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Placebo. Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Interpol. Shit twice. For some reason whenever that happens, I stop listening to them, I become immediately "over it".
I like the first Alt j album so much & I reckon they'd butcher it live, so didn't bother going just in case.
Anyone got a similar curse?
The Stone Roses at Reading in 1996. They sucked balls.
Black Sabbath 1977. Absolutely dreadful, And I mean really bad.
Their support band were so much better........ a relative newcomer to the UK, AC/DC
P.s. Yes I really am that old
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
AGREED
Yeh, Led Zep @ Manchester Free Trade hall in 1971, was completely sober but everybody else including the band were flying. Not a wise decision
Should this be in the chat forum?
Love yeah yeah yeahs recorded output but they do have a heavily produced sound so I can see how they might be a disappointment live.
For me the biggest let down was the flaming lips at the Astoria in the late 90s probably, before the robots album.
Just a mess and made me realise how they were also quite reliant on their producer.
That's better 😆
Counting Crows, really loved their music, August and Everything After and Recovering the Satellites were great
Saw them live.......and that was that, terrible
Motorhead, (sorry Lemmy) I.O.M. TT race week, probably sometime in the late 80's, just a wall of un- decipherable noise, and that was back when I really liked noise!
Stranglers in circa 1980. Truly, truly up themselves and awful.
Guns n roses, because axl rose really is a bell end
Blur, liked their stuff so went with the Mrs to see them. Albarn lifted his t-shirt up to elicit screams from girls, and possibly boys. I didn't scream..or play their CDs again.
Motley Crew. Van Halen. Bryan Adams the third time.
Reef. Lead singer was so drunk he kept falling off the stage.
Prodigy - saw them in Plymouth a couple of years ago. They must have been having an off night. Awful acoustics, started late, finished early(10.30) and lights came up. Disappointed.
The Vines. /end thread.
The Cure. Shit.
Alt-j
Black Grape. First time I saw them in Manchester just as the first album came out, they were really good, that was a great gig, think they did a couple of Mondays songs too. Second time at a festival someone had obviously taken the lock back off the medicine cabinet, they were all mashed and it was bloody awful, left after two songs. Never bothered listening to them after that for some reason.
Soundgarden at Hyde Park a few years ago. Looked forward for nearly 25 years to see them and the quality of the sound was utter bollox. Could hear people talking around me more than the music (why see a band and stand there talking FFS!). To be fair this was apparently due to the noise restrictions there, but very disappointing. Skindred in the tent were awesome tho!
Mint imperial - the Mondays were always like that. Either brilliant or truly bloody awful! There was no middle ground.
I've seen the Kings of Leon live. Not an experience I'd be keen to repeat. They went at it with all the enthusiasm of a bored bunch of teenagers on a rainy geography field trip. This was compounded by the fact that I'd watched the Prodigy at the same venue (Manchester Apollo) a few nights earlier, who were absolutely ****ing awesome! The complete opposite of the bored, going-through-the-motions approach of the KOL. I think they may have have been openly yawning. We certainly were. Left and went to the pub
I saw the editors in a small tent in O2 festival and though they were good. Saw them again at Brixton 18 months later and they were abysmal mainly due to the production. Obviously they went downhill quickly after that.
Van Morrison. Torn-faced auld bastard.
Green Day...saw them in the Dookie era....when they were good, saw them again on a tour a couple of years ago.....on the Bullet in the Bible (or whatever it was) tour
TERRIBLE.....massively SOLD out.....the show was a joke. They had kids up singing their songs.
I've not listened to them since.
Regarding the OP, I wasn't a massive Placebo fan, until I saw them live.
Kelis. Did two songs, left (to booing) in under 10 minutes.
And how could I forget the velvet underground at Wembley arena.
Didn't just put me off their music for a while, but any reformed "legends".
Apart from mbv of course.
About half of the dozen or so Hawkwind gigs I've been to have been a pisstaking pile of old shit.
Great gig or 45 minutes of pointless jamming?
Would Huw Lloyd Langton have a clue where he was?
Gave up after Simon House buggered off after returning for a while - they did all the Calvert stuff while he was there and it was amazing.
They were never going to top that for me, so I stopped going.
