It can be a hell of a nasty suprise to find that a band does not live up to expectations live. Anyone have any bad expierences?

Some of mine-

Tool at the Chicago Riv- I am a huge Tool fan and just couldn't believe what a lifeless show this was. I wouldn't be suprised in the least if someone told me that the entire show was performed by a lip syncing stand-in. Basically you got Maynard standing on a platform about 25 feet back from the front of the stage (thus greatly reducing the thrill of a small venue show), sorta swaying around. You definitely got the feeling that he would much rather be doing something else. There was also the treat of the concert stopping in the middle for a big screen viewing of the video for Schism - If I want to watch a video, I'll turn on MTV, thank you very much. All in all a sterile, boring performance. If Maynard himself were to offer to pay me to attend another show, I'd still have to think her over for a while.

Butthole Surfers at the Chicago Vic - Just not what I was expecting. What you got was Gibby Haynes perched on a stool, playng some Surfers standards but electronicizing the hell out of them. He would perform a song the way you know it, and then sample a ton of guitar riffs and electronic beats, loop them over and over, light up a cigarette, and fiddle with some buttons for ten minutes. Seemed like something he should be doing when tinkering around in his basement, not on stage.

No offense but your nuts. Tool puts on one of the best shows today.

I had this sort of creeping fear that the first response would come from you

Just for the sake of reference, what are some other bands that you feel put on a good show?

Well It just amazes me that someone can say this about Tool. They are known for putting on amazing shows. Every show I have been to (thats alot) the energy in the room was so thick you couldnt even breath! These 4 men are all about extremely tight musicianship, they let their instruments do all the work. They only played the Schism video during their earlier Lateralus shows sort of as a debut for the video, so you must have caught them during that period. Their 2002 shows were completely different, scenery wise from their 2001 shows. They had two huge video monitors, a huge amazing art backdrop from Alex Grey that changed with every song + an amazing light show, All that on top of amazing musicians, especially Danny!, I dont know what else you could ask for live?? As to what other bands I go see live, I dont anymore...basically because Tool has spoiled me & no one else compares to them live....just my humble opinion

Fair enough, different opinions are always good. The reason I asked about other bands is because I thought I might have become kinda spoiled - Big fancy productions like the Tool show can be interesting, but I've gotten used to much smaller shows...the kind of shows where you could reach out and grab the singer's leg if you really wanted to.

There is no doubt that there is amazing musicianship going on in a Tool show, but by that same token there is amazing musicianship on the albums. I guess what I expect out of a live show is personality, energy, a sense from the band that they're actually happy to be up there, and good music. To be sure, there was plenty of good music at the Tool show, but I felt like the personality, energy, and happiness were just not there, replaced instead with slick visuals and flashing lights. When I go to see a band all I want is to see is music being played - save the fancy visuals for the music videos.

I wasn't overly impressed with AC/DC. They played all the hits, and did what they were supposed to do, and didn't take too many chances. Yes, this is basically all that KISS ever does, but I've always found KISS shows to be entertaining, whereas I thought AC/DC just came off flat. Maybe it was just an off night or something.

Regarding Tool, I don't know and really don't care, but from what I've always heard they do work to put on a good live show, that doesn't disappoint their fans.

No offense but you're nuts.
Seriously, both times I saw the Buttholes they were great. Gibby Hanes enjoyed shooting off a shotgun on stage. They played a nice mix of their songs. The last time I saw them was on the Independent Worm Saloon tour though.

I agree with the initial Tool opinion.

While they may do a good job providing visuals, and creating an atmosphere, there is something horribly pretentious about the songs they play vs. how much you pay.

I used to be a huge Tool fan when I was younger, but the last nail in the coffin for me was their live show. They extend songs by playing the same riff over and over, in a completely calculated way. This does not make the song better, it simply wastes time. There's nothing random or interesting about rehearsing simple extensions and then repeating them for unbearable lengths. The amount of time spent on the 'intermission' or what they'd call it was ridiculous. It also isn't that representitive of their career, and thereby catering to as many of their paying customers. One or two songs from Undertow, their most realized album. Reason why? Only one song is long enough to warrent their 'serious artistic' attitude. Please.

Then again, this is nothing that out of the ordinary for the band who created Lateralus. Go on tooting how much music is on the one CD, that doesn't make up for the filler and blandness that plagues their efforts to achieve this 'title.'

