Live Music

We don't appear to have a thread for live music - I'm pretty surprised that this subforum's gone on this long without one (if there is one, please direct me to it - I've done searches for lots of stuff but could find nothing!), so I'm making one. I love live music, myself, and try to see bands live whenever I can. So here's a thread to ask any questions about shows, tell us about your experiences, and generally talk about gigs.

So, what bands have you seen live? Best and worst bands you've seen? Got any gigs coming up? Do share! To start you off - the best live band I saw was probably RX Bandits; in fact, here is a video from the very show I saw them at. I also have two shows I'm going to in the future - seeing Tera Melos next week, and Between The Buried And Me in September. Looking forward to both of them a lot!

The only band I got to see live was Rush and that was a blast.

I actually like a lot of Rush's songs a little more on the live albums than the studio, especially everything on A Show of Hands. The best example of this is probably Closer to the Heart—while I do like the A Farewell to Kings original, A Show of Hands is in my opinion the best performance of the song.

edited 31st May '11 7:48:32 PM by annebeeche

I want to see Sloan this month and Anvil (as in Anvil The Story Of Anvil) in July. Also, The Melvins are playing in a few days but I probably missed my shot at going - I have seen them twice already but I'm still a little disappointed given how awesome those shows were.

The last show that I went to was a bunch of local bands, the ones I was specifically there to see being Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling and Walter Sickert And The Army Of Broken Toys. The last show I went to that anyone here would actually care about was The Mountain Goats.

My first concert ever was Aerosmith on a new year's show in Boston Garden - I was in High School, and my mom somehow had connections and got tickets for me and my best friend, since new year's eve is also my birthday.

edited 31st May '11 11:46:26 PM by MikeK

Best band I've ever seen, eh? That's a bit of a toughie. It's probably either Between The Buried And Me last year at the Underworld (a massive set where they played all their best work, the setlist was incredible) or Monuments at The League Of Extraordinary Djentlemen (who simply had an intensely punishing live sound and their last song was insanely powerful as a result).

Other great ones that come to mind are Chimp Spanner at the Purple Turtle (was disappointed he didn't play Under One Sky, though) and funnily enough Diablo, a sort of thrash/groove/melodeath act who supported Children of Bodom the time I went to see them and turned out to be shockingly good.

Not sure if I've ever seen a truly bad set to be honest, disregarding the time I had to go see a whole slew of mind-numbingly homogenous indie acts with a friend. Job For A Cowboy weren't exactly stellar, drawing as they did on too much of their deathcore material.

And in summer I'm going to see Dream Theater, which of course I fully expect to blow away every other live experience I've had; I'm also hoping to go see After The Burial and All Shall Perish at the end of the month, and the very same BTBAM/AAL show you mention.

Despite my hipster credentials, I have been to see precious few gigs. 7, I believe, in total. Those being We Are Scientists, Maximo Park, The Futureheads, Guillemots, Mew, And So I Watch You From Afar and Arcade Fire.

The ASIWYFA gig was insane - it was in the upstairs room of a pub. I was stood right in front of the stage, with a mosh pit behind me, a wedge-speaker in front of me, and a tower of speakers to my right. The guitarist very nearly kicked me in the face, and I managed to steal a spare setlist from behind the speakers at the end.

Arcade Fire was absolutely epic though, it's the only arena gig I've ever been to and it was quite the experience. Sprawl II was so good live. So good.

I've not actually been to see very many shows, to be honest. I went to see Meat Loaf in the Odyssey Arena last year. Unfortunately, his voice has declined a bit in recent years, but he definitely puts on a very entertaining show and the Neverland Express are still great.

I'm going to see Def Leppard/Thin Lizzy/Alice Cooper in the same venue next Tuesday, which should be pretty good. I might try to see Bryan Adams later in the month if tickets are still available.

Best show I've been to is a toss-up between Madness and the stars from The Commitments. I don't think I've been to an outright bad professional performance.

@Anointed - I agree with you on Monuments; I wouldn't class it as one of the best shows I've ever been to, but god damn, that's the best sound I've ever heard a band get out of the Underworld. Really classy.

@Saeg - I saw Arcade Fire at the O2 and have to concur on that too, you wouldn't think it but their sound just translates so well into an arena setting. There's a lot of empty space to fill with sound, and bands can very easily get lost in a venue like that, but they really pull it off. Power Out in particular sounded absolutely massive.

also I am jealous that you got to see ASIWYFA, I've missed them twice now

edited 1st Jun '11 6:58:01 AM by SunshineWerewolf

Went to an Aesop Rock show last year, fun experience.

Rob Sonic showed up in the middle of the set unexpectedly.

Yeah, here's the setlist from the LG Arena gig that I went to. Those last 4 tracks + Encore = HOLY SHIIIIT.

As for the ASIWYFA gig, it was the tour between albums, so we didn't get any new album previews, but we did get a tour-only EP track called Straight Through The Sun... Without A Fucking Scratch. Full setlist:

• S Is For Salamander
• D Is For Django The Bastard
• Straight Through The Sun...
• TheseRIOTSareJUSTtheBEGINNING
• Start A Band
• A Little Solidarity Goes A Long Way
• The Voiceless
• Eat The City, Eat It Whole
• Encore - Set Guitars To Kill.

