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Recently enjoyed two great gigs* - embarrassingly, the first for a very, very long time
Manics at Liberty Stadium and 'Phonics at Cardiff City. Both were brilliant, but I reckon the Manics edged it, especially with the SFA as support.
Definitely make the effort to go again.
So who else is good live? (Rather than a shit imitation of their studio work)
* feels uncomfortable using "gig" for something in a sports stadium, but hey ho... 🙄
Coldplay and mumford and sons.....
JLS
#prayfordarcy
BITD I saw Hadaway at The Dome in B'ham.
I was on acid at the time.
One of the above is something you probly should never publically admit to 
I was going to say Coldplay, but no, has to be Adele... Although yes strictly not a band
She is rather good though don't you think ?
rush are bloody great live
not my video btw
have seen them a few times now,but they always put on a great show.
also marillion are great live too.
Most enjoyable for a long time was Wheatus, in a tiny sweatpit.
'Big' bands - James still have presence. And the Levellers
Muse
Trevor Roots & The Collaborators.
The Blockheads. Unbelievably fantastic.
Coldplay (obvious choice !)
And I was blown away by how bloody brilliant The Feeling were at the Keswick Mountain Festival a couple of years ago.
Muse
Saw them at Download last year - I'd never even heard of them
Wasn't overwhelmed, but they were way better than KISS :/
Suicidal Tendencies were awesome!!
The Hives are fun
Pretty much anyone. I saw Jamelia live at a festival once. Girlfriend insisted at the time. Not my musical taste....but that lady can sing and belt out a tune. She was very impressive. Since then I never refused to see anyone live as you never know.
New Model Army are pretty good live
Jack White the best I've seen - wasn't even that much of a fan of the White Stripes but I've never seen anyone that good before or since.
That was years ago - Whether he's still got it I'm not sure, he could be hot and cold with the White Stripes and I think I read that he's not that motivated by touring any more.
Savages
Stuff I like
Yothu Yindi, though their lead singer has died so unlikely to ever tour again 🙁
Saw them in Germany back in the 90s. Brilliant gig
Biffy
Kasabian
Beans on toast
Frank turner
Lower than atlantis
Lonely the brave
Slaves
Reverend and the makers
Young guns
Foals it goes on and on to be fair.
Springsteen
I'm far from a fan, but without doubt one of the best I've seen live. Superb.
Agree on the Manics,last time I saw them it was amazing.
Polyphonic Spree for the specticle
Radiohead - obviously
Rammstein, but only if you are prepared to lose your eyebrows & love the smell of spent gasoline
Alt -J - simply breathtaking, how it's done live is beyond me
Foals - fantastic live orientated songs
Everything Everything - truely charismatic lead singer, and cracking songs
Muse - Jaw dropping show, I'm not even that much of a fan of their music, but it was worth every, very expensive, penny we spent seeing them in Manchester recently.
'Big' bands - James still have presence. And the Levellers
I'm off to see the Levellers in December. More of an excuse to get pissed with old university friends I haven't seen for about 20 years than any real interest in the band. Which I didn't particularly like back in the day, either 🙂
Marillion
Everything Everything - truely charismatic lead singer, and cracking songs
+1 saw them at Newcastle 02 and they were very good.
Super furry animals
Mogwai.
Cheers all - some good stuff and a few surprises...
I'd heard from a mate the Springsteen played a fantastic show in MCH. Wouldn't be a natural choice for me, but you never know!
Would still love a time capsule to go back and see the Pogues circa 85-86
The Damned are still great live.
The Coral are always brilliant.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, White Denim
Would still love a time capsule to go back and see the Pogues circa 85-86
That's presumably before the era when McGowan was too drunk to actually perform? Saw them in 1989, I think, and it was entertaining, but not for the right reasons.
Def Leopard - cheesy but great
Gun
Thunder
Status Quo
Bjorn Again
I have to say Springsteen and the E Street Band. And thanks to periscope you can 'watch' them live during their current European tour (Amazing last night from Paris).
But so long as you like the music, any band is pretty good live.
Gogol Bordello - never been to *such* an energetic gig in my life!
Rachel
Pigeon Detectives were very good when I saw them at an outdoor festival a few weeks ago.
Defo not the super furry animals. I really like them but they are lost it live. Back when they had the techno tank maybe but I saw them at Brixton a while back and... yawn
Beck a few weeks back was ace.
