Bands you love(d) who are terrible Live

[CaledonianGonzo]

On the other hand, At The Drive-In rocked like a mutha live

[Peking O]

I saw Deerhunter last week and they were massively disappointing. I love the album, but they were a shambolic mess live. Admittedly they have lost a band member recently, but I'm not convinced it was all down to that. It sounded like each member was playing a different song, and they'd only met about five minutes before the gig started.

[The Plunger]

I saw Smashing Pumpkins recently in Glasgow and they were god-awful. I should've expected nothing less I spose, but it was still a crushing disappointment. Ridiculous 5 minute guitar solos (including a Star Spangled Banner effort that was roundly booed by the crowd), a lightshow that burned my retinas and ensured you couldn't actually see the band onstage, and a strange setlist. Again, I should probably have expected all three of those things. But hey, you live in hope.

[actwithoutwords]

Turn On the Bright Lights is one of my favourite albums, but Interpol are largely diffident bollocks live.
The Franz Ferdinand live CD that came with early copies of their debut album is an absolute embarrassment. In fairness to them, they did eventually learn how to play their own songs.

[TC Raymond]

I think I should mention that I saw BB King live a few years ago.

Here, to the best of my recollection, is what the gig was like.

Band walk on stage. Audience applauds.

Band do a twelve-bar boogie. This goes on for some time.

Band member says "Mr BB King!". Audience applauds. BB King does not appear. Band continues playing twelve-bar boogie.

A minute or so later...

Band member says "Mr BB King!". Audience applauds. BB King does not appear. Band continues playing twelve-bar boogie.

This happens a couple more times. When the audience doesn't applaud, thinking they're wise to this extremely tiresome 'joke', BB Kind walks out. Audience goes nuts, predictably.

BB King sings a bit. When he's finished, band member says "Mr BB King!". BB King plays a guitar solo. Band member says "Mr BB King!". BB King sings a bit. (Repeat ad nauseum.)

I left after two songs.

[samadriel]

Now you know how we feel.

[thugler]

On the other hand, At The Drive-In rocked like a mutha live

no they fucking didn't.

[rudi]

I left after two songs.

You should have stayed. Apparently he played for ages and did all kinds of groovy stuff. My buddy who went reported it as "amazing" and he's quite picky.

[CaledonianGonzo]

no they fucking didn't.

I'll admit to having reached the conlusion from a limited sample, but in the one lone instance of my survey (Glasgow Arches in December 2000), they fucking did.  I concede that at every single gig they did other than that one they might have been pish.  I also concede that I'm no metallist, so compared to, say, Mastodon or Goblin Cock, they probably didn't 'rock' either.  

I enjoyed it, though.  Aside from shouting at the audience to stop moshing a couple of times, it were a blast.  I must have been in a noisy rock mood, cos I recall seeing ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead the same week and they were good as well.

[Hypodeemic Nerdle]

I'll admit to having reached the conlusion from a limited sample, but in the one lone instance of my survey (Glasgow Arches in December 2000), they fucking did.

They did at the Star & Garter in M/cr too, the year before Relationship of Command was released.  So in conclusion - go fist yourself, Thugface.

[thugler]

I just always thought the singer never bothered to sing properly due to concentrating on gyrating wildly. That was my only problem with them. I was a bit harsh..

[CaledonianGonzo]

I think its true that an amount of over-exertion on stage can have a negtive impact on the qulity of the music - its hard to be a superb musician if you're running and jumping about all over the place.  The infamous Jools Holland appearance shows that the musicianship does suffer cos they are bouncing about, but it's fun to watch.  There is an inverse though, where being overly-studious and sitting on a stool being musicianly is no fun, either.  Most bands strike a happy medium, and even if At The Drive In went too far into the 'bouncy' mode, I still found it quite thrilling stuff.

I should draw a graph to illustrate this, shouldn't I?  Shouldn't I?

[alan nagsworth]

The short answer is yes.

[Neville Chamberlain]

The long answer is yes I think you ought to probably bloody well should.

[Regular Chicken]

Where's the fucking graph!??