Oh, and they were being supported by Tubelord

edited 1st Jun '11 7:35:11 AM by Saeglopur

Heh, we got basically the same setlist, except a slightly different order and with Crown of Love instead of Empty Room.

I really hope ASIWYFA come back over here and do another London show soon...

Oh they will. They're basically on tour constantly. At least 3 nationwide tours a year.

I just got back from seeing Tera Melos!

... wow, that was intense. Slightly disappointed at no Party With Gina and no When Worms Learn to Fly but that was still an amazingly badass show. Unbelievably talented band. I met them too before the show. Lovely guys. :3

The support bands were both really interesting. The first was Capillary Action, who are a really weird, oddly humorous avant-garde jazzy sort of band, with a trumpeter, a double bassist, a guitarist, a drummer and a guy who played the accordion and lots of weird percussion. All really talented guys too, especially the drummer. The second was Tangled Hair and wow their drummer was one of the prettiest men I have ever seen they played some very good math rocky fare, definitely worth looking into of you're into that sort of stuff. Oh, and their bassist was absurdly talented, on top of all the other talent that evening

I saw Five Iron Frenzy live on their farewell tour. (It was the show in Anderson, Indiana.) My fifteen minutes of fame: various nights on the tour were supposed to be theme nights were the fans were expected to dress up. The theme that night was "cowboys", and since I was one of the few people in-costume, the band photographer (the lovely Melinda Culp—yes, Dennis' wife) took a picture of me, and said pic ended up on FIF's tour blog.

The concert itself was great. FIF didn't just play the music, but really put on a show and got some great interaction with the crowd. I remember at one point Reese (the vocalist) spent the instrumental portion of one song running in circles on stage, then Scott (the bassist) started kicking him in the butt every time he ran by. At another point, their song "Blue Comb '78" inspired fans to start throwing combs at the stage (this is standard procedure for an FIF show) and when the song was over, the band noticed that someone had also thrown a potato masher (this was not standard procedure). When the band called attention to the potato masher, fans started throwing all manner of random crap on stage, and the band arranged all the stuff into an impromptu sculpture. They played another song, and then Dennis expressed an overwhelming desire to throw himself at the sculpture like a human bowling ball. The rest of the band decided that it would be performance art and told him to go ahead, so he did.

Huh, they're supposed to come here in September as well. Touring is crazy shit.

I'm hardly big on them, but my friend likes them and I need a birthday present. There goes money for two tickets.

edited 7th Jun '11 2:21:18 AM by Litis

The best show I can think of having been to was The Jesus Lizard a couple years ago. First of all, they just sounded great. Secondly, well, I'd seen a live clip or two on youtube and noticed David Yow's tendency to crowd surf and sing at the same time, but assumed it was something that he only did for a couple songs or something. As it turns out, he just has this constant cycle of jumping off stage at the start of the song and then slowly crowd surfing his way back by the end of it. And he can do that while still concentrating on singing intelligibly (well, about as intelligibly as on the records anyway).

edited 29th Jun '11 8:49:49 AM by MikeK

I've just got back from Thin Lizzy/Alice Cooper/Def Leppard. It was really fantastic. Probably the best show I've been to see.

must kill all concert promoters

See, this is why liking smaller bands can be advantageous. Cheaper tickets, more intimate venues, and sometimes you bump into the band in a chip shop before the show

Hahaha, that's awesome, I only ever get to meet bands at merch sections normally. Monuments' guitarists recognized us from the front row after a show though, that was chill, another reason why they've been my favourite live band so far.

Saw Sloan last night. Or rather, was interning the night they were performing, but they had their own soundguy and lights anyway, so I spent most of their set in the audience. I couldn't see much of anything because they easily sold out our slightly tinyass venue, but they were pretty good.

edited 29th Jun '11 8:54:09 AM by MikeK

I'll be going to my first show ever in September, which is Between the Buried and Me purportedly supported by Animals as Leaders - 'purportedly' because they have recently disappeared from the billing for some reason. I'm praying the support doesn't turn out to be a two-bit local metalcore band.

what expect.

edited 11th Jul '11 10:19:03 AM by Litis

Just got home from T in the Park in Balado. Saw Tom Jones and the Arctic Monkeys on Friday night.

Saw Friendly Fires and Jimmy Eat World on Saturday.

And yesterday things went Up To Eleven with The Pretty Reckless, Weezer, My Chemical Romance and Pulp before the Foo Fighters blew half of Perth into the stratosphere!

PUMPED!

Foo Fighters

Both KMFDM and SWANS are coming to my town soon.

Both gigs are 18+ D:

obtain a fake ID

also: I JUST GOT TICKETS TO SEE RX BANDITS THIS WEDNESDAY

WOOOOOOOOOOOO

It may not be till November, but I'm probably going to see The Besnard Lakes for the princely sum of £8. Plus the place they're playing does excellent Cajun food, which is an added bonus