Gene Loves Jezebel. Loved them on record until I saw them live, c1988. So boring I ended up playing pool at the back of the venue (Bradford Uni Communal Building). Couldn't leave as I was working the gig so was needed to help pull the sound & lighting rigs down afterwards, but at least I didn't pay to get in
[i]Yeah Yeah Yeahs[/i]
Band I've always wanted to see live and not got round to it. This thread pleases me 🙂
I could say Underworld - as the dubnobass gig was such an incredibly disappointing affair, the crowd were shit, the sound was shit, it was just dull... BUT the previous times I've seen them they were amazing, so they haven't been ruined.
The Cure were dull as dishwater live, that was a jolly long time ago.
MF Doom was bad - just boring. Doesn't stop me listening to recorded stuff though.
[i]Didn't just put me off their music for a while, but any reformed "legends".[/i]
And this! Jesus and Mary Chain going through the motions a few years back. Terrible.
Hot chip. Bought into the hype post over and over.
Effin awful. The lead guy looks like my missus' grandfather.
The crowd were so p'd off they started throwing a bit of water and beer around. The keyboardist got a bit narked about that so of course it escalated...
Foo Fighters. Red Hot Chillis. Both terrible. A friend saw the Chillis live and said they were great, so maybe they were having a bad day
Stranglers in circa 1980. Truly, truly up themselves and awful.
I saw them around that time, at Bath Pavilion, while sitting on the end of the stage taking photos*. Excellent gig, somewhat spoilt by a bunch of Bristol oiks turning up and doing a mass charge through the audience shoving and kicking people out of the way. One of these tossers stood in front of JJ, making 'come on then' gestures, then jumped on the stage and carried on doing it, with no response from JJ, until he turned around and did a big 'look at me' posture to his brainless mates. Meanwhile JJ had walked back to his amp, put his bass on its stand then walked back to our hero, and tapped him on the shoulder. As matey turned around, JJ did a beautiful straight armed punch to the face, the bloke literally flew vertically backward off the stage, before falling onto his mates. After he picked himself up, JJ gestured to him to come forward, which our genius did, earning himself a kick to the face.
I wouldn't have said The Stranglers were a favourite band, but they earned an undying place in my heart after that.
*Sadly, I didn't get a photo of the punch, I was sat open-mouthed, and it never occurred to me to lift the camera and hit the button. Bugger.
Reef. Lead singer was so drunk he kept falling off the stage.
Sparklehorse at the Fleece, Bristol. Mark Linkous walked on stage and promptly took a bottle of JD out of his jacket pocket, which he was already part way through, and he continued to swig from it, getting more and more shitfaced as the gig went on, by the end a roadie had to catch him as he fell off the three foot high stage. He'd actually forgotten one of his own songs, despite being shown the chords and key.
Despite all that, it was an amazing gig, quite riveting, watching someone get utterly, and almost literally legless on stage, yet still function.
The point is, I don't think I've ever seen a 'favourite' band who've actually disappointed me, I have seen a couple who I was expecting good things from, based on past history though, one was Katastrophy Wife, Kat Bjelland from Babes In Toyland's new band.
God's teeth, they were dire, just embarrassingly awful, it was truly a car-crash of a gig. Oh, and a very, very, [i]very[/i] drunk John Martyn at a venue in Bath, which was also pretty awful, it was embarrassing watching him make such a spectacle of himself on stage.
Never stopped me loving his music, though, and being very sad indeed when he died, tempered a bit by the knowledge he was responsible for his own demise.
Guns n roses, because axl rose really is a bell end
Have to agree. Saw them in Manchester on the Chinese Democracy tour. Late, and Crap. Saw Velvet Revolver a couple of months before and they were amazing. Waiting to see how the reunion goes 😀
I'm with duffyc - Green Day.
First (and last!) arena gig, the MEN. Stage was in Manchester, my seat somewhere near Oldham.
Naively on my part, I went along expecting great things, not a pop concert for teenyboppers and families. I don't do pop music and I'll not set foot in an arena again. Awful evening and I haven't played their stuff since either. In fact my daughter bought me that album that came as 3 separate CDs when it came out - they're still untouched in their cellophane.
Bryan Adams the third time.
Wow, really? Bryan Adams is one of my favourite live acts, way better than anything committed to shiny disc.
Foo Fighters.
Ditto. Both great live performers IMHO.
