Oh man, hell yeah. axl rose was the only thing giving juice to the band of junkiies known as guns and roses.

I have seen Bardo Pond about 20 times, and not one was less than stellar. I honestly think they are one of the top live rock bands in the USA, along with Kinski and Comets On Fire.

Inconsistency is one thing, and I can acknowledge that in a band, especially if they improvise a lot. NNCK falls into this category for me; I have seen them be both fantastic and mediocre, and I know it's a gamble going in. A gamble where I like my chances, but a gamble nonetheless.
However, to claim that inconsistency is somehow "what makes a band great" because it's "sincere" is not going to fly with me. You can be a sincere as you possibly can and still put on a lousy live show.

yes, most of those bands have disappointed me live as well, sadly. i still like their records, but most of what i've seen seemed utterly bored and boring in a live setting.



other bands frequently mentioned in this thread:

pavement - only saw them once, enjoyed that (but afterwards also stephen malkmus twice, boring as fuck)

mogwai - twice (enjoyed it the first time, around 1998 or so; second time was last year on some festival and bored me a lot)

matt bower - hototogisu twice and skullflower once; would definitely go again whenever he comes back with whatever band.


oh, and the first gig i ever went to was guns n' roses and i enjoyed that a lot... but i was 14 at the time.:D

Brothers Of The Occult Sisterhood didn't do it for me live either, and I was really looking forward to that show. They have some great recordings.

I have seen Comets on Fire play 3 times. Each time I was tired of their stoner prog about 30 minutes ioto it. I just wanted to tell them to stop and play REAL COOL TIME, so i can hear the REAL shit.

Bardo I have seen three times. Once I enjoyed it but I was stoned to the bone. The other two times I again got bored with their prog rock noodling, which is hilarious because once I was waiting to see GYBE! who are progged out but RULED live, and the other time was for tortoise who are also in their way progged out BUT RULED!

I do love Bardo Pond on album though, when i am i nthe mood.

Explosions in the sky was good but not before Fugazi. I wanted to hear FUGAZI and instead I got an hour's worth of what i call "couch rock", best enjoyed sitting on the couch. bardo and GYBE! fit into this too.


I have yet to hear Kinski live. I do dig their albums.

PROGGGGED

Funny, I thought GYBE were insufferable live. Plus they berated a sold-out audience of full-on sympathizers for the actions of a president whom I would be surprised if more than 6 people in the room voted for. 20 minute crescendo. I get it already.
Tortoise used to be a great live band; I saw them several times in their early days and they were fantastic. Their material of late has been far too dry for my liking though.

jackie-o motherfucker. horrid. i had someone ask me why i liked double
leopards live so much, but not jackie o. damn, maybe because they're
two different bands, and that whole type of music isn't as entirely
interchangeable as people who don't know much about it imagine?

I saw Jackie O very early on and they were really bad, but at the second DeStijl/Freedom From fest they were really fantastic.

I might be biased because I love them so but the 4 times I have seen NNCK they were totally ace each time. The 'worst' was probably in the Volksbuhne (sp?) in Berlin but mainly because it's a big, seated theatre and not as intimate as the other occaisions I have seen them. They did get to wig out on a Steinway grand piano that time though.

Oh yes, Z'ev was also lame but I only watched about 10 minutes of it so I can't really say.

Well, I will say that the one time I thought NNCK were musically somewhat lacking, they more than made up for it with seriously entertaining "performance antics," so it was far from a total loss.

the second time i saw tortoise was a huge disappointment, it was like a tired rerun of the first gig which had been about 2 years prior


and what was that gig we saw of john moloney/tom greenwood/mick flower & co? that was pretty lame.

Sebadoh live killed my expectations of them as a band.They were:
1 - Smug
2 - Simply not very good musicians
3 - His lyrics took a more maudlin resonance that simply didn't cut it with me
4 - They were a little too self-conscious and irritatingly indie for my liking


Another band that i've seen live and they were both shit and annoyed me is Yo La Tengo.They came accross as these geeky,boneless,clean-living creatures and that's not appealing in my book.Stereolab really disappointed me too live on a few occasions.Mogwai have become a bit of a joke but in their prime they brought the house down.

I don't enjoy Stereolab like I used to, but in their early and middle period they really rocked hard live, I thought.

united light
http://www.myspace.com/unitedlight
i also thought that was disappointing, considering the personnel involved. particularly tom greenwood's vocals were annoying me after a while.

I'm talking about late period Stereolab.In their early days the surely rocked and droned like no other.

I greatly disliked the Who live and have barely listened to them since. There seemed to be no passion in their performance

corsano/flaherty/yeh at atp, which surprised me because corsano/flaherty
at the noise against fascism show of '05 was the highlight of that whole
night.

up until a few weeks ago, when i was able to reflect a little better, i thought wolf eyes at atp were lackluster, until i realized that i actually enjoyed the performance but it came after 10 or so minutes of my cat is an alien, which actually threw my personal equilibrium off it was so hypnotizing. wolf eyes didn't disappoint, they just couldn't shake the MCIAA haze i was walking around in.

They probably missed their daily intake of viagra that night.

Reading this has reminded me how disappointing I found Tortoise when I saw them, which in turn reminded me that The Young Gods were utterly awful when I saw them too.

