maybe people just don't want to mention oasis because they suck so badly...
-di doctor-

Wow, where's the love for the pumpkins.

I gotta totally disagree, but like all these bands listed, I"m sure it just depends on the show, the crowd etc. Plus, I just feel you can't base your opinion on one show, maybe you happened to catch a show where the band member was sick, or something like that.

I will say I saw the pumpkins 10+ times and they always rocked, esp at the Metro, and say the Aragon, however those were smaller venues. In large venues such as the Lollapalooza tour in Ohio, and the United Center, I can see where it's not the best group to see, unless you're a really big fan. However I loved those too, cause I like the band so much. I don't know about Corgan's voice not sounding good, sounds just like the recordings at every show I went to, and that was plenty. I can see if you're saying you don't like it in general, I know plenty of people who don't like it in general because it seems whiny they say.

As far as me. I agree Live isn't a good show at all, seen then several times, and everytime they seemed very short w the show, and like they could careless if the fans were into it or not.

I also think Counting Crows is a bad show, because on more than one occasion I've seen then drag out already slow and rather boring songs.

Tool is a epic band so your going to see a drawn out 20 minute version of there all ready long songs,they have always done this, well ever since ive seen them in 95(8 times since then),IMO no one puts on a better show and ive seen 100s of shows,I guess I love there music so much it dont matter what I see as long as there playing the music that they made.

I heard No Qaurter for the first time live in 96 and about creamed my jeans,they only played for a little under a hour,only played about 7 or 8 songs and it was one of the best shows ever,I guess you just had to be there.

You lucky SOB! I would give anything to hear that live!

I'll second Tool for a bad show. Kinda funny because I really liked the atlanta show the day Lateralus came out (may 15th 2001? is that the right date?) on that mini 4 city tour they did. It was their first show in years and they played to a medium sized (2500) venue. It had a nice vibe in there. I even waited outside with my fresh new copy of lateralus and got it and my ticket stub signed by Adam, Justin and Danny (and talked to adam for what seemed like enternity at 4 in the morning outside the venue but it was about 60-90 seconds, very nice guys). I saw them 6 months later on their real tour and I saw the same damn show, only shorter. They don't change up their set lists at all (well, they do, but not really, they play the same damn boring encore of lateralus, disposition, reflection every damn time, without fail. They need to change it up a bit. That show is the reason I dislike tool with a passion now. Their shows used to have a lot of passion, but the last show seemed too much like post-modern masterbation.

Give me Fantomas, Melvins, Tomahawk, Mr. Bungle, Reverend Horton Heat, King CrimsonHank Williams the 3rd, El-P, Cannibal Ox, Meshuggah, Dillinger Escape Plan, Nile, M.I.R.V., Estradasphere any day over tool.

Also, for bad shows, George Clinton and the P-Funk all stars. Not a bad show really, but you could tell that if you wanted to have fun, you had to have been wasted. I was sober and bored to tears. I left after 2 hours (and ironcallly enough, 5 songs). Each song lasted about 25+ minutes.

I almost forgot, GOD LIVES UNDERWATER was pathetic last time they played here live.

You are right if someone only saw them once. I have seen them from the Metro up to Rosemont. I do like their studio albums very much but live they just don't cut it , everytime I have seen them. They are boring and, of course this is all my opinion, BC"s voice is not very good at all live.

The last show I saw the SP was opening up for Cheap Trick at the Metro and that just sealed it. It was just plain awful. However, there are many fans that don't agree with me at all.

I have to jump in here and defend not only the band, but the lead singer. If you're talking about their show this past February, there's a reason why the lead singer didn't want to be there. I live in D.C. and caught their show at the Birchmere. And this show had to be within a day or two before (or after) Ohio. We're just too close. Anyway, the lead singer (at my show) was sick as a dog. She stood there holding her chest the whole time she performed. And someone kept bringing her hot tea the entire time. Now that's pretty dedicated. I'll admit, it took her one and half songs before her voice really kicked in (thanks to the tea). But she apolgized to the crowd and said she was feeling terrible. I felt really bad for her. Despite all this, she turned in a great performance. And the band were very good. I didn't expect that. Before their latest album (which is great), I wasn't a huge fan of theirs. So I didn't know what to expect live. And yes, you're right, Luce were great too. Tell me, did you think the one guitar player looked like Dennis Quaid?

avril lavigne might be a good candidate.

i havent seen her live and in person, but of what live situations i've seen, it appears that while she may seem to lead a reasonably entertaining show, she also reveals that her voice has an altogether different (and less enjoyable) sound.

