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

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  • Alvin Lee at Preston Guild Hall (a notoriously strange venue for rock music).  A mate was given tickets by his boss to a triple header - Tony McPhee, Edgar Winter Band and Alvin Lee.
    The first two acts were very enjoyable. Alvin Lee was boring me by the third song. Long drawn out drivel of blues solos that appeared to be the same song, with the same solo over and over. And he was playing a 335 with a Kahler. That alone should be a crime to guitardom.

    Also David Lee Roth on the ‘Little ain’t enough’ tour at the NEC.
    Having seen him on the Skyscraper tour with Vai and been blown away the following tour was shite.
    He had two guitarists with him (I believe one was John 5) but the volume was so loud I could barely tell what song he was doing, let alone enjoy the guitars.
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  • Jalapeno said:
    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.
    For some stupid reason I went to both nights he played there. I fell asleep at the second one!

    Rusty
    Rusty Lee
    Too Many Strats, A few Les Pauls, A couple of PRS and a Brian May Red Special, Oh, I nearly forgot an Ivison 58 Double Cut
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  • munckee said:
    Not guitar related but Paul Mccartney at glasto was a horrific disappointment.  He really couldn't be bothered until the live cameras started half way through and then turned the cheese up as high as he could.
    I saw McCartney at Pinkpop in 2016 and was similarly disappointed. 

    For a man who has been a triple-A megastar for fifty years he had zero stage presence. You could hear the pauses as he read his autocue/notes/whatever. "good evening....*pause*........pinkpop? Is there anyone here who isn't from *pause*....the Netherlands?"

    His band were phenomenal but I just didn't enjoy the gig at all. It was just a bit sad. I unironically enjoyed Lionel Richie more than Sir Paul that night. H
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  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516
    Also David Lee Roth on the ‘Little ain’t enough’ tour at the NEC.
    Having seen him on the Skyscraper tour with Vai and been blown away the following tour was shite.
    He had two guitarists with him (I believe one was John 5) but the volume was so loud I could barely tell what song he was doing, let alone enjoy the guitars.
    Just Googled that out of curiosity - looks like the guitarists were Joe Holmes (replacing Jason Becker following his ALS diagnosis) and Steve Hunter.  John 5's stint was later, in 1998.
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  • NeillNeill Frets: 941
    Alvin Lee at Preston Guild Hall (a notoriously strange venue for rock music).  A mate was given tickets by his boss to a triple header - Tony McPhee, Edgar Winter Band and Alvin Lee.
    The first two acts were very enjoyable. Alvin Lee was boring me by the third song. Long drawn out drivel of blues solos that appeared to be the same song, with the same solo over and over. And he was playing a 335 with a Kahler. That alone should be a crime to guitardom.

    Also David Lee Roth on the ‘Little ain’t enough’ tour at the NEC.
    Having seen him on the Skyscraper tour with Vai and been blown away the following tour was shite.
    He had two guitarists with him (I believe one was John 5) but the volume was so loud I could barely tell what song he was doing, let alone enjoy the guitars.
    I feel bad speaking ill of the dead but I had a similarly turgid experience with Alvin Lee at Doncaster back  in about 1978.  What didn't help was that the support act was John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett (who was actually more inventive on guitar than Lee was) and they were an absolute scream, brought the house down.  


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  • Speaking of bands being painfully loud, the last time I saw The Wildhearts, they were mixed stupidly loud. That was even with earplugs in, which is something I rarely feel the need to do at gigs. It's strange as the two support acts were fine volume-wise (Towers Of London & Massive Wagons). There's no real need for it, especially in the venue they were playing.

