Who was/is the worst live band ever?

[SystematicThought]

Rappers actually usually have pretty tight backing bands. Especially Jay-Z with Tony Royster Jr. on drums and Usher with Aaron Spears.

I think the worst one was maybe Death Cab For Cutie. I guess I just wasn't into the music that much. I just didn't enjoy it.

The best I've seen recently would be Ghost or Bon Jovi. While the worst would definitely be most recently Umphrey's McGee. I'll stick with studio stuff.. Live just didn't do it for me

[Perpetual Change]

Rappers actually usually have pretty tight backing bands. Especially Jay-Z with Tony Royster Jr. on drums and Usher with Aaron Spears.

Well, keep in mind the degree to which Jay Z has raised the bar for rap music.

In addition to Jay Z, I've seen T-Pain, Rick Ross, Swizz Beats, Ludacris, and a few other guys, and most of them were absolutely horrendous. I guess Ludacris was OK.

[Kotowboy]

Spector or Vampire Weekend or one of those bands that are more interested about how their hair and jumpers look than the actual songs they write.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dzTp-rPRVM

^ This is just atrocious on so many levels.

hey Guys - I know how to play a barre chord - can I be in your band ? I know a guy with a drumkit who can't play - can he join too ?

WHY NOT !

[ColdFireYYZ]

While the worst would definitely be most recently Umphrey's McGee. I'll stick with studio stuff.. Live just didn't do it for me

I'm not familiar with their studio stuff, but I listened to a bootleg and thought it was pretty good. And I've heard that they're excellent live. Was there a lot of improv that's not on the albums?

[Jaq]

Spector or Vampire Weekend or one of those bands that are more interested about how their hair and jumpers look than the actual songs they write.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dzTp-rPRVM

^ This is just atrocious on so many levels.

hey Guys - I know how to play a barre chord - can I be in your band ? I know a guy with a drumkit who can't play - can he join too ?

WHY NOT !

See now, this is just plain a fucking bad band.  This thread is about bands that are brilliant in the studio and awful live. 

[Kotowboy]

When I saw them on Jools on TV they made me fucking angry.

I spend years learning my instrument and practicing til my hands hurt - played in bands and worked really hard to get noticed and got a reputation for being one of the best & most original bands in our area . . . Moved to London and worked our arses off and never got anywhere....

While these talentless cunts learn one chord and play the most generic shit you've ever heard and GET SIGNED.

[ZeppelinDT]

Pear Jam.

Sounds tasty.  I might have to pick some up to put in my oatmeal. 

Regarding Dylan, yeah, he's terrible live. I went with a gf of mine (even though I implored her to find a person who likes Dylan to go with her). The guy is shot, no better way to put it. They give him a keyboard to play on, but it's probably not even connected, it certainly never appeared in the mix. So, the guest musicians do the show!b and the vocals are barely audible so that you're reminded of the song, but don't hear how the guy sounds like a post-10 Johnny Walker shots singer.

I love Bob Dylan. And having seen some footage of him in the 60's/early 70's, I would kill to have been at one of those shows because it seems like he put on a great show back then. But I saw him live a couple of years ago and I would say that it was the worst concert I've ever been to (and at this point I've been to about 300). The only other artist that even came close to being that terrible was David Lee Roth. He was so bad that we actually walked out. (We were only really there in the first place to see Sammy Hagar, who was awesome).

And speaking of bands sucking it up way past their prime, I think the winner of this thread might just have to be the modern day Rolling Stones. These two videos are both from the OFFICIAL Rolling Stones YouTube channel. If this is the stuff they're choosing to highlight, I can't even imagine the stuff that they don't want people seeing...

Exhibit A:  https://youtu.be/lLRD1R8GNgY

Exhibit B: https://youtu.be/7CRmt0JTSNc

[SystematicThought]

I'm not familiar with their studio stuff, but I listened to a bootleg and thought it was pretty good. And I've heard that they're excellent live. Was there a lot of improv that's not on the albums?