I'll probably get flamed for this but I finally saw Pearl Jam about 3 years ago, and I was less than impressed. It was partly the venue, partly the show. I mean they only played for like 90 minutes. This from a band that had 6 albums to date and countless b-sides the fans love. WTF?

But the venue was terrible. That was mostly the problem.

Also, I saw Metallica in Rupp Arena(Lexington, KY) a couple of years ago (a replacement show for the Summer Sanitarium shows Hetfield missed). I love metallica, but Rupp has to be the WORST venue ever for a concert. And the sad thing is most acts are going there instead of Freedom Hall(Louisville, KY) becase it seats maybe 3,000 more people. The acoustics are the absolute worse. They would make it halfway through a song before you could even recognize what it was. Freedom Hall on the other hand has amazing acoustics. I've never had a bad show there because of the venue. That being said, I know I will miss some great acts, but I will NEVER attend another show at Rupp Arena. It is ashamed the band doesn't do research on those kinda things, they just see what arena seats more. $$$!

Worst concert in recent memory, and it pains me to say this, Siouxsie and the Banshees. On their Seven Year Itch Tour last year. Caught them in NYC and it was terrible. I've been a SATB fan since the early 80's and never had the chance to see them live. But I did see Siouxsie's other band The Creatures on their last tour and that was great. So I was a little shocked how one could be so good and the other....that bad. I went with a huge group of friends and we all felt the same. They looked great. But that was it

My list of "me too's":

- Siouxsie and the Banshees "Seven Year Itch" tour, Siouxsie's voice was shot to hell and the lighting rig with the 12,000 watt spotlights beamed directly into the audience on the balcony for the WHOLE FRIGGIN' SHOW made it impossible to "watch." People were leaving the balcony in a mass exodus because it was literally painful to try and keep your eyes open without burning your retinas and involuntarily crying.

- Smashing Pumpkins did occasionally suck live. Especially the first set of their final arena-sized show at the United Center in Chicago. Scorched earth feedback white noise for like 40 minutes. Completely unintelligible singing, no discernable tune. Just "effin'" awful. It wasn't until later in the evening when they turned the amps down below "11" that the concert started to "take off."

- Moby. Bumbling around on-stage, doing Spike Jones' level breakdancing to midi-ed tunes just isn't "performing." But then again, I was dragged to the show. So I wasn't exactly in the best frame of mind to begin with.

- And yes, Tool. Most. Pretentious. Band. Ever. Maynard's not "deep." He's just a frustrated drag-queen with second-hand knowledge of what constitutes "kink."

My additions:

- Erasure. Oy. Andy Bell's voice is stunning as ever, but I've never seen another electronic act be so blatant about the fact that their music is pre-recorded and canned. Vince Clark literally climbed the two story DAT machine and made a very theatrical show of pushing the button to start the DAT tape.

- Sting. "Bring on the Night" tour. How 'bout bringing the hits, you pompous jazz-man wannabe? Anything but the meandering neo-soul, multi-cultural world-beat sludge he dished up on that tour. All I wanted to hear was "Moon over Bourbon Street." Was that so hard?

There, that's good for now.

I'm sure I'll think of others as the day goes on . . .

Your SATB show, NYC too? Because I was way way in the back on the floor (my choice) and I too way blinded way back there. What was THAT all about!?

And Erasure? Here I swore I would never to see them again after Andy Bell skipped out on the stage in a dress on the "Wild" tour (wayyyy too camp for me, sorry). And if that weren't bad enough, the show itself was lousy. But my friends talked me into going to see them on this last tour. I've never seen a show with more technical problems. Not only the flat screen TV with images. But the pre-recorded music kept failing (and going in and out). Don't get me started on Andy's get up on THIS tour. Last time I'll be seeing them. Too bad. They record some pretty decent pop tunes from time to time.

Can I add as well:

Morrissey the last time he came through my town. He was so great the time before that. But this past tour, he sucked. His performance was phoned in. And he changed the arrangements on most of his songs. It didn't work. At least for me.

Also, I was disappointed on the Bowie/NIN show when they toured a few years ago. NIN were great (of course), but Bowie didn't play any older tunes. Which kind of ticked off the crowd.

