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[DavidDesu]

I hate to say I but I saw Grimes in Glasgow in The Arches probably two or three years ago, on my birthday as well... I was really looking forward to it but whatever reason the sound was awful. And I mean I could barely recognise any of the songs kind of awful. Her singing didn't sound great at all either. Whole thing was a shambles and while I though it was maybe the venue, I saw one of my favourite bands there within a year of that and it was one of their best gigs I've been to. Such a shame.

One other notable band that completely changed my opinion of them when seeing live was Kasabian. I LOVE their first album, not so keen on their others, but I saw them around about the time their second album came out and my god... the singer is just an absolute bellend. Full of cockiness, thinks he's a living legend because he's in a successful band, he just gives off that horrible arrogant and smug vibe, and I never thought of the band in the same light after seeing them live like that.

Oh and I saw Coldplay live but it was a big open air thing, and it's not a surprise but Chris Martins vocals are quite fragile most of the time, and they were that day, which is a bit of a let down.

 

[fritolay]

Not being sarcastic, Foo Fighters when they toured with RHCP. They joked and screwed around, playing a song now and then after LONG delay between bands. It seemed like a joke and getting paid to screw around vs trying to put on a show. And their songs they played weren't much to make you feel better.

 

[uncelestial]

I hate to say I but I saw Grimes in Glasgow in The Arches probably two or three years ago, on my birthday as well... I was really looking forward to it but whatever reason the sound was awful. And I mean I could barely recognise any of the songs kind of awful. Her singing didn't sound great at all either. Whole thing was a shambles and while I though it was maybe the venue, I saw one of my favourite bands there within a year of that and it was one of their best gigs I've been to. Such a shame.=

Grimes is terrible live, but I think it's because she suffers from severe hearing loss (which has caused show cancellations). I just stick to the album tracks I like and that's enough Grimes for me.

 

[Mesoian]

Doomtree.

Just...boring. You have an ensemble of 6 rappers, why are 4 of you just sitting off to the side drinking water while someone is preforming? At least act as a hype man, you're a group. You have to have more charisma than that.

It's a shame because most of those people separately are pretty god damn amazing. No energy, not good on mics....I left early it was so bad.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

Jimmy Eat World, the dude could not sing at all it was terrible.

This one is really surprising. I saw them twice and both times they were incredible.

 

[Matty77]

Limp Bizkit at a local festival during 3 dollar bill were pretty bad but I wasn't there for them and there were 3-4 really good bands so it was all good, in fact it clued me in early and I just avoided their music.

Absolute worst for me though and it might have to do with I didn't care for their recorded stuff and who they were opening for was Coal Chamber. It wasn't just me the crowd wasn't feeling it. However the headliners were Anthrax and Pantera so it's still one of the better live shows I have been to.

 

[Poimandres]

Earplugs dont' have to muffle the sound if you get good frequency-neutral ones. MBV plays that loud because they literally want your body to vibrate with the harmonic instruments (bass, guitar); they end their set with a version of "You Made Me Realise" where they all play one chord as loud as they can for 30 minutes at full blast distortion, absolutely overloading the sound system on that one tone. It actually induces another brain state, I swear to you.

That's besides the fact that their sound is amazing and they have so many great tunes. The fact that they're pulling off tracks from Loveless so well is stunning every time.

I can imagine it's not for everybody, so no worries, but for me it was was one of those shows I'll never forget.

Yeah, seems like they are super divisive! I like some pretty out there stuff, but it just really rubbed me the wrong way (obviously didn't help that I was using shitty ear plugs, and I don't think the venue was great sound wise)

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

I mean, I won't remember the REALLY bad ones because they aren't worth remembering. I also don't want to include bad sets that were the fault of tech issues and not the band, since that's unfair.

The first time I saw Buckcherry was back in like 2008. They were touring with Shinedown and A7X. Openers kicked all kinds of ass, and then Buckcherry go on stage and half the band are just stoned as fuck. They sounded AWFUL! Singer was all over the place and barely had the mic in front of his face.

Few years later they came back, and I wound up going to the show. They've cleaned up their act and were fucking phenomenal (or as phenomenal as they can be. This is Buckcherry afterall ) so I'm glad they're playing at a good level. Had tons of fun seeing them a second time, and would gladly see again.

I've seen In this Moment about four times now, and while musically they are great, I hate the stage theatrics they do. I only ever go to their shows to see the openers now.

OH! Just remembered one. Megadeth. Saw them with Rob Zombie a handful of years ago...maybe four now. I dunno if Dave was sick or what, but he had fuckall for energy and his vocals were abysmal. Guy can shred, but he didn't even look like he was having fun. Didn't hlep that the girl I was with wanted to sit for the entire set so we weren't on the floor. That'll kill your energy.

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.

Huh. I've seen em three times and have never had a bad show. There are one or two songs where Ivan has troubles keeping up, but he weaves in crowd participation enough to cover it up fairly well. It's never bothered me.

 

[Anticol]

Fallout Boy and Blink 182 like someone else said, holy shit those guys can't sing at all, auto-tune helps them so much on not live stuff...

Sry didn't notice.

 

[Dishwalla]

Fallout 2 and Blink 182 like someone else said, holy shit those guys can't sing at all, auto-tune helps them so much on not live stuff...

lol

 

[Ptaaty]

The Shins - right after their first album. I don't think they had fully learned their songs yet....OMG so bad.

