Amazing live bands that are disappointing on record...

What's Hot
LuttiSLuttiS Frets: 2243
I've seen a few bands that are absolutely spectacular (or there about) live, so i've gone off to get the album, and found it really boring..
Also visa versa, i've heard a mediocre recording, then seen them live and been blown away..

I'm a Kiss fan. There i said it. The albums are pretty rubbish, boring and lifeless. But the show is pure energy and entertainment. I'm not sure i really consider them to be a band, more just an entertainment act. I will always go to see the show as it is amazing, but i can't really listen to their music.

Saw Ricky Warwick and the Fighting Hearts at one of the HRHs, had an amazing show, great songs, really had a great time even through i'd never heard any of the music. Bought an album, recognised the songs, but was severely underwhelmed. 

I've seen the Quireboys so many times, and will always go if they nearby. Never a boring gig, different levels of lyric coherency depending on how much Spike has had to drink, but always great. On album, they are pretty boring.. Spikes vocals are really bad.. :)

There are probably others, but these are the ones i always think of as being disappointing on cd. 

Anyone else know great live bands that albums don't do justice?
0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
«134

Comments

  • Not sure if they're still around, but were well known for being fantastic live and that's what they lived for. British sea power

    My Trading Feedback    |    You Bring The Band

    Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you
    0reaction image LOL 1reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Steel Panther
    Flogging Molly
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • GassageGassage Frets: 30824
    Crowded House
    Squeeze

    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • GassageGassage Frets: 30824
    Also:
    All About Eve. Superb live.

    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Winny_PoohWinny_Pooh Frets: 7730
    Derek Trucks band. Studio albums never quite hit the spot.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • not_the_djnot_the_dj Frets: 7306
    Gary Clark Jnr, so much better live than the records, especially the debut album.

    Bruce Springtseen and the E-Street Band, especially the 70s output where live they were unstoppable but the studio albums of that time (I'm thinking "Born to Run" and "Darkness..." in particular here) never quite captured the energy that was overflowing in the live work.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • WhitecatWhitecat Frets: 5378
    Gary Clark Jnr, so much better live than the records, especially the debut album.

    Bruce Springtseen and the E-Street Band, especially the 70s output where live they were unstoppable but the studio albums of that time (I'm thinking "Born to Run" and "Darkness..." in particular here) never quite captured the energy that was overflowing in the live work.
    Wis'd. Live versions of Springsteen tracks almost always defeat album versions for feel, energy and groove.

    The only exceptions are some of the keyboard-heavy mid-late-80s work like Human Touch or Tunnel Of Love, both of which I adore for their own reasons (Porcaro's drums, Lofgren's guitar solo respectively)

    But even the later material tends to be better live... listen to recordings of Wrecking Ball or American Skin (41 Shots) and tell me that the studio versions are superior... I will LOL you with a button.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • NeillNeill Frets: 941
    TBH just about every band should be better live than on record these days as apart from anything else that's how they earn their money.  And now they have all the technology to get a great sound on stage as well, that certainly wasn't always the case.

    There was a concert by "Jeff Lynne's" Electric Light Orchestra on TV recently, and the sound they got was almost exactly like the original recordings.  I saw them live back in the late 70's and they had to make huge compromises compared to the records.  Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys have gone through a similar renaissance - in their heyday the technology to reproduce their sound live simply didn't exist.  Ditto Dave Gilmour - some of the early live performances of Dark Side of the Moon left much to be desired.  

    I can think of a fair few bands in the past who were better on record than they were on stage but in the modern day surely every recording is going to be a let down once you've seen them live.   


    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • The Ramones. Distinctly hit and miss after the first three LPs but they remained a force to be reckoned with on stage right up to the end.
    Link to my trading feedback
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Spiritualized. I saw them maybe five or six times in times of yore and they were always mesmerising. I always thought the records sounded restrained in comparison and never really held my attention.
    My wife asked me to stop singing Wonderwall.
    I said maybe.....
    0reaction image LOL 1reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • darthed1981darthed1981 Frets: 11669
    Not sure if they're still around, but were well known for being fantastic live and that's what they lived for. British sea power
    They're still around, did a new album last year.
    We have to be so very careful, what we believe in...
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • munckeemunckee Frets: 12253
    A lot of country music, my wife drags me to country to country most years where we see loads of raucous live bands who sound great, get the albums and all the good bits have been produced out of them.  The exception was Carrie Underwood who was horribly screamy live but ok on cd.  
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Compare Rainbow On Stage with the first (studio) LP. On Stage is very lively and loadsa fun. The other one is played at half tempo and with no fire. It's dull by comparison.
    "Working" software has only unobserved bugs. (Parroty Error: Pieces of Nine! Pieces of Nine!)
    Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71950
    Compare Rainbow On Stage with the first (studio) LP. On Stage is very lively and loadsa fun. The other one is played at half tempo and with no fire. It's dull by comparison.
    To me it's the other way round - On Stage sounds ludicrously fast, like what happens when the drummer gets gig-adrenalin... it ruins the pace and feel of the songs. Dio even struggles to get some of the lines out quickly enough.

    It may depend on which one you heard first, possibly.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • ICBM said:
    Compare Rainbow On Stage with the first (studio) LP. On Stage is very lively and loadsa fun. The other one is played at half tempo and with no fire. It's dull by comparison.
    To me it's the other way round - On Stage sounds ludicrously fast, like what happens when the drummer gets gig-adrenalin... it ruins the pace and feel of the songs. Dio even struggles to get some of the lines out quickly enough.

    It may depend on which one you heard first, possibly.
    Can't remember which I heard first, tbh. But Man on the silver mountain is just so ponderous on the studio lp.
    "Working" software has only unobserved bugs. (Parroty Error: Pieces of Nine! Pieces of Nine!)
    Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • mortmort Frets: 718
    Agree about the Ramones.

    Another band that springs to mind were Mott the Hoople, the first few albums were very weedy sounding, but they were a riot live.


    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10356
    I never liked any of the Thin Lizzy studio stuff really but Live it had much more energy
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • I saw the Super Furry Animals three times between 97 and 2000 and each show was tremendous. But every time I tried to get into their albums it just didn't work for me.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • antonyivantonyiv Frets: 300
    Manu Chao. :) Pretty repetitive albums, but he has crazy energy on stage. 

    Depeche Mode have different feel on their songs live, which I prefer to the studio versions. Although Andy Fletcher is boring as hell.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • darthed1981darthed1981 Frets: 11669
    Not the band as I love them on or off record, but some of Ash's songs are totally different beats live, especially Walking Barefoot, Kung Fu and Jack Names The Planets.
    We have to be so very careful, what we believe in...
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
Sign In or Register to comment.