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Worst 'all round live' performance by a guitarist you've seen live

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  • LodiousLodious Frets: 1942
    Ossyrocks said:
    I’m not saying worst all round performance, but maybe the most disappointing ever was Eric Johnson. Manchester RNCM.

    Apparently he had a row with the sound crew and spent all day soundchecking. It didn’t help, it was appalling. So bad that I nearly walked out.
    That's funny, because I was about to say Allan Holdsworth at RNCM. He had a fridge full of effects and obviously cares a lot about his tone, but in the context of a concert hall, you couldn't hear a note he played. A total waste of time, and very frustrating to witness. I feel like I've seen him live, but not heard him. 
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  • MoominpapaMoominpapa Frets: 1649
    Neill said:
    I don't think I have been to many concerts that have been ruined by being too loud, but back in the 1970's I saw Cheap Trick and Rick Nielsen's guitar volume was so high you really couldn't tell what he was playing.  

    Just out of interest, was that gig at Lancaster University @Neil ? Went to a couple of gigs there in the mid-late 70s and their  hall had the acoustics of a fully-porcelain-tiled public convenience.
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  • dindudedindude Frets: 8534
    Ossyrocks said:
    I’m not saying worst all round performance, but maybe the most disappointing ever was Eric Johnson. Manchester RNCM.

    Apparently he had a row with the sound crew and spent all day soundchecking. It didn’t help, it was appalling. So bad that I nearly walked out.
    Mines the same, love Eric’s playing and saw him in a small venue in London, it was unlistenable, the sound was arse and it effected his performance, which was similarly arse. Sad to see. I’d persuaded my wife to come along too, never has come to a gig with me since! 
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  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516
    Lodious said:
    Ossyrocks said:
    I’m not saying worst all round performance, but maybe the most disappointing ever was Eric Johnson. Manchester RNCM.

    Apparently he had a row with the sound crew and spent all day soundchecking. It didn’t help, it was appalling. So bad that I nearly walked out.
    That's funny, because I was about to say Allan Holdsworth at RNCM. He had a fridge full of effects and obviously cares a lot about his tone, but in the context of a concert hall, you couldn't hear a note he played. A total waste of time, and very frustrating to witness. I feel like I've seen him live, but not heard him. 
    That's the opposite of me and Queensryche.  I was stuck at the very back of the Town and Country Club, and I am short.  I couldn't see anything at all on the stage, not even the top of anyone's head.  So I have heard Queensryche live, but not seen them.
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  • NeillNeill Frets: 941
    Neill said:
    I don't think I have been to many concerts that have been ruined by being too loud, but back in the 1970's I saw Cheap Trick and Rick Nielsen's guitar volume was so high you really couldn't tell what he was playing.  

    Just out of interest, was that gig at Lancaster University @Neil ? Went to a couple of gigs there in the mid-late 70s and their  hall had the acoustics of a fully-porcelain-tiled public convenience.
    @Moominpapa - interesting you should mention Lancaster as I used to live just up the road in Kendal and my wife did a post grad course there, but I don't think we ever went to any gigs.  TBH I can't remember where it was - though I should!  I think it was Sheffield and either the University or the Polly (as it then was) but I went to scores of gigs at both venues and don't remember the accoustics being a problem, quite the reverse.  

    Did you ever get up to the Brewery Arts Centre at Kendal?  They got some surprisingly high profile bands there but yet again the venue was one where the volume had to be spot on or it could sound awful.
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  • NiteflyNitefly Frets: 4902
    Mine was Kevin Ayers.  He'd finished with Soft Machine, but hadn't got The Whole World going, so I guess 1971?

    Anyway he was completely wasted before he came on.  He sat down, did half a song, said "Ah, fuck it" and went off.  Not best pleased!

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  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16254
    Nitefly said:
    Mine was Kevin Ayers.  He'd finished with Soft Machine, but hadn't got The Whole World going, so I guess 1971?

    Anyway he was completely wasted before he came on.  He sat down, did half a song, said "Ah, fuck it" and went off.  Not best pleased!

    MrsTheWeary paid a small fortune to see Elton John when she lived in Little Rock and he stormed off after four songs. She turns over the channel if he comes on the TV or radio, never forgiven him. 

