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Worst band you've ever seen?

#341
In the mid-'90s I saw Chuck Berry at a Memphis In May Music Festival. (Not really a "band", but hey, it's Chuck Berry, right?!) Anyway, it was awful. Out of tune guitar, which made the vocals sound off-key. A day or two later I was reading a review in the local newspaper. The columnist basically concurred with how I saw it. Then he added this line, which I thought was pretty good: "Chuck Berry is the only guitarist I know who cannot play Chuck Berry licks..." Ouch...
 
#343
I wanna say that KING810 was absolutely terrible, at Brisbane Soundwave 2015. I have no clue what to think about them now though. Because their songs sucked on their album, but they were extremely engaging live.
Also, the guitar stopped working halfway through the second song and was off and on for the next 3 songs. But then again, we didn't even notice for a good amount of time because they were so loud.
And that's another thing, they were so loud. The bass and the kick drum were put into the PA system in a way that caused any bass activity to literally make you feel suffocated. But then again, they were a harsh, ugly band, and that may as well have been part of their style and appeal. In a way, I kind of liked it as much as I hated it.

For the best show I've ever seen, it was about a week before that same Soundwave show, Tosin Abasi from Animals As Leaders did a solo show in a really small local music shop. It was extremely on the down-low, only 30 people or so actually showed up. Tosin played to backing tracks of the other guitarist and the drummer, and was wired into a very simple Axe FX II setup. The show was incredible because between each song, he'd stop and have a Q&A session with the audience, and we learnt a lot about his techniques, and his extensive knowledge of his fretboard and techniques. It was so up close and personal with a big name musician, I felt extremely privileged for being able to go.
 
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#344
I fortunately haven't seen too many terrible or disappointing acts in my time.

I saw blink-182 in, like, 2003 when they toured with Green Day. The sound was terrible and one of the guys had bronchitis, so all I heard for their entire set was "crack pipe," "silly string," and "butthole."

When I saw Run the Jewels in 2013, the opener was Kool AD from Das Racist, who I never particularly enjoyed to begin with, but he was just hammered drunk and continuously forgot his verses, got lost mid-song and asked the DJ to start over, and was a little too friendly with some obviously-underage girls in the crowd. Not surprising that his career never really took off.

Oh, and Saturday night during Faith No More's show here in Portland, I think about 3/4 of the crowd left during the opener, Christeene, just to wait outside. Christeene was a drag queen in a g-string who spent her set screeching obscenities and racial slurs into a microphone over too-loud electronic beats. She would occasionally stop to throw rolls of toilet paper at the audience and finished her set by removing her buttplug and hurling it into the audience.

Honorable mentions for bad shows would be the Melvins a few years back - they sounded terrific and just ripped through their set, but I was so busy getting crushed by overly-aggressive sweaty fat people swinging their fists around that I didn't really get to enjoy it. Also Every Time I Die back in November, which was amateur-hour for stage diving. Everyone was going feet-first (you NEVER go feet-first!) and eventually one big dude did a spin-kick off the stage and caught me square in the jaw, laying me out cold for about ten minutes. Ended up with a minor concussion.
 
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#346
Saw Emerson, Lake and Palmer open for The James Gang in the early 70's and half the crowd of about 17,000 left within a half hour of The James Gang set due to ELP just out everythinging them. Same thing in '79 when Jeff Beck opened for Fleetwood Mac (at the height of their "Rumours" era) and FM just couldn't match up. About 23,000 at that show and it was more crowded leaving than getting in (with Mac still playing). Then again about 12-15 years ago with Jeff Beck opening for Santana. Half of about 12-15,000 left on Santana when he ranted on about hugging whales and saving trees. Lesson learned: Don't ever follow Jeff Beck in concert.
 
#347
Blueinred said:
Saw Emerson, Lake and Palmer open for The James Gang in the early 70's and half the crowd of about 17,000 left within a half hour of The James Gang set due to ELP just out everythinging them. Same thing in '79 when Jeff Beck opened for Fleetwood Mac (at the height of their "Rumours" era) and FM just couldn't match up. About 23,000 at that show and it was more crowded leaving than getting in (with Mac still playing). Then again about 12-15 years ago with Jeff Beck opening for Santana. Half of about 12-15,000 left on Santana when he ranted on about hugging whales and saving trees. Lesson learned: Don't ever follow Jeff Beck in concert.
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A friend of mine said the same thing. Went to see Beck and Santana, expecting Carlos to be the dazzler. He said there was no comparison. Jeff Beck was flat-out awesome, while Santana was underwhelming.
 
