eicca
Swingin'
So far the only bands I can think of whose live experience is better than their studio stuff are Toto and Chicago...
Who do you recommend?
Who do you recommend?
Bands that you'd rather listen to live than in the studio?
- Thread starter eicca
- Start date
Any band who really know how to play is going to be better live than in the studio. Now, that might not be true for every night but the majority of the time anyway.
I like The Screaming Trees enough to buy a ticket to their show but adored them after seeing them live. I always liked UFO but seeing them live put them on a whole other level (and this was in the mid 90s when you'd expect they started to slow down). Talas was a band that - had I heard their studio album first - I probably wouldn't have snuk into a bar under age to see them etc.
However, because many of the bands we love are now well past their prime some shows consist of geezers milking their past glories and to me that's just sad. Ironically some bands from the 60s manage to still put on great shows while many from the 70s and 80s are flogging a dead horse.
More power to them if they want to do it and people are willing to pay money but I've seen a few shows I actually wish I hadn't.
I like The Screaming Trees enough to buy a ticket to their show but adored them after seeing them live. I always liked UFO but seeing them live put them on a whole other level (and this was in the mid 90s when you'd expect they started to slow down). Talas was a band that - had I heard their studio album first - I probably wouldn't have snuk into a bar under age to see them etc.
However, because many of the bands we love are now well past their prime some shows consist of geezers milking their past glories and to me that's just sad. Ironically some bands from the 60s manage to still put on great shows while many from the 70s and 80s are flogging a dead horse.
More power to them if they want to do it and people are willing to pay money but I've seen a few shows I actually wish I hadn't.
A bunch of bands for me:
The Grateful Dead - although you could catch them on a bad night, most of the time they were better live then in the studio.
Radiohead - The Bends and Ok Computer period they were better in the studio but since Kid A its been the live show that is better.
Govt Mule - live show is what this band was about.
The Grateful Dead - although you could catch them on a bad night, most of the time they were better live then in the studio.
Radiohead - The Bends and Ok Computer period they were better in the studio but since Kid A its been the live show that is better.
Govt Mule - live show is what this band was about.
Kate
Deadhead
My purchase and listening habits were dreadfully conventional as a teen and collegiate: a nearly exclusive diet of studio albums or "best of" comps {{shudder}} based on mainstream media coverage or airplay.
However, after I began listening seriously to the Dead following grad school about 5 years ago, I underwent a paradigm shift toward live performance, which now comprises an overwhelming majority of the music I play daily.
In fact, while seriously growing my collection over the last couple years, I've looked to live releases over studio work when I find a band or performer I like - and in this age, that can often mean "deluxe" or "expanded" re-releases containing additional live material.
For example - and as I look over my shoulder at the bookshelves behind me - My entire ABB library (Live vols.1-5, Atlanta '70, Ludlow, and - a collection cornerstone -the complete Fillmore East, in addition to the Super Deluxe Bros/Sisters, for which the original album is (to me) a secondary consideration to the mind boggling demos and '73 Winterland show; The Who (Isle of Wight; Who's Next Deluxe ('71 show included); Live at Hull/Leeds (check out Deluxe releases to ensure complete sets!); Canned Heat (Montreaux '73, Europe '70 - though Livin' the Blues has a vibrant live feel); Ten Years After ("Recorded Live", Fillmore East, Undead); Pixies (I've got 8 of their 2004 reunion shows (go w/ the Final XII editions if possible) and the '90 show included in the otherwise superfluous "best of" comp from "Death to Pixies"); Rolling Stones (Vault series '75/'81, Brussels Affair, and Ya-Yas (get the YY deluxe for a smoking BB King set and sultry performance by Tina (w/ Ike)); REM (wow! I've got so many boots it's not funny! recommended - Red Rain; Adhesion; Live Germany '85; Live at the Olympia (official); The Dream; and all Demos and Live performances variously released with the box sets of Green, LRP, Murmur, Fables, Reckoning, and Document); Stiff Little Fingers (Hanx!) - a.w.e.s.o.m.e.; Dead Boys (Night of the Living..., and Liver Than You'll Ever Be); Zeppelin (How the West was Won; Destroyer; Celebration Day; and the '69 Paris show released incident to the most recent remastering of Zep I); Velvet Underground (Live '69 and the more complete set release with the Super Deluxe eponymous album; The Quine Tapes (on order); Max's; and White Light/White Heat Deluxe (or Super) for the Live component); Jethro Tull (Isle of Wight '70, Bursting Out '77, and the '70 Carnegie Hall show released with the Stand Up box); The Kinks (One for the Road and the uber essential To The Bone (!!!)); CSNY (The Complete Fillmore Tapes '70 (possibly one of the greatest boots ever!), yet all that the 24x192-obsessed Young would officially approve was a cobbled together 'ideal' show from '74, which was years over deadline?!); Hendrix (Winterland '68; Monterey; Miami Pop; Berkely); Cream (check out the Those Were The Days box set, which gives you all studio and a healthy dose of live performance (Cream should've just written new stuff and toured in a perpetual cycle w/o ever stepping foot in a studio!)); and my beloved Doors (GET FELT FORUM!, but also Boston, Detroit, The Bowl '68, Pittsburgh, and - to a MUCH lesser extent - Vancouver)...
...the Dead goes w/o saying and I've got just about every show officially released plus a few dozen favourite unreleased AUDs and SBDs - doubt I'd ever pick up a studio album there again...
...yikes! I could go on for awhile (notable omission: Neil Young (yeah, the same one I just bashed
), but you get the picture. As I get a bit older, I have an increasing aversion to the interference of studio techs and engineers with the underlying artistic product (that's not to say that live stuff is tamper proof!; indeed, even the Dead's revered original Europe '72 tour compilation suffered considerable post-production blasphemy).
