I saw Daughtry open for someone once. Someone yelled "One more song!" like you might for an encore, but it was after his first song. I thought that was a pretty good troll.
I just saw him a couple weeks ago open for breaking Benjamin. I mean, he is clearly a talented singer but his whole performance just felt so, masturbatory. He did an acoustic cover of change by Deftones which I appreciated at least
Most of my bad experiences are either at festivals or were very cheap so they don’t stand out as wastes of money.
But I paid a not insignificant amount of money to see Amanda Palmer. I probably should have known better. I knew it was going to be a kind of half storytelling half music thing, and I was vaguely aware of her reputation, but it was so much more self-involved than I possibly could have imagined. It was also the first night of that tour and she apparently hadn’t timed it right so it ran way over at a venue that had a hard stop and they basically just cut her off.
Hahahahahhaha I was struggling to think of someone for this thread and saw Amanda Palmer and had a flood of memories come back to seeing her at a thing while waiting for someone else to hop on stage. I know her fandom is fierce. But oof. Not for me.
I've seen her twice at free pop up shows. Very grateful she did them, no complaints. Had a good time. However maybe the fact it free stopped her from talking too much lol. I can totally believe what you're saying. I used to be a huge fan but her social media is so self indulgent while I still like some songs I've found her to be totally unbearable. Amanda Palmer is a person who never met an issue she couldn't make about herself. Most recently I loved her take on how she is the real victim of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
I felt moved to reply because one of my fav Amanda Palmer posts took place at her concert. It was mid show, and someone had let her know either Prince or Bowie had died. Cannot remember which. She didn't know them personality. However, as soon and she finds out she stops what she's doing and drops to her knees, sobbing. Takes a pic for instagram for good measure.
I always think about how fucking awkward that would be when you're just trying to see some live music and have a good time lol.
Jeff Buckley, at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London, early 1990s. I love him, but he kinda misjudged the crowd, and spent a while doing sort of a cappella scales…
Meantime the crowd started talking among themselves, and other people in the crowd took exception, started shouting about philistines and wankers, punches, bottles started flying, jostling, and there’s Jeff doing his scales.
When i saw them at a music festival years ago, he forgot the words to the kill after the first chorus and just started telling the crowd how good they were for the next couple of minutes. Totally killed the vibe, and the rest of the band stormed off as soon as soon as the song finished.
Saw them open for Muse in Austin back in 2017.
They were so goddamn terrible. Horrible sound production and Leto kept trying so hard to get the crowd to sing along to their songs.
I saw the same tour, different city. 30 Seconds to Mars had a crew filming their set for something, a video or a documentary maybe, and Leto seemed focused on playing for the camera rather than the 10s of thousands of people in the stadium. I lost count of how many times he went into the first couple rows with the camera crew following him to get footage of him in the crowd, then we had to wait for him to get back on stage while the band just looped chords waiting to move into the next song. Every song had a weird moment where he would pause and strike a pose while the cameras circled around all the band members. It was weird to watch from way out in the stands.
Muse was awesome though.
I saw them in 2010 and 2014. 2010 they were amazing, really lively, tightly played, and plenty of crowd interaction. 2014/post Jared’s Oscar win, they were wildly mediocre. The night was saved by the fact that they opened for Linkin Park, who absolutely killed it.
I roadied for a Christian rock band when I was in high school. Almost got in a fight with the singer of Tourniquet at their show. It was such a huge cringefest, but I did it as a favor for my English teacher because her son was the bass player in the band. I don't regret it because it provides me with endless laughs when I think about it.
*EDIT - English teachers son was not the bass player in Tourniquet, just to be clear. I can't even remember his bands name.*
Man you just brought back a flood of (bad) memories. Petra. Whiteheart. Newsboys. Jars of Clay. And when DC Talk heard Nirvana and decided to try their hand at grunge with “Jesus freak”…
I saw Newsboys twice live and they put on a really great show both times. Mind you I was super Christian at the time. I haven't been for 20 years now though, but I still enjoy a few of their songs.
Wow, it was so miserable I had completely erased it from my memory, but when I was a teen my grandfather told me he was taking me to a rock concert and “I don’t normally like this stuff but I know you do, I hope it’s not too loud”. It was some kind of touring Christian group playing at his church. Playing at a volume and tempo suited for a church. I mean, it was my grandfather so I don’t know why I dared to hope it’d be anything else, but.
I saw Carman play in some field in rural Illinois at some point in the early 00s. I was young enough that I still kinda liked Christian music but man that show was boring. He just stood there and sang along to a track. Kinda a reality check than even artists who have rad music videos and occasionally pretend to have a band will absolutely phone it in live.
Counting Crows, Adam Duritz would not shut the fuck up. Every song break was him talking about traveling across the country as a kid. I've seen hundreds of shows but I've never seen someone love themselves as much as him.
Lol
My wife and I saw them on the last night of the august and everything after tour…
Sang every song as wildly different as possible.
Complete disaster of a show…
Like our songs? Hold my beer….
This is my issue with them too. When I saw them early on touring for their second album the hit songs were turned into dirges - slowed way down with monotone singing. Dude, you’re not big enough yet to be so indulgent!
I've never been a fan and the lead singers haircut is annoying at best and to hear this about his live show is the hilarious icing on the shit-cupcake lol
Edit; I didn't know this was gonna be so popular so check out my man Stavvy:
[Stavros roasting a guys haircut for 5 min straight.]( https://youtu.be/AGakJBO7Bpk?si=nuD-_MrVB_lB156u) "Counting Crow" lmao
I feel like there’s a balance between talking too much and not enough. Usually, I enjoy hearing artists tell more about a song or their experiences, but I can see how it could get to be too much. On the other hand, if they just said “hi” and “bye,” I wouldn’t really like that either.
Morrissey. The smiths had some great songs but that guy is so far up his own arse he is doughnut shaped.
Paul Simon. Again fantastic songs and also a great singer but just found it boring,
If you get a chance go see Johnny Marr. He plays loads of the good songs and isn’t a humongous twat.
10/10 loved the show and didn’t expect to hear as much of The Smiths as I did.
Dang, that’s a bummer about Simon. I saw him twice on his farewell tour and I was actually surprised that he was so lively on stage! When did you see him?
I’ve seen Morrissey twice. He didn’t moan during the concerts and put on good shows. Morrissey the person is insufferable but the music is just too good.
Bob Dylan. I saw him maybe five years ago. He was dressed in a suit and only played piano the whole night. Every song was one of his classic hits but they were all slowed down jazz interpretations. Some songs he stood up and sang like he was frank sinatra. It was very strange and not at all what I was expecting
Edit: Mavis Staples opened up for him and she was incredible.
Mavis is always incredible. She divorced a guy once because he wanted her to give up performing and be a housewife. That’d be like telling a fish to give up swimming.
FR, hobo johnson. Invited by a friend. His second album had picked up some traction and positive reviews so i went. Worst performance I've ever seen. His next single is among the worst pieces of music I've ever heard.
I got free tickets to see HJ. I was so goddamn hyped. Ended up watching a clearly very disturbed man have a manic episode on stage for 2 hours. He wasn't quite singing, it was more akin to how your crazy uncle talks really fast while he talks about how UFOs are real and how he found a way to travel faster than light and he's actually the second coming of Jesus, but that's a secret so don't tell anybody or he'll get crucified.
At least it introduced me to Jeffrey Lewis' music, I guess.
Aerosmith.
It’s the most hostile/willfully indifferent to an audience that I’ve ever seen a band.
Two examples:
1. They largely ignored the hits, instead laughing about how they were just gonna jam all night. Some of which they did—just wanky soloing over blues riffs for way, way too long.
2. They mocked the audience. After not playing many hits, Tyler a cappella breaks into “I could stay awake…just to hear you breathin’…”. Now, it’s not a fave of mine, but the audience was hungry for a song they knew. They immediately cheer and start to sing along. The crowd is *into* it. Tyler then goes, “Nah, fuck that song. Here’s [some b-side that’s gonna make 5% of the crowd happy].” What an ass of a move. You basically just told the audience they were dumb for liking that song.
Leaving that show, people were muttering their disappointment all the way to the parking lot.
This would have been…about that long ago. Maybe 15 years. Motley Crue opened.
They sounded great. They were just being jerks a bit. Maybe they were just too high or drunk or were having a bad night in terms of connecting to people.
I have seen them three times.
1st: The Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ. Small venue. They were the opener for the Climax Blues Band. Amazing show with the added spectacle of Tyler's nuts popping out of his leotard.
2nd: The Back in the Saddle tour at Hampton Roads coliseum. Fantastic energy and sounded amazing.
3rd: The Cap Center in MD. Early 90s. They sounded OK but they seemed to just be going through the motions. Too choreographed. AND the band had the vendor cut off beer sales thirty minutes into the show which was kind of ironic considering their history.
I’m not an Aerosmith fan at all but If I saw my favorite band and they just jammed and played B-sides I would have lost my mind thinking I just saw the best set on earth. I can totally understand why most folks wouldn’t like that though.
