Best Live Music Performances

[Denur]

It's been 50 years since Woodstock. At the time I was possibly still suckling my mom's tit, but Santana has become one of my favorite bands over the years. I love to revisit this Soul Sacrifice performance from time to time. What do you consider to be a great live performance? (HD only please).

 

[W3H5]

One that springs to mind is Metallica at Nîmes, 2012. That show blew my tiny little mind. I’ll not link it because it’s a 2 hour show.

Probably anything that Pink Floyd ever did on a stage would be up their, and watching Papa Roach trash the BBC’s Top of the Pops set in the early 00’s was pretty cool. After seeing this performance I immediately went out an bought a copy of their album. End of this video: (there is no HD version)


The Police in Hamburg, c. 1980, really floated my boat. Of course I’ve only seen it recorded because I wasn’t yet born for a few years.

 

[TB]

One of many, Stevie Ray Vaughan Live at the El Mocambo, and if I have to choose one song, Lenny.



A friend introduced me to Blues when all I was really listening to was what my parents did. Opened my ears to absorbing all kinds of music after that.

 

[BobK]

I once saw Jimi Hendrix live at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Never saw a better performance before or since.

 

[Danoff]

Should be in the music subforum.

 

[Northstar]

A friend introduced me to Blues when all I was really listening to was what my parents did. Opened my ears to absorbing all kinds of music after that.

The best part about Blues is how well emotion transfers through the music.

 

[Rallywagon]

I've been to a lot of shows and seen a wide breadth of bands/musicians. I grew up a couple miles from Pine Knob (named DTE Eneegy Theater since like 2004) in Clarkston Michigan. Unless it was a major headliner, every show had $5 vouchers for lawn. From 1999 to 2005 I must have gone to some 150-200 shows between Pine Knob, Ford amphitheater, Meadow Brook, and the various indoor venues in and around Detroit. Lots of them sucked, bad. Meatloaf, Monster Magnet, the various "country" musicians. But I had a blast at all of them. Good friends, good memories and a lot of good people watching and meeting.
Some of the stand outs though.
I had the privilege of seeing B.B King twice in 04 and 05. Both shows were amazing. I got to see Santana with Los Lonely Boys back in 04. Both put on very memorable shows. Los Lonely Boys especially.
Moe. put in a really good show.
I cant stand his music, but seeing Kid Rock playing is his home town, with the storm that just blew through flashing lightning as the backdrop behind the stage, it was an electric show for sure.
I rate two shows at the top. When I was in my teens and early 20s, I was a pretty big 311 fan. Really big fan actually. When I was 16, I got tickets to see them at St. Andrew's Hall. This was my first real concert. I had been to PK once before to see Megadeth with Monster Magnet opening. This was back in 97. It wasn't a memorable show.
Anyway, 311 was still early into their career so they weren't playing PK or the Fox theater yet. St. Andrew's has a floor, a bar area and a balcony. It set a precedence that no show has lived up too. Transistor had just dropped, which to this day stands as one of my top albums for the instruments alone. Some of Mahoney, PNut and Sexton put in what I personal feel were some of their best music of any album they made. I honestly have never heard them play on this level again.
The second number one show was seeing 311 again at PK when I was 18. That night was special for a whole different reason. I'll spare the details beyond saying mushrooms and going beyond the heroic dose. I will say I am very glad 311 was the show I was at for that and it was a night that positively affected the rest of my life.
I havent been to many shows since 06. I had joined the army, I went to just a couple of shows while in El Paso, but the atmosphere there was different, and I was doing car shows and racing so I had other distractions. Since moving back to MI in 2010, I never really reformed with that group of friends. Kids, life and all that. I have been to a few more shows since moving back, but those years in the late 90s and early 2000s. Good times those.
I have to put these as honorable mentions. Gaelic Storm at the Machine Shop in Flint a few years ago. They are great live! Fun music, fun musicians.
A friends band called Tripstick. They never got out of the "local band" level, but they put on wicked good shows. Probably had to do more with the group I was with, and the copious amounts of alcohol, but it was a lot of fun going all over metro detroit watching them play.
Kitty at Harpos. Small venue with rowdy metal chicks and rowdy metal fans. They would get like 10 local metal bands and have them all got up and perform a 3 song set. Nights at Harpos were, well, rowdy!



Edit. TLDR, I love music. I love concerts.

 

[VBR]

Live music usually sounds great mostly because of the atmosphere, from just being there, & your state of mind etc. However, if you were to listen to a recording of the live performance a few days later, it probably wouldn't have the same effect on you. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule & here's one of them. The live recording of Paramore's Last Hope actually sounds better than the album version in the opinion of many people.