I've never seen a show that was disappointing in regards to the bands perfaormance... but if I had to choose, it would be seeing Fugazi and Shellac (both great bands) at the Congress Theater in Chicago in 1998. The aesthetic of the Congress is beautiful, but the sound in that place is horrid for seeing rock bands. "Echo" is the only word needed to descibe it. Both bands played fine, that wasn't the problem, the problem was having to practically guess as to what song they were playing at times. That's not a good thing when you've spent years listening to the songs and could probably name a song after hearing 2 seconds of it on record.


As was said earlier, I prefer shows where there's little or no seperation between band and audience. Once you've seen a great performance literally inches from your face, it makes being hundreds (or thousands) of feet away from the band seem like you're just watching a televised performance. The pinnacle of "up close and personal" so far for me was seeing Les Savy Fav 2 weeks ago. Their singer poured an entire bottle of water into my mouth from the stage, cut off some of my hair with a pocket knife, uh.. "fingered" my mouth, and even gave me some cake (it was the guitar players birthday, and cake was served to those up front ).

Another great example was when I saw The Fire Show at one of their last shows. You received an envelope with a raffle ticket inside, and certain ones had times written on them. So about 20 people or so got to see the band play by themselves for one minute, and they got their picture taken while watching and the one minute performance was recorded and burned to a cdr for them. Stuff like this reminds me why I spend about 50% of my life and probably 70% of my earnings on music.

[hijack] Glad to see that someone else has experienced the greatness that is Les Savy Fav's live show. I saw them at JMU and am also going to the May 8th show in DC. There is a good reason why people chanted, "BEST! SHOW! EVER!" after I saw them the first time. [/hijack]

Back on topic, I thought that Black Dice was incredibly boring when I saw them back in February. I think it had more to do with their style of music than their actual performance (even though their show consists of only 2 skinny guys writhing arhythmically, a seated guitarist, and a drummer with a counting-expression on his face). I guess I just feel incredibly disconnected from noise bands; there was never a tangible melody to latch on to, and while there might be moments that sounded "interesting" (opening tornado squall), there was never anything that I could sink my teeth into. It proved especially aggravating because one of my attending friends told me that Black Dice is "incredible."

On a sidebar, why is it so hard to believe that some people don't like a band's live performance? Just because you love it or because it is critically-lauded doesn't mean that anyone is obligated to appreciate their show. Lighten up, people.

Smashing Pumpkins...horrible, horrible show. It was just as Gish was coming out. I saw them at NIU and it was just terrible. Maybe it was the venue or because it was early in their career but it sucked.

Red Hot Chili Peppers are quite possibly the worst live band I have ever seen. They have fooled me twice but never again...they are truly a terrible live act.

As for Tool live (having seen them three times) Always an amazing show, only once limited by the shitty venue, but the energy was still there.

Worst band I have seen live is ironically, Live. The preachy hip shaking running around the stage like a frat boy thing did nothing for me. I actually feel asleep until Counting Crows came on.

I recently saw Lou Reed in concert. Now I know this is a man known for his inconsistency, but this concert was totally awful. His bland vocals were extremely overpowering to the lame guitar work. I just expected more. I couldn't "rock out" to anything the guy played. His shiny gold jacket was more exciting than the performance.

Agree with both. Pumpkins I have seen a few times and were horrible each and every time.

RHCP were really bad as well. This was during Navarros time on guitar.

All I can say is, it really was like I described. Sure, that might be some peoples bag, but it wasn't what I expected.

The show was a few months after the release of Weird Revolution.

I've heard the Pumpkins were terrible. Have never seen them.

Now, I've been to close to 300 concerts in my lifetime. And by far, the most boring one I've seen was Oasis. Hands down. Not a terrible show. But just so damn boring !! Looking around the venue, I sensed several people felt the same as me.

I've seen the Pumpkins live twice and they were pretty boring both times. The problem is, they basically all just stand there in one spot playing. Sure, I guess it sounded good, but they really didn't bring much life to the concert. First time was at 1993 Lollapalooza - they were the last act and I actually left halfway through them since it was so mediocre. 2nd time was a normal concert where Garbage opened for them. Garbage was very good live, but Pumpkins were just as bad as the first time I saw them, I was hoping the first time was just a fluke.

They must have changed. Both times I've seen them wasn't anything like you described. Was the full band with them?

From your statements I have come to the conclusion that you basically didn't enjoy the show because you didn't like Lateralus. You wanted Tool to perform the songs you liked(which are mostly from Undertow) and then maybe one or two songs from Aenima and Lateralus and call it a night.

It was a little foolish to asume they were going to do that because after all they were touring in support of Lateralus, therefore they must perform mostly songs from this album in order to support it. You don't usually see bands who have put out a bunch of albums, regressing and basing most of their show on an album they put out 10 years ago.

