On my drive home from work yesterday my local radio station talked about bands that sound great when recorded but suck live. The only 2 bands they mentioned that I have seen were Motley Crue and Smashing Pumpkins. I saw Motley Crue a few years ago, it was like one of the band members would take a song off so only 3 played each song. Vince Neal mumbled a lot too. Alice Cooper opened the show and put on a fantastic show, so the whole night wasn’t a waste. I didn’t expect much from the Pumpkins and that was good. Billy Corgan made sure the volume of his guitar was a lot louder than the rest of the band. The bass player spend most of the show sitting in a chair at the end of the stage.
3 other concerts come to mind. The Cars mailed in their show. No energy and every song sounded exactly like the record version. If a song was 3 minutes on the record, it was 3 minutes long during the show.
I have seen The Kinks twice, the first time they were very good, the next time, no so much. Many of the songs would just end for no apparent reason then the band would jump right into the next song. Lola lasted 90 seconds if that long. The whole concert took about an hour.
The third was Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio. The songs from the Heaven and Hell album were good, but Dio insisted on screaming the lyrics when they did songs from the Ozzie era.
Two other shows that could have been better but there were other issues. Led Zeppelin played at the Kingdome in Seattle. The echo in there was terrible except during the ballads.
And Ted Nugent put on a real tight show, but the political rants between songs ruined the evening for many.
Not sure I understand your question. You mention a couple bands that “loafed” through the show, but then you add The Cars, who definitely brought top-notch performances even if they were not huge for showmanship. (This has been discussed elsewhere on the forums.)
Frankly, a lot of top acts (Led Zeppelin, Yes, and others) put on some pretty poor shows in the late 60s and early 70s. The one band that I always remember putting on a good show as far as sound quality, talent, and showmanship, was Jethro Tull.
TL;DR: Yes put on some really bad shows in the early 70s.
Not quite what you’re getting at, but Van Morrison sucked in concert. And it wasn’t just that this his voice and ‘presence’ when live were nothing like his recorded stuff, he seemed to be actively hating what he was doing up on the stage.
Sometime later I learned (quite possibly here at the Dope) that Van was plagued by stage fright* and it all made sense.
Assemblage 23, the industrial “band” (it’s one guy in the studio).
I adore A23, with its intelligent, thought-provoking lyrics and great beats. I have all their studio albums. I was so excited when I found out they were playing in San Francisco (with the main guy, Tom Shear, and a touring band) so I got tickets and dragged my supportive, long-suffering spouse (he’s not much of a fan of the band) to the show.
They were terrible. Muddy sound, out of tune, just awful. We left early. I hope they were just having a bad night.
VNV Nation (another band in the same vein) puts on a much better show, so now we just go see them whenever they come to the area. Bonus: the spouse like them too!
I wouldn’t say “sucked” but I would say I was profoundly disappointed the two times I saw Metallica live. For whatever reason ( the venue/acoustics, sound tech, whatever ) the sound was terrible. Oh it was loud, but no mid-range would be my guess. The great “crunch” of the guitar power chords that make up all the great riffs that drive a song weren’t really there, replaced by a mix of booming muddy thuds of too much bottom range, and weak high/thin/whiney guitar soloing, rounded out by drums that seemed like just a loud version of using drum sticks on an upturned 5 gallon plastic pail. It was so bad that most of a song’s identifying hooks, tags or whatever could hardly be heard through all the poorly engineered “noise”.
It should be noted that at both times I was front ( or 2 or 3 rows back at most ) and center.
Of course it didn’t help that at the time they were touring for the ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’ albums, so much of the material sucked right out of the box and didn’t feature much of the sound that made them famous, but even their older stuff was hugely disappointing live.
Another observation I’ve noted;
With some bands that have only one guitarist, where in the studio they can lay down a rhythm track during lead guitar solos, some can pull it off live with one guitarist through flash and great support from the rhythm section. With other bands, the “hole” in the sound is most apparent.
The only shows I can remember being bad or disappointing are Black Sabbath with Ozzy because Ozzy has zero charisma and did little except stand in one place. Boring. And any New Years Eve shows because they advertise a NYE experience but are all over well before midnight.
I saw Guns ‘N Roses open for Aerosmith in 1988. This was when "Sweet Child O’ Mine" was at the top of the charts, but before Lies came out. I recall feeling let down, because they weren’t very good live.