Don't get me wrong, they were tight as hell and can really play. But every single song delved into improv. Take the song Miss Tinkle's Overture for instance. That song is 5 minutes on the album, it was around 18 minutes live and the jams kind of seemed tedious. I still love Umphrey's, but it kind of got repetitive. I'll stick with studio

That was also the first show where the audience made me feel uncomfortable. It was general admission and I've been to plenty of those at this venue and I've never had personal space invaded so much and a large portion of the audience was talking throughout the show. The amount of weed too....It was worse than a Roger Waters show. That kind of got annoying.

[Kotowboy]

If you can bear the audio - this is a really great anecdote from Corey Taylor about going to see the Nu Guns N Roses.

It's really well told and is everything you've come to expect from Taylor as a raconteur and GNR as a non-functioning entity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxCs9HpoCtA

[rumborak]

Wow are the Rolling Stones bad. That is at times at the level of those overdubbed parody videos.

[antigoon]

There's something fishy about that first rolling stones video...

[rumborak]

It's the official Rolling Stones YouTube channel.

[Perpetual Change]

Geez guys!

For a forum of enthusiasts of a band who's singer has performed with great inconsistency since his mid-20's, you guys sure are harsh on 70+ year old singers



Mick still sounds better than Gwen in that video, btw.

[ColdFireYYZ]

I'm not familiar with their studio stuff, but I listened to a bootleg and thought it was pretty good. And I've heard that they're excellent live. Was there a lot of improv that's not on the albums?

Don't get me wrong, they were tight as hell and can really play. But every single song delved into improv. Take the song Miss Tinkle's Overture for instance. That song is 5 minutes on the album, it was around 18 minutes live and the jams kind of seemed tedious. I still love Umphrey's, but it kind of got repetitive. I'll stick with studio

That was also the first show where the audience made me feel uncomfortable. It was general admission and I've been to plenty of those at this venue and I've never had personal space invaded so much and a large portion of the audience was talking throughout the show. The amount of weed too....It was worse than a Roger Waters show. That kind of got annoying.

I like improv, but occasionally it becomes too much for me. However, I did I really enjoyed the Allman Brother's when I saw them a few years ago, and they jammed A LOT. I hear you on the audience thing. I hate when audiences talk throughout shows, and it can almost ruin a show.

[rumborak]

Geez guys!

For a forum of enthusiasts of a band who's singer has performed with great inconsistency since his mid-20's, you guys sure are harsh on 70+ year old singers



Mick still sounds better than Gwen in that video, btw.

Well, I have never been a fan of theirs because I've always found their performances borderline hackish, but those videos are comical. Let's face it, a Rolling Stones tribute band would get booed off-stage with that performance.

[Perpetual Change]

Yeah, I agree, but when you're going to see a group of 60-70 +/- guys play, I think it's probably because you want to see them, not because you're expecting it to be that good. I dunno, though. I'm sure a few people do get duped into going expecting to see a top-notch performance.

[kirksnosehair]

Rush. Saw them at the end of....I don't know what tour. They essentially played their greatest hits disc, with drum solo verbatim. I could have stayed home and listened to the cd. It was flat, uninspired and then it ended. I wouldn't see them again if I had free tickets.

I saw Rush pretty soon after the release of "Vapor Trails" (an album I enjoyed musically, but production rendered unlistenable) and to this day I'd rank it as one of the worst concerts I've ever seen.  Everything about it was bad.  The sound, the mix, the song selection...ugh.  Contrast that to when I saw them back around  '81 or '82 - they were absolutely stunning 

[cyberdrummer]

Dragonforce perhaps?

First band that came to mind. I saw them in 2006 and they were so bad I had to laugh.

I'd also like to defend Pearl Jam - I've seen them three times (all at festivals, I might add) and they were just incredible. So much energy and they always put together a good mix of crowd pleasers and rarities.

And Taking Back Sunday, while I admit they can sometimes be a bit sloppy, put on one of the best shows I've been to a couple of years ago, just after the original lineup had reunited.

[utopiarun]

I saw The Cars in 1980 a week after seeing a sterling Boz Scaggs show at Radio City and they were awful. Just stood there and played mechanically, I know that's their type of sound but after seeing Boz this show was just a complete borefest.

