[Closed] BAD Live Performances.

Have you seen Elton John lately?

(And having endured Ian Brown on stage, I'd say that ^^ was acceptable.)

I went to a chuck berry gig in glasgow. Unfortunately he didn't after throwing a tantrum about a car or something.

Saw Massive Attack in Birmingham once.
One of the best gigs I've seen.

Saw Massive Attack in Brixton once.
One of the worst gigs I've seen.

Saw Massive Attack in Birmingham once.
One of the best gigs I’ve seen.

Saw Massive Attack in Brixton once.
One of the worst gigs I’ve seen.

I had the same but in Bristol and Leicester.

^^^ Fall in the 70s were like that

MGMT for most disappointing gig.

De La Soul in Chalk Farm in about 2004. Just going through the motions

Kings of Leon at Glastonbury in 2004. So so disappointed.

The gold standard

At the Drive-In on Jools Holland

So bad it's good

To be fair, Chuck did appear to forget how to play the guitar in that video, and then seemed to forget what he was doing there.

The only gig I've regretted missing was Chuck Berry in about 1984, in a smallish local venue. One of my class mates was going and we teased him mercilessly about going to see this ancient old dinosaur playing old-fashioned music. It was a few years later that I realised what I'd missed.

At the Louisana in Bristol (which is a great venue), we once watched a man with a cardboard box on his head, and a curtain draped over that, play squelchy sounds on his keyboard while shouting C**T!!! every so often. He also had a cardboard marker pen sign with the same message on it.

He was still better than Bob Dylan at Glastonbury. Or the headliner at End of the Road that demanded all other stages and beer tents close while she was on, so we all hid in the (empty) comedy tent till she left.

Paul Young. All over the place. I heard directly from one of the other artists on the bill that it was largely because most of his profits went up his nose. Please don't sue me.

Rage Against the Machine. Occasionally in between lengthy political ranting about 'the man' or something, a song broke out. I didn't make it to the end of the set, I came to watch a band not listen to a Poundland Wolfie Smith.

Skunk Anansie. Skin didn't so much have a chip on her shoulder as a two kilo bag of McCain's finest. The entire show was "I'm black, what's your f***ing problem?" Uh, there's only one person here that seems to have a problem with that love, and it ain't us.

Extreme. I think I actually watched them commit career suicide, I've never seen a band as hostile towards a crowd.

Probably many more, I'll have a think.

Ian Brown at Glasto in the early naughties

Didn't hit a single note

"Poundland Wolfie Smith" 🙂

Poundland Wolfie Smith.

is now the name of my one man show.

Jamiroquai at Birmingham NEC. It was their first ever stadium gig IIRC and it was not 'bad' bad, just utterly devoid of any kind of atmosphere (possibly because they didn't know how to interact with such a large audience). I kinda expected Jay Kay to have the charisma to be able to carry it off but nope – it was like watching a music video.

It wasn't helped by my wife (then GF) kneeing me in the balls halfway through the gig.

Fleetwood Mac at the Manchester Arena in 2013. Started with The Chain, which was good, and I was thinking "blimey, I'm watching the actual Fleetwood Mac play the actual The Chain".

That was pretty much the only highlight. At one point Stevie Nicks started a story about how she'd written the next song, then lost the demo, then found behind a sofa or something, then something else, and after a good few minutes I thought I'd use the time to go to the loo. It took me while to find the loos, and to find my way back, and when I did she was still telling the story. When they eventually got around to playing it, it wasn't worth the wait.

Guns and Roses in Gateshead weren't great, may have been made worse by Faith No More being superb

Oh, and Bon Jovi in Coventry a couple of years ago. JBJ's couldn't sing a note, to the point that they pretty much turned his mic off. Felt for him really, think it was towards the end of the tour and his voice was clearly cooked and he knew it.