Well, except Slash. During the guitar solo in “SCOM” his E-string broke (the thin one). He effortlessly moved it down an octave or two and completed the solo on the remaining five strings. I wouldn’t have even known the string had broken, but for the cameras zooming in on his guitar.
Another memorable part was Axl introducing a new song as something that would be on an EP coming out later that year. The song was “Patience.” Slash played this slow ballad-y thing on his electric guitar, and Axl started with the whistling… remember, this song was unknown at the time, all we knew was the hard-rocking Appetite for Destruction. The crowd was dead silent through the song, and there was a “what the fuck is this?” vibe in the people near me.
I actually saw two of the bands mentioned so far, Faith no More and Metallica, on the same ticket and thought they were great. The third band on the ticket, Guns N’ Roses, sucked ass. I walked out halfway through their performance. Appetite for Destruction is a near perfect album, and they had other great songs, but they were horrible live. No effort it seemed.
We saw Van in 1998 when he toured with Dylan, and he put on a good show. Seeing the two of them perform “Blue Suede Shoes” was particularly memorable, as Carl Perkins had just passed. In a strange turn of events the next time I saw Dylan was right after Warren Zevon passed, and he did “Werewolves of London”.
I’m not sure where I, personally, fall on the issue, but one could argue that, if all they’re going to do is flawlessly recreate their studio recordings on stage, with zero showmanship or stage presence, concertgoers might as well just stay home and listen to those recordings. There’s no particular reason to see them play live.
So, I’m not the OP, but that might work as a definition: bands (and, I suppose, solo artists) whom there’s no particular reason for even a fan of their recorded output to want to see live.
NP. I was just not sure about the question that compared studio recordings to live performances. I agree that The Cars were “sterile” in live performances, but they could sure play what was on their records. The sound quality was usually also immaculate. Ocasek was fairly anal about such things.
Well, I know where I stand on the subject. Was excited about seeing Interpol (at The Rave, yet, with a name like that you know there’s always a mosh pit). No moshing, no dancing, everyone listened blankly as they “flawlessly recreated their studio recordings on stage, with zero showmanship or stage presence”. I got bored, went down the street and bought a bunch of ball caps and Sharpies, came back and drew Interpol caps. Sailing them from the balcony was so much more enjoyable than the show.
And this was a week after I’d seen Springsteen, who’d sat on the edge of the stage and told a story about his childhood, and later climbed a huge bank of amplifiers and jumped off.
Now I choose concerts based on whether I’ll get to know the performer better, and whether they’ll add their own touches to the songs (maybe even covers) they play.
Quicksilver Messenger Service. third billing in a daylong show out in the country (Pozo), mid-late 90s I think. We’d gone to see Little Feat (always a dependable live show). QMS set began ok, but when the lead guitarist first stepped up, it became clear that this was time for an extended smoke/drink break. The guy was playing an entirely different tune in a different key, time signature,&c, than his confused and embarrassed bandmates. It was brutal. I can only surmise that extremely hard drugs, or a stroke, had happened.
It’s funny you mention The Smashing Pumpkins. Back in 92’ (or so) I had a buddy who turned me onto their first album GISH. I loved it…thought it was astonishing and thought I was in for a treat when it was announced they were going to support the Red Hot Chili Peppers for their new tour. Bought tix, drove to gig and waited and waited. First band came on and DESTROYED the place with energy. I had never heard of them before but I recall thinking “these guys are fantastic”…now it’s time for my boys, The Pumpkins. Uh oh…it was obvious in the first 2 minutes that we had a problem. The sound was horrible and Billy’s screeching was unbearable. It was clear these guys were one trick ponies and I couldn’t wait for it to be over. It was madness and they compounded the problem over and over by screeching louder and faster. I cannot tell you how bad The Pumpkins were live. They finally gave it up and the Peppers came out and did a remarkable show with Fruisciante and the boys. They were excellent. Sounded great and were in great spirits. Invited the audience up for the last song so it was kind of a bit of a controlled riot. Everybody enjoyed their set for sure.
I learned two things that day.
I gave my GISH album away and refused to be a part of The Pumpkins from this moment on. Can’t stand listening to them.
That unknown band was from Seattle. Their name was Pearl Jam. They made such an impression on me that I will ALWAYS give those guys the benefit of the doubt regarding any of their projects. They were the real deal and knew how to rock. I loved them for it. I’m not a HUGE fan of PJ but I sure admire their integrity.