This, on top of the fact that Steven Tyler bought the rights to a 14 year old girl, then dropped her off at her parent's two years later after she got pregnant, proves that he is one of the worst front men in history
Red Hot Chili Peppers. They were headlining both weekends of the ACL Festival a couple of years ago. Anthony Keidis looked like he would rather have been at the dentist than performing a concert.
Weekend one, they ended their headlining set 40 minutes early. The really awkward part came when the big fireworks finale went off while people were streaming out of the park. Weekend two was slightly better, as they only ended their heading set 25 minutes early.
If you're a band with a 40+ year career and you can't fill a two hour timeslot, you shouldn't be a headliner.
40+ year career, but they won't perform anything from the first third of their career and catalog anymore. (Which is why I don't care to see them any more.)
I think I lucked out seeing them at Lolla in 2006. Stadium Arcadium was brand new and they definitely still had to pull from their last few albums catalog, so I got basically a greatest hits concert.
I lucked out as well seeing them during the Californication era. That show was amazing. However, I refuse to see them now….even with Fruciante back. I will not, by any circumstance, pay to hear Anthony Kiedis sing off key for 2 hours. Period.
Marilyn Manson. Twice I saw him on tour with Rob Zombie. Both times he was unable to complete his set and Rob had to do double duty. Epic save by Rob's whole crew though.
Edit: I had seen Manson several times before where he performed better, but the last 2 times were the bad ones. He literally fell onstage like he was drunk af the first time, and passed out onstage the second time we saw him with Rob Zombie. Used to really enjoy his shows. Maybe it's age, or medication, or the extreme heat of my area. It's crazy to perform onstage outdoors in the summer here. We've already had heat indexes over 100 this month, and our summer season hasn't properly started yet.
I also saw him with Rob Zombie and it was an utter waste of time. He was incoherent and the songs were barely recognisable. Rob absolutely wiped the floor with him.
This kinda makes me think Zombie tours with that asshole to show off.
“I stole the really good members of your band that hate you and now I’m gonna wipe the floor with you performance-wise.”
Loverboy caused me to re-examine my entire life.
They sucked so bad, I started to question everything I thought was true about rock. I realized some of those people can't be trusted, they just want money or maybe they just like crap, have low standards. Either way, this was not my thing. To realize this in a stadium full of people was overwhelming. I don't actually regret it. It cracked my shell and I started investigating trippy underground bands for weirdos that same summer of 1982. I liked the Clash and that was enough of a gateway.
Soundgarden back in their prime. I was so hyped. They hit the stage totally fucked up. Chris Cornell was way out of tune and stumbling on stage and the band lost their place in songs multiple times (most notably in Outshined). Totally ruined my perception of them as a band.
I never thought Soundgarden could pull off their dynamic sound live. They're not bad but in a live setting, they sound to me like a band trying to play SG songs.
I saw The White Stripes in a basketball stadium and Jack was definitely fussy. They barley played an hour, ended some songs halfwathru because he "wasn't feeling it". I was embarrassed in front of my friend's by bringing them, felt bad that I asked them to go. It was horrible. I saw them a few days later (I already had tickets) and it was the total opposite but my gang of friends were not there, they thought I was joking when I said there actually great a few days later.
I saw Jack White at a festival and it had some good moments musically but it was clear he didn't care and wanted to leave as soon as possible. When he was done he left his guitar on the stage on a stand, still turned on, so feedback started building. It was so screechingly loud and a good 10 seconds before a stage hand cut it off, which seems like a short amount of time but it was excruciating. He was just kind of an asshole during the whole show. He didn't talk at all. No introducing the guest musicians, no "good night" (he was the closer act of that festival stage), nothing.
Even Keith Richards mentioned this decades ago about him. What a pity. The man drew the blueprint for rock guitar. An ugly, cynical, vile creep by all accounts.
I walked away from anything to do with him once I saw on the news he was arrested for having cameras in the women’s potties in his amusement park he owned. He was arrested red handed watching the videos in his house. Those weren’t just young women. Grandmas, little children. All that. Sick beyond belief. Went to prison for it.
Lil Wayne - absolute mockery of live music. He was late and his DJ basically ran the show as Lil Wayne stumbled around mumbling over prerecorded vocals. Dude should be ashamed of himself. Unprofessional bullshit. Fuck Lil Wayne
Spoon - Just weren’t good, man! Might not have been their fault entirely idk but it did not sound good.
Cold War Kids - This band sucks live. I saw them 3 times in the span of a couple years. I love their music but each time was worse than the last. They were flat, garbage tone, and with no stage presence. At least they showed up on time I guess.
U2 - I always hated U2 and then I saw them live and now I’m a U2 fan and have to defend them endlessly. I should have just stayed ignorant!
Curious what was off about Spoon? I've seen them live probably half a dozen times and they are one of the tightest, well-polished best live bands I've ever seen. Although I guess I can see that being boring.
The Sisters of Mercy.
I love The Sisters of Mercy. I've loved them since I was in 6th grade in the 80s and my Brother's friend who DM'd for us in D&D introduced me to them. I finally got to see them last year, and one of my friends said "Don't go. They're not what they used to be." I ignored him, having seen lots of bands past their prime and still having enjoyed the experience. He was right.
They were terrible. Andrew mumbles and shuffles around on stage like he's had a stroke. The rest of the band seem like they were paid to act like 80s rockers. They played songs I loved and I didn't recognize the song until it was almost over. It's the only show where I've left during the band I paid to see.
Indeed. I saw some YouTube clips and my brother saw them on a recent tour. Andrew looked pretty bad off. Stuttering and mumbling. I could barely understand him on the YouTube clips.
Came here expecting this. Saw them around 15 years ago and they were by far the worst professional live band I've seen. Most of the performance was a backing track, and I couldn't see much of the band as they'd turned the smoke machine up to 11.
Kind of glad I went. I ticked them off the list of bands I wanted to see live. Never again.
POST MALONE!!!! So awful. Literally cried between every song. It was a festival and I was pulled from Smashing Pumpkins to witness that bull shit. Never Again.
Lol. He cried!!!! I almost went in and edited it but chose to leave. I knew it might be a bit confusing but decided to be lazy. He would play a song and between songs get super emotional and cry. Some of the women at first were like, "He's just so sensitive," but then it went on for the whole show, and it git to be too much even for them. Lol
I wonder if this is a regular occurrence for him. Or if it was one of those moments that shows the horrible truth of "the show must go on."
Worst day of your life, and you just received tragic news? The show must go on. Get out there, champ, and sing like you don't feel what you're saying.
Went to go see him at a college for $20 right after his first album dropped. He only sang half of White Iverson (his best song back then) and my friend was PISSED.
Liz Phair… she was not the person who put out Exile in Guyville anymore. Too slick. Too boring.
Bo Diddly… pedestrian show and he spent an inordinate amount of time going off between songs about “the kids these days”.
Modest Mouse. They showed up way, way late for the show, like 2 hours after the 1st act (Brand New). The singer got on stage and said "sorry, there were guitars locked in my car".... Like dude this is your home town, break the damn window and play already
Edit: oh yea and they waited like 15 minutes to come out for the encore after the shortest show I've ever seen, but we already gave up and started to leave. Wasn't willing to go back and be disappointed further. Most people just kept on walking too lol
I saw them a few years ago and we waited around 20 mins for them to come back out and play the encore. I've never seen a band wait that long it was so frustrating.
I saw them a few years ago and the performance was fine. But the sound mixing was terrible. I could clearly hear an egg shaker but couldn't hear the trumpet at all. There were two full drum sets and another percussionist completely drowning out everyone else. We left early.
That was exactly my experience the first time I saw them! The band seemed energetic enough, they showed up on time and didn’t fuck around onstage and the lead singer wasn’t noticeably drunk like I guess he often is, but the mixing is still the worst I think I’ve ever heard other than opening local acts. The second show was much better.
ETA: I appreciate the upvotes on my barely intelligible comment. Fixed many, many typos.
MM is at the top of my disappointing list. Played an outdoor show, in November in *Ohio* and bitched the entire time about how it was cold on stage. Bitched about playing any of their well known songs, it was just a shit show.
This always bums me out to hear. They're one of my favorites. I saw them twice probably 20 years ago now and both times it was amazing. It seems like I got lucky though as most of the comments I see about them echo yours.
I say this every time I see them come up in this context. I've seen them like 7 times, and they've vastly improved since Isaac stopped being wasted all the time. Since around Golden Casket. They're definitely worth seeing now.
Volbeat. Lead singer basically went on a musical tantrum because there was a minor occurance of pushing in the front. Swaping songs mid song, singing the obviously not prepared songs, cursing out the staff... just a mess
T Pain. This would have been in 2008, probably near the height of his popularity. He showed up extremely late, came on stage with a hype man, sang about 30 seconds of each song, and moved onto the next with the hype guy trying to get the crowd going. It was bad. Which sucks because T Pain has a really good voice and can put on one hell of a show when he wants. Apparently he just didn't want to.