I thought Corsano/Flaherty/Yeh were pretty good but Brotzmann/Bennink utterly blew them away shortly afterwards for me.

You have no idea what yr talking about. Pavement is unevern, but are in no way "suckass" as you so elequently remarked.

i actually really liked them at Volksbühne, probably more than at ATP, it was some sort of revelation... then again, perhaps it was only because it was the first time i saw them and it really worked for me this time (i wasn't so enamoured with what i had heard from them before)...

but yes, i wished it wasn't in a seated thing...

Man, none of you know what yr talking about. I saw Pixies twice in one year and they rocked every single time. The sound was incredible: guitar tones, bass, drums, vocals all screamed and I could feel it in all my bones. YOu either went to a show where they just diodnt do a good job (inconceivable in my opinion) or you just dont know good music.

Also, I've seen Dinosaur Jr 4 times since they reunited and they sounded brilliant every time.

Sonic Youth last year in Sydney. It seemed way too nice or soemthing. I was pretty bored.

Isis. Didn't have high hopes as i only liked their first two albums but this was far more boring and Tool like than I could have imagined. At least I didn't pay to get in.

Bizzarely,i've enjoyed Pavement live before they split up more than their records.I hope this makes sense but once they went into this really cool instrumental Grateful Deadish jam at a gig that was the shit.

Sounds good.

Placebo (2005), The Strokes (2005), Red Hot Chili Peppers (2002), Kings Of Leon (2005) - I wasn't expecting much from them. It's just that they played the same day as The Strokes so I had to see them...unfortunately.-

Sloppy performance doesnt neccessarily constitute poor in my book, im not a musician so when i hear live music i like to be at the front just moshing or headbanging or whathaveyou so the odd slipped note doesnt bother me.
I found The Fall last year to be one of the best gigs ive ever been to, the crowd was into it, Mark E Smith seemed to be having a good time, and you never get the sense he's cruising, he's always looking you in the eye and trying to take you away somewhere. albeit in a very aloof way.

I think you can enjoy yourself at a crap gig if theres a communal atmosphere about it. Having said that some of the most striking performances ive ever seen have been by supporting acts who have screamed at the audience and generally made them go "eh?.... wheres the bar"

In terms of dissappointing, in terms of expectation The Manic Street Preachers on their greatest hits tour was awful mainly cos of the lack of material from The Holy bible and the general awfulness of Wembley Arena

Public Enemy sucked when I saw them. Flavor Flav was a sexist, old bald, embarrassment, and Terminator X didn't do shit with the turntables - it was all DAT.

When I saw the Fall, it was horrible, but this was in 93 or 94, so who knows if Mark has done better since. He was certainly as drunk as he's famous for, but you couldn't hear a word of his vocals to tell what he was slurring. The band was incredibly loud, but otherwise completely boring. I think he fired them shortly thereafter.

Autechre wore all black, played in the dark, and produced a mix that didn't measure up to the records at all. Talk about dull. I still listen to them constantly, but I don't think I'd ever pay to see them "live" again.

I can believe that's possible, but with no details, I think maybe you were just trying to stir shit up?

I've seen them well over 20 times since 1985, and while maybe a couple of those shows didn't measure up to the rest, overall I'd say they are the most dependably great live band I've ever experienced.

I saw Interpol a couple years ago and they were pretty borring. It was basically just like being at home and listening to their cds, except I had to stand up the whole time. I can appreciate the fact that they're tight enough as a band to be able to play that well live, but it sort of dimished the whole idea of the live, spontaneous experience. That's kinda the fun of seeing a band play, to see how they interpret the songs in a live setting.

On the plus side, Q and not U opened and they were fucking awesome.

Also, Tool. $45 for 45 minutes of music. Fuck you, Tool.

Earth at Arthurfest Sept 05, that was horrid

supposedly Merzbow had a bad set later that day in the same hall, but the line getting into the hall was really bad so i couldn't make it in

Sonic Youth were a slight disappointment for me and i blame the board. quotes like, "OH MY GOD SY IS THE GREATEST CONCERT YOU WILL EVER ATTEND" filled me with hope and anticipation. while it was certainly a good concert, it wasn't the aural revelation that it had been hyped up to be.

plus, i just don't like the songs on Rather Ripped that much.

oh fucking hell...earth were the worst thing at that festival by far.

sy have dissapointed me a few times actually.

yeah, it's ok. but the gig tomutonttu played last november at avanto festival was possibly the best thing i've ever seen...

and talking of finnish scene, i think paavoharju were slightly disappointing live compared to their excellent album.

yeah double leopards at atp wasnt as great as i expected it and not as good as i saw them before. they didnt really seem very interested but its always difficult to live upto expectations when you love a band and then see them live.

I really liked them there as well, don't get me wrong. They were fantastic then as well but I think the other times I have seen them, I liked them even more. That was the first time I'd seen them live as well but I was pretty familiar and enamoured (obsessed maybe) with their records. Did you see them when they played the evening after that? (can't remember the name of the venue but it was some sort of squat type thing)

Find it odd that you were a bit dissapointed by MCIAA Nefeli. I had heard a few things by them and thought they were ok but never really got into them...but really loved them at ATP