If you love rock listen to Waiting for Columbus and you will be enlightened. If not I will pay for the CD.
Not sure my teenagers will ever let me forget playing Live at the Roxy for them during one car ride. “Did he just say…?” Oh, the joys of being a bad parent! 
Re: Strangers in the Night - I think I just thought it too long and overblown as a double. But it has probably been 20 years… And I have to admit, a good part of me was pissed over Schenker leaving - was in the 2d row for one of Chapman’s 1st gigs w/ the band. What a disappointment.
Yeah, a fun album w/ some EXCELLENT cuts (tho overall a little long IMO.) But pales against my memories of seeing them live.
I was thinking of Cheap Trick’s “Live at Budokan” before even opening this thread, a great live album.
The drummer’s and guitars intro to “Ain’t That a Shame” gets the place rock’n. Your PC speakers will not do it justice. If you were to listen to the actual recording vs this youtube version you can hear the girls in the audience screaming, *screaming *like they are being murdered. Gives a very Beatles coming to America feel to it.
As a musician, I enjoy live albums because they tell me things about the artist, like how technically proficient they really are, how they feel about their songs, how they approach arranging and improvisation.
Three live albums that really stand out for me in this regard are The Who Live At Leeds, The Who Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970, and Counting Crows August And Everything After Live.
Live At Leeds showed a side of The Who that hadn’t been heard before, much more ballsy than anything previously released. For anyone who hadn’t seen them live, this album revealed a lot.
The Who Live At The Isle of Wight was recorded in 1970 but not released until 1996. For me, this album proved that Pete Townshend is a great guitar player. The things he does in instrumental sections like Overture are amazing to me. I saw The Who live during their Tommy tour (Led Zeppelin was the opening act, I am not making this up) and was impressed by the whole thing, but the live Isle of Wight release gives me a chance to experience a great band at the peak of their powers, over and over again.
Anyone who has heard anything live by Counting Crows knows that Adam Duritz never does the same melody and phrasing twice. August And Everything After is one of my favorite albums of all time, and when they released a live version of the whole album, I was ecstatic. For me, this is the best way to hear these songs. I love listening to a great band work on stage, to a unique singer doing his thing, and to what they all have done with these songs in the 14 years that passed between recording the studio album and the concert recorded on the live album.
For me, the good live albums are the ones where the artists do not try and recreate their studio effort, but instead bring something new and different. For example, a rock band having a backing orchestral instrument section, acoustic versions, small cafe setting jams, radio studio performances.
The killer make/break quality for me though is the recording and production value of the live performance. If the mix isn’t good (i.e. vocals drowned out, solos not boosted, etc) it’s often a deal breaker. Thankfully, digital soundboards and improved mics and outputs have brought the potential quality way up from the crappy captures of the '70s (e.g. Led Zeppelin live stuff).
A lesser, but still important negative, is crowd noise. It does not help my enjoyment of a performance to hear whistles and woohoos throughout. I want to experience the band live, not the crowd or the venue. Otherwise, my iPod on the subway in a mid-summer rush hour gives me that same “live” experience.
<snerk> yep; that’s the one time I figured out how to edit a track - I cut off his intro when I burned the CD so I didn’t have to deal with the long story - and therefore the profanity. Jeez - I gotta rip that version so it doesn’t get lost when the CD degrades…
As for UFO - yeah, the middle bit of Rock Bottom is overlong, and there really are only 1 album’s worth of truly great stuff - but the great stuff! Listening to Schenker lead over Lights Out - swoon.
Crotalus - there’s a reason that Live at Leeds is held up as pretty must the best ever, next to the Allman’s Live at Filmore East. Those Who shows are legendary - and sure as heck provide all the defense the OP might be looking for 
Yeah, “At Budokan” is the perfect example. It shows that some bands are actually far, far better live than they ever were in the studio. Sometimes in the studio, everything goes wrong because you have the time and money to do them wrong. I don’t think I’d like Cheap Trick if it weren’t for that record.
Apropos of nothing, I can hear that drumbeat come on the radio and know what song is starting on the fourth beat, even if I haven’t heard it for 10 years.
Live music are better. 2 of my favorite albums are live. (Both Hot Tuna: Double Dose and And Furthurmore.)
To be clear: the producer of Cheap Trick’s studio version of IWYtWM was Tom Werman - pretty much one of the top rock producers going. They were supposed to be huge and Werman’s involvement was part of that. But his overly-cute, popsy arranging was the wrong choice.
But, if you think about it, given the cutesy song, you can see why they took that approach - at the time there were a lot of songs that sounded that way.