 

[Rallywagon]

Live music usually sounds great mostly because of the atmosphere, from just being there, & your state of mind etc. However, if you were to listen to a recording of the live performance a few days later, it probably wouldn't have the same effect on you. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule & here's one of them. The live recording of Paramore's Last Hope actually sounds better than the album version in the opinion of many people.

I think that depends greatly on the band and possibly your appreciation for the band. 311, Sublime, any of Garcia's bands, Buffett, all of Irish folk and a good deal of American folk music. Their live albums are among their better albums. Not every group is good live though, I'll definitely agree with that (*cough*Incubus*cough*). But put on some headphones, spin up the 311 live video and take a listen to Nix Hex, Galaxy or Who's Got the Herb, any of Sublime Acoustic, the Dubliners Live. Maybe it's just me, but listening to live albums transports me.

edit: I'll admit, I may be a bit of an outlier here. I think listening to a band live is the best way to listen.

 

[Dave A]

I think that depends greatly on the band and possibly your appreciation for the band. 311, Sublime, any of Garcia's bands, Buffett, all of Irish folk and a good deal of American folk music. Their live albums are among their better albums. Not every group is good live though, I'll definitely agree with that (*cough*Incubus*cough*). But put on some headphones, spin up the 311 live video and take a listen to Nix Hex, Galaxy or Who's Got the Herb, any of Sublime Acoustic, the Dubliners Live. Maybe it's just me, but listening to live albums transports me.

edit: I'll admit, I may be a bit of an outlier here. I think listening to a band live is the best way to listen.

I agree to a degree. I enjoy listening to live music, you get more imperfections a lot of the time, but you also tend to get more emotion. This is all assuming the artist can actually sing live, there are a lot that can't IMO and if they only sound good in a studio then they aren't worth listening to live (or at all).

Also the band members playing the instruments, sometimes when they are playing live you get more variety in the songs, they might just jam for a bit in the middle for example. Some bands know how to perform live, some don't as much, but the ones that do are really worth listening to.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I'm not a massive fan of live music, the most notable gig I've been to was Dave Gilmour at the Royal Albert Hall. Fantastic to be there, but in terms of being a special show, probably less so.

I'd have to suggest that when Roger Waters did his The Wall tour in a few years ago, the stage show put on must have been one of the most incredible things to experience.

It was turned into a film, the trailer is here... ignoring the bits with Waters exploring his motivation, it's an incredible spectacle...

 

[SlipZtrEm]

For sheer spectacle, I'm completely sold on any live show from Muse. The production values are top notch, there's plenty of theatrics, and Matt Bellamy can hit every single one of those notes, time and time again. I've never been a huge fan of the band itself, but they sit atop my better half's list of favourites, and I'm glad she's taken me to two shows. This year's tour was awesome, but I'd avoid any of the amateur recordings on YouTube right now as they can't accurately capture it IMO.

When I think of my favourite live performances, it really depends on the band and location. I saw Radiohead in Chicago at Lollapalooza in 2008, and it was mesmerizing. It was a huge festival venue, which I thought would detract (especially as they weren't co-headlining that night with another artist on the other side of the park), but it didn't. The band knows how to toe the line between following what people hear on albums, and reimagining just enough to make it memorable. Also, In Rainbows had just come out, and I was blown away by it, which helped. The atmosphere, with everybody just absorbed by the performance, or thousands singing along, was perfect.

On the other end of the spectrum, I once saw Death From Above 1979 in a tiny little basement setting. The ceiling was low, everyone was sweaty, and it was a few years before they released their second album, so the show was almost entirely based around the debut album (which remains one of my favourites to this day). It was the perfect venue for that sort of music. This is obviously very different, but I still love this old clip of them on Conan, when Max Weinberg jumps on the drums and utterly kills it (I feel like @ImaRobot will appreciate):



Then there's LCD Soundsystem. My favourite band announced it was breaking up a few years ago, and I missed the Toronto leg of that final tour. Then the movie on the very last show at MSG came out:



The movie captures a feeling so clearly. It also introduced me to a version of my favourite song that was somehow, almost impossibly, improved upon. The live album for this came out a few years later, clocking in at over three hours. Then there was the news of the band's return. Sam picked up tickets as a surprise for me, and finally seeing the band live, even here in Toronto, was great. In a weird way, the whole breakup rigmarole doesn't matter to me: it feels oddly appropriate for a band like LCD.

 

[baldgye]

Daft Punk.​

Went to see them in 2007 and it was staggering. Seen Muse and other big bands and DJ's since and nothing's come close to those two rocking the pyramid.
They played for around an hour and a half and then came out for the encore, during which instead of the whole stage lighting up, their suits did. It was insane and I've seen nothing like it since.