I saw At the Drive-In twice and they were amazing both times. The drums, bass and Jim do the heavy lifting so no matter how chaotic it gets it never fully falls apart. In contrast to System of a Down who were trying so hard to be crazy it sounded like a bunch of kids messing around.

I saw the Deftones do an impression of a drunk covers band once. Terrible racket.

I've also seen Rage Against the Machine a couple of time and have tickets to see them again. I've never suffered through any lengthy rants but they wrote some of the most intense modern rock music ever made and they don't get too drunk to play it so they're always on form.

Bob Dylan at Brixton Academy, early/mid 2000's I think.  I paid a lot of money for the ticket and got in trouble for ducking out of work early.  He just couldn't be arsed.  Phoned it in.  Very disappointing.

Interpol, probably around the same time.  Zero personality or charisma, just awful.

The Libertines - just felt like they were posing and playing at being rock stars.  Pretty turgid.

Joe Strummer - I love Joe Strummer and The Clash, but I got so badly beaten up in the mosh pit at one of his gigs I couldn't tell you what the music was like,  Just got thrashed by some old punks!  He may have been playing brilliantly for all I know.

Ozzy Osborne at the Monsters of Rock in '86. Utterly awful. He seemed barely able to stand up. It didn't help that Motorhead who were on earlier on the day were on fantastic form and so set a high standard.

My other offering would be the Fall at the Cartoon in Croydon in the early Noughties. A five-song set that included two songs played twice before Mark E Smith gave up and walked off sage.

Ian Brown at Glasto in the early naughties

Didn’t hit a single note

I was there and can corroborate. But the worst performance I've ever seen would be Oasis, again at Glastonbury in the mid 00s. The Gallaghers stood at opposite sides of the stage, avoided all eye contact with one another and barely said a word to the crowd. Icy.

The gold standard

At the Drive-In on Jools Holland

So bad it’s good

Never seen that before, it was actually pretty great.

 

Echo De La Soul above, saw them on a Tuesday in Norwich, didn't even have a DJ, just a local lad with a laptop, and they half-arsed rapped over the top clearly not wanting to be there...

Red Hot Chilli Peppers have been one of the best (2001 in San Diego) and the worst (reading Majeski stadium) i have seen, really depends on what version of RHCP turns up..

kings of leon, poor just shouted at the crowd for not having a good time. then walked off early!

pearl jam. was so pissed you couldnt hear a word. i was gutted.

Guns and Roses in Gateshead weren’t great, may have been made worse by Faith No More being superb

Ah yeah.

Guns and Roses at Maine Road, Manchester weren’t great, may have been made worse by Faith No More being superb.

I wonder if that was the same tour? Use Your Illusion era circa 91-92, opening act was Soundgarden. It was doubly disappointing because they'd cancelled and rescheduled it, stating that it'd be better than ever to make up for it. It... wasn't bad exactly, but it was a very short set and FNM had absolutely killed it. IIRC it was a Sunday, so it got to curfew or time for Axl's Horlicks or something and it just kinda ended and we were all stood there going "wait, was that it?"

I love GnR but I wouldn't go see them live again, that's not the only time I've been bitten. You're at the mercy of Axl's ego and it's too much of a lottery as to whether they'll even turn up.

I can't post a link cos I can't listen to it to find the right one, but I recall seeing Nik Kershaw live on telly back in his heyday. Scarred me for life.

really depends on what version of RHCP turns up..

I've heard that of Primal Scream, they're wholly dependent on whether you get sober Gillespie or barely-able-to-stand Gillespie.

I saw them at the tail end of a festival years back, couldn't really tell you whether they were any good or not because by that point I was likely more shitfaced than he was.

BBM at the Barrowlands. It was a collaboration between Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Gary Moore. It could have been good if Baker hadn't been so hammered he collapsed over the drum kit and had to be helped off-stage.

The Black Crowes at the O2 Academy, Glasgow. This was during a blues festival and I'd actually seen Gary Moore the week before at the same venue, so it wasn't the acoustics, they were just appalling.

