Worst 'all round live' performance by a guitarist you've seen live

springhead

Jalapeno said:

Robert Cray at Hammersmith Odeon.

Total charisma vacuum, very little in the way of dynamics - all songs sounded identical, with just a 'thangyouvermush' between each.  Left after an hour.

Agreed.  I left two of his gigs early, late 80's/early 90's, for the same reason.  No chat, no personality, only wanted to play songs off whatever the latest album was. 

Most unpleasant loudest - Hawkwind at a small festival a few years ago.  This was a family type festival, lots of little kids, sound had been great and comfortable for all the other bands.  They set up and started a bit of a soundcheck and I got everyone in our group to swiftly move away/off axis.  Very loud, especially the synths.  So lots of high volume high frequency content.  'Sound engineer' must have been deaf.  And they were crap!

Other notable bad live experience was, sadly, Rory Gallagher.  Saw him at the Dominion Theatre, late 80's I think, and he was fantastic.  Second time was couple of years later at the Town and Country and he came on very late and very pissed.  Picking fights with people, grabbing the harmonica from his bemused harp play and playing that instead of guitar.  Awful.  He lasted half a dozen songs and staggered off the stage. 

And finally a bad gig/good gig experience in the same week.  Mate had a spare ticket to Dire Straits at Wembley Arena, maybe their last tour - Calling Elvis?.  Perfect sound, perfect lighting but completely dull and tedious, no personality, probably not helped by the venue size.  3 days later I was stood pint in hand 10 foot in front of Wilko Johnson at the Half Moon Putney.  Brilliant.

Jalapeno

springhead said:

Jalapeno said:

Robert Cray at Hammersmith Odeon.

Total charisma vacuum, very little in the way of dynamics - all songs sounded identical, with just a 'thangyouvermush' between each.  Left after an hour.

Agreed.  I left two of his gigs early, late 80's/early 90's, for the same reason.  No chat, no personality, only wanted to play songs off whatever the latest album was. 

Most unpleasant loudest - Hawkwind at a small festival a few years ago.  This was a family type festival, lots of little kids, sound had been great and comfortable for all the other bands.  They set up and started a bit of a soundcheck and I got everyone in our group to swiftly move away/off axis.  Very loud, especially the synths.  So lots of high volume high frequency content.  'Sound engineer' must have been deaf.  And they were crap!

Other notable bad live experience was, sadly, Rory Gallagher.  Saw him at the Dominion Theatre, late 80's I think, and he was fantastic.  Second time was couple of years later at the Town and Country and he came on very late and very pissed.  Picking fights with people, grabbing the harmonica from his bemused harp play and playing that instead of guitar.  Awful.  He lasted half a dozen songs and staggered off the stage. 

And finally a bad gig/good gig experience in the same week.  Mate had a spare ticket to Dire Straits at Wembley Arena, maybe their last tour - Calling Elvis?.  Perfect sound, perfect lighting but completely dull and tedious, no personality, probably not helped by the venue size.  3 days later I was stood pint in hand 10 foot in front of Wilko Johnson at the Half Moon Putney.  Brilliant.

Similarly, I went to see Dire Straits at Knebworth - the highlight for me was Lyle Lovett in support, absolutely fantastic - nothing really wrong with Dire Straits, just a greatest hits tour for them going through the motions I think.

ICBM

The loudest I've ever experienced was Swans - incredible sound pressure (you literally understand what that means when it's that loud) and oppressively painful even with earplugs in. Couldn't hear anything other than a wall of distortion. I left and went to the bar above the venue, where they were quite easily audible through the floor and the mix was quite good!

oktorockto

One of the support bands was a well-known merseybeat band who had recently reformed. They shouldn't have. There were so many bum notes it was either the worst merseybeat set I've ever seen or the best jazz set I've ever seen.

Wasn't The Searchers was it? they played before my tribute band at a Butlins once and they had the worst drummer I have ever heard - bit of an insult to drummers to call him a drummer. He could not keep time at all.

oktorockto

EricTheWeary said:

MrsTheWeary paid a small fortune to see Elton John when she lived in Little Rock and he stormed off after four songs. She turns over the channel if he comes on the TV or radio, never forgiven him. 