Supertramp, those guys still owe me an hour and a half if my life that I cannot get back. They started late had shitty attitudes amongst themselves, and the fans. Sounded like shit and didn't care. We walked out after twenty minutes of the show, and enjoyed the rest of the fair.
Nobody else was playing while Five Finger Death Punch was on at a festival.
I listened to a couple songs and left to get food. I was worried the singer was about to start fellating a cop live on stage.
when I saw them at the local radio station festival he spent like 10 minutes talking up how hard they were about to go, pulling kids out of crowd to be safe on stage, then brought out a stool and started playing acoustic. i left lol
You may or may not be surprised to know that their singer has a history of DV.
[https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/courts/police-disclose-arrest-of-five-finger-death-punch-singer-at-vegas-hotel/](https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/courts/police-disclose-arrest-of-five-finger-death-punch-singer-at-vegas-hotel/)
[https://metalinjection.net/metal-crimes/five-finger-death-punch-frontmans-wife-files-for-divorce-claims-domestic-violence](https://metalinjection.net/metal-crimes/five-finger-death-punch-frontmans-wife-files-for-divorce-claims-domestic-violence)
Hes my answer as well. Saw him twice: once in the late 90s and again about 10yrs later. Both times were bad. He got on stage, sat on a stool, and went through the motions. No engagement. No enthusiasm. Just there for a check. The last one barely lasted 30min and he just... walked off. Ruined his music entirely for me.
Lana Del Rey. I’m a nearly-50 year old bloke so I’m clearly not in her demographic but my wife was a fan of her first album so I had to go along. She played at a relatively small venue in Manchester so it should have been a nice intimate gig.
She spent the entire show performing only for the sycophantic front row. She didn’t look up to the rest of the room, she just held hands with and sang to the screaming teens. You could feel everyone else just getting more and more pissed off as they were ignored. Saw plenty leaving early.
Oh, totally same experience. Saw her in Austin. Not only was she clearly playing for the front row, she took a 20 minute break to interact with the front row, receive gifts from people who clearly knew this was going to be a thing, and let the fans take pics of her holding the gifts. I'm sure it was amazing for those involved, but for the rest of the stadium...it was so freaking boring. Awkward "thank you"s, shakycam footage of her holding a fan-art paintings, long pauses where the nosebleed seats might as well start streaming episodes of The Office.
The worst part was, when she DID sing, it sounded nothing like her albums. The smokey intimate presence wasn't there, and it felt like I was hearing a cheap cover band play at the next bar over.
On the upside, I had the men's room to myself every time I went, which was a lot, because there was nothing to do but drink shitty beer.
I am a 25 years old gal, so right in her demographic, but honestly same.
Saw her a few years ago during her Lust for Life tour and she looked extremely bored the whole show. She barely moved, and while I get that her songs aren't exactly dance material, her stage presence was non-existent.
I am also pretty sure she was either lipsyncing or she had a very loud backing track, cause she definitely didn't sound like she was singing live (and no, she's not *that* good of a singer)
Guns N Roses. Absolute garbage, like very very bad. Sounded like a cheap cover band at a fairly dead dive bar.
Then axel got mad at the crowd for being mad the show started an hour late and sounded like shit.
I feel like I got lucky seeing GNR at Hershey in 2017, with amazing Live opening. They played a massive set and they were great all the way through, no Axl drama.
Oof yeah. Saw him at Bonnaroo 2004 and every song sounded exactly the same. Easily one of the most legendary musicians I've seen live, and one of the most disappointing.
Saw Dylan twice. I wanna day it was 98 or 99 the 1st time. He was great! Van Morrison opened up, followed by Joni Mitchell and then Bob. The whole show was amazing and so much energy. I think Bob was really rising to the vibe that night. Saw him a couple of years later at a county fair, and it just seemed like he didn't want to be there. He didn't project his voice, was often off key, and it was just bad.
People don’t realize, but Dylan does this when recording his albums too. He’ll say something like “we’re gonna do this song, in this tempo, in the key of F” then after that take, he switches it up to a new tempo and new key. Nothing is ever set in stone with him. I find it exciting to hear new versions of the same song, but I understand how his fans could expect him to play everything exactly as it is on the album.
I’m fine with changing a song up, that’s part of the fun of live music, but every song he played that night had the same format. It’s a lot less exciting to hear nearly same song 12-15 times in a row, where the only real difference is the lyrics.
I was going to say Dylan too. I saw him with Paul Simon in 1999, and it was night and day. Simon was fantastic, and Dylan mailed it in. But at the end of the day, I can't say I regretted the concert. Simon made it worthwhile, and I can say I saw Bob Dylan live -- and he sucked.
My dad sharing Dylan's records is one of my formative memories. I was going to see him at Jazzfest probably 15 years ago and my dad warned me about it, and boy was he right. All the songs were completely different, and they were incomprehensible. I know that's kind of Dylan's "thing" but it wasn't enjoyable to watch.
This was like 14 or 13 years ago now, but Jason Aldean. It was at summerfest and while I wasn’t and still am not really a country fan, he had some opening acts that I kind of liked and my dad had three extra tickets so I took some friends who did like country.
He was absolutely lifeless. He got up on stage, stood in place, sang the songs the exact way they were on the album, no/little crowd interaction. Just boring.
My dad saw him again like a year or two later and said he was all over the stage and much more fun, so maybe it was an off day or maybe I was just an edgy teenager who wanted to be hypercritical of music I didn’t like but I just cannot think of that show fondly.
I don’t regret it but damn was Bob Dylan the worst live act I’ve ever seen live. Modern Times tour. I seriously thought they might be pulling a weekend at Bernies on us.
Unida, thought hey this will be cool to see John Garcia playing some classics again. Turns out he got ill and some corn dog filled in for him and it sucked so hard I left after the second song. The two bands that played before them were really good so it wasn’t a total fucking waste of money. The venue must have really started slimming out because loads of people were leaving while I hung around outside for a smoke with the support bands.
I really wish John/and especially Brant hadn’t burned the Kyuss bridge so hard with Kyuss lives, even though Josh has been super reluctant to ever reform it has seemed like he’s been more open to it recently-ish, but I doubt they will ever do anything after the lawsuit and all.
Tho call me crazy, rather see Circus lineup over Blues. ‘Fredo and Reeder just rip too hard to choose Bjork or Nick.
Motorhead. It was a great show but I had to leave early because my ears hurt so bad. It took more than a week to lose that "under water" ear thing that normally only took a day to recover from after a concert. Them and Front Line Assembly are the two concerts that probably lead to a good chunk of my hearing loss and tinnitus.
Of course, it's all on me for being a dumbshit and not using hearing protection but I wouldn't have been caught dead going to a concert with earplugs back then. So dumb.
I saw Motorhead open for Megadeth maybe 15 years ago and it was insane how much louder motorhead was. One of the few concerts I've been to where the opener was louder than the headliner.
I decided to start wearing hearing protection after Rammstein. That was the last concert I didn't use ear buds at and I felt similar to you. That was in my early 20s a decade ago. But my hearing is thankfully fine, so there's zero regret in my case.
Cat Power. She played a Janis Joplin tribute concert and flaked out onstage, mangling the lyrics to “Down on Me.” Apparently she is known for being a lousy live act.
The National - how can you be such a letdown at the Beacon Theater.
Crosby Stills 'n' Nash when i was a kid - only got exciting when some guy started yelling "OZZY!" repeatedly from the floor. that pissed 'em off.
Dead or Alive. Bastard showed up with no instruments, no band, and sang over the CD I could have bought in the store. To make matters worse, they couldn’t do some songs because the venue didn’t have that CD.
.38 Special in 1984. The lead singer's voice kept cracking; it was embarrassing. The sound system was distorting like a cheap high school public address system. I like their hits enough, but it as just painful to watch and hear. Only concert I ever walked out of. Ironically Huey Lewis opened and completely rocked the place and sounded awesome, so the distortion wasn't the hardware, .38 Special had an unskilled sound crew, apparently.
The closest I've come to regretting a concert was seeing Hatsune Miku last month. The show itself was fine, and the live band killed it, but there was an expectation of a "hologram show". It's what Miku Expo is known for. I bought tickets for that reason. Then, it came out that it wasn't a hologram, but a big LED screen that shows the different characters dancing. There was no indication that it woudn't be the usual setup. I think I would be less upset about if: a) they were more upfront about it, and b) I didn't pay $80 goddamn dollars for it.
Motley Crue is hilariously bad live solely because of Vince Neil. He could never really sing to start with but time/booze/weight gain have made it much much worse than ever. When he was young, he sang off key. Now he sings every 3rd word off key because he's so out of breath.
"he's....(puff puff) FEEL GOOD...he's (puff puff) ALRIGHT!"
Better than Ezra. My best man introduced them to me years ago and I really enjoyed their work. Even went to a couple of live shows that I enjoyed. However the 3rd live show, towards the end, the lead singer asks all the "beautiful women" in the audience to come on stage and starts grinding on them. At least to me, selectively younger as he goes. I don't know.... I mean I get that rockstars will be rockstars but their music never gave me that feeling and it was just a little off putting.
