show. I was horrified at how bad Paul Stanley sounded. He was flat, screechy and struggled. As one friend of mine said when he heard it "The Poor Bast*rd". The show was such a disappointment that I turned down free seats to this year's tour.

 

[Mystic Michael]

Back in the day, Aerosmith was widely known as a terrible live act - always loaded as hell, sloppy... just bad. Great recording group... and I understand that they are a MUCH better band live now than they were back in... well, I first say them in '77 (and they could barely get on stage!) - -

Well if that's the case, BOH, then your "back in the day" must be several years after my "back in the day" - because I attended an Aerosmith show in 1973, during their "Get Your Wings" tour - and was just blown away with how tight, focused, and totally in control they sounded.

If they were loaded for that show, it didn't show. Because they completely rocked that house like I'd never heard before - or since.

MM

 

[Synthax]

I just went to see kiss and Motly Crue , Crue was Great, kiss was kinda "meh". the only other one tat stands out as really bad was a band called wasted in 89 or 90, they opened for Iron Maiden, horribad

 

[Chipter]

I was also underwhelmed by Motorhead. It wasn't horrible, "Ace of Spades" was a lot of fun, but most songs were just a giant wall of incredibly loud fuzz.

Megadeth came on next and the balance was much better. I could actually make out what David Ellefson was doing...with Lemmy, it was noise.

+1.
I saw them live in February on their GIGANTOUR tour w/ Lacuna Coil, Volbeat and Megadeth.

Lacuna Coil sucked, which I knew they would because they just suck in general.

Volbeat was amazing live, I was really impressed.

Motorhead was a wall of fuzz and couldn't understand anything or make it out. I kept overhearing others around me asking "What song is this that they're playing now? I can't make it out" because it was a disgusting mash of everything mixed very poorly.

Megadeth was amazing.




Another tour I saw this year was in April and it was Opeth and Mastodon's HERITAGE HUNTER tour (with GHOST as opener).

Ghost was fantastic, I love them and their live show is brilliant.
Gets everyone in the mood, they put on a show. Amazing.

Mastodon, who I love, were horrible live. Muggy. Sloppy.
Mostly from Troy Sanders (Vocals and Bass). I'm not sure what he was doing but it was all over the place.
Luckily, Brann Dailor (Drums) was spot-on and amazing, but they were possibly the most disappointing band I've ever seen live. Probably because I was so excited to see them since I love their albums.

Opeth was fantastic and they always are, they're incredible live.

 

[4001]

Queens of the Stone Age opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Milwaukee, WI on 9/25/2003 and they SUCKED. RHCP were awesome that night.

 

[klaus486]

I walked out of Motley Crue in 1987. Whitesnake opened & they were awesome - at the height of their career. Tommy Lee's drums were louder than ALL of Whitesnake. I stayed maybe 4 songs and split. Ohter than that I really haven't seen a "terrible" band. I have however endured some truly awful mixes....particularly in Portland's Roseland theater. Dreamtheater being the worst. Every time the vocals and keys synched up it was brain damaging!

 

[guy n. cognito]

I walked out of the recent Van Halen show. Terrible sound.

 

[Kmonk]

Well if that's the case, BOH, then your "back in the day" must be several years after my "back in the day" - because I attended an Aerosmith show in 1973, during their "Get Your Wings" tour - and was just blown away with how tight, focused, and totally in control they sounded.

If they were loaded for that show, it didn't show. Because they completely rocked that house like I'd never heard before - or since.

MM

In the late 70's they were aweful live. I saw them in 79 with Golden Earring. They were very sloppy. I saw them this year with Cheap Trick and they sounded better than ever.

 

[GRAHAM SG1]

Motorhead was a wall of fuzz and couldn't understand anything or make it out. I kept overhearing others around me asking "What song is this that they're playing now? I can't make it out" because it was a disgusting mash of everything mixed very poorly.

I agree, the sheer high volume makes a Motorhead gig an unpleasant and very tedious event, why do they think its neccessary to inflict such high levels at the people who have made them what they are ?
I have seen them 5 times over the years, but enough is enough .