So while some might think it incredulous - especially with bands like the Stones or Who that have a esteemed studio discography - I still vastly prefer the live releases listed to their studio brethren./peace, K
EDIT: Holy Cow! How'd I forget Clapton...like Cream, I think his live stuff is infinitely superior due to the potential for amazing improvisation onstage; check out Just One Night, Unplugged (pretty staid stuff here, but a fine acoustic complement to a collection), and the brass ring / blue ribbon / Grade A / USDA Prime release Derek & The Dominoes at the Fillmore. Wow./buh-bye (again), K
EDIT II: I'm burning time until heading out to a UK NCAA viewing party...GO CATS! How about those earlier upsets! My brackets are already a shamble after the Ga.Southern and UAB wins...
However, after I began listening seriously to the Dead following grad school about 5 years ago, I underwent a paradigm shift toward live performance, which now comprises an overwhelming majority of the music I play daily.
In fact, while seriously growing my collection over the last couple years, I've looked to live releases over studio work when I find a band or performer I like - and in this age, that can often mean "deluxe" or "expanded" re-releases containing additional live material.
For example - and as I look over my shoulder at the bookshelves behind me - My entire ABB library (Live vols.1-5, Atlanta '70, Ludlow, and - a collection cornerstone -the complete Fillmore East, in addition to the Super Deluxe Bros/Sisters, for which the original album is (to me) a secondary consideration to the mind boggling demos and '73 Winterland show; The Who (Isle of Wight; Who's Next Deluxe ('71 show included); Live at Hull/Leeds (check out Deluxe releases to ensure complete sets!); Canned Heat (Montreaux '73, Europe '70 - though Livin' the Blues has a vibrant live feel); Ten Years After ("Recorded Live", Fillmore East, Undead); Pixies (I've got 8 of their 2004 reunion shows (go w/ the Final XII editions if possible) and the '90 show included in the otherwise superfluous "best of" comp from "Death to Pixies"); Rolling Stones (Vault series '75/'81, Brussels Affair, and Ya-Yas (get the YY deluxe for a smoking BB King set and sultry performance by Tina (w/ Ike)); REM (wow! I've got so many boots it's not funny! recommended - Red Rain; Adhesion; Live Germany '85; Live at the Olympia (official); The Dream; and all Demos and Live performances variously released with the box sets of Green, LRP, Murmur, Fables, Reckoning, and Document); Stiff Little Fingers (Hanx!) - a.w.e.s.o.m.e.; Dead Boys (Night of the Living..., and Liver Than You'll Ever Be); Zeppelin (How the West was Won; Destroyer; Celebration Day; and the '69 Paris show released incident to the most recent remastering of Zep I); Velvet Underground (Live '69 and the more complete set release with the Super Deluxe eponymous album; The Quine Tapes (on order); Max's; and White Light/White Heat Deluxe (or Super) for the Live component); Jethro Tull (Isle of Wight '70, Bursting Out '77, and the '70 Carnegie Hall show released with the Stand Up box); The Kinks (One for the Road and the uber essential To The Bone (!!!)); CSNY (The Complete Fillmore Tapes '70 (possibly one of the greatest boots ever!), yet all that the 24x192-obsessed Young would officially approve was a cobbled together 'ideal' show from '74, which was years over deadline?!); Hendrix (Winterland '68; Monterey; Miami Pop; Berkely); Cream (check out the Those Were The Days box set, which gives you all studio and a healthy dose of live performance (Cream should've just written new stuff and toured in a perpetual cycle w/o ever stepping foot in a studio!)); and my beloved Doors (GET FELT FORUM!, but also Boston, Detroit, The Bowl '68, Pittsburgh, and - to a MUCH lesser extent - Vancouver)...
...the Dead goes w/o saying and I've got just about every show officially released plus a few dozen favourite unreleased AUDs and SBDs - doubt I'd ever pick up a studio album there again...
...yikes! I could go on for awhile (notable omission: Neil Young (yeah, the same one I just bashed
), but you get the picture. As I get a bit older, I have an increasing aversion to the interference of studio techs and engineers with the underlying artistic product (that's not to say that live stuff is tamper proof!; indeed, even the Dead's revered original Europe '72 tour compilation suffered considerable post-production blasphemy). So while some might think it incredulous - especially with bands like the Stones or Who that have a esteemed studio discography - I still vastly prefer the live releases listed to their studio brethren./peace, K
EDIT: Holy Cow! How'd I forget Clapton...like Cream, I think his live stuff is infinitely superior due to the potential for amazing improvisation onstage; check out Just One Night, Unplugged (pretty staid stuff here, but a fine acoustic complement to a collection), and the brass ring / blue ribbon / Grade A / USDA Prime release Derek & The Dominoes at the Fillmore. Wow./buh-bye (again), K
EDIT II: I'm burning time until heading out to a UK NCAA viewing party...GO CATS! How about those earlier upsets! My brackets are already a shamble after the Ga.Southern and UAB wins...
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Slim Slow Slider
+2,727 posts as TheSound!
I'd have to think about that for specifics, but for me most bands/artists sound better live than on record, or at least they should, if they can't successfully reproduce their records on stage, then they're just a fraud, and what you're hearing on record is contrived - music to me is 99% about spontaneous performance, some guy taking 4 days and 150 takes in the studio to get his guitar solo right, isn't even music, what you're getting on stage is authentic, and from the heart, and pure, and with the artist and audience all coming together as one, it wouldn't even bother me if I never bought another record if I could just go to a live gig every single day, and experience the musicians enjoying playing with each other, and the crowd really getting into it.