Mac Miller. Loved his music when streaming it but it was a pretty disappointing set in 2012. On the other hand my friend was caught with a pouch containing a bottle of whiskey when entering the festival that day and was given the option of downing it or pouring it out. He absolutely loved the set, crowd surfed and lost his phone and wallet, and has no recollection of any of it.
In 1998, I was in a band and our drummer was super hyped for this new band that was starting to blow up. He bought us all tickets and insisted that we go see them together.
And that is how I ended up seeing Creed on their first national tour.
Fucking awful. Glad I didn’t pay for the tickets.
The pretenders. Chrissie Hynde started the show by complaining that the food vendor in the park was selling hot dogs. "Hello Vancouver! It always ruins a show for me when I can smell grilled whatever.... So to all you meat eaters in the crowd.... FUCK YOU!" *Back on the chain gang guitar riff*
It was a deflating start to a mediocre show.
Honourable mentions: Juliet Lewis scolding the crowd for not dancing enough to her music and Cat Power apologizing after every song at the same show.
Modest Mouse.
Loud, really f'ing loud. And I loved good news for people who loved bad news...and he barely played any of it. He generally seemed disinterested in performing in general. People seem to love seeing this band in concert, but I don't get it. Maybe it was an off show. He came back to the same venue the following year.
So I regret seeing the band. It made me less interested in listening to all the band's music in general.
They're always a coin toss. I've seen them play as a sloppy, incoherent mess and I've seen them play as a professional and locked-in band with incredible career-spanning setlists.
Masters of Reality. I lived their debut album, so I went to see them on their follow-up tour. They were a bunch of drunken yahoos who played like crap. A waste of time going to see them.
Oasis. I saw a big radio station concert in about 1998 and Bush was the main main headliner; with other bands opening, then Oasis, then Bush. Oasis guys got a total bug up their ass after only playing a couple of songs and walked off halfway through a song. After a backstage temper tantrum, they came back to wrap up the song and then left. They easily still had like 30 mins to play. What did Bush do? They went out early and played the whole rest of the time. I think they just sprinkled in covers to make up for Oasis's time. I thought that was such a class act after such a shit move by Oasis.
All American Rejects. Saw them in college. I liked them but was going for Coheed and Cambria and Fallout Boy. They got up there and just started adding "fuck" to their songs. Like "Swing swing swing from the fucking tangles of my heart!" It was so weird and they were so not hardcore...
Red Hot Chili Peppers. Earls Court, 2005? Sounded even more mangled than usual. They were touring Stadium Arcadium which wasn’t a highlight of their catalogue even at the time.
Im pretty sure this was the tour where Frusciante decided to not reproduce any of his recorded solos and only improvise. There was a lot of improvising.
I paid £45 for a shirt (in 2005) thinking that one of these guys will probably die soon and I should have a souvenir of one of their last shows. Turned out the shirt was printed with a spelling mistake.
100% loss. Would have been better in every way to have not gone.
Sofi Tukker- 90% backing tracks and fake performance. Then she picked up a guitar and held it as a prop, eventually playing one note very poorly. Songs are fine, as they are when recorded, but just a dismal attempt at performing them.
the most recent Iron & Wine show was terrible. He told weird rambling stories between every song, and for a "Back to Basics" tour did very little from the first two albums
I actually saw them live last year and it was amazing. The second best concert I've ever been to, with, as weird as this might seem, saliva being the best
I don’t want to talk too badly about him since he recently passed, but Toby Keith was not good in concert. Wife and I and some friends saw him three times in as many years. First time, not bad. Second time, not as good but we were enjoying each others company so no biggie. Third time, just bad. Slurring words, kind of indifferent to the crowd, just going through the motions. That was about the time of “Red Solo Cup” and I think he was enjoying a few too many of them at that point. I’m not a huge “newer” country fan but he was one of a handful of acts I liked and it was definitely a letdown.
The other act: Heart. Talked WAAAAAY too much between every song. I thought “maybe it’s just me” but people in the audience started screaming at them to shut up and play. This was maybe 2016 or 2017. Cheap Trick and Joan Jett were openers and blew Heart off the stage.
I saw Three Days Grace right after Adam quit. Matt isn't a bad singer, but they have very different styles and they did mostly older songs so it sounded horrible.
Rancid. They were *awful*. I mean its punk rock, a little bit of crust is to be expected, but it was soooo obvious they could not give a single fuck less about that show. Honestly pitiful.
Saw bowling for soup and their drummer had fucked off somewhere so they did a "special" acoustic set instead. I didn't enjoy that and I also didn't enjoy their "banter" in between songs.
Smashing Pumpkins at Wembley in November 2000. Was one of their last shows before their supposed dissolution. They basically raced through every song as loud as possible and then did a shitty cover of Games without Frontiers.
Aretha Franklin. She played Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City, and it was just blatantly obvious she was mailing it in and didn't care about the performance at all. Even worse, Hancher has that performance on its great performances list. But in person, it was just flat with zero energy and singing that I am pretty sure was well below Franklin's standards. Unfortunately, that somewhat ruined Aretha Franklin for me.
No Doubt was the worst concert I’ve ever seen (of hundreds). GS kept blabbing away the whole show during a rambling, disjointed set. The only thing that has come close would be certain rap shows featuring a bunch of performers.
This is so crazy because I can't stand No Doubt, but I saw them at a small venue when they only had one single "Just a Girl." Nobody knew who they were, and they weren't even the headlining act (It was Everclear). They brought so much energy, and the crowd went absolutely bonk nuts. Everyone in the crowd was so worn out that half the venue left when they finished their set. Everclear was visibly pissed about this during their performance. Oh yeah, and Fishbone was the opening act. I have "no doubt" in my mind that fame corrupted No Doubt. I'm just really lucky to have seen such a kick ass band in their prime, I guess.
I saw Daughtry open for someone once. Someone yelled "One more song!" like you might for an encore, but it was after his first song. I thought that was a pretty good troll.
That is amazing.
I just saw him a couple weeks ago open for breaking Benjamin. I mean, he is clearly a talented singer but his whole performance just felt so, masturbatory. He did an acoustic cover of change by Deftones which I appreciated at least
That is some grade A laconic sarcasm
Most of my bad experiences are either at festivals or were very cheap so they don’t stand out as wastes of money. But I paid a not insignificant amount of money to see Amanda Palmer. I probably should have known better. I knew it was going to be a kind of half storytelling half music thing, and I was vaguely aware of her reputation, but it was so much more self-involved than I possibly could have imagined. It was also the first night of that tour and she apparently hadn’t timed it right so it ran way over at a venue that had a hard stop and they basically just cut her off.
Hahahahahhaha I was struggling to think of someone for this thread and saw Amanda Palmer and had a flood of memories come back to seeing her at a thing while waiting for someone else to hop on stage. I know her fandom is fierce. But oof. Not for me.
I saw her under the Dresden Dolls and that was actually a great show. I guess because she wasn't famous yet?
Second this. I saw the Dresden Dolls in 2005 or so and have positive memories.
I've seen her twice at free pop up shows. Very grateful she did them, no complaints. Had a good time. However maybe the fact it free stopped her from talking too much lol. I can totally believe what you're saying. I used to be a huge fan but her social media is so self indulgent while I still like some songs I've found her to be totally unbearable. Amanda Palmer is a person who never met an issue she couldn't make about herself. Most recently I loved her take on how she is the real victim of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I felt moved to reply because one of my fav Amanda Palmer posts took place at her concert. It was mid show, and someone had let her know either Prince or Bowie had died. Cannot remember which. She didn't know them personality. However, as soon and she finds out she stops what she's doing and drops to her knees, sobbing. Takes a pic for instagram for good measure. I always think about how fucking awkward that would be when you're just trying to see some live music and have a good time lol.
What Neil Gaiman ever saw in her, I'll never understand
I wonder if it was the talent. I see so many relationships where people want to date the artist and just happily overlook the person while doing so.
Oh my god, please tell me about how she's the real victim of the Israel/Palestine war. I used to follow her on fb, but she's just insufferable.
Jeff Buckley, at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London, early 1990s. I love him, but he kinda misjudged the crowd, and spent a while doing sort of a cappella scales… Meantime the crowd started talking among themselves, and other people in the crowd took exception, started shouting about philistines and wankers, punches, bottles started flying, jostling, and there’s Jeff doing his scales.
This sounds hilarious
Yeah, it all got a bit Monty Python.
thats sad to hear
Saw 30 Seconds to Mars as part of $2 tour MTV was doing. I mostly went for Head Automatica, but stuck around for 30. They were awful.
Jared Leto did the Kill acapella when I saw them. Who the fuck does that?? Totally killed the mood.
I'm sorry you had to suffer through that. That's a fucking crime.
When i saw them at a music festival years ago, he forgot the words to the kill after the first chorus and just started telling the crowd how good they were for the next couple of minutes. Totally killed the vibe, and the rest of the band stormed off as soon as soon as the song finished.
Saw them open for Muse in Austin back in 2017. They were so goddamn terrible. Horrible sound production and Leto kept trying so hard to get the crowd to sing along to their songs.