I was surprised how good Coldplay were live and I really don't like them.
Foals are shit. Seen em 3 times and can't remember any of the performances!
Best bands I've seen:
Pitch shifter
Beck
Bad religion
Orbital at glasto
Skunk anansi just before they became huge
Coldplay (i can't believe it either)
Wilco johnson
Anthrax with public enemy.
Fugazi
Ice t/bodycount - just for the brutal pit.
I want to see enter shikari. And king gizzard and the Lizard wizard.
Parliament Funkadelic. One of my best gigs ever.
The Charlatans - obviously!
David Byrne.
Shed Seven.
The Stairs.
James.
The Stone Roses - but that's more because I love them!
Steve Mason is always good.
Public Enemy - especially in a smaller venue.
Edit. As previously mentioned - Jack White was very good.
But so long as you like the music, any band is pretty good live.
hmmmm, I've seen Madonna and Elton John live, and I wouldn't choose to listen to the music of either of those artists, they are however fantastic performers, and the "gigs" (I hesitate to use the word for their acts) were both really good.
Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich
Mumford & Sons
Florence & the Machine
Both at Shepherds Bush Empire before they got really big - both awesome.
Saw Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott last week at Somerset House - they were still knocking out the tunes.
Don't really go in for big stadium gigs, but I did see the Michael Jackson Bad tour at the old Wembley when I was about 7. I remember it being pretty good.
Coldplay are (sad to admit it) very good live.
Best gig(s) I've been to in recent times were Frank Turner's - seems to get it right whatever the venue.
I've seen Metallica live four times and they've never disappointed.
Machine ahead live are brilliant too. Rob Flynn is a great front man.
Less Than Jake have always been good too when I've seen them live.
One Minute Silence were good in their day too.
Quite enjoy Marilyn Manson, but I think it's the stage show and theatrics that make.
Might be wishful thinking trying to get to a gig in this day and age, but Pulp are hands down the best live performers I've ever seen. For comparison, I've seen Muse, Foo Fighters, Paul Weller, GnR, Slipknot, Basement Jaxx, Prodigy, Biffy Clyro, Franz Ferdinand, Keane, Deacon Blue and Gary Moore. Foo Fighters and Slipknot were close, but Jarvis Cocker is in a different league altogether.
Edit: forgot about Jurassic 5. They were pretty damn special too.
^^ Pulp are great!
Slayer. Slayer. Slayer. If you like that sort of thing \m/
A recommendation to not go and see would be Stereophonics - the most disengaging uninteresting band I've ever seen on stage. And I like their music by the way
Prodigy and The Wonderstuff are good live, but I think Black Sabbath topped it for me.
Glad someone else mentioned shed seven!
Forgot about the Lancashire Hotpots, always a top night out
For many different reasons the following are bands that I rate as ace live:
The Charlatans
Neds Atomic Dustbin
PWEI
AC/DC
Shed Seven
Iron Maiden
Motley Crue
The Wonderstuff
The Prodigy
Red Hot Chilli peppers
Rage Against The Machine
Public Enemy
Damn! Forgot RATM! Awesome band!
The Verve were amazing in their day too.
Clutch are great live. Pearl Jam always feel like more of an event than a gig. Tom Blackwell (also known as T G Elias), great small scale gigs. Beastie Boys were great when I saw them in the late 90's
I'm looking forward to seeing 65DaysOfStatic next weekend. I saw them at Koko in Camden a while ago and they were excellent.
To be honest there's very few gigs I've been to and thought "well that was shit". I was underwhelmed by Massive Attack a couple of months ago but still better than sitting on the sofa on a Monday night.
The Wedding Present are a great live band, as are We Are Scientists.
Springsteen
Muse
Err....The Proclaimers
The Orb
Primal Scream
So what [i]most people[/i] on here think, is you need a time machine to see a decent gig? (or go now and see some old farts churning out the same stuff they've been playing for 30 years 😆 )
Granted, I'd love to go back to a time before mobile effing phones, but there's some fab new bands around now.
Seeing Suuns tonight. Last time I saw them they were superb.
Last gig was !!! (chk chk chk) - who are incredibly funky and entertaining live.
CountZero should be along shortly with an essay 😉
brilliant live stuff i've seen:
faith no more (back in the day, not sure now)
wonderstuff (as above)
pulp.
british sea power
fun loving criminals
candi staton
richard hawley
death cab for cutie
chillis (in '94 at reading)
Neil Young - last month at the Hydro, top class!
