Do you prefer live albums?

NoCountry

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l tend to prefer live albums. Some of my favorites are CCR Live in Europe, Scorpions Tokyo Tapes, Rory Gallagher Stage Struck, Ozzy Speak of the devil, Black Sabbath Live Evil, Skynyrd 1 more For the Road, Deep Purple Made in Japan ZZ Top Fandango,SRV Live Alive, Racer X Extreme Volume Live, Rush All the World's a Stage and Exit Stage Left, lron Maiden A Real Dead One, and Pat Travers Go For What You Know.
 

Recky

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I like a well mixed live album (as opposed to most bootlegs) ...some of my faves include Thin Lizzy Live & Dangerous ,Thunder Live at Hammersmith , Black Sabbath live evil and Iron Maiden live after death and Volbeat live at Teleparken
 

James Retro

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I prefer studio-recorded where they have the opportunity to repeat and mix it until they get it right. I hate "live" albums. Doesn't matter how good the band is. If I wanted to listen to "live" I'd go to the show.
 

recgord27

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I love live albums. For me, I often hear things in the live recording that aren't immediately apparent on the studio recording. For example the bass line and drums may be mixed differently, more to the front, and it helps me to better understand the studio album.
Couple of favourites include Deep Purple - Made in Japan; Uriah Heep Live (1973); Yes-Yessongs; Who-Live at Leeds; Rush-Exit Stage Left; Judas Priest-Unleashed in the East; Gary Moore-Blues Alive; Stevie Ray Vaugn-Live Alive; Wishbone Ash-Live Dates; Led Zeppelin-How the West was Won & DVD; Cream-Live II; Rory Gallagher-Live & Irish Tour; Lighthouse-Live; Golden Earring-Live; Allman Brothers-Live at Fillmore; Doors-Absolutely Live, amongst many others.
 
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Khor1255

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As a rule if a band is really good their live album will be too. Sometimes the live version is WAY better than the studio version - other times not.

I love All The World's a Stage but never really cared for making medleys out of songs. There's has the highlight of also having my favorite rock drum solo ever recorded and a much much better version of What You're Doing but I prefer that if a band play a song they play the whole song.

I've also heard great bands make mediocre live albums and that is sometimes the fault of production (Yessongs) and sometimes a sub standard version of a song you know they have better takes of made it on to the live album (a lot of what is on Song Remains the Same).

I have also had my opinion of a band change quite a bit after hearing or seeing them live.

As a hard rock/progressive fan of the 70s I hated Devo when they came out. But then I saw some of their live performances and I can't say I hate Devo anymore.
I went to a Metallica show in the late 90s not because I liked them much at the time but because it was a free ticket and Queensryche who I had seen live before and liked were opening up for them.
I left that show a borderline Metallica fan.
 

Vehicle

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I've also heard great bands make mediocre live albums .


The exact opposite of this is KISS Alive!


I have my favorites, like everyone else.

Ted Nugent Double Live Gonzo really captures an atmosphere. Recorded in high summer, you can almost feel the humidity.

Pat Travers Live! Go For What You Know is just blistering guitar work from start to finish.

Thin Lizzy's Live and Dangerous has a flawless ebb and flow. Every song is perfectly placed.

Iron Maiden's Live After Death will always old a special place for me. I saw them 3 times on that tour. (Germany, Philly & Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado)
 

E-Z

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Live albums?. Love 'em specially live rock albums from the 1970s & 1980s.

Listen to Deep Purple's Made In Japan from 1972 on headphones and the performance by the band is absolutely stunning!. The band interplay between Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord & Ian Paice is totally mind blowing!!.
 

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