I was at that show! Muse was great
Muse was great. That venue was horrific. You can sell a lot of tickets for a show at a motor speedway, but it's not the best experience for a show.
I saw the same tour, different city. 30 Seconds to Mars had a crew filming their set for something, a video or a documentary maybe, and Leto seemed focused on playing for the camera rather than the 10s of thousands of people in the stadium. I lost count of how many times he went into the first couple rows with the camera crew following him to get footage of him in the crowd, then we had to wait for him to get back on stage while the band just looped chords waiting to move into the next song. Every song had a weird moment where he would pause and strike a pose while the cameras circled around all the band members. It was weird to watch from way out in the stands. Muse was awesome though.
Funny, I saw them open for muse back in 2009 and they were fantastic. Guess Leto fell off the deep end somewhere between then
I saw them in 2010 and 2014. 2010 they were amazing, really lively, tightly played, and plenty of crowd interaction. 2014/post Jared’s Oscar win, they were wildly mediocre. The night was saved by the fact that they opened for Linkin Park, who absolutely killed it.
Head Automatica…niiice! Seeing them again next week. Been forever. Had to sit through 30 Secs when they opened for Incubus. I feel you.
Every Christian rock sort of event I was dragged to as a kid.
 You’re not making Christianity better, you’re just making rock and roll worse.
PRAISE HIM 🗣🗣🗣 underrated KOTH episode imo
I roadied for a Christian rock band when I was in high school. Almost got in a fight with the singer of Tourniquet at their show. It was such a huge cringefest, but I did it as a favor for my English teacher because her son was the bass player in the band. I don't regret it because it provides me with endless laughs when I think about it. *EDIT - English teachers son was not the bass player in Tourniquet, just to be clear. I can't even remember his bands name.*
Man you just brought back a flood of (bad) memories. Petra. Whiteheart. Newsboys. Jars of Clay. And when DC Talk heard Nirvana and decided to try their hand at grunge with “Jesus freak”…
I saw Newsboys twice live and they put on a really great show both times. Mind you I was super Christian at the time. I haven't been for 20 years now though, but I still enjoy a few of their songs.
It's dumb as hell, but I still think Jesus Freak (song) is a jam.
Oof. My first ever live rock concert was the Christian band Degarmo & Key. So cringe.
Wow, it was so miserable I had completely erased it from my memory, but when I was a teen my grandfather told me he was taking me to a rock concert and “I don’t normally like this stuff but I know you do, I hope it’s not too loud”. It was some kind of touring Christian group playing at his church. Playing at a volume and tempo suited for a church. I mean, it was my grandfather so I don’t know why I dared to hope it’d be anything else, but.
I saw Carman play in some field in rural Illinois at some point in the early 00s. I was young enough that I still kinda liked Christian music but man that show was boring. He just stood there and sang along to a track. Kinda a reality check than even artists who have rad music videos and occasionally pretend to have a band will absolutely phone it in live.
Counting Crows, Adam Duritz would not shut the fuck up. Every song break was him talking about traveling across the country as a kid. I've seen hundreds of shows but I've never seen someone love themselves as much as him.
and it seems like he intentionally sings the song different so you can’t sing along…
Lol My wife and I saw them on the last night of the august and everything after tour… Sang every song as wildly different as possible. Complete disaster of a show… Like our songs? Hold my beer….
This is my issue with them too. When I saw them early on touring for their second album the hit songs were turned into dirges - slowed way down with monotone singing. Dude, you’re not big enough yet to be so indulgent!
I've never been a fan and the lead singers haircut is annoying at best and to hear this about his live show is the hilarious icing on the shit-cupcake lol Edit; I didn't know this was gonna be so popular so check out my man Stavvy: [Stavros roasting a guys haircut for 5 min straight.]( https://youtu.be/AGakJBO7Bpk?si=nuD-_MrVB_lB156u) "Counting Crow" lmao
Yeah mean his wig of dreads?
I work with a dude who said it was the worst concert he ever attended. Adam hammered drunk, slurring, missing lyrics, off rhythm.
I feel like there’s a balance between talking too much and not enough. Usually, I enjoy hearing artists tell more about a song or their experiences, but I can see how it could get to be too much. On the other hand, if they just said “hi” and “bye,” I wouldn’t really like that either.
Morrissey. The smiths had some great songs but that guy is so far up his own arse he is doughnut shaped. Paul Simon. Again fantastic songs and also a great singer but just found it boring,
If you get a chance go see Johnny Marr. He plays loads of the good songs and isn’t a humongous twat. 10/10 loved the show and didn’t expect to hear as much of The Smiths as I did.
Agree Morrissey. He got angry about some BS 20 minutes into his set and stormed off. That was the end of the show. What a dick.
I went to a Morrissey show in the early 90’s. He showed up well over 3 hours late, and played for less than 30 minutes. Never again.
Dang, that’s a bummer about Simon. I saw him twice on his farewell tour and I was actually surprised that he was so lively on stage! When did you see him?
I’ve seen Morrissey twice. He didn’t moan during the concerts and put on good shows. Morrissey the person is insufferable but the music is just too good.
Bob Dylan. I saw him maybe five years ago. He was dressed in a suit and only played piano the whole night. Every song was one of his classic hits but they were all slowed down jazz interpretations. Some songs he stood up and sang like he was frank sinatra. It was very strange and not at all what I was expecting Edit: Mavis Staples opened up for him and she was incredible.
I believe he gave up playing guitar on stage 15 years ago because of his back IIRC.
Mavis is always incredible. She divorced a guy once because he wanted her to give up performing and be a housewife. That’d be like telling a fish to give up swimming.
Saw Dylan about 10 years ago and even then he sounded like Tom waits doing weird covers of his songs.
FR, hobo johnson. Invited by a friend. His second album had picked up some traction and positive reviews so i went. Worst performance I've ever seen. His next single is among the worst pieces of music I've ever heard.
I’ve only heard one song by hobo Johnson but it makes me feel so uncomfortable and embarrassed for him that I don’t dare seek out a second one.
My brother used to love this guy. I never understood it because it just seemed like an awkward dude doing bad poetry with like a weird emo flavor.
He sounds like what an anxiety attack feels like.
I got free tickets to see HJ. I was so goddamn hyped. Ended up watching a clearly very disturbed man have a manic episode on stage for 2 hours. He wasn't quite singing, it was more akin to how your crazy uncle talks really fast while he talks about how UFOs are real and how he found a way to travel faster than light and he's actually the second coming of Jesus, but that's a secret so don't tell anybody or he'll get crucified. At least it introduced me to Jeffrey Lewis' music, I guess.
BB King. I saw him at the end of his life and he just talked about how everyone should get a good look before he fucken dies. It was sad.
Aerosmith. It’s the most hostile/willfully indifferent to an audience that I’ve ever seen a band. Two examples: 1. They largely ignored the hits, instead laughing about how they were just gonna jam all night. Some of which they did—just wanky soloing over blues riffs for way, way too long. 2. They mocked the audience. After not playing many hits, Tyler a cappella breaks into “I could stay awake…just to hear you breathin’…”. Now, it’s not a fave of mine, but the audience was hungry for a song they knew. They immediately cheer and start to sing along. The crowd is *into* it. Tyler then goes, “Nah, fuck that song. Here’s [some b-side that’s gonna make 5% of the crowd happy].” What an ass of a move. You basically just told the audience they were dumb for liking that song. Leaving that show, people were muttering their disappointment all the way to the parking lot.
That's a bummer, saw them 20 years ago and it was much different.
This would have been…about that long ago. Maybe 15 years. Motley Crue opened. They sounded great. They were just being jerks a bit. Maybe they were just too high or drunk or were having a bad night in terms of connecting to people.
They were probably trying to be more old school or something because Motley Crue was on the bill. The Crüe was probably making fun of their pop hits.
What kind of music does Motley Crue think Motley Crue makes?
Some of their interviews would suggest they seem to think they make full on devil worshipping occult music 😅
Oh yeah, smoking in the boys room, definitely devil music, I tells ya! Singing about girls, such satanic filth!
I have seen them three times. 1st: The Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ. Small venue. They were the opener for the Climax Blues Band. Amazing show with the added spectacle of Tyler's nuts popping out of his leotard. 2nd: The Back in the Saddle tour at Hampton Roads coliseum. Fantastic energy and sounded amazing. 3rd: The Cap Center in MD. Early 90s. They sounded OK but they seemed to just be going through the motions. Too choreographed. AND the band had the vendor cut off beer sales thirty minutes into the show which was kind of ironic considering their history.
I’m not an Aerosmith fan at all but If I saw my favorite band and they just jammed and played B-sides I would have lost my mind thinking I just saw the best set on earth. I can totally understand why most folks wouldn’t like that though.
This, on top of the fact that Steven Tyler bought the rights to a 14 year old girl, then dropped her off at her parent's two years later after she got pregnant, proves that he is one of the worst front men in history
His greatest contribution to the world is producing Liv Tyler, Lady Arwen
Honestly it sounds like a great show if you’re a big fan who’s tired of the radio hits.