[alan nagsworth]

That's a pretty good long answer. Mine was gonna be simple, and dignified.

Yes please 'cause DAMN I'M GOIN' OUTTA MY HEAD OVER HERE!!!

[CaledonianGonzo]

And its massive border!  

(I used to do this for a living and the axes are still all fucked up.  Oh well.)

[alan nagsworth]

What the hell? The outline for the unloaded image appeared, and then the whole thing disappeared and your post is now void of even the blank space wuich it should fill.... anyone else getting this?

[Neville Chamberlain]

Yeah, me too. I NEED TO SAVE THIS GRAPH, DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[CaledonianGonzo]

Such is the awesomeness of the graph, its created a rupture in the time-space continuum.

[alan nagsworth]

Man, don't make jokes! Don't make fun of this situation upon which we are all so highly strung!

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I've often heard that Mansun were awful live. Sadly I never saw them onstage so I could never find out if this was true, although if it was then perhaps it's better that I didn't.

Ian Brown pretty much goes without saying I suppose, but when I've seen him the badness wasn't due to his singing at all (in fact he sounded in fine voice at Glastonbury 2005) but rather his shitty aggressive attitude and contempt for the audience.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Man, don't make jokes! Don't make fun of this situation upon which we are all so highly strung!

I can still see it.  Oh...wait..I understand now....this is embarassing.  To see the graph, you need (like most of us here) to have been initiated into the Oscillations Illuminati.  Only then will you be considered worthy to be privvy to such sacred secrets

[alan nagsworth]

Shit.... SHIT. Is this one of those Dan Brown 'read all my books cuz dey r totaly not rip offs' things? Is the secret hidden in the cool writing that reads the same if you hold it upside down?

[The Plunger]

I've often heard that Mansun were awful live. Sadly I never saw them onstage so I could never find out if this was true, although if it was then perhaps it's better that I didn't.

No, I saw them at the Barras and they were fantastic. The gig culminated in a ten-minute version of Take It Easy Chicken which was unbelievable.

Actually, I saw them a few years later at King Tuts just before they split up and they were ace there as well. So there you have it - conclusive evidence that they were very good live (in Glasgow anyway).

[thugler]

I think its true that an amount of over-exertion on stage can have a negtive impact on the qulity of the music - its hard to be a superb musician if you're running and jumping about all over the place.  The infamous Jools Holland appearance shows that the musicianship does suffer cos they are bouncing about, but it's fun to watch.  There is an inverse though, where being overly-studious and sitting on a stool being musicianly is no fun, either.  Most bands strike a happy medium, and even if At The Drive In went too far into the 'bouncy' mode, I still found it quite thrilling stuff.

I should draw a graph to illustrate this, shouldn't I?  Shouldn't I?

Yeah the jools holland performance is a prime example of what I meant. To me it's half the band bothering to play the song, and the other two fucking about to the extent that the whole performance is ruined. And I'm all for jumping about and improvising.

[samadriel]

Oh here you go.

[Hypodeemic Nerdle]

The only chart worth giving a cack about.

[CaledonianGonzo]

No, I saw them at the Barras and they were fantastic. The gig culminated in a ten-minute version of Take It Easy Chicken which was unbelievable.

Actually, I saw them a few years later at King Tuts just before they split up and they were ace there as well. So there you have it - conclusive evidence that they were very good live (in Glasgow anyway).

Perhaps they were inspired in their art by the awesomeness of the venues they were playing?  

There's a whole other thread in this, I think.  I remember being really keen to see a gig in the Brixton Academy cos it always won Melody Maker/NME polls as the best venue in Britain.  The ill-designed, atmosphere-free, audience-standing-with-their-arms-folded-during-the-Super-Furry-Animals cunt of a place that it is.

[23 Daves]

Brixton Academy is better than most other venues of an equivalent size in London, though - unfortunately.  And I do think that London can be one of the worst cities to see gigs, just because some audience members tend to think nothing of talking straight the way through something you've paid hard-earned cash to see.  People never believe me when I say that gigs in Portsmouth were always more fun.