The Allman Brothers at Fillmore East, as already mentioned
It’s just THE live album, really
The Derek Trucks Band - Live at Georgia Theatre
It’s absolutely criminal that Sony fucked around and only released this as a download instead of putting it in stores
Bob Marley and the Wailers - Live at the Roxy
This one has been around for a long time, but was re-released recently with an encore including Get Up Stand Up>No More Trouble>War>No More Trouble>Get Up Stand Up that’s really the core of the show, and it’s one of the most amazing 20 minute passages of music I’ve heard anywhere
Live/Dead by the Grateful Dead (not from one show… but nice transitions between songs…)
It’s nice to see all the love for Live at Leeds around here!
This one indeed, but also Vol 5., the 1964 Carnegie Hall Dylan concert.
Plus, side 2 of Cream, Wheels of Fire, Live at the Fillmore (actually recorded in Oakland.)
“Dionne Warwick in Paris” 1966
Her voice was never better!!
Frank Zappa - Roxy & Elsewhere
MC5 - Kick Out The Jams
Dictators - Fuck 'Em If They Can’t Take A Joke
Pink Floyd’s Pulse
Another vote for *Live at Castle Donington * and Stop Making Sense
Masayoshi Takanaka’ Live at Budokan: The Rainbow Goblin Story
And for individual song, Sublime’s By the Rivers of Babylon
The Stones’ Love You Live is worth owning for it’s rendition of Sympathy For The Devil alone, probably the most dynamic version I’ve ever heard.
As the only Cheap Trick fan here, I’d like to add Live at Budokan.
I also wanted to add Rockin’ Down the Highway - The Wildlife Concert by the Doobie Brothers. It featured all three lead singers, Patrick Simmons, Tom Johnston, and Michael MacDonald.
Another vote for Zappa’s Roxy & Elsewhere
Zappa, The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life
Genesis Live, although it’s criminal that there’s no Supper’s Ready on it
King Crimson, The Nightwatch, much of which became Starless & Bible Black
King Crimson, Absent Lovers, which was the swansong for the 81-84 version of the group
I’ll cast a vote for Kiss Alive.
Louder than Bombs isn’t a live album, it’s a b-sides/miscellaneous stuff album. But it is good.
I’ve always liked Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ Pack Up the Plantation – some don’t like all the covers that are on it and that a lot of the original songs come from Southern Accents, but I like the album all the more for those reasons. Stevie Nicks shows up as well.
While ultimately I have to agree with the folks who assert that the **Allman’s Live at Fillmore East ** is pretty much the gold standard, I must admit to being pleased that UFO’s Strangers in the Night ** got a couple of shout-outs. Rock Bottom just fkin’ delivers on that album and it is pretty damn solid from end to end. Schenker’s guitar tone and Phil Mogg’s limited-range-but-wonderful-sounding voice really work…
Surprised no one has mentioned **AC/DC’s If You Want Blood **- I prefer the studio recordings of most of these, but they are fun regardless…
Lots of other great mentions so far - too numerous to mention.
“Perfomance: Rockin’ The Fillmore”: Humble Pie
“Just Another Band From LA”: The Mothers
“801 Live”: 801
“Live Dates”: Wishbone Ash
First thing I thought of when I saw the thread title.
Maybe phungi is thinking of “Rank” - which was The Smith’s pretty decent live album. On that note, Morrissey’s “Beethoven Was Deaf” was excellent too.
My favorite is a semi-recent one - Aimee Mann’s Live At St. Ann’s Warehouse. She and the band sound awesome, and the music really benifits from the live tough.
Other favorites:
Sloan - 4 Nights At The Palais Royale
Sloan - Recorded Live At A Sloan Party
Nirvana - MTV Unplugged
10,000 Maniacs - MTV Unplugged
I’d like to post the oldest one here - Benny Goodman’s famous Carnegie Hall concert from 1938. Reproduced, kind of, at the end of the Benny Goodman story, with the real Harry James and Gene Krupa, at least. Good stuff.
I have that (on vinyl, duh)–it was my dad’s and he handed it down to me.
I have several bootlegs but the sound quality is questionable on all but two.
On one of them, Springsteen exhorts the bootleggers in the crowd to roll their tapes; he and the E Street Band then proceed to rip into a blistering instrumental featuring Clarence Clemons on saxophone.
On the other, Neil Young offers up some new and irreverent lyrics for Sugar Mountain, and gets the audience to sing along.
“Just pretend you’re in the shower.”