​

 

[ImaRobot]

On the other end of the spectrum, I once saw Death From Above 1979 in a tiny little basement setting. The ceiling was low, everyone was sweaty, and it was a few years before they released their second album, so the show was almost entirely based around the debut album (which remains one of my favourites to this day). It was the perfect venue for that sort of music. This is obviously very different, but I still love this old clip of them on Conan, when Max Weinberg jumps on the drums and utterly kills it (I feel like @ImaRobot will appreciate):

The setting sounds about right, especially being that early. Almost like going to gig back when I was in highschool seeing some punk bands play in someones ran down backyard. I'm jelly that you got to see them so early in their career!

I love that they always seem to mix up their songs quiet a bit when playing live, too. I even took it upon myself to learn the bass to the live versions as well, they were just so much more raw. I still aspire to one day own a Rickenbacker!

 

[FPV MIC]

In terms of actually seeing live it would be Foo Fighters for a stadium concert, and Wolfmother (before they were well known) at a small pub-type venue (The Gov), both in Adelaide. Unfortunately for us here in good old Radeliade most big bands fly straight over the top of us, from Perth to Melbourne or visa versa.

As far as watching on the small screen, it's impossible for me to choose out of my just over 500 concert collection. I'm another one that loves live music, probably a bit more than I should.

I'm not a massive fan of live music, the most notable gig I've been to was Dave Gilmour at the Royal Albert Hall. Fantastic to be there, but in terms of being a special show, probably less so.

I'd have to suggest that when Roger Waters did his The Wall tour in a few years ago, the stage show put on must have been one of the most incredible things to experience.

It was turned into a film, the trailer is here... ignoring the bits with Waters exploring his motivation, it's an incredible spectacle...

I just got this on Blu-ray the other day and can confirm that both the visual and audio aspects are absolutely stunning.

 

[Rallywagon]

In terms of actually seeing live it would be Foo Fighters for a stadium concert, and Wolfmother (before they were well known) at a small pub-type venue (The Gov), both in Adelaide. Unfortunately for us here in good old Radeliade most big bands fly straight over the top of us, from Perth to Melbourne or visa versa.

As far as watching on the small screen, it's impossible for me to choose out of my just over 500 concert collection. I'm another one that loves live music, probably a bit more than I should.

I just got this on Blu-ray the other day and can confirm that both the visual and audio aspects are absolutely stunning.

Pantera home video, "Watch it Go" Thrreeeeee will always have a place in my heart. The Serengeti's!

 

[FPV MIC]

Pantera home video, "Watch it Go" Thrreeeeee will always have a place in my heart. The Serengeti's!

I've hardly listened to Pantera. I keep meaning to but I think they're just a tad too heavy for my taste.

And on a separate note, just to show my point about bands flying over the top of us in Adelaide... it's happening again (Perth to Melbourne ) https://www.vmusic.com.au/stone-temple-pilots-to-tour-oz

It won't be the same without Scott but I still would've liked to see them, and the supporting band (Grinspoon) rock.

 

[Wolfman_UK]

Without a shadow of a doubt, the best live music I have seen is Guns n Roses at the old Wembley stadium in the early 90's. I was incredibly hung over from a powerful nights drinking (9 pints of Tennants super in 1 and 1/2 hours) and it was the hottest day of the year for the concert. I was so dehydrated, I almost passed out whilst waiting to gain entry and once inside the stadium, I lost all my mates so basically watched the whole lot on my lonesome. Support acts were Sound Garden and one other that I cannot remember but when G n R came on stage, the place went ballistic. There were people around me of all ages, at a guess pre-teens up to what looked like 60's or 70's, and everybody were singing along and just going mental. It was an unbelievable experience that I will never forget and will never and can never be topped.

 

[Carbon_6]

Not a band playing live per se, but watching a film with a live score.

Not long after hitting cinemas it was announced that for one night only, a 60-piece orchestra – conducted by Hans Zimmer – was going to perform the score of Interstellar live at the Royal Albert Hall. TL;DR, I managed to find a link to a brief overview of the show:

https://www.royalalberthall.com/abo...-for-the-world-premiere-of-interstellar-live/

If you've seen the film, chances are you've probably heard the score on its own, arguably one of the best I've heard. Hearing it in the cinema was one thing, but hearing it via an orchestra with the film on a massive screen (almost like IMAX) was a truly unique experience. There were at least three moments where goosebumps were well and truly present, and one scene in particular got a standing ovation from the audience. The organ has never looked the same to me since.

I was hooked when I saw the film the first time, but the live experience elevated it to the point where it's now basically ruined, if only because I don't have a concert hall, a Zimmer-lead orchestra, or a massive screen to watch it through again.