Link to mobile version on Youtube - the studio version: YouTube
The fact that the studio version didn’t work was part of Cheap Trick being on the outs with the label - so when they recorded the live version, I think it might’ve only been for the Japanese market - it took radio play for the label to get interested in releasing Budokan in the US. ::checks wiki:: damn, I’m good - from the page:
It turned out the poppy song was best arranged with a much rockier feel. Who knew?
Well, we’re hijacking here, but I’d say Cheap Trick did. :)* Pretty much their whole career was spent fighting the labels, who all were trying to turn them into a teen heartthrob band. That’s the reason why the studio was such an dismal place for them. When they got to control the take (no one is gonna go tell you to re-do a song live), they were great. Go listen to “He’s a Whore” or “ELO Kiddies” or even “Surrender”, and tell me they didn’t think they were a rock band.
*and me! I’m always gonna choose the rocker.
Missed the edit:
[QUOTE=Wikipedia]
Their second album In Color was released later that year and was produced by Tom Werman, who brought out their lighter and more pop-oriented side, producing an album much more polished than their first. However, the band bemoaned In Color’s production and would re-record it many years later.
[/QUOTE]
Producers, the other reason for the live album to exist. Gimme Steve Albini any day.
I used to think this when I was young. (Prior to 30). Then I met the Grateful Dead. I have all their releases, which include well over 60 live concerts. I rarely listen to the studio albums. I started hearing their stuff on the car radio during commutes and as a result, I attended one concert before Jerry Garcia died. Their concerts are huge parties and wonderful to watch and listen to. Virtually everyone (except me) is on some sort of happy pharmaceutical or weed. They are having a great time. It is a gathering where you know the entire conversation, all the jokes and are welcomed warmly (and can easily get laid afterwards!)
The live albums are not portfolios of the latest works, they are performances like an evening at the local symphony orchestra. They really aren’t like the live shows in that they party isn’t there. But it is a long musical conversation.
For your understanding of live albums, I recommend picking up Live Dead or Dick’s Picks Four if you can find it and enjoy the Grateful Dead music.
Live at the Fillmore East if you like The Allman Brothers (recorded at the same venue as Dick’s Picks Four a year and half later).
Johnny Cash Live at Folsom Prison about how music keeps hope going among the hopeless.
Clapton’s Just One Night is a better picture of his work than any studio album he has ever done.
A good live album is less sterile than an extraordinarily studio album. A good live performance is worth remembering for lifetime.
The Rolling Stones are an amazing live act, or at least were in past decades. Best live band I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen them three times. They are now in their 70s and won’t be around much longer. They are on tour. See them, even in a stadium. Even if you have to pay a whole lot of money.
One of my college buddies was a pretty good friend with CT from their earliest days, so I saw them in clubs many times. Bun E. ALWAYS had one of the HUGEST drum sounds ever! And Rick was a total rockstar! So for me, Budokan was nothing I hadn’t heard and known many a time - with the annoying addition of thousands of shrieking asian pre-pubes. I always think of that album as representing the beginning of the band’s slide. Man, their 1st 3 albums probably have as many great pop/rock tunes as anyone since Buddy Holly!
Oh yeah - of course; I should’ve made it more clear that the cute-ification was NOT something the band wanted. Nielsen’s a great writer, arranger and player - his approach should’ve won the day - but that’s what Big Music was like…
John Entwistle once complained that the only album that got the sound of his bass mixed right was Live at Leeds, and man was he telling the truth. Ballsy is the right word.
Indeed; we loved them in Houston. But the number of people who heard Little Feat when Lowell George was at his peak is criminally small. For them, there’s Waiting For Columbus.
Joe Ely has had a couple of killer live albums. But he’s alive & well; go see him…
I’ve heard New Order doing a version of Blue Monday that I would describe as them rocking the fuck out.
New Order didn’t rock out.
Blue Monday is not rocked out to.
Rocking out is different from rocking the fuck out in the same way that a prizefighter getting knocked out is different from him getting knocked the fuck out. One is a statistic, the other is a highlight reel.
New Order would not have been able to rock the fuck out to Blue Monday in a studio.
Iron Maiden live in Rio is an awesome album, the sheer energy of Run to the Hills and the crowd getting involved is fantastic. I love their studio albums as well but this album is up there.
I used to feel like the OP, but as time passed, and I went to concerts, I grew to appreciate the differences in live music vs recorded. Frampton’s hits sound lifeless to me in studio form. Bob Seger’s Turn the Page was as well. In the studio, the artist is trying for perfection. Live, they’re applying the experience they’ve accumulated in playing the song hundreds of times since the studio recording, and hopefully having some fun too.
Studio cuts are beauty. Live recordings are joy.