Live shows: the good, the bad, and the Metallica

It seems that in the world of music, some bands are undeniably better when performing live, and yet some are absolutely horrid. Whatever the reason may be, live shows give room for the band's flaws to show through or give them more atmosphere and the reaction of the crowd to boost their performance. What are some bands you think are better live? How about worse?

I find that Kiss and AC/DC generally sound better when playing live. The vocals remain the same (unlike many singers whose vocals sound different live) but the music is generally better, being either heavier, or faster, or both. In AC/DC's case, when they play songs like Thunderstruck or The Razors Edge live they play them faster and louder than the studio versions, and it just sounds awesome. Kiss' songs generally sound heavier when performed live, and I especially like hearing Rock & Roll All Nite live because they can get the crowd involved and the song lasts longer and has more of that power that draws you into the song and makes you want to headbang, or something similar.

As for bands that sound worse, you can guess I was going to say Metallica, I'm sure. It's like they don't even remember how to play the songs half the time, and Hetfield's vocals lose that "edge" that he had in the older albums, and when he tries to bring it back, it sounds stupid. Ozzy Osbourne, after Randy Rhoads died, his live shows started going downhill too. They're not terrible, but his current band can't play the classics nearly as well and you can tell his voice isn't aging well.

Actually, Metallica was supposed to put on some rather decent liveshows back in the 80's.

That was then however, and they are absolutely horrible live these days.

All it takes is a quick Youtube search to see just how bad it is.

Do they even try anymore?

As for Ozzy...LOL

I'm surprised he can even stand anymore, let alone put on concerts.

Venom wrote:I find that Kiss and AC/DC generally sound better when playing live.

I just wanted to say that some of KISS' popular live albums were heavily doctored and partially recorded in studio, which is something they admitted to. You can read about it in Wikipedia, too.

Alive!:

According to Dale Sherman's book Black Diamond and Goldmine magazine, in the early 1990s, Eddie Kramer stated there were a few overdubs to correct the most obvious mistakes: strings breaking or off-key notes, for instance. However, in recent years, Kramer has stated that the only original live recording on the album is Ace Frehley's guitar. In a recent televised interview, he also stated the only original live recording on the album is Peter Criss's drums. In addition, on the recent VH1 special of the story of Kiss, the band members themselves make it more known that the album was severely doctored in the studio, and various musicians (Fred Durst for one) comment on the album in this special, revealing how disappointed they were to find out their heroes doctored the supposed "live" album in the studio.

Anyhow, bands that are way worse live lose so much respect from me. A studio can make almost anyone sound good.

I get turned off by some bands if I listen to them live and they sound awful. One gripe I have is the bands where you can barely hear them over the screaming girls in the crowd, i.e. Panic at the Disco, but when you hear them on live TV and the crowd is fairly quiet, they sound pretty good. Well, to me they do. I've seen the concert videos of bands like Cold, Crossfade, Seether, and a couple others I can't think of and I honestly thought they did the song better live. And yeah, while I'm not a huge Metallica fan, the live songs made me even less of one.

You guys probably have never heard of this band, but Camera Obscura sound terrible live. Tracyanne Campbell's vocals, as lovely as it sounds in the studio recording, sound terrible live. The other band members are top notch, however, and are amazingly talented. I'm not ripping against the band, 'cause I really do love their music and sound. It's just I wish Tracyanne would put a little more...effort?

Well, I don't even know who Camera Obscura is...but i'll see if they have a Wikipedia article.


ANNNND they apparently do. Sounds fairly interesting, so i'll try to look into their stuff more.

Morbid wrote:Well, I don't even know who Camera Obscura is...but i'll see if they have a Wikipedia article.


ANNNND they apparently do. Sounds fairly interesting, so i'll try to look into their stuff more.

Dude, it's such lovely music. If you like '60s motown/pop music, then you'll totally dig this. Look up "Let's Get Out Of This Country," "Tears For Affairs" and pretty much anything they've released. You'll probably like it, you never know!

Well, I would like to give it a fair listen at least.

Chances are, I should find it to be at least moderately enjoyable

Too bad they suck live though

Morbid wrote:Well, I would like to give it a fair listen at least.

Chances are, I should find it to be at least moderately enjoyable

Too bad they suck live though

Lol, that's why you don't buy live CDs, lmfao. Well, I gotta go and finish watching Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland! I haven't seen this movie since I was seven...childhood memories, ahooooy!

Actually, I have heard some pretty good live CD's before. Just not that many