Live acts: which ones consistantly scale the heights of genius?

Gassage

I have a few:

David, obviously, esp this year- he's been amazing.

Squeeze- always magnificent and Glenn Tilbrook is a natural.

Lenny Kravitz- mind blowing.

Bowie- nuff said.

Top of my list however, and I was intitally dragged screaming and kicking to see them, Crowded House.

They put on the most personal, effortless, different and so musical show every single time I've ever seen them.

Neil Finn is truly second only to Lennon and Mac as a song writer of that genre and his voice is incredible.

As long as I live I'll never forget the 1996 Sydney gig- 400k people. At 7am the following morning people were still on the steps of the Opera House singing Don't Dream It's Over. Incredible.

randella

Pearl Jam. Long sets that you wish would go on longer. I've seen them a few times and they work well in front of a UK crowd who go bonkers the minute they take the stage, but I saw 'em in Stockholm (drinking wine from a sweaty old shoe) and they had to work to get the crowd on their side which, after three hours, they most definitely had; was a better gig for it. 

Fucking genius live band. 

Gassage

Totally agree re Pearl Jam

Do watch this- fucking mindblowing....

RocknRollDave

Prince is the obvious one. Not these days, alas, but yeah. He had some much better bands than others and much better setlists than others, but he always made his parts look effortlessly cool.

axisus

I don't think that anyone 'scales the heights of genius'. I don't think that the performing of music is related to genius at all. There have been very good performers with very good material but none of them achieved new intellectual advances in a domain of knowledge or anything.

vasselmeyer

U2 up to and including the the Zoo TV tour. They we incredible whether it was the Unforgettable Fire tour which I saw at the Manchester Apollo in 1995 up to the Zoo TV tour which was one of the most imaginative and compelling pieces of stadium thatre I've ever seen. It didn't all work (e.g. the Sarajaevo call and the ABBA hook-up) but it was genius.

Ally

Phantom Band. Live far exceeds the album songs. Amazing live.

Alnico

Maiden.

Stunning and get better with age.
The scale and complexity of their shows is incredible and the quality of the musicianship is world class.

I won't say Genius but their songwriting leaves me speechless every time i hear something new and always has done but when they play it live it's even more alive and amazing than the studio recording.

For the record i am no fan of the 'Blaze Bailey' years and not a great fan of the original line up either.
The line up they have now including Janick Gers is musical magic on stage.

I will do pretty much anything to see them live next time around.

bluechargeboy

DEVIN TOWNSEND, consistently amazing and I am not easy to please with live bands. Saw him perform with the flu and still rocked it.

Evilmags

Paco de Lucia, mind blowing. 

Both Zappas 

Vai

Hiromi Uhera

AC/DC

Rush 

Modulus_Amps

seen Muse 3 times, everytime I am more impressed

ThePrettyDamned

Modulus_Amps said:

seen Muse 3 times, everytime I am more impressed

Muse was my first thought. 

Live at Glastonbury on the absolution tour - mind blowing, and probably one of the best live bands around. I love when Matt winds the volume up on the guitar and you can hear the humming and hissing from having shit tons of fuzz into a heavy distortion amp channel. 

littlegreenman

Evilmags said:

Both Zappas 

Wis'd @Evilmags ;;

Frank at the NEC and Dweezil twice so far, just amazing. Such a shame what Ahmet and Diva are up to with all the lawyer crap at the moment.

Allan Holdsworth - it's not for everyone but if that type of music floats your donut then he's pretty fucking awesome every time.

Likewise John McLaughlin - blew me away both times I've seen him, especially the time as a trio with Trilok Gurtu and Pino Palladino. Who knew that a drummer needs a bucket of water onstage!?!?

CabbageCat

Fuuuucckkkkiiiiiinnnnnnggggggggg PIIIIIIIISSSSHHHHH!!!!!!!

PolarityMan

bluechargeboy said:

DEVIN TOWNSEND, consistently amazing and I am not easy to please with live bands. Saw him perform with the flu and still rocked it.

This, seen him acoustic and 3 times with the full band. Every time absolutely spectacular.

AndyR

Vintage Trouble
Florence and the Machine

Both stunning live bands, both incredible singers and truly charismatic, er, front-persons. I never thought I'd see anyone more "wow" than Freddie Mercury live, but I've seen two in the last year, both of them several times - Florence Welch and Ty Taylor.

richardhomer

Peter Gabriel - saw him twice on the 'Back to Front' tour. I expected him to be good - I just didn't anticipate 'how' good. He somehow made vast venues feel very intimate and sang with a raw emotion which was genuinely affecting. On both occasions he played 'Don't Give Up', I seemed to have 'somthing in my eye'.

Stunning....

dindude

Probably the most memorable gigs for me were The Flaming Lips c. Soft Bullitin / Yoshimi (I.e. When they approached near commercialism for them) - they really did know how to turn a gig into one big party.

Heartfeltdawn

dindude said:

Probably the most memorable gigs for me were The Flaming Lips c. Soft Bullitin / Yoshimi (I.e. When they approached near commercialism for them) - they really did know how to turn a gig into one big party.

Clouds Taste Metallic through to Yoshimi was a stupendous era. The CTM era with Ronald Jones applying the guitar effects... wowzers. Loud but not horrible loud like MBV, and Jones is one of the great cult guitarists ever. The best concert I've been to was in 2000 when they played the RFH in London. I went alone, utterly amazed by the entire thing, had planned to sleep rough but stayed awake all night writing and thinking about possibilities. Now they're a bit different. Nothing will top the Bulletin period. 

In terms of consistency, Super Furry Animals are up there. I've seen them be brilliant in the early indie toilet days, some of the bigger stages, and actually make their music work on the festival stage, something not all bands can do. 

Vaiai

Radiohead - the array of sounds they make from all sources is incredible live - The Basement tapes/sessions are stunning

Bucket

bluechargeboy said:

DEVIN TOWNSEND, consistently amazing and I am not easy to please with live bands. Saw him perform with the flu and still rocked it.

Yes, yes yes yes yes, yes yes yes.

I was at this gig and it was just staggering.



He has the most awe-inspiring voice of any singer I've ever seen live - his half-singing-half-screaming kind of delivery that you hear from 6:38 is just SO loud and powerful, I could feel it ringing through my ears even with earplugs in. Not to mention that his range is seemingly limitless. And his guitar playing is wonderful, his tone is massive, his band sounded killer and were insanely tight, and he's really funny and charming too - a brilliant performer as well as musician. With amazing material.

He played three songs in a row from the end of his first solo album, Ocean Machine: Biomech, which collectively form my favourite half-hour of music in existence. The third track, The Death of Music, was performed live for the very first time that night (having been recorded nearly 20 years earlier). It's a spine-chilling piece of music on record, and live it was just something else. I was moved.

That show remains up there with the all-time best, as far as I'm concerned. Can't imagine many gigs beating it.