Cool anecdote CZ 😀
I saw them in Sounthampton, that incident would have certainly provided much needed interest! Chances are they were having an off night, although as I remember, we were keen to hear them play at least one or two top tracks, especially from their first album Rattus Norvegicus, except they played their yet to be released album in its entirety. Hey ho.
Red Hot Chillies. V Festival circa 2000/2001, they were bloody awful. No crowd interaction, no stage presence/charisma. Just came on, played some songs pretty much as they sound on the albums, then left. Very disappointing.
PWEI - missed them in their heyday, for one reason or another, so when they (I use "they" loosely, basically Graham plus an assortment of others) played locally a few years ago I thought brilliant. Half way through the first song I realised my stupidity.
[i]A friend saw the Chillis live and said they were great, so maybe they were having a bad day[/i]
They were amazing when I saw them... but it was in 1988 😛
Idlewild broke me of my Idlewild habit. Maybe a bit hipstery but I loved 'em from the start, then after a while they did a drastic change of direciton and suddenly became basically Cheerful REM instead of a flight of stairs falling down a flight of stairs Now, there's a place in the world for Cheerful REM but you've kind of got to tell people about a change like that, rather than ambushing them with it at a £25 gig. It was not pretty. There was some very impressive mass heckling though, huge block of the crowd shouting all the words to You Just Have To Be Who You Are at them.
@chakaping, one of the best gigs I've ever seen was the flaming lips, but I walked out of the last one I saw halfway through, bored to tears. Very up and down I think
@chubstr, counting crows can be great life- they played a festival one time, Adam had mangled his leg and was off his tits on strong painkillers, so he was in a very happy place. But also, he kept forgetting what song they were doing, watching the band trying to keep up really showed how bloody good they are 😆 It was a great but shambolic show.
John Squire touring his solo debut album at The Birmingham Academy 2. He was a mess and drinking neat vodka during the gig. Now I've drunk near vodka myself (Both good and awful Smirnoff red) but not when a good performance of any activity was required.
This will give you an idea...
I think around that time the booze was the least of John Squires substance worries. There's a certain something that makes you start believing your own hype. It's rarely good for performances and was probably responsible for prog rock, and every stupid bloody noodling guitar solo.
I saw Ian Brown around the same time. A bunch of tuneless self-indulgent shite!!! We walked out of there thinking WTF was all that about? Whatever it was it was bloody rubbish!
I saw IB at a similar time - seen him many times. When he is good, it is great. When he is bad... The atmosphere at the bad gigs is awful too. Very menacing.
Red Hot Chillies. V Festival circa 2000/2001, they were bloody awful. No crowd interaction, no stage presence/charisma. Just came on, played some songs pretty much as they sound on the albums, then left. Very disappointing.
Ditto, same era, think it was 99 or 2000 Reading Festival. Bloody awful.
Green Day.. seriously, what the hell did you expect? Did you really listen to American Idiot? Purely a teenybopper album.
The Eagles at Wembley in 96 on their Hell Freezes Over tour. The sound and acoustics were terrible but at least I got the chance to see one of the greatest bands ever
The Streets, came on stage and tries to fight the audience for an hour, interesting but made for a shite gig.
Ian Brown at glasto 1990something I knew there was a good chance he'd be a bit out of it but it was almost as if he was deliberately trying to miss every single note.
Tbh I've seen a lot of live bands and I've always come away happy the only exception was Pantera at the Astoria I was very young and so excited smashed through 4 cans of cider and a few joints I have no recollection of that gig at all
Almost as disappointing as Machine Head a few months later, it was Xmas, Astoria again they were throwing out gifts into the crowd one was a VIP pass to come on tour with them to their next gig in Germany it wasn't till I was on the night bus home that I read the back of the sticker I'd found out n the floor....
Just for balance I'll add that I've seen the Yeah Yeah Yeahs a few times and they've never been less than excellent. Also saw the John Squire era above and he was great (must have got him on a good day) and Motley Crue recently were awesome.
I'll agree that the non-slash G'n'R were pretty ordinary and Kings of Leon c. 2003 were bloody awful live.
Kings of Leon, glasto 2004. Dreadful. Really liked youth and young manhood, massively looked forward to seeing them. Utterly arrogant and boring as hell. Walked away and didn't listen to them for ten years.