I agree totally about Black Dice. I saw them open up for Godspeed You Black Emperor and it was painful. Easily the worst performance I've ever seen. The first two minutes was great and fooled me into thinking I was going to hear something really different and interesting, but all I heard was noise, and not good noise. It made me feel really old, until I looked around and saw that everyone was covering their ears with their hands.

I hadn't heard any of their music before, so after the show I downloaded on of their songs and it was all birds chirping and waterfalls. I'm not really sure what to think of them now.

Zwan - at last December HFS'mas gig. The songs just played on forever. Tedious is an understatemet.

Badly Drawn Boy - maybe it was just that the show was nearly three hours in length, most of the time his annoying banter. The show was a torture to endure.

The The - saw them a couple of years back in Philadelphia on my birthday and they didn't compare to the amazing show they had put on a number years back on their "Dusk" tour. It didn't help that every minute a fan would take a picture of the band throught their entire set to flashing flashbulbs - enough!

Andrew WK - the only show I actually walked out of. Way overrated.

By any chance are you referring to the tour where they opened for Depeche Mode? If so, I thought they (he?) were pretty awful. I prefer early The The anyway.

And Andrew WK? You said it. WTF!?

God Lives Underwater gave a few awful performances and a few great ones the numerous times I saw them in 1998. It generally depended on how sober the singer was.

Clinic. I love them, and I've seen them twice, both last year. In Philly, at the TLA, the sound was awful. In NYC at Irving Plaza the sound was much better. However, they NEVER play longer than 30-40 minutes, and that's as the headliner. Granted, they run through 18-20 songs in that time, but still, at least play an hour.

Where did you see them?

I have to agree that Tool was less than impressive, for me. I had already seen the DVD, and had all the albums, so I already knew they were great musicians. Like somebody said before, when I go to a concert I'm looking to get the bonus that I don't get when I'm sitting at home listening to the CD. I didn't feel I got that at the Tool show... unless you count the dozens of stoners tripping on shrooms, staring at the psychodelic imagery floating in front of them telling me "man, this is awesome!! Tool rocks!!!", and driving home stinking like a 4 week old bong and dog piss as bonuses!?

I don't mean to rag on Tool too much, their shows just seem to be a love it or hate scenario. Everybody I've ever talked to that's ever been to one has had one or the other opinion. It's about a 50-50 split, but I will say that everybody thought their musicianship was amazing. You're either into their type of show, or you're not. I'm not.

I agree with that, I've seen them twice (admittedly, both times as an opening act), and both times they sucked.

I saw in the Dallas News that they were going to be in Dallas, and I considered going. Then I remembered how bad the Pumpkins sucked in OKC, so I decided that this would be even worse.

fool me once Billy Corgan, shame on you.....

Anyway, at least your story is a variation on how the pumpkins suck live

Yeah, I hear ya.

IThe united center I show, I saw was terrible, however I've yet to see a concert at uc that I thought was good. That place sucks for show, it's just like a bulls games, everybody sits on their hands and stuff.

U2 last time there was a decent show though, but hoping Pearl Jam can pull it off there this year.

The only time I saw the Pumpkins live were at England's Reading Music Festival and they actually surprised me in that it was nowhere as bad as Zwan. The pumpkins actually premiered "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" before the album came out.

Actually the show I was referring to was one of their own shows. The only other time I saw them was when they were playing at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium - it was great!

That would make sense then if she was ill, and I do totally appreciate that she still performed, especially because I had driven my S/O all the way up to Cleveland for the weekend to celebrate his birthday. I'd be willing to give them a second chance

I've only been to 3 concerts in my life. 2 Tool, 1 Pearl Jam.

I understand where both the praise and the hate for the Tool shows come from, in fact - it's very easy to see. The first concert of their I went to, I absorbed it as a show - it was like a huge production with a lot of visual imagery and emotion actually mixed in. The second show wasn't as high in terms of production, wasn't as tripped out, but seemed a bit more personal (due in part I suppose to Maynard's dad being the audience.) and had some excellent changes in a few classic songs (Sober, Stinkfist, Opiate had some distinct and really interesting (not just extension) changes that weren't present when they played at the venure prior.)

I guess it's just up to what you're expecting, I do agree tho - it wouldn't be nearly as cool at a small venue.

I need to get out more though, so what do I know?

What show? I saw them 3 times on the 2000 tour (8 times total), and they've never played less than 2 hours 10 minutes.

Respectfully, I don't think you can be remembering this correctly. Also, I'd like to know what venue, so I can avoid it.