The best band you've seen live?

[uphillstruggler]

Lo fidelity allstars

Spear of Destiny

the Godfathers

add N to X

 

[ArDee]

I saw Budgie at a heavy rock picnic in the 70's at Cobham in Kent, could have been the alcohol at a young age or that I'm looking back with rose tinted glasses; but, still one of the best I've been to.

 

[VamP]

Loop
The Fall
Echo and the Bunnymen
Pop Will Eat Itself
Spacemen 3
Inspiral Carpets
Happy Mondays
A Certain Ratio
Pulp
Blur...

and more recently
Leftfield
Juke Barritone and the Swamp Dogs

All stand out gigs that I can remember, I'm sure I could remember more if I put my mind to it...

Thank God! I'd gone through most of the thread and was appalled no-one liked the same bands as me

Would add:

Pixies 89
Pavement 93
Nick Cave 94
Moby (Animal Rights tour) 95
Chemical Brothers 2003
Florence and the Machine 2012


Sheesh, how could I forget


Iggy Pop 94

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Spear of Destiny

Seen Kirk Brandon & the boys a couple of times in the 80's
Probably for the 'One Eyed Jacks' & 'World Service' tours

Sadly, I never saw Theatre Of Hate


On a messier note, I have seen King Kurt twice (at 'Adam & Eves' in Leeds)
The Guana Batz, and The Meteors too

Restless are superb live though, or were

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Maximo Park , very underated band and v good live.

I saw them win a Battle of the Bands competition at the Cluny in Newcastle years back, and realized straight away they had something special. I've seen them several times since and they've always delivered.

My other favourite gigs for all kinds of different reasons:

The first Lollapalooza fesitval, somewhere near Washington DC, 1990. Not because of Jane's Addiction who were boring, but because of 1. the bizarre and brilliant, Butthole Surfers and 2. Siouxsie and the Banshees, who were exotic and sinuous and utterly wonderful.

dEUS at the Jericho Tavern in Oxford sometime in 1991, I think - it was just after their first album came out and it was incendiary. I also coped off with this really hot lass largely because she thought I looked like Bernard Butler from Suede...

Pixies, around the same time, at the Crystal Palace Bowl. Less said about support act, Cud, the better... I missed going to see them the week after with The Pale Saints, which would have been even more awesome. I've actually seen The Breeders play more often (who in many ways, I actually like more).

A ramshackle vegan punk band called The Tofu Love Frogs and a very earnest fiddle-driven eco-pop outfit called The Dharmas in a squat in Brixton in around 1993. It seemed amazing at the time, probably because there was a lovely lady with dreads involved...

Any gig played by my friends, The Mystics, back in Oxford in the mid-90s. This band really should have made it, but circumstances conspired against them. Live, they were frighteningly good, and almost matched by contemporaries, The Nubiles, another nearly band from Oxford at the time who were by far the loudest band I have ever seen. Strangely enough, I never saw the ultimately far more successful Supergrass or Radiohead play live despite the fact that they were all friends of friends and we used to seem them down the pub all the time.

The Egg, in a tent at Glastonbury sometime very late at night in ?94 or ?95. Also friends from that period, this pioneering but chronically underrated live electronic dance band are (almost unbelievably) still going.

Shonen Knife at Club Quattro in Shibuya, Tokyo, 2006. Just a totally different kind of experience but so much fun...Also that same year I went to see a strange improvised gig by an amazing Japanese multi-instrumentalist and various friends who did things like drop bits of metal on the floor and hit things. Can't remember his name, but it was incredible.

Rich Aucoin (look him up on youtube), 2011, in a tiny local pub in my current home town in Canada. There was crowd-surfing and glitter bombs, sweat dripped from the ceiling, and I danced myself stupid.

 

[Yellow Fang]

A band called The Tofu Love Frogs were always really good live. They were like a blue grass, crusty band. Apart from festivals, I only saw one really big band live, at that was Blur and they were great.

 

[deadpool7]

It'd have to be The Stray Cats
Setzers guitar playing is just superb

I'm jealous. Brian Setzer is one of the last bands on my must-see list that I haven't yet.

For me, The Supersuckers were the best live band I've ever seen. Just straight up, in your face rock. They put on a heck of a show.

I've seen Social Distortion about 5 times along with Morrissey about 3 times and both rank up there with some of the best shows I've seen.

 

[Black Country Ste]

Gamma Ray and Stormwarrior every time I've seen them. Class acts live. Can't wait to see Gamma Ray again next week.

 

[Cubist]

Rush
Marrilion
Whitesnake
Sabbath
Iron maiden
UFO
Saxon and many others in the glorious years of Reading in the 80s.

I was on the Ents committee at uni, and we were spoilt for live music in Sheffield. Most memorable were the QTips, Roman Holiday, Madness, Theatre of Hate. Revillos, and believe it or not the most entertaining of them all was
Glitter. Bit bizarre, but The Enid was a good night out, as was Deador Alive. Hanoi Rocks was OK, and there was some pretty dire shite in and amongst it all.

Pub bands that stick in the mind were Kick The Fridge, Dumpy's Rusty Nuts at the TT, and many, many more.

 

[RWright]

Eric Clapton, 461 Ocean Boulevard tour, Keith Moon and Pete Townshend were there and played on some of the songs with EC. It was festival seating and I was maybe 10 yards from the stage. It was surreal at times.

Jimi Hendrix, I was young (maybe 12), he was backing up the Monkees , talk about an audience mismatch . I however, was very familiar with Hendrix because of some of my older neighbors, who I was with. It was so loud there is probably a law against it now. It was great. It was something I will never forget.

I have seen the Rolling Stones several times, I always like their shows.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

So. Many.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

A band called The Tofu Love Frogs were always really good live. They were like a blue grass, crusty band.

Snap. Did you read my post just above yours?

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Oh, and how could I forget The Sadies? Canada's finest country-psychedelic-surf-rock ensemble... seriously brilliant, if you ever get a chance to see them.

 

[tiswas-steve]

Hmmmmm ... Tough question but I'll try.
For pure musical enjoyment and atmosphere, The Jamm at The Half Moon in Putney, as the name suggests, a Jam tribute act,sung till I could speak no more.
Alison Moyet,Hammy Odeon- She just gone solo and a friend had a spare ticket, great rapport with the crowd and in my opinion one of Britain,s finest voices.
The Hives,various venues in London- great tunes, great band, a seriously good night out.
The Undertones, The Astoria- without Feargal but for some reason it didn't matter, probably down to the rest of the band and a collection of great tunes.
Level 42-Wembley arena, Hammy Odeon, Belgium- don't laugh, I worshipped this band as a kid in the 80,s.
Motörhead - Hammersmith Apollo (ye old Odeon)- a mate of mine follows The Anti-Nowhere League everywhere, they were one of the support acts so he got me a ticket (he's good like that) from the moment Motörhead got on the stage, I was smiling. A proper no frills rock show, was brilliant.

Other stand out gigs :
Primal Scream
Depeche Mode
The Specials (best band ever)
From The Jam (basically The Jam without Weller)
The Strangers
Steve Wonder
Ray Charles
Prince
David Bowie
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (great band live)

Think that's covered my wierd mix of musical tastes.

 

[User169]

Canada's finest country-psychedelic-surf-rock ensemble...

Sounds like a crowded field, FM!