Other experience was jack Johnson. Saw him at Nottingham arena. Possibly worst gig I've ever been to. Haven't listened to him since.
The Happy Mondays, walked out before the end and never really bothered listening to their stuff again, in fairness it was the reunion tour and they all looked like that this was just to get one more mortgage payment done before calling it quits.
[i]in fairness it was the reunion tour ..[/i]
there's your answer - avoid reunions. See new stuff!
I was disappointed by audioslave. Until the encore which Chris Cornell had clearly been saving himself for, which blew me away.
The lead singer walked out on stage, started on the opening song, and the first thing that jumped into my mind was, "What a prick".the editors
And that was it. Terrible gig.
Why would you even begin to think that going to a Jack Johnson gig would be a good idea? Utter no-talent shitehawk.Jack Johnson
GNR-Without-Slash were awesome at Leeds in 02... And I was well up for standing up the back taking the piss. Dire in 2010 though, IIRC they opened with Shackler's Revenge ffs.
Every band I've ever seen live has sucked except the verve. I've stopped going to live events because they're always guff in comparison and I have the same "over it" response.
Flew out to see Alt-J in Berlin last November with big expectations. Have rinsed their albums over the last couple of years and convinced myself they are on some kind of higher plain with their amazing sound - however, live, I found them lacklustre and completely devoid of any 'cool'. Sound stage didn't meet my critical standards either unfortunately. Wasn't until last handful of tracks did I feel they had properly warmed up and I found myself immersing with the music.
Actually, pains me to say it, but Faith No More at The Roundhouse last year was also a bit flat. Great venue, just didn't rock out half as much as I expected. Didn't even sell out which I couldn't believe, this probably contributed to atmosphere.
Saw them at Brixton in 09 for the second coming reunion which was excellent though.
Coffee king - I take it you haven't been to a Flaming Lips gig?
Guilemots, Brixton Academy 2007(ish) - the band seemed completely disinterested in the audience - as became the audience in them. People were eventually talking amongst themselves and ignoring the band.
Made me realise just how cynical The Guilemots - or rather their lead singer - was. Never listened to them since - and I believe they pretty much disappeared From view soon after that.
Orbital in Brixton. Conversely Phil Hartnoll's side project Long Range were amazing at Glade.
Foo Fighters.Ditto. Both great live performers IMHO.
I saw the Foos in Milton Keynes last year and they were good. (Although I was quite literally freezing to death after the sun went down and hoping that they'd not play on much longer than the two hours I was expecting. Also I hate the MK Bowl with a vengeance - terrible, terrible venue.)
However I first saw them in Cardiff in about 2002 and they sounded terrible. Could have blamed it on the venue but I saw the Manics there two weeks later and their sound system was perfect.
Van Morrison. Torn-faced auld bastard.
😀 What year was this?
Todd Rundgren in Glasgow, 10 years ago.
Todd may be God, but live he was utter shit.
Katastrophy Wife Hahahahahah! I NEED to know where and when this was. I know her old backing band from when she was based in Brum.
I have no doubts they would agree with your review mind, I don't think the mayhem was confined to that gig. Probably the cleverest name for a band ever though.
Archie Bronson outfit, about 2007, not sure if it was just a dodgy pa but the sound was awful, especially considering the album derdang derdang was so so good, still one of my favourite albums of all time despite the live gig...
Radiohead!
I'm surprised nobody has said it already. I know they are a bit marmite anyway - but even the 30% or so of their catalogue that I think is genius just sounded crap when I saw them in Manchester about 10 years back. I was gutted. Maybe it was because I was seated quite far back.
Also, whenever I've seen them live on telly they've sounded crap as well. Maybe that's why they haven't released many live concert DVDs... they know they sound bad! :-0
The Pogues 1988 Edinburgh Playhouse. Just shyte really apart from when Kirsty McCall came on was like they all started paying attention or something.
Prince Wembley arena 1990 I think just a 2hr medley.
Carlos Santana 1989 Hammersmith, he may be a technical guitar God but his stage presence was mince.
Kasabian 2009 Dundee Caird Hall like a pish wee local school band and utterly lacking in any depth or presence. Too reliant on their sound engineers. I've also come to the conclusion that they are dicks.