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  • MudcrutchMudcrutch Frets: 323
    edited January 2021
    Wrong thread
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  • John_AJohn_A Frets: 3775
    edited January 2021
    Making it a hat trick for Blackmore, 79 or 80 at Wembley. Played for less than an hour, really couldn’t be bothered. Awful and a kick in the face for the fans. Resulted in a bit of a mini riot. Saw Rainbow before when Dio was still around and it was fine
    Big wow from me!  Loved Dio era rainbow, but was just a bit too young, think I was 11 when they toured long live rock n roll

    saw Dio with Sabbath on the mob rules tour and he/they were amazing. Afraid by the time I got to see Rainbow RB had lost interest 
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  • poopotpoopot Frets: 9098
    Clapton at the Albert hall back when I was 15 or so... the only good thing was Nathan east... 
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  • GrumpyrockerGrumpyrocker Frets: 4118
    edited January 2021
    Went to see Ghost in Cardiff in November 2019 - they were brilliant. But this was my youngest son's first even proper gig and at ten I knew he might struggle with the volume. I'd got him some over ear defenders he'd had for a while for playing drums.

    But the support band Tribulation was so loud - and also the mix was utter shite so it sounded like a wall of static noise. I have no idea if their performance was good or not - it sounded like white noise through the PA.

    My youngest son was in tears and I thought we might have to leave - poor kid. I did give him the choice for us to go. But then I gave him my in-ear defenders, and he wore those with his over-ear set over the top. He said he'd try that for five minutes and then decide whether we'd leave. And we got through the set by the support. The second support weren't great, but by then my boy was air drumming.

    But I was concerned the sound was really shit. Would Ghost sound terrible too? Thankfully when Ghost came on the sound was the best I'd ever heard at the gig. Loud, but you could hear everything really clearly. My sons (elder son was 12 at the time) absolutely loved it, pretty much a transcendental experience from them, both said it was the best day of their lives. Phew.

    Ghost are fecking awesome live. 

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  • GizmoGizmo Frets: 1073
    Jimbro66 said:
    Albert King. I always really liked his singing and playing and his great guitar tone but......

    I got dragged along to an Albert King gig a bham town hall (google says it was 08.07.1992) walter trout was the support act and he was smoking really great, AK well...his backing band who were super tight opened up with a few insurmental blues tunes and then AK comes on stage part way in sits down on a chair & starts to sing/mumble over the band (i think he had a pipe in his mouth also) he then started to play some random licks and fills,out of tune bends ect ect all the while turning around to mess with his amps vol/tone, as soon as he turn around a guy backstage rushed over to the amp and reset everything,a few mins later AK again turns around and starts messing turns around, guy comes back on resets....and it just kept on and on

    after about 5 tunes id had enough and went to get a burger i then waited outside for my dad & uncle to find me after it ended, the look on their face's told me things hadn't improved after i left .
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  • For me, I wouldn't say worst but Charlie Burchill had a major off night when I saw Simple Minds at Edinburgh castle in 2009. I think heavy rain led to some electronic problems but the guitars he was using just sounded gash as well. Jim Kerr didn't help matters by getting arrangements to some of the songs mixed up. Seen them before and Charlie sounded epic.
    2004 Gibson Les Paul Standard ltd edition, 2012 Fender strat 70s re-issue, 2018 Epiphone Texan
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  • StefBStefB Frets: 2331
    edited January 2021
    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.
    I’m a Kendalian lifer and still live here. I know exactly what you mean about the Brewery. 

    The very low ceiling and length & width of the room makes it very challenging from an audio enjoyment perspective, and the many roof support beams scattered around the room can make it very difficult to even see acts, whether seated or stood. 

    Some big names had played there, Robert Plant for example. 

    Coming back on topic, and purely coincidentally to the Robert Plant connection, I saw Francis Dunnery’s “It Bites” there 10 years or so ago and it was utter dogshit. 

    We are all aware of Frank’s brilliance and reputation but reference to It Bites was nothing more than a ploy to sell tickets as the act was little more than him playing a cheap 335 copy, surrounded by a bizarre folk band that looked like a bunch of garden gnomes. Dunnery didn’t even play much and the handful of It Bites songs they murdered were unrecognisable from the originals. 
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  • SpringywheelSpringywheel Frets: 941
    edited January 2021
    Dave mustaine/megadeth, 2004 (Birmingham)The guitars were so loud I thought my head was going cave in. It took a week to get that shrieky Marshall sound out of my ears. Saw them again a year later at Donnington and they were killer despite only playing an hour.
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  • phil_b said:
    this is pretty bad


    Truly mortifying........so uncomfortable I couldn't watch to end.