Jimmy Cliff - last year at Wickerman, been dying to see him for years & he was amazing.
Couldn't be arsed with any big stadium gigs now
Queens Of the Stone Age. No one I've seen comes close. Though Limp Bizkit were pretty good for nostalgia factor haha.
Oh and Mastodon. Incredible musicians and they put on a much better show these days than they did the first time I saw them.
This was without a doubt the best night of my life. Coming up just as the intro drums to Millionaire kicked in was so intense haha
Seasick Steve. Sure his stories between the songs are old and well rehearsed, but there is definite sincerity there, but he was having fun and so were the crowd. The Quality of the sound was also excellent.
Status Quo. They use their back catalog of songs to great effect and really now how to pace the show. They also produce a really heavy wall sound at their gigs and again the crowd are all fans so the sense of fun is strong.
I want to see Rammstein, but not at a festival. Desperately hoping they tour the new album.
Slayer need to be indoors too, seen them twice at festivals and somehow the sound was terrible both times, I think it didn't carry well in the open air. Saw them in Preston once and they were great.
Rob Zombie does an awesome show.
Last time I saw Marilyn Manson it was a bit pants. Lots of theatrics to distract but he is past it now.
And I'm seeing Steel Panther in October. Looking forward to that !
I'm short live music is ace, go and see bands.
Except Jose Gonzalez, he's boring live.
Killing Joke
Garbage
Green Day
motorhead (were worth seeing live)
Prodigy
Frightened Rabbit
Foos
Jules Holland
Worst band ever - Alt J, took the mrs for her birthday, no performance or interaction with the audience whatsoever, they just stood there making plinky plonk sounds like they were in a rehearsal
Bands worth seeing live...
Bands whose music you enjoy?
Crazy I know.
of the bands I've seen live, the best are:
Muse (though this was in 2000, but still, very very good)
Stereophonics
Manic Street Preachers
Tori Amos (mostly without her band)
Gary Numan
Sneaker Pimps (post splinter, and they are writing new stuff)
Rammstein, a romp of a show.
oh and VNV Nation, if not just for the banter.
Another vote for Gogoll Bordello.
Also throw Marmozets into he mix.
I spend my summer sat on the sound desk at festivals, the two act that really stand out for a good show in the last few years are Skindred and Belle & Sebastian, in terms of pure energy Skepta's red bull gig was just insane.
Acts that used to be amazing - all IMO: -
The Monkees - yes I really enjoyed them.
Prince, sincerely one of the best gigs I've been too. His medley of 70's funk tracks was superb.
As mentioned already: -
Primal Scream - can be amazing if Bobby is up for it.
The Hives are great - no t seen them for over 10 years though
Other ones I have really loved and left buzzing: -
Elbow
Inspiral Carpets
The Orb
Mudhoney
Spiritualized
Ultra Vivid Scene
Iggy and the Stooges
Jane's Addiction
All great live
Springsteen & the ESB, from the pit. Nobody comes close, imho.
Wolfmother. Highly accomplished bunch of musicians.
Stone Roses just blew me away at the Etihad!
[i]Seeing Suuns tonight. Last time I saw them they were superb.[/i]
Yes! They were fantastic. Go see them if you know what's good for you (and quit with all the old shite!)
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Don't get out as much as I should, but in the last year Fat White Family and Richard Dawson stand out as being excellent. They both managed to silence the gig chatterers.
[i]They both managed to silence the gig chatterers.[/i]
That is rare! Seen FWF a couple of times, good band.
Blackstar Riders have been brilliant the last couple of times I saw them.
Tyr if you like a bit of Viking Metal.
The two best ever acts I've seen live are Nick Cave and Einstürzende Neubauten. Both were long shows that felt like minutes.
Appreciate different tastes but I think I'd rather lay down at the front and be trampled to death than see Coldplay or Mumford & Sons. Glad no one mentioned Elbow though, just the sound of them makes me feel ill 🙂
Therapy? and The Beatsteaks are two bands that stand out for me.
Therapy? just seemed like they really wanted to be there on their Troublegum anniversary tour and Beatsteaks was just a gloriously sweaty mess at Camden Underworld with masses of crowd interaction.
They both managed to silence the gig chatterers
Lias from FWF told them to "shut up or **** of" - only once.....they left.