It can work the other way too. I have zero interest in Feeder for example but really enjoyed them in Cardiff. Funny how it works out sometimes
+1 for Chilli Peppers - Reading 1996 - arrogant, little interaction. BSSM was such a great album too.
REM - their songwriting is great but it doesn't quite carry through live. Glastonbury 2003 I think was the last time I saw them, really not enough engagement with the crowd. Shame as I still love their music.
Both times I've seen the Rolling Stones it felt like I was watching a Rolling Stones cover band trying to be like the Rolling Stones. Last time was when they headlined Glasto a few years ago and I wandered off to see Bootleg Beatles and they were amazing - having obviously never seen the Beatles live it was great to hear it...
On the other hand Seasick Steve is amazing live - a massive racket of proper blues, his random homemade guitars are an added bonus. But his character and performance never quite come through when you're listening at home.
The Waterboys were my late 80s idols - saw them in a big tent at Broadford on Skye in ?89? and they were well underwhelming. The four hour wait in the rain to make the electrics safe may have contributed to a flat atmosphere.
The Pogues - I saw them at Barrowlands just after Jock Stein died and it was an immense gig: eight years later at the Demonfort hall with Strummer singing they were crap. There's a career trajectory/fan relationship thing which means loads of bands are on a hiding to nothing after a couple of years/albums.
Surprisingly shit: faithless (although that may have been the hundreds of bellends trying to record everything on their phone)
Counting Crows. As above, August...is one of my favourite albums, but Adam seems to need to **** off vocally when he's in front of a crowd
Wedding Present. This was 89/90, and the first time a singer wound me up
Nirvana. Loved Bleach, but they were total shit live. mudhoney blew them off the stage.
Surprisingly good: James (I think it was reading). Never been interested in their music, but they can put on a show
The Beards. A novelty band singing about beards...I wasn't expecting much but they were brill
Manic Street Preachers. They played at our local, and at the time had a few column inches in sounds/mm/nme. I went along thinking they would be the new Birdland...turned out they were OK. Obviously went a bit MOR after that.
Ocean Colour Scene. Definitely not a favourite band, infact I never really listened to them. But for some reason I went to watch them live. Good god, truly dreadful. Their support act was just them, sans the drummer and the bassist. THe dads looked like they were enjoying it though.
The Damned; what a mess. But granted, they weren't in their prime.
Bad Religion. I was probably not in the mood, but I didn't enjoy them. THey were great at Rebellion festival though, and Tested is a great live album.
Biffy Clyro at the AECC in Aberdeen. God they were sh1te.
On the other hand Counting Crows at the Colston Hall in Bristol were simply amazing, well worth the flight down.
Oasis. One of their last gigs in Singapore, really poor
Nina Simone was a little dissapointing but she was very old at the time so can't be unexpected.
^ I have heard so many counting crows live songs that sound brilliant. I think I was at a shit night.
(Although round here/thunder road was incredible)
On the other hand, a band whose think are pish but who are consistently incredible live, are Chase & Status.
Recorded stuff is chavtastic humdrum but somehow, I've seen them three magic times.
sc-xc. First time I've seen them live took a chance & flew down to Bristol from Morayshire, was easier/cheaper than the trip to Glasgow (go figure that out) Terrific gig though Adam does sound different live & does tend to mix the songs up a little.
Great couple of days. Loved the gig. Thoroughly enjoyed visiting Bristol, the Colston Hall was a cracking venue & the nepelese across the road was one of the best I've ever been to.
REM at Manchester cricket ground not good but at least the support band the zotons were fantastic!!!!
If we are adding bands that were surprisingly good, the Pretenders - never keen on them on the whole, absolutely fantastic when I saw them at Gateshead, and they were on after Gun and Jimmy Barnes, both of whom were great as well.
Years ago I was really into the first Del a Soul album.rushed down the front at Glastonbury,they were absolutely pitiful.shame.
After being part of one of the best gigs of my life(supported by Soulwax) ,LCD Soundsytem stank when they did the wireless fest few years ago..
🙂Apart from mbv of course.
Re Count Zero's stranglers crack ,I would not fancy a slap from JJ Burnell!!
I also saw the chilli peppers in 88 ,@Newcastle riverside, I still have john frusciante's chilli pepper baseball hat! 🙂