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  • FarleyUKFarleyUK Frets: 2377
    Metallica at Earls Court around 2000 I think...

    Bloody shit. Saunter on, swear a lot, play some shit from St Anger, swear some more, "Yeeaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!", swear, spit, wah pedal, swear, wah pedal, finish and walk off.

    Never seen them since, and I don't feel I'm missing anything TBH.
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  • HaychHaych Frets: 5595
    Not a guitarist per se, although he did play guitar, but worst band I saw were Cockney Rebel.

    They played ok to be fair but Steve Harley was so far up himself and insisted on talking for 15 minutes between each song about some amusing anecdote that caused him to write the song and about how brilliant he was.

    Luckily he was only supporting Quo so once he played the two or three songs he managed to fit in between waffling he cleared off and let Quo get on with it.

    I went to see a Mark Knopfler gig at the NEC early in his solo career.  Again, he and the band played really well but for some reason the sound guy had his guitar significantly louder than anything else so every time he played a fill the rest of the band couldn't be heard.

    Loudest gig I think I ever saw was either Toto, again at the NEC on the Mindfields tour - that was painfully loud like being kicked in the chest by a mule, or Pat Travers at Bogiez in Cardiff - like having a container load of gravel dropped on you from a great height.  I religiously wear plugs and have done for years but my ears were still ringing after that show!

    There is no 'H' in Aych, you know that don't you? ~ Wife

    Turns out there is an H in Haych! ~ Sporky

    Bit of trading feedback here.

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  • boogiemanboogieman Frets: 12314
    The loudest lot I’ve seen were Whitesnake at Hammersmith Odeon. . Again, so loud you couldn’t actually hear what they were playing. I went with a friend who loves them but even she couldn’t stand it. We ended up sitting in the bar where it was a bit more listenable. It actually sounded best in the gents bogs. 

    Worst playing was by Mick Taylor (the Stones guy, not the bloke from Guitarist) . A local promoter had somehow managed to snag him for a gig at the archetypal “room at the back of a pub” in Wealdstone, North London. There was a massive crowd outside but you could only get in with a prebooked ticket as the place only held about 200. Sad to say he was terrible... he was either pissed or stoned and his playing was just awful. 

    Honourable mention, if that’s the phrase, to Mick Ralphs at one of the Butlins Rock & Blues weekends. Also completely dire.

    I see both of these guys have been mentioned previously, at least it’s not just me that thought they were crap.  

    Oh, I nearly forgot Gary Moore. Around the time he’d released Still Got the Blues. He actually played ok but he was incredibly grumpy and started swearing at the crowd at one point. All very embarrassing. 
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  • SpringywheelSpringywheel Frets: 941
    edited January 2021
    FarleyUK said:
    Metallica at Earls Court around 2000 I think...

    Bloody shit. Saunter on, swear a lot, play some shit from St Anger, swear some more, "Yeeaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!", swear, spit, wah pedal, swear, wah pedal, finish and walk off.

    Never seen them since, and I don't feel I'm missing anything TBH.
    Must've been one of the two december gigs in 2003 - I was at the first gig - half the set was St Anger. Still enjoyed it though  They have improved a lot live since then 
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  • MolemanMoleman Frets: 133
    edited January 2021
    Sorry to say it was a John Martyn gig. I loved his music and was psyched to be there, but he was already well liquored-up when he came on. I don't think he knew where he was and looked & sounded like he was just hoping to make it through the show, When he fucked up the beginning of one of my favourite songs of his because he was drinking beer and needed to  belch, I decided it was time to go and not see one of my musical idols disintegrate any more before my eyes.
    Although I was an ardent fan throughout the 1990’s and into the 2000’s, I had to stop seeing the late, great John Martyn after one too many gigs like the one described above. I think that because John never really achieved the level of success in terms of record sales that he arguably should have, he was more or less obliged to tour and play live constantly. I think that sometimes it was a case of one too many gigs for him. There never seemed to be much middle ground with JM live, he was in my experience either blindingly good or else pretty awful. On a good night though, John could be untouchable, plus the guy was wonderfully charismatic in front of an audience.
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