It may sound like sacrilege but I was very disappointed in Flying Colors when I saw them in NYC. I know it was only their second show but they were kind of out of sync and all I remember from the show is that damn Casey tuning his guitar throughout the show looking totally disinterested.

[Kotowboy]

I'd like to flip this around for a moment.

U2 are always better live than on CD. The songs in the studio are castrated by Brian Eno and Danny Lanois compressing the shit out of everything, making the drums sound like a cheapy drum machine and making Edge turn the gain down.



Eno notoriously hates guitar distortion so why do U2 keep hiring him to produce their rock albums ?

No Line On The Horizon seriously had no dynamics and All That You can't Leave Behind was just as bad.

But live - the songs breathe and have some oomph and Edge can let loose a bit more.

[KevShmev]

Agree, Kotowboy.  U2 has countless songs that I almost always listen to a live version over the studio version (there is no other band I can say that about).  The only problem with the newer stuff is Bono struggles with the vocals live now (damn Father Time taking his great live voice away), so while the music and sound is always better in the live versions, the vocals not being as good often takes away from it.  City of Blinding Lights is a good example, as the music in live versions is a million times better, but he often struggles to sing it, to the point where he always talks the verses (similar to how he talks the verses of With or Without You now).  On the flip side, I absolutely adore the studio version of Ultraviolet (Light My Way), but I rarely listen to it anymore since the live version from U2360 is so freaking awesome.

[Hayden]

I've heard that System of a Down is pretty terrible live. I've never actually seen them live but I've watched some live footage and it was downright awful. I'm not sure if they were having a bad day, but man their vocalists were beyond terrible in the videos I watched.

Out of curiosity I looked up some more of their live music on youtube and it was actually pretty decent so I take that back  I guess I just happened to see a video of one of their weaker performances a while back.

Yeah, their live performances have been a LOT tighter in recent years. I saw them at the 2012 Soundwave, and they were damn near perfect, but they have definitely had some shocking performances in their time.

Dragonforce perhaps? Although I saw them live many years ago and they put on a really fun show that sounded pretty good, but when listening to recordings they do sound hilariously bad in terms of the number of mistakes and amount of really sloppy playing.

I saw them at this year's Soundwave, and they were actually one of my unexpected highlights. I went there expecting it to be sloppy and underwhelming, but their set was actually fast, precise, impressive and very energetic. It'll be the last time I pre-suppose a band's live quality based off of what people on the internet say.

[Kotowboy]

Agree, Kotowboy.  U2 has countless songs that I almost always listen to a live version over the studio version (there is no other band I can say that about).  The only problem with the newer stuff is Bono struggles with the vocals live now (damn Father Time taking his great live voice away), so while the music and sound is always better in the live versions, the vocals not being as good often takes away from it.  City of Blinding Lights is a good example, as the music in live versions is a million times better, but he often struggles to sing it, to the point where he always talks the verses (similar to how he talks the verses of With or Without You now).  On the flip side, I absolutely adore the studio version of Ultraviolet (Light My Way), but I rarely listen to it anymore since the live version from U2360 is so freaking awesome.

I was just listening to that version of Ultraviolet again today.

I wasn't aware of it before despite owning Achtung Baby in the past. I didn't play that CD much after the first few songs...

But when I heard it on the 360 DVD I was almost in tears at how gorgeous it is.

Also there's a beautiful and really emotional version of Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own live from U2 HQ on one of their singles.

It's just amazing and so much better than the CD version.

I just think they take too long in the studio - agonize over every note and then they strangle the songs.



They said they were planning a new album after "....Horizon" but - [ assuming it's out in early 2014 ] - again they've taken 5 years to put it out - which ties with Horizon as the longest gap between albums. It'll probably have a few decent songs on it and a lot of filler.

I always think U2 are at their best when they sound like U2 - bar Achtung Baby, their experimental albums have always been poor.

[rumborak]

DT used to be a pretty lousy live band performance-wise. I remember seeing them on the Awake tour and there was nothing happening on stage. Perfect execution of the songs, but other than that salt columns.

[Perpetual Change]

They're not salt columns now?

In all honesty, I don't blame them. Every DT show I've been to has been attended mainly by salt columns, so it's obviously just not part of what they do/what people look for from them.