I agree with the fact that Tool doesn't seem as animated on stage as other rock bands of today and even the 90's, but that is because Tool approaches music different than a lot of those bands . Tool has explained over and over again in various interviews that the most important aspect of their shows is the music. They don't want to be the centre of attention at their shows, and they would rather have the music and visual aspects of the show take over rather than their egos.

I myself welcome this approach and I am surprised other people like you don't welcome it, especially today when the music business is plagued by wanna be MTV rock bands and boy bands who all sound the same, and have absolutely no artistic integrity whatsoever.

I went to see Tool last august and it was an amazing show. The band sounded amazing(especially Danny Carey the best drummer alive today), the visuals were amazing and Maynards voice was amazing as well. Everything about the show was outstanding, and everyone around me seemed to agree that the show absolutely rocked.

I guess I just can't believe that someone would say that Tool dissapoints live, when they are for sure the best live rock band you will see today. Witout a doubt.

I agree about the Smashing Pumpkins. His voice sounds like crap live. I saw them on the same tour as you did with Garbage opening up for them. They would play these ballads I had never heard of that lasted like 30 minutes, and were putting everyone to sleep. I made it through 2 of the ballads, but when they were in the middle of another one during one of the encores I just left.

Weezer (First album) YAWN, my dead cat could've put more energy into it.

Sixpence none the Richer(new album) Everyone has a bad day, but even the singer said she really didn't want to be there-it was Valentines' Day, needless to say, the opening band (LUCE) blew them away that night.

Any headlining act who can't at least do 1.5 hours.

I saw the Butthole Surfers back in the first Lollapalooza, and then a year or two after when they played with Stone Temple Pilots, and both times they rocked. Gibby did do some on-stage mixing or sound tweaking with the machines, but it didn't seem like that much, plus the light/laser show and movies playing behind definitely made it an all-senses show.

I haven't been to many shows recently, so I'm dating myself, but here are my votes for disappointing live shows:

Jesus and Mary Chain: Love their albums, but live, they just stood there and played/sang. Had some smoke effects and of course lighting, but it was like watching a music video. The only non-lyrics either of them said were 'Stop, start over' when they messed up a song, and 'Thank you, goodnight,' at the end. I don't necessarily expect a band to give speeches, but a little recognition that they're playing live instead of in a studio would be nice.

Moby: Totally disappointing, in fact, it p*ssed me off. We left after about 20 minutes. This was easily 8 years ago, so maybe he's different now, but anyway. First, the crowd: I was like eight years older than almost anyone in the crowd, and I felt like my father ['What are these kids today wearing?']. The last shows I had seen before this one were GWAR, Dead Milkmen, and Murphy's Law, so I was used to a leather/boots and mohawk crowd, not these kids wearing white, sucking on pacifiers, and wearing pigtails. But that's not all. First there was at least 40 minutes between opening act ending and him coming on stage. And there was only about 5-10 minutes of set/equipment removal/installation. When he finally did come on, it started with a beat, no one on stage, for about five minutes, then he ran up, shouted into the microphone, then played bongos for about ten minutes. 90% of the music was prerecorded, including some of the dialog. Maybe I don't know much about electronic music, but I could've saved the ticket money, spent it on a six of beer, turned the lights off and the CD on, and have gotten more out of it.

King Missile at Sonic Sunday in Atlanta, probably 92/93. KM was great, but due to the 'festival' nature of the show [something like 20 bands in one afternoon], they only were onstage for about 30 minutes.

I'd say the Violent Femmes when I saw them a few years ago at the University of Richmond. It seemed like they rushed through their set and had absolutely no contact with the audience. I like the band onstage to at least acknowledge the presence of the crowd. A little stage banter is nice, you know.

I saw Wyclef last year when he opened for Mary J. Blige (I won tickets). The first time I saw him live was at the Smokin' Grooves tour and he was great. The second time he was just okay. And this last time really sucked. He pretty much did karioke (sp?) over other peoples songs and hyped the crowd. He did very little of his own material - which is quite good.

And I've been to a few hip-hop shows that really sucked, but my expectations for them weren't all that. It's kind of silly seeing a dozen people milling about on stage continuously asking the soundman to turn up the monitors.

Worst concert I ever went to was Nirvana in December '93... one of their last American dates ever. It was my first concert so I didn't really know what to compare it to at the time, but looking back now I realize it was pretty lousy. The sound quality was bad... Kurt's singing was out of key and unintelligable... Chris kept getting on the mike to talk about god knows what. All in all a disappointment, although I can still say I saw them live.

Mordred