I waited in a tent for 2 hours at a festival in Brighton in the mid to late 90s to see Toots and The Maytals who eventually didn't come on stage. Beer was rubbish too!

timmypix

On the subject of irritating loudness, I went to see Arch Enemy at Manchester Apollo a couple of years ago, and I don't know if it was the room, or the engineer, or what, but it was just too loud. I know metal should be loud, but it was barely bearable with plugs in - without plugs it was just a wall of static and I couldn't make out vocals or guitar lines.
I was actually - and still am, really - very annoyed because I just wanted to hear Mike Amott and Jeff Loomis, as two of my favourite guitarists! Thankfully they get quieter solo spots so all was not lost.

In terms of a bad performance, I think I've been fairly lucky as nothing springs to mind. I saw Dragonforce in 2007 and both guitarists were too pissed to play their parts properly, ditto Alexi Laiho with Children of Bodom at Bloodstock in 2010. Although I was also too pissed to care at the latter. I know Alexi cleaned up in later years and he was great the last time I saw them in 2016, but it is a shame when you get excited to either see a band, or even just watch old live footage, and he's too pissed to nail his famously intricate parts.

Philly_Q

Blueingreen said:

Kossoff with Free.  Completely out of it, barely played a note. 

springhead said:

Other notable bad live experience was, sadly, Rory Gallagher.  Saw him at the Dominion Theatre, late 80's I think, and he was fantastic.  Second time was couple of years later at the Town and Country and he came on very late and very pissed.  Picking fights with people, grabbing the harmonica from his bemused harp play and playing that instead of guitar.  Awful.  He lasted half a dozen songs and staggered off the stage. 

Although it's a shame to have seen those great players in their decline, it sounds like they were still very memorable occasions, so that's good, in a sad sort of way.

Reminds me of seeing Badlands at the Astoria, not a bad gig but a very odd one.  Ray Gillen (RIP) had quit the band before the tour and supposedly been replaced, but lo and behold there he was - and the rest of the band clearly hated him.  Jake E Lee never looked at him once, and at one point Greg Chaisson, the bass player, stood on the mic lead so Ray had to sing half a song crouched down by Greg's feet.  Uncomfortable viewing.

PhilW1

Another one for Motorhead(who I am a big fan of) from me, at the Aston Villa sports centre back in the 90's,way too loud but also way too short a set.

Neill

oktorockto said:

One of the support bands was a well-known merseybeat band who had recently reformed. They shouldn't have. There were so many bum notes it was either the worst merseybeat set I've ever seen or the best jazz set I've ever seen.

Wasn't The Searchers was it? they played before my tribute band at a Butlins once and they had the worst drummer I have ever heard - bit of an insult to drummers to call him a drummer. He could not keep time at all.

Ha ha, that reminds me we auditioned this guy once who claimed to have played drums with a mersey based group - we were fully expecting him to show us up for the amateurs we were, but he was just awful.  In the end I had to show him how to play basic rhythm and I'm certainly no drummer.   If he was telling the truth it makes me wonder about the general quality of bands back then, it does seem to me that the bar was pretty low in the 1960's well Bill Wyman got the Stones gig just because he had an amp didn't he?   How things changed though  - when I was at university in the mid 70's, as Phil Lynott put it "Ye had to have a fooking GCE in guitar playing" to get in a band.

oktorockto

One of the worst I had was unintentional - went to see Portishead in the acoustic tent at Glastonbury and there was a massive wait (and a massive crowd pushing to get in the tent); suddenly it is decided that putting on a completely smacked out solo Evan Dando (he of The Lemonheads) on stage with an acoustic guitar is a righteous thing to do. After a couple of unintelligible songs the crowd start to boo and yes, I took part and am ashamed of that because he was in a bad way. Evan shouts, 'F**** you and your F****** hippy F***fest' and storms off. Portishead then came on and played one of the most magical musical performances I have ever experienced in my whole life and one I will never forget. 

oktorockto

Redlester said:

John McLaughlin- Royal Festival Hall about 25 years ago. 

I have always loved John McLaughlin. I saw him at the Royal Festival Hall in 2008 and had a similar experience - no musical glue. Found it pretty boring. Having worked with a lot of jazz musicians doing sound I have to say that sometimes the personalities and egos don't mix very well and the music can suffer. When they all get on and work to a common goal it can be stunning.

bluechargeboy

oktorockto said:

One of the worst I had was unintentional - went to see Portishead in the acoustic tent at Glastonbury and there was a massive wait (and a massive crowd pushing to get in the tent); suddenly it is decided that putting on a completely smacked out solo Evan Dando (he of The Lemonheads) on stage with an acoustic guitar is a righteous thing to do. After a couple of unintelligible songs the crowd start to boo and yes, I took part and am ashamed of that because he was in a bad way. Evan shouts, 'F**** you and your F****** hippy F***fest' and storms off. Portishead then came on and played one of the most magical musical performances I have ever experienced in my whole life and one I will never forget. 