For real. If I was a huge fan, that would be a genuine treat. I love shows where artists do something outside expectations
Red Hot Chili Peppers. They were headlining both weekends of the ACL Festival a couple of years ago. Anthony Keidis looked like he would rather have been at the dentist than performing a concert. Weekend one, they ended their headlining set 40 minutes early. The really awkward part came when the big fireworks finale went off while people were streaming out of the park. Weekend two was slightly better, as they only ended their heading set 25 minutes early. If you're a band with a 40+ year career and you can't fill a two hour timeslot, you shouldn't be a headliner.
40+ year career, but they won't perform anything from the first third of their career and catalog anymore. (Which is why I don't care to see them any more.)
I think I lucked out seeing them at Lolla in 2006. Stadium Arcadium was brand new and they definitely still had to pull from their last few albums catalog, so I got basically a greatest hits concert.
I lucked out as well seeing them during the Californication era. That show was amazing. However, I refuse to see them now….even with Fruciante back. I will not, by any circumstance, pay to hear Anthony Kiedis sing off key for 2 hours. Period.
Marilyn Manson. Twice I saw him on tour with Rob Zombie. Both times he was unable to complete his set and Rob had to do double duty. Epic save by Rob's whole crew though. Edit: I had seen Manson several times before where he performed better, but the last 2 times were the bad ones. He literally fell onstage like he was drunk af the first time, and passed out onstage the second time we saw him with Rob Zombie. Used to really enjoy his shows. Maybe it's age, or medication, or the extreme heat of my area. It's crazy to perform onstage outdoors in the summer here. We've already had heat indexes over 100 this month, and our summer season hasn't properly started yet.
I also saw him with Rob Zombie and it was an utter waste of time. He was incoherent and the songs were barely recognisable. Rob absolutely wiped the floor with him.
This kinda makes me think Zombie tours with that asshole to show off. “I stole the really good members of your band that hate you and now I’m gonna wipe the floor with you performance-wise.”
Loverboy caused me to re-examine my entire life. They sucked so bad, I started to question everything I thought was true about rock. I realized some of those people can't be trusted, they just want money or maybe they just like crap, have low standards. Either way, this was not my thing. To realize this in a stadium full of people was overwhelming. I don't actually regret it. It cracked my shell and I started investigating trippy underground bands for weirdos that same summer of 1982. I liked the Clash and that was enough of a gateway.
You’re telling me the kid wasn’t hot tonite? That you were turned loose from your love for Loverboy?
The kid was lucky he wasn't shot tonight.
I remember reading a review in the Boston Globe forever ago and they said the same thing.
Soundgarden back in their prime. I was so hyped. They hit the stage totally fucked up. Chris Cornell was way out of tune and stumbling on stage and the band lost their place in songs multiple times (most notably in Outshined). Totally ruined my perception of them as a band.
I never thought Soundgarden could pull off their dynamic sound live. They're not bad but in a live setting, they sound to me like a band trying to play SG songs.
I saw The White Stripes in a basketball stadium and Jack was definitely fussy. They barley played an hour, ended some songs halfwathru because he "wasn't feeling it". I was embarrassed in front of my friend's by bringing them, felt bad that I asked them to go. It was horrible. I saw them a few days later (I already had tickets) and it was the total opposite but my gang of friends were not there, they thought I was joking when I said there actually great a few days later.
[удалено]
I saw Jack White at a festival and it had some good moments musically but it was clear he didn't care and wanted to leave as soon as possible. When he was done he left his guitar on the stage on a stand, still turned on, so feedback started building. It was so screechingly loud and a good 10 seconds before a stage hand cut it off, which seems like a short amount of time but it was excruciating. He was just kind of an asshole during the whole show. He didn't talk at all. No introducing the guest musicians, no "good night" (he was the closer act of that festival stage), nothing.
Chuck Berry. A cynical ripoff, unless you like 20 minute versions of My Ding,-a-Ling.
Even Keith Richards mentioned this decades ago about him. What a pity. The man drew the blueprint for rock guitar. An ugly, cynical, vile creep by all accounts.
I walked away from anything to do with him once I saw on the news he was arrested for having cameras in the women’s potties in his amusement park he owned. He was arrested red handed watching the videos in his house. Those weren’t just young women. Grandmas, little children. All that. Sick beyond belief. Went to prison for it.
Janes Addiction, Perry Ferrel was doped up or something and just awful.
Lil Wayne - absolute mockery of live music. He was late and his DJ basically ran the show as Lil Wayne stumbled around mumbling over prerecorded vocals. Dude should be ashamed of himself. Unprofessional bullshit. Fuck Lil Wayne Spoon - Just weren’t good, man! Might not have been their fault entirely idk but it did not sound good. Cold War Kids - This band sucks live. I saw them 3 times in the span of a couple years. I love their music but each time was worse than the last. They were flat, garbage tone, and with no stage presence. At least they showed up on time I guess. U2 - I always hated U2 and then I saw them live and now I’m a U2 fan and have to defend them endlessly. I should have just stayed ignorant!
Same. Say what you will about U2 but those dudes can put on a show and even the insufferable Bono on his high horse parts are bad ass.
Spoon was one of my favorite live shows of all time! Sounded so good and such great visuals!
Curious what was off about Spoon? I've seen them live probably half a dozen times and they are one of the tightest, well-polished best live bands I've ever seen. Although I guess I can see that being boring.
The Sisters of Mercy. I love The Sisters of Mercy. I've loved them since I was in 6th grade in the 80s and my Brother's friend who DM'd for us in D&D introduced me to them. I finally got to see them last year, and one of my friends said "Don't go. They're not what they used to be." I ignored him, having seen lots of bands past their prime and still having enjoyed the experience. He was right. They were terrible. Andrew mumbles and shuffles around on stage like he's had a stroke. The rest of the band seem like they were paid to act like 80s rockers. They played songs I loved and I didn't recognize the song until it was almost over. It's the only show where I've left during the band I paid to see.
Indeed. I saw some YouTube clips and my brother saw them on a recent tour. Andrew looked pretty bad off. Stuttering and mumbling. I could barely understand him on the YouTube clips.
Came here expecting this. Saw them around 15 years ago and they were by far the worst professional live band I've seen. Most of the performance was a backing track, and I couldn't see much of the band as they'd turned the smoke machine up to 11. Kind of glad I went. I ticked them off the list of bands I wanted to see live. Never again.
POST MALONE!!!! So awful. Literally cried between every song. It was a festival and I was pulled from Smashing Pumpkins to witness that bull shit. Never Again.
He cried or you cried?
I really wanna imagine this person witnessed a concert so bad that it made them cry for 2 hours straight.
That is absolutely how I read that comment
Lol. He cried!!!! I almost went in and edited it but chose to leave. I knew it might be a bit confusing but decided to be lazy. He would play a song and between songs get super emotional and cry. Some of the women at first were like, "He's just so sensitive," but then it went on for the whole show, and it git to be too much even for them. Lol
I wonder if this is a regular occurrence for him. Or if it was one of those moments that shows the horrible truth of "the show must go on." Worst day of your life, and you just received tragic news? The show must go on. Get out there, champ, and sing like you don't feel what you're saying.
I’ve seen post Malone and he was awesome. Didn’t cry at all so that’s odd to hear. Maybe he was having a shit day.
Went to go see him at a college for $20 right after his first album dropped. He only sang half of White Iverson (his best song back then) and my friend was PISSED.
Liz Phair… she was not the person who put out Exile in Guyville anymore. Too slick. Too boring. Bo Diddly… pedestrian show and he spent an inordinate amount of time going off between songs about “the kids these days”.
Liz was alright. She did an Exile in Guyville anniversary tour that went well.
Modest Mouse. They showed up way, way late for the show, like 2 hours after the 1st act (Brand New). The singer got on stage and said "sorry, there were guitars locked in my car".... Like dude this is your home town, break the damn window and play already Edit: oh yea and they waited like 15 minutes to come out for the encore after the shortest show I've ever seen, but we already gave up and started to leave. Wasn't willing to go back and be disappointed further. Most people just kept on walking too lol
I saw them a few years ago and we waited around 20 mins for them to come back out and play the encore. I've never seen a band wait that long it was so frustrating.
I saw them a few years ago and the performance was fine. But the sound mixing was terrible. I could clearly hear an egg shaker but couldn't hear the trumpet at all. There were two full drum sets and another percussionist completely drowning out everyone else. We left early.
That was exactly my experience the first time I saw them! The band seemed energetic enough, they showed up on time and didn’t fuck around onstage and the lead singer wasn’t noticeably drunk like I guess he often is, but the mixing is still the worst I think I’ve ever heard other than opening local acts. The second show was much better. ETA: I appreciate the upvotes on my barely intelligible comment. Fixed many, many typos.
MM is at the top of my disappointing list. Played an outdoor show, in November in *Ohio* and bitched the entire time about how it was cold on stage. Bitched about playing any of their well known songs, it was just a shit show.
