You may have noticed that the Budokan in Japan is a common venue for live albums for this reason. The Japanese crowds are politely quiet while musicians are playing but wildly enthusiastic between, which leads to excellent live albums. Eric Clapton describes it as the best place in the world to play.
I thought it was because Brian Jones was on his way out at the time and was clearly off his ‘ckin’ head. He barely plays much of the time, and doesn’t play at all for substantial sections. The rest of the Stones are doing their best to cover for him but it’s tough.
They also went on last at around 5am. Not only were the Stones exhausted from the late hour and hosting duties since the previous afternoon, the audience just didn’t have any enthusiasm left after 15 hours of “opening bands”, many whose fame rivaled that of the Stones.
There was a concert done in 1964 called T.A.M.I Show that was released as a movie. Had a hell of a lineup; the Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, among others. James Brown was next-to-last, followed by the Rolling Stones. Keith Richards said that following Brown was the worst mistake of their careers.
It’s also a goldmine of trivia for people who were unknown at the time. Teri Garr and Toni Basil were dancers, John Landis and David Cassidy were in the audience, and Kelly Harmon is briefly visible in a shot of the audience.
Interesting, I had never heard of the T.A.M.I. Show; now I have to see it!
There was a very watchable biopic movie about James Brown several years back that had an amusing scene in which (going from memory) the young Stones were waiting backstage ready to follow James Brown at some show and when he was done the Stones were all very impressed, and Brown said something to them to the effect of “that’s how it’s done, kids”. I wonder if that was supposed to be the T.A.M.I. show.
ETA: found a YouTube clip: I forgot Chadwick Boseman played James Brown. First sighting of Stones backstage at 2:30. James actually says “welcome to America” to them, but the way he says it, it sounds like “that’s how it’s done, kids”
Roger Daltrey was on Marc Maron’s podcast a while back and he essentially said the tightest group in the history of Rock was two-thirds of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Helmet was the “tightest” band I ever saw. Their style of music utilized a lot of odd time signatures and negative space, and Paige Hamilton’s guitar rig is so perfect, even in a stadium, when he stops playing, absolute silence. The whole band could stop and start with surgical precision. It’s quite jarring and they used it to perfection.
This is at a full Reading Stadium, and it sounds like they’re just playing the CD.
Tight 70s bands? The answer is “The Cars.” In fact, they were so tight and in tune with each other that their live performances were…pretty boring. Given a decent sound system, they might as well have played the studio cuts. It was pretty shocking when Orr would put a little extra pause in “…wasting all my (pause) time.”
I don’t believe that it was so much that they had a natural feeling for each others’ playing. It was that Ocasek was anal about his writing and they were extremely well-rehearsed and, well, tight. I can’t imagine a performance where they would just decide, “Hey, let’s play some Hendrix!” and knock out a fun cover.
I’ve not seen them live in person but I’ve seen some live performances. I think the Beastie Boys are extremely tight. All three guys rap on almost every song and they are back and forth like a game of ping-pong, all while staying with the beat and whatever’s coming off the DJ table, and any live instruments they may employ.
Is this Jack White song tight, or just extremely well-rehearsed. And is there a difference between the two? Can the sound be raw/distorted, and still be “tight”?
Jack White (in all of his projects) is kind of a special case, in that, while he is a very good musician, and I’m pretty sure is able to achieve exactly the sound he wants to achieve, sort of makes a virtue out of not seeming tight. Which, of course, absolutely requires tightness.
For tightest band, I’m going to nominate the later incarnations of Talking Heads, when they’d added all kinds of auxiliary sidemen. And, of course, Tom Tom Club (sometimes described as Talking Heads’ rythyhm section without David Byrne).
Most of the funk bands were tight, and some had eight to ten musicians playing at once, e.g. Sly and the Family Stone. Very impressive. A modern example is Here Come the Mummies.
