Can you reccomend some bands that put on visually spectacular concerts? Pink Floyd immediately comes to mind, as does KISS. I think The Rolling Stones usually have a very good visual show too.
Rammstein and Tool are more recent examples.
Another less obvious example would be the industrial band Skinny Puppy. Simulations of animal vivisection and head trauma experiments, having Ogre come out covered in blood with a head growing out of his spine while on stilts while injecting an oversized needle of heroin into his head, while being projected through the Drug Machine onto a backing film… interesting no?
Marilyn Manson puts on quite the stage show. Honestly, even if you don’t like the music, you have to appriciate the work he puts in to the visual aspect of it.
Phish’s light show is indeed spectacular–it blends perfectly with the music. Their lighting director, Chris Kuroda, has his own fan club, called CK5 (as he is considered the fifth member of the band).
U2’s last three tours (ZooTV, PopMart, and Elevation) have all been astounding. (I only saw the last two live, unfortunately.) Elevation was intentionally less visual than others, but it was still stunning in places. I was inside the heart-shaped stage for the Elevation show, and at times I was surrounded by the light show; it was cool.
I’m with DoctorJ on U2 - I think the part that got me the most excited about the whole experience on the Elevation tour was the light rollers (no clue how to describe it, but if you’ve seen it, you know what I mean) at the beginning of “Where the Streets Have No Name.” I was lucky enough to be right outside the heart once, and then once up in the nosebleed seats. And I was just blown away. (I also really admire ZooTV’s use of visual media as a statement - haven’t seen a whole ZooTV show yet, though.)
Hi well I would have to agree with you on the Skinny Puppy concert. I did get to see them in the early 90’s live in concert. That was the most visually shocking concert I had ever been to. Actually felt sick to my stomach a few times. They put Alice Cooper’s ahow to shame. Seeing Ogre peel off his skin and occasionally pull out a body part in there was “differant”
Second would have to be Pink Floyd. I saw them twice, though the first time had to be the best performance
which was the “Momentary Lapse of Reason” tour. I still remember to this day as Dogs of War began to play and Davids huge head filled the video screen then suddenly there are the Dogs running through the woods with red glowing eyes. The videos playing during Dark Side of the Moon were the best ever!
Lastly I would have to say the Cars also put on a great show. I saw them in the 80’s and I remember the set had all the tv screens everywhere playing videos. The v’s had been placed on top of these weird tall scupltured column like things. Great show though.
Lapin: One of the coolest parts from inside the heart was “With or Without You”, during which they projected star maps on translucent screens all around the heart. From inside, they were rotating all around you. It doesn’t come out very well on the video–I don’t think they used the translucent screens as much for the shows they filmed.
I highly recommend the video from the PopMart tour, if just for Bullet the Blue Sky (featuring Roy Lichtenstein’s images) and One (the visuals for which were very reminiscent of Keith Haring–don’t know if it was actually his stuff or not.)
Another great visually stunning moment was REM on the Monster tour; they had a giant video screen, and when they did “Country Feedback” (one of my favorite REM songs) they had some funky imagery going on (don’t remember what, exactly) and Stipe just turned and faced the screen and stood motionless as he sang the song. Very stirring.
Dude…i don’t know who you are but i love you…i’ve been looking for live SP videos on-line forever…but all i’ve found so far is the backing tapes they use for the songs…
A bit of a hijack–does Styx always tour with REO Speedwagon? It seems to me that every time I’ve heard of Styx coming to a town, or find a live cut of a song, it’s always with REO Speedwagon.
I’m not up on the lastest concerts but my first concert was also the first time I dropped acid and
Grand Funk Railroad AND Black Oak Arkansaw were
Visually stunning!
I just held onto my seat. No concert has measured up since.
I’ll agree with OP’s Rammstein mention. I saw them a little over a year ago (don’t remember the exact date off the top of my head) in a relatively small club, and I went into it thinking that for the size of the club they wouldn’t be doing their pyrotechnic stuff. . .but they did (the club was remarkably well set-up for that sort of thing–ie, not a Great White-type thing waiting to happen). I could feel every flame. Besides the pyros, the rest of the props and stage show was excellent, too.
Also, I saw nine inch nails in '94 or '95, on The Downward Spiral tour. Combined with the Jim Rose Circus, the whole experience was pretty awesome. Excellent lights, the huge translucent screen covering the entire stage (you know the drill, huge video is projected on the screen, you can still see the band behind), the music, the energy. . .great concert. Marilyn Manson opened (before anyone knew who they were), and they were awful (IMO). Horrible. Not for reasons that prudes and squares dislike them, but the music was just horrible. It sounded like shit. So, I wipe that part from my mind, and choose to remember only the Jim Rose Circus and nin, and that’s my vote for great concert.
Unfortunately, I’ve never gotten to see a Pink Floyd show.
Nor have I seen a Skinny Puppy concert (but I’m going to take a look at the online video), but the descriptions sort of remind me of GWAR concerts.
