I nominate Toto.
I’v never been to one of their concerts, but all the live videos I’ve watched are simply painful. They never get the sound and the vocal performances are surprisingly bad.
With a qualifier:
Within Temptation
Qualifier: Their “rock” songs do not perform well live. Their quieter songs are amazing live.
America - Like listening to their albums at really loud volumes.
Steely Dan?
Because they were specifically a studio band.
At least to begin with.
The one and only time I saw the Doobie Brothers live I thought the show totally sucked.
Pink Floyd is easily the worst live band ever. Terrible sound, spartan stage setup, no lights, props, etc.
Mötley Crüe. Vince Neil has one of the worst live voices in rock.
Blondie.
The Cars.
I saw the Ramones perform right before they broke up. They were just going through the motions.
The Police were absolutely awful when I saw them in 2007 at Bonnaroo festival. There were lots of screw ups as if they were not well reheased. They are one of the worst bands I’ve ever seen in any venue, dive bars included, and it was stunning to see this with 80,000+ people in the audience. I’m not a huge fan of Sting & The Police, but I expected better professionalism from them. I think that was their only tour since breaking up in the mid-80s.
On the flip side, I saw them in the 80’s just after they released Synchronicity and it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to. They were on top of their game that night.
I always say that most groups sound bad live but live Motley Crue is the group I am thinking of when I say that. They sound really bad live.
Not when I saw them. Maybe the greatest show I’ve ever seen. Their light show was fine, the sound excellent, and they created a show with their music.
If you want a fancy stage show, go see Lady Gaga.
Whoosh you were here?
They play better when airborne.
Hmm. I saw them once in a relatively small venue and really enjoyed the show. Maybe it’s a situation of ‘you had to be there’, where there was that unidentifiable *something *that you get in a live situation that made it good.
Worst band I ever saw live was a late 90’s lineup of Starship. They did not use the word “Jefferson” in their name, for legal reasons I expect, and they were booed by the audience for almost the whole show. Horrible.
To bring this thread out of the 70’s, I nominate k-os. We saw him for free at the Coke stage at the Stampede, and he was fine, then we paid money to see him later, and the venue was a complete joke, and as far as we could tell, he was pretty drunk and his singing definitely suffered. I love his music, but I don’t think we’ll be paying money to see him again.
What about a single artist? Rihanna used to sick live!
That was great!
I would not want to be in the front row for that.