    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • GrunfeldGrunfeld Frets: 4028
    Michael Schenker group. He was absolutely wasted and could barely play. Backing band seemed very amateurish too, was crap all around.
    Yep.  I was going to mention Schenker.  Seen him many times -- he's my favourite guitarist ever but I think this period was about 2000ish? maybe a little later.  It was dire.  It was the only time I could ever truly say that I could play better than Michael Schenker (no pleasure from that though).  I'm really pleased that he's sobered up and sorted his sh*t out.  I like his new style of playing too.  Makes me smile though to be singing along, as a godless atheist, to the new stuff which has gone all Christian and a bit Jesus.  Doesn't bother me.
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  • drippycatdrippycat Frets: 139
    If it's too loud I'd have to say Motorhead. The first Motorhead meet at Bingley Hall was 2-8pm backup bands of the usual loudness. Then the main event came on and you couldn't tell one song from the other apart from the occasional hook. It was the same for the other 3 gigs I saw them do. I know it's supposed to be 'If it's too loud you're too old', but I was 15.
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  • BloodEagleBloodEagle Frets: 5320
    edited January 2021
    drippycat said:
    If it's too loud I'd have to say Motorhead. The first Motorhead meet at Bingley Hall was 2-8pm backup bands of the usual loudness. Then the main event came on and you couldn't tell one song from the other apart from the occasional hook. It was the same for the other 3 gigs I saw them do. I know it's supposed to be 'If it's too loud you're too old', but I was 15.
    Id have to agree re: Motorhead - they were the first gig I ever went to (also aged 15) and they were so loud I didnt have a clue what song they were playing, it was just ludicrous - I was off school for the rest of the week because I couldnt hear a thing.
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  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16254
    drippycat said:
    If it's too loud I'd have to say Motorhead. The first Motorhead meet at Bingley Hall was 2-8pm backup bands of the usual loudness. Then the main event came on and you couldn't tell one song from the other apart from the occasional hook. It was the same for the other 3 gigs I saw them do. I know it's supposed to be 'If it's too loud you're too old', but I was 15.
    Was that the barndance with Saxon and Girlschool? I was 15 and that fits roughly with my memory. I saw them again about ten years ago when I played on the same bill and they were much the same. I still loved them in many ways, I think that’s just what the deal was really. 

    The only name band I remember finding unlistenable due to volume were The Damned in Coventry in the late 1980s. Utterly tuneless sludge of noise. Wether the guitar playing was any good I have no idea! 
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • NeillNeill Frets: 941
    drippycat said:
    If it's too loud I'd have to say Motorhead. The first Motorhead meet at Bingley Hall was 2-8pm backup bands of the usual loudness. Then the main event came on and you couldn't tell one song from the other apart from the occasional hook. It was the same for the other 3 gigs I saw them do. I know it's supposed to be 'If it's too loud you're too old', but I was 15.
    drippycat said:
    If it's too loud I'd have to say Motorhead. The first Motorhead meet at Bingley Hall was 2-8pm backup bands of the usual loudness. Then the main event came on and you couldn't tell one song from the other apart from the occasional hook. It was the same for the other 3 gigs I saw them do. I know it's supposed to be 'If it's too loud you're too old', but I was 15.
    Id have to agree re: Motorhead - they were the first gig I ever went to (also aged 15) and they were so loud I didnt have a clue what song they were playing, it was just ludicrous - I was off school for the rest of the week because I couldnt hear a thing.
    Years ago I did some work at the home of a guy who was a piano tech at the Barbican but he was also a gigging guitarist and into metal etc. Anyway, he'd been backstage at a Motorhead gig and said it's all through the PA, the onstage volume is amazingly quiet by comparison.  In fact whoever the guitar player was at the time just had a modest combo amp miked up behind the battery of stacks.  Not what Lemmy and the crew would have wanted you to know...
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  • LodiousLodious Frets: 1942
    edited January 2021
    drippycat said:
    If it's too loud I'd have to say Motorhead. The first Motorhead meet at Bingley Hall was 2-8pm backup bands of the usual loudness. Then the main event came on and you couldn't tell one song from the other apart from the occasional hook. It was the same for the other 3 gigs I saw them do. I know it's supposed to be 'If it's too loud you're too old', but I was 15.
    Id have to agree re: Motorhead - they were the first gig I ever went to (also aged 15) and they were so loud I didnt have a clue what song they were playing, it was just ludicrous - I was off school for the rest of the week because I couldnt hear a thing.
    Ditto. I saw them in Leeds as my first gig. It was only when it got to the "Gambling's for fools..." bit in the Ace Of Spades where the music stops I realised they were actually playing music. To be fair, I still thought it was fucking amazing. 
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  • stickyfiddlestickyfiddle Frets: 26753
    Not counting all-round terrible support bands, it's Placebo for me, I think. It would've been early 2003, in Norwich. My mates were all going and I wanted to go see this other band I'd heard about called The Darkness playing at the Waterfront on the same night. 

