Greatest live bass solo you've actually witnessed

flying_pie

Memes aside, what's the best bass solo you've ever witnessed live?

Thankfully I think I've only ever been exposed to one - Stu Hamm's rendition of Star Spangled Banner when he was playing with Joe Satriani on The Extremist tour. It was impressive and reasonably entertaining. We were also forewarned somewhat as it followed Always With Me, Anyways With You where he was playing the bass and tapping the rhythm guitar part

Winny_Pooh

Haha

MartinB

Probably seeing Dave Holland at the Glasgow Jazz festival around 25 years ago, not sure my memory is up to recalling which number it was on,  but he's a genuinely compelling and melodic soloist. 

ICBM

I saw Level 42 at a festival gig once. There was an apparently identical bass solo in every song.

I don’t actually know what the greatest bass solo I’ve ever seen is - it might be one of those unsolvable conundrums - but it definitely wasn’t one of them.

stickyfiddle

I was going to say “none thankfully lolz” but actually I saw this and I win 

2 bars is all you need

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS-sE9xCb-g

Funkfingers

Doug Wimbish of Living Colour, in a tiny upstairs club in Cardiff. At the time, it struck me as more of an improvisation than a composed piece.

EricTheWeary

ICBM said:

I saw Level 42 at a festival gig once. There was an apparently identical bass solo in every song.

I don’t actually know what the greatest bass solo I’ve ever seen is - it might be one of those unsolvable conundrums - but it definitely wasn’t one of them.

I saw a Level 42 tribute band in a small club. Not my favourite thing ever maybe but for ridiculously high standard of bass playing in front of a dozen drunk students it might win my award in this category. 

Musicman20

Rancid's Matt Freeman playing 'Maxwell Murder' incredibly casually...

Studio version: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcccqG6-dDg

59 seconds in for the main solo, but the whole bassline is magnificent.

Up the punks. 

ToastHat

Here's an old live video of Maxwell Murder that I saw in person, I was pretty obsessed with Matt Freeman at the time. It's messy, it's unnecessary, it blew my teenage mind.

Kittyfrisk

Has to be the first & most memorable to me.
Rockette Morton opening for Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, Newcastle City Hall, 1972.
I simply had never heard anything like it. Shocking & awesome. Wow. Just what a gig. Wow indeed.

octatonic

Doug Wimbish with Living Colour- he absolutely shredded

Kebabkid

Pat Badger's interplay with Nuno on 'Cupid's Dead' from 3'02"

bassbora

I saw Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen in the mid 90s cant remember the year.  And the entire gig was awe inspiring.  The solos and the playing was just off the charts.  That man was up there as one of the greats.

Similar period I saw Skúli Sverrisson and that was seriosly impressive performance.

And another shoutout to Doug Wimbish.  I have seen Living Colour few times (one of my all time favourite band) and I always come away inspired listening to Doug with his tasteful playing and creativety.

S56035

No idea. I've always used them as a toilet or bar break at gigs. 

axisus

flying_pie said:

Memes aside, what's the best bass solo you've ever witnessed live?

Thankfully I think I've only ever been exposed to one - Stu Hamm's rendition of Star Spangled Banner when he was playing with Joe Satriani on The Extremist tour. It was impressive and reasonably entertaining. We were also forewarned somewhat as it followed Always With Me, Anyways With You where he was playing the bass and tapping the rhythm guitar part

I saw that tour! (and still have the T-shirt!). I was going to go with Stu Hamm having seen him a bunch of times with Satch over the years. Part of it is usually his excellent 'Country music' song, which is superb, but ..... The one problem with Stu is his showboating is too excessive, in that when he plays Country music he invariably plays it too fast. It's a brilliant instrumental, but gains nothing by being played too fast, it loses musicality. Back off a bit Stu!

I will also give you the worst - John Myung did a bass solo one time when I saw Dream Theater. He incorporated Jaco's Portrait of Tracy, and for me it just sounded tedious. As many of you probably know, it's a bunch of harmonics plus a few bass notes, the sort of thing that makes jazzers stroke their beard and furrow their brow in appreciation. I find it a bit dull at the best of times, but in the middle of a prog metal gig it seemed woefully out of place, painfully out of place. 

CarbonCopy

Kittyfrisk said:

Has to be the first & most memorable to me.
Rockette Morton opening for Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, Newcastle City Hall, 1972.
I simply had never heard anything like it. Shocking & awesome. Wow. Just what a gig. Wow indeed.

I would have loved to have seen Captain Beefheart! 

Schnozz

Chris Squire at Colston Hall in Bristol - I was in the middle, but someone at the front actually passed out, so it must have been pretty loud up front. Incredible show.