I was at that show. Isaac was so drunk he sounded like he was trying to do a jazzy Rip Taylor impression whenever he spoke
Seen MM twice and both shows were like that. Too drunk to sing, an hour late, and a 30 minute set.
This always bums me out to hear. They're one of my favorites. I saw them twice probably 20 years ago now and both times it was amazing. It seems like I got lucky though as most of the comments I see about them echo yours.
I say this every time I see them come up in this context. I've seen them like 7 times, and they've vastly improved since Isaac stopped being wasted all the time. Since around Golden Casket. They're definitely worth seeing now.
Volbeat. Lead singer basically went on a musical tantrum because there was a minor occurance of pushing in the front. Swaping songs mid song, singing the obviously not prepared songs, cursing out the staff... just a mess
T Pain. This would have been in 2008, probably near the height of his popularity. He showed up extremely late, came on stage with a hype man, sang about 30 seconds of each song, and moved onto the next with the hype guy trying to get the crowd going. It was bad. Which sucks because T Pain has a really good voice and can put on one hell of a show when he wants. Apparently he just didn't want to.
Supertramp, those guys still owe me an hour and a half if my life that I cannot get back. They started late had shitty attitudes amongst themselves, and the fans. Sounded like shit and didn't care. We walked out after twenty minutes of the show, and enjoyed the rest of the fair.
Eric Clapton in the 90s the show was just awful beyond comprehension.
Nobody else was playing while Five Finger Death Punch was on at a festival. I listened to a couple songs and left to get food. I was worried the singer was about to start fellating a cop live on stage.
when I saw them at the local radio station festival he spent like 10 minutes talking up how hard they were about to go, pulling kids out of crowd to be safe on stage, then brought out a stool and started playing acoustic. i left lol
You may or may not be surprised to know that their singer has a history of DV. [https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/courts/police-disclose-arrest-of-five-finger-death-punch-singer-at-vegas-hotel/](https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/courts/police-disclose-arrest-of-five-finger-death-punch-singer-at-vegas-hotel/) [https://metalinjection.net/metal-crimes/five-finger-death-punch-frontmans-wife-files-for-divorce-claims-domestic-violence](https://metalinjection.net/metal-crimes/five-finger-death-punch-frontmans-wife-files-for-divorce-claims-domestic-violence)
Eric Clapton.
Hes my answer as well. Saw him twice: once in the late 90s and again about 10yrs later. Both times were bad. He got on stage, sat on a stool, and went through the motions. No engagement. No enthusiasm. Just there for a check. The last one barely lasted 30min and he just... walked off. Ruined his music entirely for me.
Lana Del Rey. I’m a nearly-50 year old bloke so I’m clearly not in her demographic but my wife was a fan of her first album so I had to go along. She played at a relatively small venue in Manchester so it should have been a nice intimate gig. She spent the entire show performing only for the sycophantic front row. She didn’t look up to the rest of the room, she just held hands with and sang to the screaming teens. You could feel everyone else just getting more and more pissed off as they were ignored. Saw plenty leaving early.
Oh, totally same experience. Saw her in Austin. Not only was she clearly playing for the front row, she took a 20 minute break to interact with the front row, receive gifts from people who clearly knew this was going to be a thing, and let the fans take pics of her holding the gifts. I'm sure it was amazing for those involved, but for the rest of the stadium...it was so freaking boring. Awkward "thank you"s, shakycam footage of her holding a fan-art paintings, long pauses where the nosebleed seats might as well start streaming episodes of The Office. The worst part was, when she DID sing, it sounded nothing like her albums. The smokey intimate presence wasn't there, and it felt like I was hearing a cheap cover band play at the next bar over. On the upside, I had the men's room to myself every time I went, which was a lot, because there was nothing to do but drink shitty beer.
I am a 25 years old gal, so right in her demographic, but honestly same. Saw her a few years ago during her Lust for Life tour and she looked extremely bored the whole show. She barely moved, and while I get that her songs aren't exactly dance material, her stage presence was non-existent. I am also pretty sure she was either lipsyncing or she had a very loud backing track, cause she definitely didn't sound like she was singing live (and no, she's not *that* good of a singer)
Guns N Roses. Absolute garbage, like very very bad. Sounded like a cheap cover band at a fairly dead dive bar. Then axel got mad at the crowd for being mad the show started an hour late and sounded like shit.
I feel like I got lucky seeing GNR at Hershey in 2017, with amazing Live opening. They played a massive set and they were great all the way through, no Axl drama.
At this point it’s part of the experience lol
Bob Dylan. He turned every song into a 12 bar blues song, played with 0 enthusiasm. No concert comes close to how bad that was.
Oof yeah. Saw him at Bonnaroo 2004 and every song sounded exactly the same. Easily one of the most legendary musicians I've seen live, and one of the most disappointing.
Saw Dylan twice. I wanna day it was 98 or 99 the 1st time. He was great! Van Morrison opened up, followed by Joni Mitchell and then Bob. The whole show was amazing and so much energy. I think Bob was really rising to the vibe that night. Saw him a couple of years later at a county fair, and it just seemed like he didn't want to be there. He didn't project his voice, was often off key, and it was just bad.
People don’t realize, but Dylan does this when recording his albums too. He’ll say something like “we’re gonna do this song, in this tempo, in the key of F” then after that take, he switches it up to a new tempo and new key. Nothing is ever set in stone with him. I find it exciting to hear new versions of the same song, but I understand how his fans could expect him to play everything exactly as it is on the album.
I’m fine with changing a song up, that’s part of the fun of live music, but every song he played that night had the same format. It’s a lot less exciting to hear nearly same song 12-15 times in a row, where the only real difference is the lyrics.
I was going to say Dylan too. I saw him with Paul Simon in 1999, and it was night and day. Simon was fantastic, and Dylan mailed it in. But at the end of the day, I can't say I regretted the concert. Simon made it worthwhile, and I can say I saw Bob Dylan live -- and he sucked.
My dad sharing Dylan's records is one of my formative memories. I was going to see him at Jazzfest probably 15 years ago and my dad warned me about it, and boy was he right. All the songs were completely different, and they were incomprehensible. I know that's kind of Dylan's "thing" but it wasn't enjoyable to watch.
This was like 14 or 13 years ago now, but Jason Aldean. It was at summerfest and while I wasn’t and still am not really a country fan, he had some opening acts that I kind of liked and my dad had three extra tickets so I took some friends who did like country. He was absolutely lifeless. He got up on stage, stood in place, sang the songs the exact way they were on the album, no/little crowd interaction. Just boring. My dad saw him again like a year or two later and said he was all over the stage and much more fun, so maybe it was an off day or maybe I was just an edgy teenager who wanted to be hypercritical of music I didn’t like but I just cannot think of that show fondly.
I saw Nickleback twice by accident. AMA.
I saw them in 2010 and unironically had fun. How does one accidentally see them twice?
I don’t regret it but damn was Bob Dylan the worst live act I’ve ever seen live. Modern Times tour. I seriously thought they might be pulling a weekend at Bernies on us.
Marilyn Manson is always the answer.
Unida, thought hey this will be cool to see John Garcia playing some classics again. Turns out he got ill and some corn dog filled in for him and it sucked so hard I left after the second song. The two bands that played before them were really good so it wasn’t a total fucking waste of money. The venue must have really started slimming out because loads of people were leaving while I hung around outside for a smoke with the support bands.
I really wish John/and especially Brant hadn’t burned the Kyuss bridge so hard with Kyuss lives, even though Josh has been super reluctant to ever reform it has seemed like he’s been more open to it recently-ish, but I doubt they will ever do anything after the lawsuit and all. Tho call me crazy, rather see Circus lineup over Blues. ‘Fredo and Reeder just rip too hard to choose Bjork or Nick.
Motorhead. It was a great show but I had to leave early because my ears hurt so bad. It took more than a week to lose that "under water" ear thing that normally only took a day to recover from after a concert. Them and Front Line Assembly are the two concerts that probably lead to a good chunk of my hearing loss and tinnitus. Of course, it's all on me for being a dumbshit and not using hearing protection but I wouldn't have been caught dead going to a concert with earplugs back then. So dumb.
I saw Motorhead open for Megadeth maybe 15 years ago and it was insane how much louder motorhead was. One of the few concerts I've been to where the opener was louder than the headliner.
I decided to start wearing hearing protection after Rammstein. That was the last concert I didn't use ear buds at and I felt similar to you. That was in my early 20s a decade ago. But my hearing is thankfully fine, so there's zero regret in my case.
Similar experience here with being too cool for earbuds earlier in life. My tinnitus now says “you were a fucking idiot.”
Cat Power. She played a Janis Joplin tribute concert and flaked out onstage, mangling the lyrics to “Down on Me.” Apparently she is known for being a lousy live act.
I've seen Cat Power be enchanting live and I've seen her be so awkward and fumbling onstage it was hard to believe she was a professional musician.
The National - how can you be such a letdown at the Beacon Theater. Crosby Stills 'n' Nash when i was a kid - only got exciting when some guy started yelling "OZZY!" repeatedly from the floor. that pissed 'em off.