@oktorockto ;I was there!! To see Portishead obvs, not Mr Lemon Head.

Now I've played fesitvals I know what a nightmare it is when the schedule starts drifting. Loads of people who want to see someone else

oktorockto

bluechargeboy said:

oktorockto said:

One of the worst I had was unintentional - went to see Portishead in the acoustic tent at Glastonbury and there was a massive wait (and a massive crowd pushing to get in the tent); suddenly it is decided that putting on a completely smacked out solo Evan Dando (he of The Lemonheads) on stage with an acoustic guitar is a righteous thing to do. After a couple of unintelligible songs the crowd start to boo and yes, I took part and am ashamed of that because he was in a bad way. Evan shouts, 'F**** you and your F****** hippy F***fest' and storms off. Portishead then came on and played one of the most magical musical performances I have ever experienced in my whole life and one I will never forget. 

@oktorockto ;I was there!! To see Portishead obvs, not Mr Lemon Head.

Now I've played fesitvals I know what a nightmare it is when the schedule starts drifting. Loads of people who want to see someone else

I have a really good friend who recently told me he was there as well. I'd love a recording or video of that gig but then sometimes it is better not to. 1995 I think. Some good bands on that year.

bloodandtears

just like many others have said.. Schenker whilst supporting Scorpions (Humanity World Tour c2007)

really, really cringe worthy

Blueingreen

Loudest band I saw was Spiritualized. Had genuine concerns I'd damaged my hearing for a day or two afterwards.

PaulWarning

going to punk gigs in the late 70's early 80's there were many bad performances I saw, I remember seeing the Damned, halfway through Rat Scabies apologised, saying "I'm sorry we're so shit, we've never played together before".
On the subject of bad performances because they were too loud, the performance may have been ok, but the PA turned up to distortion levels could be the cause, in fact many a gig has been ruined because the soundman doesn't know what he's doing 

DavidR

John Williams last performance before he retired, Lincoln Cathedral 2013. Technically good but utterly lacking in any emotion. Perhaps I'm being unfair but that's how it struck me anyway. He didn't seem to enjoy performing (which must be the minimum requirement for a performance even if the audience hates you IMHO). Virtually no interaction with the audience. I've played not very good classical guitar in an ensemble to appreciative audiences and got more response and had more fun. Perhaps that's why John Williams stopped performing, I don't know. Saw Xuefei Yang a few years later playing at Binham Priory in Norfolk and the performances could not have been more different. It was like a party! Brilliant. Classical guitar at its best is supposed to be an outlet for the emotion of the player and it's expressed in the music. I think that's what was lacking. John Williams is one of the most accomplished classical guitarists of his generation and second only to Julian Bream as the best UK based classical player of all time.

mrkb

Outlane bowling club..... I meant well but was nervous..

ArchtopDave

Mick Taylor (he who was once in The Rolling Stones). He was fronting his own trio in the 1990's. Utterly dreadful - poor, uninteresting guitar playing and dire song material. The only redeeming feature of the gig was the solo slide guitarist, who was the support act, and fortunately rather good. I've subsequently seen Mick Taylor play several times in John Mayall's band, where he has performed decently, though his incessant tuning of his guitar is a bit off putting.

I have developed a dislike of lead guitarists, who seem to all play white Flying V Guitars in post punk/punk rock bands, and whose solos consist of random notes from the minor pentatonic/blues scale interspersed with equally random pinched harmonics. I well remember seeing one incarnation of the Noisettes in this category, and another post punk band  (cannot remember their name), who were quite well known. 

Philly_Q

ArchtopDave said:

I have developed a dislike of lead guitarists, who seem to all play white Flying V Guitars in post punk/punk rock bands, and whose solos consist of random notes from the minor pentatonic/blues scale interspersed with equally random pinched harmonics. I well remember seeing one incarnation of the Noisettes in this category, and another post punk band  (cannot remember their name), who were quite well known. 

That's a pretty small subset of lead guitarists.  At least I think it is.