    Still hurts almost 20 years on... 

    The Assumptions - UAE party band for all your rock & soul desires
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  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516

    On the loudness question, the worst for me was Judas Priest at the Hammersmith Apollo.  It started out OK but my ears just seemed to give up and all I could hear was a bass rumble with a brighter whiny sound over the top which was either the guitar solos or Halford's voice.

    My ears were ringing for nearly a week and I started wearing earplugs at gigs after that (although I haven't been to many since).

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  • JalapenoJalapeno Frets: 6378
    Robert Cray at Hammersmith Odeon.

    Total charisma vacuum, very little in the way of dynamics - all songs sounded identical, with just a 'thangyouvermush' between each.  Left after an hour.
    Imagine something sharp and witty here ......

    Feedback
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  • StuckfastStuckfast Frets: 2393
    Not bad exactly, but I had been a fan of Neil Young for many years, and never seen him live. Eventually my brother got tickets for his solo show at the Hammersmith Odeon... and it turned out he was performing a two-hour-long concept album that no-one had heard, in its entirety. I mean that's kind of why I love Neil Young, but Greendale wasn't his finest hour.
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  • TheMarlinTheMarlin Frets: 7745
    drippycat said:
    If it's too loud I'd have to say Motorhead. The first Motorhead meet at Bingley Hall was 2-8pm backup bands of the usual loudness. Then the main event came on and you couldn't tell one song from the other apart from the occasional hook. It was the same for the other 3 gigs I saw them do. I know it's supposed to be 'If it's too loud you're too old', but I was 15.
    Id have to agree re: Motorhead - they were the first gig I ever went to (also aged 15) and they were so loud I didnt have a clue what song they were playing, it was just ludicrous - I was off school for the rest of the week because I couldnt hear a thing.
    I saw The Damned and Motörhead play together about seven years ago (might be more). My ears are still bloody ringing.  I ended up leaving the gig and listening from outside.  Was never ear blisteringly loud at the ticket desk! 

    I was rapidly joined by about 20% of the other people at the gig. 

    They were great, but no need for that volume. 
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  • zepp76zepp76 Frets: 2534
    TheMarlin said:
    drippycat said:
    If it's too loud I'd have to say Motorhead. The first Motorhead meet at Bingley Hall was 2-8pm backup bands of the usual loudness. Then the main event came on and you couldn't tell one song from the other apart from the occasional hook. It was the same for the other 3 gigs I saw them do. I know it's supposed to be 'If it's too loud you're too old', but I was 15.
    Id have to agree re: Motorhead - they were the first gig I ever went to (also aged 15) and they were so loud I didnt have a clue what song they were playing, it was just ludicrous - I was off school for the rest of the week because I couldnt hear a thing.
    I saw The Damned and Motörhead play together about seven years ago (might be more). My ears are still bloody ringing.  I ended up leaving the gig and listening from outside.  Was never ear blisteringly loud at the ticket desk! 

    I was rapidly joined by about 20% of the other people at the gig. 

    They were great, but no need for that volume. 
    My mate and I were supposed to watch Motörhead at Donington but back then we were partial to a doobie or two and were too stoned to be bothered to walk to the stage so just sat at our tents and listened to them play, perfectly audible! I do wish I had watched them now though on reflection.
    Tomorrow will be a good day.
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  • Kossoff with Free.  Completely out of it, barely played a note. 
    “To a man with a hammer every problem looks like a nail.”
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