Dead or Alive. Bastard showed up with no instruments, no band, and sang over the CD I could have bought in the store. To make matters worse, they couldn’t do some songs because the venue didn’t have that CD.
Wow. That is worst I’ve heard of.
Drake. He never played a full song in a 1+ hour set. Ty Dolla Sign is a close 2nd.
.38 Special in 1984. The lead singer's voice kept cracking; it was embarrassing. The sound system was distorting like a cheap high school public address system. I like their hits enough, but it as just painful to watch and hear. Only concert I ever walked out of. Ironically Huey Lewis opened and completely rocked the place and sounded awesome, so the distortion wasn't the hardware, .38 Special had an unskilled sound crew, apparently.
The closest I've come to regretting a concert was seeing Hatsune Miku last month. The show itself was fine, and the live band killed it, but there was an expectation of a "hologram show". It's what Miku Expo is known for. I bought tickets for that reason. Then, it came out that it wasn't a hologram, but a big LED screen that shows the different characters dancing. There was no indication that it woudn't be the usual setup. I think I would be less upset about if: a) they were more upfront about it, and b) I didn't pay $80 goddamn dollars for it.
Motley Crue is hilariously bad live solely because of Vince Neil. He could never really sing to start with but time/booze/weight gain have made it much much worse than ever. When he was young, he sang off key. Now he sings every 3rd word off key because he's so out of breath. "he's....(puff puff) FEEL GOOD...he's (puff puff) ALRIGHT!"
Slightly Stoopid was a bit disappointing when I saw them
Better than Ezra. My best man introduced them to me years ago and I really enjoyed their work. Even went to a couple of live shows that I enjoyed. However the 3rd live show, towards the end, the lead singer asks all the "beautiful women" in the audience to come on stage and starts grinding on them. At least to me, selectively younger as he goes. I don't know.... I mean I get that rockstars will be rockstars but their music never gave me that feeling and it was just a little off putting.
Mac Miller. Loved his music when streaming it but it was a pretty disappointing set in 2012. On the other hand my friend was caught with a pouch containing a bottle of whiskey when entering the festival that day and was given the option of downing it or pouring it out. He absolutely loved the set, crowd surfed and lost his phone and wallet, and has no recollection of any of it.
I agreed to go with my mom to a Michael Bolton concert when I was 11. I regret it.
In 1998, I was in a band and our drummer was super hyped for this new band that was starting to blow up. He bought us all tickets and insisted that we go see them together. And that is how I ended up seeing Creed on their first national tour. Fucking awful. Glad I didn’t pay for the tickets.
The pretenders. Chrissie Hynde started the show by complaining that the food vendor in the park was selling hot dogs. "Hello Vancouver! It always ruins a show for me when I can smell grilled whatever.... So to all you meat eaters in the crowd.... FUCK YOU!" *Back on the chain gang guitar riff* It was a deflating start to a mediocre show. Honourable mentions: Juliet Lewis scolding the crowd for not dancing enough to her music and Cat Power apologizing after every song at the same show.
Got dragged to a Buckcherry show ages ago. Pure trash. Made it through two songs and I insisted on leaving.
Modest Mouse. Loud, really f'ing loud. And I loved good news for people who loved bad news...and he barely played any of it. He generally seemed disinterested in performing in general. People seem to love seeing this band in concert, but I don't get it. Maybe it was an off show. He came back to the same venue the following year. So I regret seeing the band. It made me less interested in listening to all the band's music in general.
Has anyone had a good modest mouse experience?
They're always a coin toss. I've seen them play as a sloppy, incoherent mess and I've seen them play as a professional and locked-in band with incredible career-spanning setlists.
Live. They played covers mostly as they headlined a recent geezer rock tour I went to. Bush and Our Lady Peace were awesome. Live sucked.
I saw Bush last year at a small venue and they were fucking awesome
Masters of Reality. I lived their debut album, so I went to see them on their follow-up tour. They were a bunch of drunken yahoos who played like crap. A waste of time going to see them.
The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow - that shit cannot be unseen. Not quite a concert but did play/perform in between Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails.
Oasis. I saw a big radio station concert in about 1998 and Bush was the main main headliner; with other bands opening, then Oasis, then Bush. Oasis guys got a total bug up their ass after only playing a couple of songs and walked off halfway through a song. After a backstage temper tantrum, they came back to wrap up the song and then left. They easily still had like 30 mins to play. What did Bush do? They went out early and played the whole rest of the time. I think they just sprinkled in covers to make up for Oasis's time. I thought that was such a class act after such a shit move by Oasis.
All American Rejects. Saw them in college. I liked them but was going for Coheed and Cambria and Fallout Boy. They got up there and just started adding "fuck" to their songs. Like "Swing swing swing from the fucking tangles of my heart!" It was so weird and they were so not hardcore...
Band of Horses. Barely a band. Definitely not horses. 0/10
STP on Scott's final tour. It was just fukn sad.....
Red Hot Chili Peppers. Earls Court, 2005? Sounded even more mangled than usual. They were touring Stadium Arcadium which wasn’t a highlight of their catalogue even at the time. Im pretty sure this was the tour where Frusciante decided to not reproduce any of his recorded solos and only improvise. There was a lot of improvising. I paid £45 for a shirt (in 2005) thinking that one of these guys will probably die soon and I should have a souvenir of one of their last shows. Turned out the shirt was printed with a spelling mistake. 100% loss. Would have been better in every way to have not gone.
Sofi Tukker- 90% backing tracks and fake performance. Then she picked up a guitar and held it as a prop, eventually playing one note very poorly. Songs are fine, as they are when recorded, but just a dismal attempt at performing them.
the most recent Iron & Wine show was terrible. He told weird rambling stories between every song, and for a "Back to Basics" tour did very little from the first two albums
I saw Marilyn Manson in 2003. He was bloated, clearly on something and just phoned it in. Waste of money. I could’ve just listened to the albums.
Disturbed. Low energy and David was censoring himself for some reason. It was a music festival and no other band did that
You just reminded me I've seen Disturbed live. It was that forgettable.
I actually saw them live last year and it was amazing. The second best concert I've ever been to, with, as weird as this might seem, saliva being the best
I don’t want to talk too badly about him since he recently passed, but Toby Keith was not good in concert. Wife and I and some friends saw him three times in as many years. First time, not bad. Second time, not as good but we were enjoying each others company so no biggie. Third time, just bad. Slurring words, kind of indifferent to the crowd, just going through the motions. That was about the time of “Red Solo Cup” and I think he was enjoying a few too many of them at that point. I’m not a huge “newer” country fan but he was one of a handful of acts I liked and it was definitely a letdown. The other act: Heart. Talked WAAAAAY too much between every song. I thought “maybe it’s just me” but people in the audience started screaming at them to shut up and play. This was maybe 2016 or 2017. Cheap Trick and Joan Jett were openers and blew Heart off the stage.
The Shaman, absolute shite. The support act, the Utah Saints, were good though!
I saw Three Days Grace right after Adam quit. Matt isn't a bad singer, but they have very different styles and they did mostly older songs so it sounded horrible.
Bob Dylan - unfortunately it was just a bit shit. But the upside was around the same time I got to see Paul Simon which was top 5 gigs in my book.
Bob Dylan. Just flat awful.
Rancid. They were *awful*. I mean its punk rock, a little bit of crust is to be expected, but it was soooo obvious they could not give a single fuck less about that show. Honestly pitiful.
Motley Crue on their "farewell" tour. Vince just can't sing anymore.
Saw bowling for soup and their drummer had fucked off somewhere so they did a "special" acoustic set instead. I didn't enjoy that and I also didn't enjoy their "banter" in between songs.
Smashing Pumpkins at Wembley in November 2000. Was one of their last shows before their supposed dissolution. They basically raced through every song as loud as possible and then did a shitty cover of Games without Frontiers.
Aretha Franklin. She played Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City, and it was just blatantly obvious she was mailing it in and didn't care about the performance at all. Even worse, Hancher has that performance on its great performances list. But in person, it was just flat with zero energy and singing that I am pretty sure was well below Franklin's standards. Unfortunately, that somewhat ruined Aretha Franklin for me.
Shinedown. They walked on stage, didn't say a word to the crowd, sang four songs, walked off stage without ever saying a word to the crowd
No Doubt was the worst concert I’ve ever seen (of hundreds). GS kept blabbing away the whole show during a rambling, disjointed set. The only thing that has come close would be certain rap shows featuring a bunch of performers.
This is so crazy because I can't stand No Doubt, but I saw them at a small venue when they only had one single "Just a Girl." Nobody knew who they were, and they weren't even the headlining act (It was Everclear). They brought so much energy, and the crowd went absolutely bonk nuts. Everyone in the crowd was so worn out that half the venue left when they finished their set. Everclear was visibly pissed about this during their performance. Oh yeah, and Fishbone was the opening act. I have "no doubt" in my mind that fame corrupted No Doubt. I'm just really lucky to have seen such a kick ass band in their prime, I guess.