Quite wry, Airman Doors.
I actually clicked on two answers – I both buy (physical or download) live albums AND when not interested in actually buying the package, can enjoy some good live tracks.
I have only one live album (recorded during Tom Petty’s Mojo tour), and that’s because it came as a free download when I bought tickets to see him last year.
Live albums do tend to be a bit surplus, but there’s some I really like because they offer something different to the studio stuff:
Neil Young - “Weld”. Neil was in his “godfather of grunge” era, and the songs on this are pretty cranked up versions, which really works for some of them.
Velvet Underground - “1969”. Definitive versions of some tracks from “Loaded”, some stuff that only emerged later on rarities albums, and a blisteringly amazing live version of “What Goes On” from the third album. It’s also got Lou Reed being really friendly and chatty to the tiny audience at some college or other in Texas.
U2 - “Under a Blood Red Sky”. I can’t say I’ve ever been a huge U2 fan, but I’ve seen them live a few times. I think this shows them at their best, as a really tight band who can really work a crowd, before all the sanctimony kicked in.
I like to hear the artist deviate from the studio cuts.
I don’t buy them and seldom listen to them. I don’t like crowd noise, and the quality is generally worse IMHO.
Some live albums are pretty good and some aren’t. In my youth, the technology wasn’t available (or they didn’t want to spend the money) to do it right. But with the sound reinforcement systems available now, it’s mostly a matter of plugging a recorder into the board.
Sometimes, they’re just a “Best Of” album recorded live in concert. Sometimes they’re of an one-off event (Woodstock, Concert for Bangla-Desh). Sometimes they’re different arrangements and jams, and sometimes they’re new materiel. And sometimes they’re a quick and dirty way to meet a contractual obligation and try to squeeze out more money from the fans. You have to consider the artist, I guess.
By the way, I assume that James Brown’s Live at the Apollo and BB King’s Live at the St. Regis aren’t part of this discussion. These albums are also definitive.
I also have The Rolling Stone’s officially-recorded-but-never released The Belgian Affair. The version of Happy is wonderful and Tumblin’ Dice is better than Exile’s. Seriously.
The Belgian Rolling Stones concert is on YT, I believe. I think I watched it on an earlier recommendation from you. And agreed with your evaluation!
Jagger’s thinking he’s gonna tap that.
I just tried the link to the '73 Brussels Stones concert (had it saved in my favorites) and it’s been pulled. Individual songs from that show are still up.
Cheap Trick’s Live At Budokan is also the one I came to mention. I also really enjoy and prefer Steve Goodman’s collection of live recordings to his studio ones. Poi Dog Pondering’s studio stuff sounds a bit dull and lifeless to me, but their live album is great and has the energy that at least the pre-mid-90s studio work lacks.
Frampton Comes Alive? You guys are scarin’ me.
I listen to a lot of Grateful Dead and other jam bands, so yes, I buy a lot of live albums and bootlegs.
Lots of jazz, too. J.J. Johnson and Stan Getz at the Opera House, Chicago, 1957, is one of the best performances I’ve ever heard. Gerry Mulligan and Dave Brubeck at the Berlin Philharmonie in 1970. Sarah Vaughn at Mr. Kelly’s, Chicago, 1957. Zoot Sims and the Joe Castro Trio at the Falcon’s Lair, Los Angeles, 1956. Diz and Bird at Town Hall, NYC, 1945. LOTS of others.
Some live stuff is even better than the studio stuff
Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes - Live at the Greek great fucking record
Genesis - Seconds Out
Jethro Tull - Live Bursting Out
Yes - pretty much all of them
Supertramp - Paris
Steve Hackett - 2 Genesis Revisited live albums - excellent
Todd Rundgren - Back to the Bars
I’ve bought relatively few non-classical CDs since the 1980s, so I’m out of touch, but the Allison Kraus live Kentucky show (in pieces on YouTube, in fact), I bought first as a CD w/o realizing it’s also a DVD of (one? two?) performances. It’s my favorite greatest hits of her/them (Union Station).
I do not like studio tracks that fade out. I prefer songs with actual endings, as you’d hear if they were played live. I have numerous live albums, especially from that one Canadian trio, but also from many others. Love me some live music!
I saw the 35th Anniversary tour and Peter was great. He’s a very charismatic performer and a fantastic guitarist.
Oh yeah, I was at Winterland when they recorded for the album in 1975…one of the absolute best concerts I’ve ever attended, with or without the album.
It’s available as a Blu Ray as well, with additional songs. It’s a very intimate setting. Now that I think about, The Allman Brothers Band Live at Fillmore East was one of my first albums, and it’s awesome. The live half of Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma, captures an excellent post Syd live slice of the band. I still play Astronomy Domine from that album cranked to eleven.
Yep, I buy live albums, sometimes multiples by the same artist. Sometimes the studio just isn’t the place where that band shined, sometimes the live record captures a singular performance.
At Budokan is a prime example of a band being stifled by the studio, and shining on the stage. It’s simply the best Cheap Trick record. Some of their studio albums are good, but that one is a perfect gem.
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen were great in the studio, but live they were out of this world. When We’ve Got A Live One Here! was recorded, the whole band knew that it was probably their last chance to shine as that band. And for all the band’s problems, they weren’t going to have a better collection of players to work with. So, they all worked crazily for the set of shows that was recorded. Every song on the double record is great, if not the best version they ever did. The version of “San Antonio Rose” is the best version of that song, by anyone, anywhere. The version of “Smoke Smoke Smoke” may be just as rarefied.
I usually have some sort of reason, like the above to buy a live recording, but I buy them all the time.
I absolutely love Humble Pie Rockin’ the Filmore.
One of the best 1970s hard rock albums EVER.