Ooooh, Van Morrison at Glastonbury. He obviously didn't want to be there, and I wasn't really enjoying being in the crowd forced to watch the miserable old git.

Absolute trumps though goes to Jeff Beck at the Playhouse in Edinburgh. He comes on stage at the start to tell us his vocalist is ill, but not to worry, the band will still play without him. Wait, what? My mate was in raptures, I was in purgatory. A 2hr long twiddly guitar solo, then the evil swine came back on for two encores!

I saw Chuck Berry at Camp Bestival. He wasn't very good. OTOH, he was 80-odd, and it was great to see him play that fantastic back catalogue.

Oh, that's where I saw Primal Scream.

Another vote for Kings of Leon. May aswell have stuck some cardboard cutouts on the stage and played their album.
Badly Drawn Boy - must have been having an especially bad day but grumpy from the offset and having a go at people of at the back for daring to order a pint while he was playing.

The Black Crowes at the O2 Academy, Glasgow. This was during a blues festival and I’d actually seen Gary Moore the week before at the same venue, so it wasn’t the acoustics, they were just appalling.

Shows how bands car vary their performances!

Black Crowes, Sheffield City Hall - way back when they were touring Southern Harmony is still the best gig I've been too.

Anyone else expecting a thread about Mick Jones and Don Letts? Just me then, and memories of a festival on Clapham Common in the Eighties.

James at Party at the Palace a few years back. Absolute dross. But Fun Loving Criminals were fantastic*

*(Not necessarily at the same event)

Badly Drawn Boy – must have been having an especially bad day but grumpy from the offset and having a go at people of at the back for daring to order a pint while he was playing.

He was the same when I saw him - miserable sod!

I saw and was disappointed by both Midlake and MGMT in the same year, so that stuck in my mind a little. Even then they were mainly just poor (or in Midlake's cast maybe just not to my taste) rather than bad.

With regards to the comments above I've seen Skunk Anansie twice and both times they were pretty good. Though this may be a pre/post break-up/reunion thing, perhaps after reunited Skin et all had chilled out a bit.

Very sadly the last time I saw Mark Lanegan live was not the best gig of his I'd been to. He seemed to miss his cues a few times, interacted with the audience even less than normal and finished the set a couple of songs early, to the surprise of his band as well as the audience. The audience sort of milled around for a while trying to work out what was going on before the house lights came up and we all headed out.

I heard suggestions later that Mark had been ill that night, but there never seemed to be any proper explanation of what was going on.

The Happy Mondays at a festival in Oz in 2000. Even with teleprompters clearly visible on stage Shaun Ryder still couldn’t remember the lyrics.
Rammstein were amazing though, even if they’re not my cup of tea musically.

Kings of Leon at Glastonbury in 2004. So so disappointed.

Another vote for Kings of Leon. May aswell have stuck some cardboard cutouts on the stage and played their album.

Also Kings of Leon at Manchester Apollo. Only gig I've ever walked out of. I've seen more animated corpses. Looked like they'd rather have been anywhere else in the world than on stage

I thought it was dreadful so turned to my mates and said "Its not just me is it? These are absolutely ****ing awful, aren't they?" and we all thought they were, so we went to the pub instead. In Ardwick. Thats how bad they were!

Theme developing. Stone Roses so bad at the Cambridge corn exchange me any my mates walked out of the auditorium and went to the bar instead. Monday's were appalling every time I saw them

However Primal Scream were absolutely sensational at Reading. Around the time of Xtrmntr which was probably their high water mark.

Badly Drawn Boy – must have been having an especially bad day but grumpy from the offset and having a go at people of at the back for daring to order a pint while he was playing.

Nah... he's always like that.

He used to live down the road from me and drank in the same pub. He's generally regarded as a total **** by pretty much everyone who's met him. I remember one gig in Manchester when he started having a go at the crowd for something or other and generally being a totally precious bell end and got bottled off for his trouble

A complete dick!

