Worst live band you have ever seen

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March of the Crabs

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I'm a huge fan of live music and have gone to 2 or 3 shows a month for about a decade now. In this time I've seen some amazing life-altering shows that really made me love some bands even more than I already did or completely converted me on bands I wasn't into beforehand (this happens a lot at festivals).
This thread isn't about those bands though. It's about those bands (or solo artists) that are so incredibly bad live that you have to wonder how they can make a living off of touring.
Let's share. Who is the worst live act you have ever seen and why? Restrain yourself to just one and don't just pick on some band you hate because that's mean and no fun.

For me it is Five Finger Death Punch. I saw them at a festival out of sheer curiosity (I hadn't really listened to them before) a few years ago and I was astounded at what I saw. I'm not sure if it was something to do with the sound but the instruments sounded completely out of tune, the drummer couldn't keep up with their slow tempo somehow and the vocalist seemed to constantly run out of breath. I think it's the only time I have ever heard booing at a festival.
 
Taking Back Sunday is pretty awful live. It's not really an isolated event either. They are super shit tier all the time.
 
Ozzy. Dude was using a TelePrompTer cuz he doesn't remember his lyrics, and he was sucking a lemon and spraying his throat between every verse. Retire already.
 
Zombine said:
Taking Back Sunday is pretty awful live. It's not really an isolated event either. They are super shit tier all the time.
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I've heard that too actually! I've never been into them but I knew a girl who absolutely loved them and was super disappointed by them both times she has seen them (although they apparently are very nice to talk to).
 
Fall Out Boy and Blink 182 used to be horrible live. Things may have improved in recent years.

Zombine said:
Taking Back Sunday is pretty awful live. It's not really an isolated event either. They are super shit tier all the time.
Click to expand...

I saw them one time and they were awesome.

(I may have been very drunk).
 
In high school I saw the band "Senses Fail" in Modesto CA. It was a terrible show. The band themselves were pretty bad and several fights broke out in the crowd, but the most off putting thing about the night was that the band was badmouthing their opening act pretty aggressively. IIRC it was because the band was trying to sell some of their CDs outside of the venue, which meant that the venue didn't get a cut? Regardless, it was just a weird experience seeing an established band trying to turn a crowd against a smaller, unknown band.

Just left a bad taste in mouth. I stopped listening to their music shortly after.
 
Worst band is probably some shitty local band, but the weirdest turnaround I ever saw was System of a Down in 2001 and then again on the tour for the last album they did before they broke up.

The 2001 tour was just a ball of energy, flying around the stage, playing the shit out of their songs.

The Mezmerize Tour was everyone standing still and just playing the songs without any energy or effort, only sometimes interrupted by the guitarist saying nonsensical weed rants into the mic.
 
twentytwo22 said:
Fall Out Boy and Blink 182 used to be horrible live. Things may have improved in recent years.



I saw them one time and they were awesome.

(I may have been very drunk).
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I almost used Blink as my example because they were awful when I saw them but it was primarily Tom. Mark sounded fine and Travis is a solid drummer. I bet they are way better to see these days now that Tom got booted.
 
Lulzwagon said:
I almost used Blink as my example because they were awful when I saw them but it was primarily Tom. Mark sounded fine and Travis is a solid drummer. I bet they are way better to see these days now that Tom got booted.
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ya its Tom, I saw +44 a ways back and they were good. Angels and airwaves, not as good.
 
twentytwo22 said:
Fall Out Boy and Blink 182 used to be horrible live. Things may have improved in recent years.



I saw them one time and they were awesome.

(I may have been very drunk).
Click to expand...

Blink 182, easily the worst band I have seen live. Saw them live in 2001 at Jones Beach part of K-Rock's DFP tour.
 
I've seen a lot of awful shows due to going to a lot of music festivals.

But the ones that stick out most were the first time Slipknot came out to Australia (in I think around '98-'99?). Just shocking sound mixing and they made us wait for almost one hour between the support band finishing and them starting.

At a festival for a band that I wanted to see the first time I saw Glassjaw was so so disappointing. The singer seemed completely fucked off of his head and they played all their shit songs.
 
I've seen some pretty shitty bands, but most were playing their own music proficiently, so this:
teruterubozu said:
Ozzy. Dude was using a TelePrompTer cuz he doesn't remember his lyrics, and he was sucking a lemon and spraying his throat between every verse. Retire already.
Click to expand...

would have to be my response as well.
 
Marilyn Manson... that lazy bum just striking a few poses, while his "Band" is just pretending to play (hell you could see the roadies behind the amps actually playing the songs)

Deftones, dudes were just lying on stage being stoned as fuck, muffling and failing all their "songs".

Oh yeah and Linkin Park... fucking hell was that painful to listen to.
 
teruterubozu said:
Ozzy. Dude was using a TelePrompTer cuz he doesn't remember his lyrics, and he was sucking a lemon and spraying his throat between every verse. Retire already.
Click to expand...

This.

Hell, I saw him in the 80's when Motley Crue was backing him up and he was terrible. Crue blew him off the stage.
 
Angry Grimace said:
Worst band is probably some shitty local band, but the weirdest turnaround I ever saw was System of a Down in 2001 and then again on the tour for the last album they did before they broke up.

The 2001 tour was just a ball of energy, flying around the stage, playing the shit out of their songs.

The Mezmerize Tour was everyone standing still and just playing the songs without any energy or effort, only sometimes interrupted by the guitarist saying nonsensical weed rants into the mic.
Click to expand...

Agreed, System Of A Down was the first gig I ever went to, back in 2005 and I was a big fan. Had a lot of prior knowledge of their shows and how energetic they were so when I finally got the chance to see them... it was the biggest let down. As you say, just no energy and they were doing it by the numbers as if they couldn't give less of a shit.