#348
My band was auditioning for a house band gig in a club a long time ago. Each of the 7 bands got 30 minutes. We were waiting to go on right after a group named Falling Rock. They were so bad that after the second song, members of the audience went up to the sides of the stage where the outlets were and unplugges their amps. Then we had to go on... :eek:
(we got the gig)
 
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#349
I have seen a whole lot of less than inspiring shows. There were a couple bands I saw on Saturday evening that may as well have played the exact same song over and over again. Yeah, they were polished, but all of their songs sounded identical and identically overamplified. They didn't even change the key the songs were in.
 
#350
Too many "local" bands to remember. But, on the national level.....Stone Temple Pilots back in 1993 when they opened for Megadeth of all people on the Countdown to Extinction Tour. Back then metal was still segregated from Alt/Grunge (or whatever you want to call it). I think they did 2 songs before leaving the stage due to flying objects, angry leather clad youths, and enough jeers to fill the arena. That concert really sticks out in my mind....I was a HUGE STP fan and loved their music from Core, but a bad choice of band pairings and they were just horrible. The guitar was badly out of tune, Scott's vocals were slurred and wrong, and I swear they were still wasted from 3 days before that show.
 
#353
Lite rock band that I subbed for called "Electrolite".

Extremely derivative, nauseating vocals, ridiculously boring.

This might sound mean but I am being quite reserved.

I only said yes to subbing because the drummer is a good friend of mine, the original Bassplayer (Harry) was a great player and his abilities were really wasted in this band.
 
#355
Lukc said:
Jeez, I hope you all know that I made this thread when I was in high school, started becoming too busy to come here often and so I left. Since then I've graduated from high school, worked in Germany, got fired, and started a band again and came to ask some questions on TB. My surprise when I discovered that this thread is still alive and kicking...
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OH, so it's YOUR fault I'm wasting my time reading this!:D
 
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#356
Most disappointing performance that comes to mind is Foo Fighters at the Virgin Mobile Music Festival a few years ago. Certainly not epically bad, but I quickly tired/bored of Dave's incessant screaming through every song. The only dynamic was "over the top". Must be his thing, as there was much of the same on last year's Wembley DVD. Does he really need to scream "OK...HERE WE GO!!!" before every verse?

Locally... a few weeks ago, I went to see our former drummer's new cover band at a venue we play at regularly. I hate to say it, but they were dreadful. Drummer improvised every song badly with the same beat ("doontah-flatuh-doontah-flatah"), with horrible tempo and meter. Couldn't hear the guitars at all. Many off-key passages in several songs. Couldn't start or end a single song on the right beat, and the end of every song sounded like pots and pans falling out of the cupboard. There were maybe 30 people in the bar, all as far away from the stage as possible. The band had 3 people in the area in front of the stage (wife & two friends). It kills me, because it's bands like this that give otherwise good venues a bad name.
 
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#359
Obese Chess said:
Christeene was a drag queen in a g-string who spent her set screeching obscenities and racial slurs into a microphone over too-loud electronic beats. She would occasionally stop to throw rolls of toilet paper at the audience and finished her set by removing her buttplug and hurling it into the audience.
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Thanks for the laugh, and +1 for the visual.

I knew a member of Jeff Lorber's touring lineup in the mid 80s, and I was comped into a couple of their shows. All of the musicians were truly excellent, with the exception of one guitar player who I noticed was the only member that was replaced the following year. That dude did not hit a single lick in key the entire night, but seemed oblivious even as he trainwrecked his way from one tune to the next. He was formerly a member of another fairly well-known band and I won't name names - even though I know he had a better degree of competency and technique with "the other" band - but I could not for the life of me figure out why he was touring with Lorber. He was astonishingly bad and demonstrated no understanding whatsoever of that musical style. I felt embarrassed for the guy.
 
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#360
Flyingfrets said:
May of '83, took my then girlfriend to see Journey for her birthday. They were probably at the peak of their fame right about then. In fairness, I appreciated what I'd heard of the musicianship on the radio, but was never really much of a fan. Talk about dull, lifeless & by-the-numbers...not engaging in any way and though I can't swear it, I believe a good portion of it was "canned."

By contrast, the opening act (The Greg Kihn Band) blew Journey off their own stage. I had no idea who they were until they tore into "The Breakup Song," but 10 minutes into their set, every seat in the Garden was filled, the house lights came down and the crowd really got into what I'd still consider one of the best sets I've ever seen an opener pull off. Wasn't particularly a fan of that style of pop, but the interaction with the audience, the selection of music & the energy they put into it seriously earned my respect. To their credit, Journey allowed them to answer the crowd howling for an encore...twice.

I realize there's a lot more to the equation than just that night, but based on my experience that evening, I still think it unjust that everybody still knows Journey, but mention Greg Kihn and you usually get a blank stare.
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I quit a band because the singer always wanted to play The Breakup Song ,twice , at every gig.
 

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