Black Crowes, Sheffield City Hall – way back when they were touring Southern Harmony is still the best gig I’ve been too.

I saw them in cardiff supporting stereophonics in what used to be the millennium stadium. they were awesome. in many ways better than the phonics, 5 minute harmonica solo anyone? they pulled it off well.

Ash also supported, and although musically OK, the singer has such a weak voice and presence that I went to get pizza as I was bored.

Another poor show was HIM, barrowlands, Glasgow. god, just no stage presence. I thought barrowlands gigs were always guaranteed to be great, even the seemingly dire incoherent sisters of mercy gig there back in, er...2006? was better than HIM. still, most of the crowd were there to wetleg over ville valo.

The cult were a surprise disappointment. Glasgow Academy, Ian Astbury had just come off the back of a Doors thing and did a bit of dancing, spoke a little, but sang maybe every 7th word from each verse. I didn't have any beer to throw.

I saw and was disappointed by both Midlake

Sometimes I see posts like this and think 'wtf is that? What did you expect, nobody's ever heard of them!', and feel a wave of childish mockery coming, so I decided to google them. They are described as a folk rock band who have been around since 1999 and have released 4 albums that barely bothered any charts.

I love folk rock - genuinely one of my favourite types of music. Midlake? Never heard of them! Then I read that they were inspired by Jethro Tull (one of my favourite bands), Radiohead (ditto), Grandaddy (ditto) and Bjork (well they had to fail somewhere) - and now I'm going to have to listen to them tonight and save my mockery for another day. 😀

(Generally though, most of the folky bands I've seen over the years have been excellent, which may have something to do with actually being able to play their instruments very well in the first place, or just being able to play a style of music which gets people jumping around.)

Saw Shane McGowan and i think his band at the time were the Popes not Pogues having just landed in Cork... dear god, he had to be pretty much carried on the stage, he was drinking pints of Cinzano, and he couldn't talk let alone sing, and the band had to keep changing tempo around him, then he was carried off, but the irish idolised him

Guns N Roses in the Manchester MEN, think it was the Chinese Democracy tour. Bullet For My Valentine were the support who were just amazing.
Once GNR could be arsed appearing on stage (2hrs late FFS) the crowd were so pissed off they just gave them grief.
The best GIG was Velvet Revolver, again in Manchester. Scott Weiland was epic, and several minutes of a slash solo just topped the whole thing off.
Shows how much of a D### Axel Rose was, and how he ruined GNR

Came in to see how soon we got Ian Brown. 2nd post.

For what it's worth, at least two Stone Roses gigs are in my top 10 gigs of all time, they definitely have good days and bad days (mainly variable being how much they hate each other on the day). Even at the good ones his vocals are always questionable, but you tend not to be able to hear them over the audience signing anyway.

Motörhead at Wolverhampton Civic Hall. Around 1990. The loudest gig I’ve ever witnessed. It was that loud people were streaming out to get away from the noise, because it was just noise. In the bar it was still too loud to hear anything. It was just about bare able outside, except when the doors opened and the noise bled out. It made me physically ill.

Also Kings of Leon. Saw them at V in 2010 or 11.
A great live band on paper but absolutely crap in reality.

Seen lots of unexpectedly great bands at Gladsto but Don McLean was unexpectedly grim - boring and morose.

Saw Van Morrison at IOW and he had zero audience interaction but his voice was good, songs were great and the band were as tight as. I heard later that’s just what Van’s like and we were lucky he sang facing the audience.

Late season Vince Neil. You'd think he'd know the words by now.

The Libertines – just felt like they were posing and playing at being rock stars.