Still love them and want to see them again in the hope they've rediscovered some of that spark in the last decade or so.
 
My Morning Jacket opening for Foo Fighters in 2001 or 2002. They sounded like a Battle Of The Bands semi-finalist in town of 50000 people
 
oc said:
the locust
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Weirdly enough I saw The Locust when I was at a Yeah Yeah Yeah's gig in Glasgow and they were awesome, pure energy and mental. I had never heard of them before and checked out one of their albums, it was shit.
 
Crossfade were about as boring and generic live as they were on the radio. I've never seen an entire audience sit down for an act before or since.
 
fabricated backlash said:
Marilyn Manson... that lazy bum just striking a few poses, while his "Band" is just pretending to play (hell you could see the roadies behind the amps actually playing the songs)

Deftones, dudes were just lying on stage being stoned as fuck, muffling and failing all their "songs".

Oh yeah and Linkin Park... fucking hell was that painful to listen to.
Click to expand...
Haha, what incarnation of Mansons band was that? I thought the original crew could play.
 
Taking Back Sunday. Saw them twice. Dude has a horrible voice live. If you want to see how bad it really is... HDNet has a hour long live concert from them. Soooooo truly bad.
 
xxracerxx said:
MGMT were terrible performers live.
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Yup they had zero energy.

Kid Cudi and Nas were also pretty bad performers when I saw them at Bonnaroo. Nas was forgetting lyrics to his songs off Distant Relatives which was so disappointing because I was so hyped for that performance.
 
I don't even remember the band's name. They opened for Interpol at a show in San Diego like 4-5 years ago. It's the only time I've heard a band get openly heckled and booed. The guitarist got all pissed and yelled back at the hecklers with a terrible comeback; it was just embarrassing to watch.

Zombine said:
Taking Back Sunday is pretty awful live. It's not really an isolated event either. They are super shit tier all the time.
Click to expand...

I saw them live and they were good. I'm not a fan (was with my gf at the time) but they certainly weren't terrible.
 
MIA was opening for a Nas show I went to a couple of years ago. Nas killed it but she had like 3 good songs and the rest was painfully generic. Plus her singing was really bad.
 
X Ambassadors

They opened for Muse when I saw them in Jan. I have never heard of this band before and they were so fucking bad. I didn't anyone could be worse than Blink 182 but they seemed to pull it off. Felt like I was being tortured listening to that shit. Had to walk out and walk around the TD Garden to try and zone them out while they played.

I do have to give props to the keyboardist since he was blind, but he needed to calm down. He was flailing his limbs everywhere.
 
I saw Smash Mouth in Portland Oregon in 1999.

God that was awful. Just terrible. The lead singer was drunk off his as and openly hostile.

I saw Newsboys once too. I was dragged to a weekend long religious retreat and they played during it. It was the worst weekend of my life.
 
fabricated backlash said:
Marilyn Manson... that lazy bum just striking a few poses, while his "Band" is just pretending to play (hell you could see the roadies behind the amps actually playing the songs)

Deftones, dudes were just lying on stage being stoned as fuck, muffling and failing all their "songs".

Oh yeah and Linkin Park... fucking hell was that painful to listen to.
Click to expand...

This is a sign to see better bands.
 
Saw My Chemical Romance at a festival while I was waiting for the Foo Fighters. MCR was pretty bad. Seemed like they were bored the entire time.
 
I've seen Metro Station (Miley Cyrus's brother's band), All Time Low, Black Eyed Peas and Ke$ha live. All four were equally terrible.

All American Rejects gets a special mention.
 
I saw Cradle of Filth at a festival in 2011, they were awful.

Mixing was muddled, both singers were awful, running out of breath and not being able to keep any pitch.
 
Can only agree on Blink-182... Saw them live at a festival some two years ago and it was completely devoid of energy. It felt like they didn't want to be there, hadn't slept in 3 days, and were being forced to perform at gunpoint or something. I left after 3 songs.
 
Admittedly I haven't seen many bands live, but in my experience it's Kings of Leon. Zero energy, didn't interact with the crowd at all.
 
saw some band called Vanna open for Norma Jean like 2 years ago? their vocalist was wearing his own merch and was yelling at kids about how television and the media are evil and all this bullshit. it was dumb and their music was really stale, boring metalcore.
 
Foxy Shazam, they were terrible sounding and trying so hard to be quirky and offbeat it was annoying.

The Hives, the singer was a drunk mess, slurring all the lyrics.
 
Zombine said:
Taking Back Sunday is pretty awful live. It's not really an isolated event either. They are super shit tier all the time.
Click to expand...
Are you high? Taking Back Sunday is incredible live. They've gotten older so Adam's not as crazy (he used to literally climb the rafters and sing upside down as recently as 2012) but during their hayday they were the best rock band ever to see live.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=HzkeNWthzT0
You must be mistaken.
 
kris. said:
saw some band called Vanna open for Norma Jean like 2 years ago? their vocalist was wearing his own merch and was yelling at kids about how television and the media are evil and all this bullshit. it was dumb and their music was really stale, boring metalcore.
Click to expand...

Haha I've seen Vanna. My memory of them is weirdly similar. Very bad.
 
MxPx, they did not care AT ALL. The worst thing I've ever seen happen at a show is someone got stabbed by a bouncer at a Bleeding Through show in Cincinnati after 2 songs. They wouldn't let us leave and so it was a bunch of angry 20 somethings. This was some show put on by MTV2, so it was Bleeding Through and Cradle of Filth, that was the overall worst show I've ever been to, and I saw Live and Counting Crows with a visit by Dennis Rodman.
 
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