“Tight” is certainly not an adjective I would use for hard rock/metal bands. But the term might be applicable to early Rush. Listen to By-Tor and the Snow Dog on the album Fly by Night.
Thank you for all the great responses to this thread everyone, I have to say that I didn’t expect this to be such a stimulating topic.
Personally I dipped out quite early - in the cold light of day I thought that the premise of the whole thread was flawed. I felt that I was wrong to single out the B52s in the way I did.
But… Friday night rolls round again, a few beers in, and in the warm fug of evening, “Rock Lobster” comes on again. As I say, for a while I loved this track. But listening to it now I’m starkly reminded of why I started this thread - despite the “fun” element that people have mentioned here, the music is undoubtedly pedestrian.
So I now remember the question I really wanted to ask of skilled musicians - what is lacking in that specific track? Who is the weak link there, the drums, the bass, the lead? Some combination thereof?
Coming to this a bit late and, while I never saw Talking Heads, I did see David Byrne 2 or 3 times in the 90s. Well rehearsed, the band hit their cues and the audience loved it. He loves Latin rhythms though, so, iirc, it often felt a bit loose and slinky. The final time I saw him he changed into a skintight glow-in-the-dark skeleton costume for Psychokiller. Never again; he looked ridiculous.
Pretty tight when it counted but nothing compared to seeing Doctor Feelgood at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in September 1976, when they were at their peak. I hadn’t heard anything by them before the gig but they were stunningly good and I still rate it as one of the top gigs I’ve seen. Checking the date, I see I must also have seen the George Hatcher Band in support, but I remember absolutely nothing about them…
The Feelgood’s live album Stupidity, recorded the year before but by coincidence released the same month I saw them, captures them quite well. Also the live footage in their biopic Oil City Confidential.
I just listened to Rock Lobster, so I’ll try to take a crack at this question. (Disclaimer: I am not a musician.)
One thing I noticed was that a couple of times, the rhythm section just kind of stops what they’re doing and then does something completely different for a bit, before going back to what was happening before. It’s a bit jarring if you’re listening closely.
Also, the keyboard parts brought to mind a little 3-octave toy electric organ I had when I was a kid. That is to say, it doesn’t sound to me like something a “professional” band would normally play.
I’m sure these were all deliberate choices, and it all fits with the fun and silly nature of the song.
In fact, maybe it’s just the overt silliness that’s putting you off. This may come off as snarky, and I don’t mean it to. But there’s a human tendency to need to be “right.” You don’t care for this song, or the B-52s, and that’s OK. But it doesn’t necessarily mean there’s something objectively wrong with them. Your search for whatever is “lacking” may just come down to your current personal taste in music.
I realize this all has little to do with “tightness,” but it’s my non-expert opinion of Rock Lobster in particular.
There are at least four widely available versions of “Rock Lobster”: The original DB Records single that lacks Kate Pierson’s bassline (on keyboard), the seven minute album version, the Warner Brothers Records single edited down from the album version, and (my favorite) the “Dance this Mess Around/Rock Lobster” medley from their appearance on SNL . I think the performance definitely became tighter in that order. But, frankly, you could put Ricky Wilson’s Mosrite behind a group of three-year-olds singing “Happy Birthday” and it would sound awesome.
But my point was that I did love this song for a while, I like the silliness, I love the sound of the organ thing. But it becomes less special on repeated listenings (at least the version I’ve got does), compared with other songs that I can listen to again and again.
This is the last day of Summerfest in Milwaukee, and it is THE place to see B-list bands from decades ago for free. And see if they’ve still got it…
…and part of “it” is tightness. This year’s award goes to Tower of Power.
I’d forgotten what having your intestines caved in by a wall of sound feels like, when it’s bass and drums and a bari sax hitting low low A, all the way up to a fluegelhorn and a trumpet wailing in the “dogs and dolphins” range.
I’ve been going since the early 70s, and the number of bands that had gotten too loose were a long, disappointing list. But last time I was there, Garbage got the award for “surprisingly tight band”.