Pete Doherty shared a set with of all people Elton John at the Live 8 concert that was at Hyde Park in 2005. Doherty was very obviously off his face, You could feel the hate coming from Elton John from as far back as I was stood.  Eventually (it was a couple of songs I think) Doherty gave up trying to remember any of the lyrics or the tune and just  stood next to Elton at the piano while Elton sang and played, and shot him dirty looks.

The "highlight" was supposed to be a Pink Floyd reunion, The stage was pretty big, Dave Gilmour stood stock still on one side, Roger waters stood stock still at the other. They did 4 tracks I think. It was utterly forgettable which is a shame as it was the last time the original line up played (ex Syd, obvs)

Pogues in 1990ish. Manchester Apollo. Shane McGowan totally arseholed, as you'd expect, vaguely remember other band members taking over lead vocal duties for part of the gig.

Still decent, overall. 🙂

Saw Van Morrison

My brother is a massive Van fan and has reported that at many gigs he's very clearly full of hate at the whole "having to do a gig, and pretend to care about his fans; Thing". One time he tells that he was on stage for maybe 2 songs when in a pause in the performance, someone from the audience shouted "Brown Eyed Girl" and he just walked...And that was the end of that performance. There was much eye rolling from the band like they'd seen it all before

Late season Vince Neil.

Vince is looking well. Looks like he enjoyed Pie Week even more than me 😀

Ramones at the Barrowlands sometime in the mid-80s. There was an announcement at the beginning about audience ‘conduct’. There were so stoned they could barely play and got a bit huffy when the beer starting flying - they were dreadful.
Ironically, the support act, a local band called Jonny Melita and the Percolators were awesome and even got an encore.
The Fall about that time were bad too.
Motörhead played the student union - they brought a big sound system into a tiny venue, some folks had temporary deafness. Spear of Destiny did the same - you could feel all the organs in your body reverberate.

Can I just say that in a weird sort of way the Motorhead stories are sort of impressive.

Neil Young has politics I can cope with, has some good songs, so it seemed like a good punt to see him (in Italy a few years back). He didn't introduce the songs and it took quite some time for the audience to recognise them, upon which they started cheering, a little hesitantly and then properly when they were sure which song it was. He sat down and didn't move at all for the first half a dozen numbers, only the fact he'd shuffled on stage and his hand moving proved he wasn't a dummy. Communication with the audience? Well I know most were Italian but I'm sure enough spoke English to make it worth speaking to them a bit, y'know, just a few words... . I left early.

Aqua singing Barbie girl live at a gig put me off gigs forever!

He used to live down the road from me and drank in the same pub. He’s generally regarded as a total **** by pretty much everyone who’s met him."

Can concur, miserable tw£t.. @binners we must have lived very close to each other at one point... near the green?

 

@stingmered - thats the one. We used to drink (a lot) in the Trevor, the Beech or the Bowling Green.

Smashing Pumpkins - some smallish London venue a good few years back. It was just a wall of noise. Very disappointing.

At the Drive in a couple of years ago was verging on the same. That was in Alexandra Palace - which isn't a great venue.

And Radiohead, many years ago in some huge soulless venue - I was right at the back, up in the Gods and they were just tiny shapes in the distance.

(I guess none were bad performances - just poor acoustics/venue)

I'm sure I'll get savaged for this but here goes:

Jesus and Mary Chain ICA London 1984 or 5 - I think it was supposed to be art. It was just a pile of ****
Joy Division and Dexy's Midnight Runners, The Romulus B'ham 1979 - Hard to tell which was worse but both were beyond awful

Wolverhampton Civic Hall, and I was so bored I left.

Thing is, I was so bored that I've forgotten if it was Primal Scream or Jamiroquai.
One of them.

Theme developing. Stone Roses so bad at the Cambridge corn exchange me any my mates walked out of the auditorium and went to the bar instead.

Dogs d'amour at Camrbidge Corn Exchange circa 1989 maybe, completely pissed out of their heads, singer staggering around the stage with a bottle of Jack Daniels just pouring it all over himself. I seem to recall the audience just started shouting 'get off' at them....

Aqua singing Barbie girl live at a gig put me off gigs forever!

A transexual performing to Barbie Girl in a live sex club put me off stag nights forever :O

Nirvana at Newcastle Mayfair just before Nevermind went ballistic. The venue held about 1200, if everyone who said they were there actually was it would have been about 10000 through the doors. You can tell who was really there by asking how shit they were, the correct answer is ‘Utterly’

Meatloaf at Knebworth in 85, appalling, ended up with him storming off stage amid a sea of bottles after announcing something along the lines of "any more bottles land on this stage and we're off"
Pouges at Scunny Baths in 84ish, McGowan was battered but everybody had a great time.

Cher(I know..) at the nec was utter Garbage,sing a song then off for ten minutes to change costume while playing videos on the big screen.

Soft cell supporting her were ace.

The “highlight” was supposed to be a Pink Floyd reunion, The stage was pretty big, Dave Gilmour stood stock still on one side, Roger waters stood stock still at the other. They did 4 tracks I think. It was utterly forgettable which is a shame as it was the last time the original line up played (ex Syd, obvs)

Strange how people see things differently. I watched that on the TV, and thought thye were excellent.

My brother is a massive Van fan and has reported that at many gigs he’s very clearly full of hate at the whole “having to do a gig, and pretend to care about his fans; Thing”. One time he tells that he was on stage for maybe 2 songs when in a pause in the performance, someone from the audience shouted “Brown Eyed Girl” and he just walked…And that was the end of that performance. There was much eye rolling from the band like they’d seen it all before

Yep. Have been a fan since the 70's when I first saw him, when he's feeling it then it will feel like a transcendental experience. It can't be replicated every time unfortunately. For this reason have only seen him on one further occasion, thankfully have one or two of his albums.

You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead, I think at the Brixton Academy supporting the Foo Fighters. They got booed off stage after breaking all their instruments not far into the set.

Nirvana at Newcastle Mayfair just before Nevermind went ballistic. The venue held about 1200, if everyone who said they were there actually was it would have been about 10000 through the doors. You can tell who was really there by asking how shit they were, the correct answer is ‘Utterly’

I always thought it looked like a classic Nirvana gig to be fair.

Badly Drawn Boy at the Manchester Academy was unbelievably bad.

Evan Dando at Fibbers/The Duchess in York in 2004/05ish. No stage presence, no chat, no movement, just mumbling through a couple of albums in track order with nothing interesting or imaginative in it.

Made worse by the fact a rapidly-rising Frank Turner had been his support, and he had everything that Dando didn't, mainly charisma and a personality...

The “highlight” was supposed to be a Pink Floyd reunion,

Incidentally, I saw Pink Floyd at Earl's Court in 1994 and it's something I'll never forget.  Absolutely incredible.

Incidentally, I saw Pink Floyd at Earl’s Court in 1994 and it’s something I’ll never forget. Absolutely incredible.

Ditto.

I wasn't a huge fan, figured it was one of those things where I'd regret it forever more if I didn't go when I had the chance. Incredible is the right word.

My brother is a massive Van fan and has reported that at many gigs he’s very clearly full of hate at the whole “having to do a gig, and pretend to care about his fans; Thing”. One time he tells that he was on stage for maybe 2 songs when in a pause in the performance, someone from the audience shouted “Brown Eyed Girl” and he just walked…And that was the end of that performance. There was much eye rolling from the band like they’d seen it all before

Someone I know toured with Van for two years*  listening to the stories he has, I amazed no-one has stabbed him

*he reckons the only reason he lasted that long is because Van didn't know who he was

Saw Chaka Khan at MCR Apollo half a lifetime ago, she was pissed.

Saw Chaka Khan at MCR Apollo half a lifetime ago, she was pissed.

I feel for you.

Ufo in Manchester about 2000.

They got heckled off stage