NIN is by far the best I have heard....they have it all, energy, production value, technology, skills, visuals, consistency. 3 different tours all different types of experiences, all great.

 

[And_Gignac]

MGMT.

They were really stoned / on acid. It was a shitshow lol.

 

[biggersmaller]

Village People. Terrible. They acknowledge their songs are for weddings and perform surprisingly shitty renditions of their hits.

Free concert at the Taste of Minnesota. Opened for Shawn Mullins of all people.

 

[jay]

I saw Justin Beiber on one of the Wildwood piers while waiting in line for a roller coaster. This was before he was particularly famous. I wasn't impressed.

 

[truly101]

Saw Hole twice in 95 (second time was Lollapalooza that year) so I'd go with them. Pavement was also the most boring the 2 times I've seen.

Best would be The Jesus Lizard, Archers of Loaf and the Failure reunion tour in 2014

 

[Mushroomer25]

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).

I adore FOB, but they are not a live act. May have just been the room (saw them in a theater that was three sizes too small for their act, right after SR&R came out). Sound mix was awful, Stump's vocals weren't coming through well, and it just didn't impress.

 

[Mozendo]

Worst was a band named Comma. Music was just dull to listen to, they tried interacting with the crowd but it was awkward and the lead singer got pissed and basically said something along the lines of "We all know you're all here to see TTNG" in a douchey tone and then in the next song the bass player broke his E string. I don't mean to sound rude, I like hearing new kinds of music but they were just shit all around and it was a huge waste a time.

Best band I saw live will have to go to Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground and The Dear Hunter.

 

[EYEL1NER]

I imagine that if I had ever gone to any festivals I could probably recall a ton of terrible live bands but I tend to go see a show that I know will be good, so not much comes to me. I know bands can have bad nights, equipment problems pop up, and more, but the bands I have seen have killed it every time.

 

[Cmagus]

This one is really surprising. I saw them twice and both times they were incredible.

Could have just been an off night I guess.The lead singer did not sound good almost like he was kind of going through the motions of the songs. Everyone was kind of looking at each other like what the hell and it was pretty bad that it really over shadowed the music which was really good.

That being said bands can have off nights as well. I saw Incubus 2 years ago and it was hands down the best show I've ever seen and then I saw them last summer with Deftones and it was close to one of the worst shows I've seen. They weren't into it at all and it was so bad by time their set had finished 1/4 of the people had already left.

 

[Lazy vs Crazy]

Glassjaw was pretty bad when I saw them 8 or so years ago

I'll back you up on this, Glassjaw blows.

 

[pbsapeer]

30 seconds to Mars. Went to Liverpool student union to see them. Absolutely awful. Not really their fault there was just no atmosphere.

Spoiler

and 2 gimps in the crowd

 

[CassSept]

Mastodon. Dudes can't do clean vocals live: the drummer sounds okay (it's impressive to see a drummer sing, so I give him a pass), the bassist is passable (his phrasing is wack and his pronunciation is weird, though) and the lead guitarist is awful (his voice on record is awesome). Also, harmonies are always flat.

And it saddens me a lot since I love their mellower stuff. Crack the Skye is a masterpiece.

This is not.

I've seen Mastodon live twice and while I thought they were decent the second time around the first time I heard them really soured me on them. Maybe it was the acoustics, but while I still love their work they sounded like a knock-off band, a weak imitation of Mastodon.


Megadeth was weak when I saw them too, no contact with the audience, they quickly knocked out song-by-song as if they wanted to just be done with it and Mustaine sounded dreadful. Huge disappointment, especially as that was during Rust in Peace tour at a Big Four tour and that was by far the weakest concert of the day.

 

[MC Safety]

Garbage played an E3 party a few years ago. Shirley Manson came onstage and began rambling on about how they didn't play for crowds like this and how she was certain we wouldn't get them.

Meanwhile, the band was clearly disinterested. After each song Manson complained about how the crowd was killing their buzz. They gave one of the worst performances I'd ever attended.

Far worse, though, was Alanna Myles and Robert Plant. She was awful, off-key and had nothing to offer beyond three minutes of her nominal hit, Black Velvet. Then Robert Plant took the stage, and he was only semi-conscious. He stumbled around, clearly drunk or stoned off his gourd, mumbled incoherently for 30 minutes, stumbled offstage while the band played 45 minutes of solos, and then came back on stage for another 20 minutes. I was honestly relieved when that concert was over. My friend had bought the tickets, and could find no one else to go with him. Thank god he didn't ask me to pay for my ticket, because we likely would have fought over that.

 

[IceBringer]

For some reason I saw My Chemical Romance play at this festival thing in 2007. I don't like them anyway but they were terrible. Taking Back Sunday was there too. They were ok. Not bad not good

Earlier that year I saw Gnarls Barkley open for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Thought they would be awful but they were actually pretty good. Chili's were amazing though

 

[uncelestial]

As for the worst band I've watched live (but wasn't there in person), that wasn't like a high school talent show or something, I'd have to give that up to Complete, who somehow conned public access into filming and broadcasting a gig.

They kinda sound like... If Ernest P. Worrel was fronting Flipper?

 

[Cranster]

Foghat, not because they were horrible Live, but because I won tickets to see Blue Oyster Cult and they were the opening act which was underwhelming as I only know the song Slowride and that was the last song they played.

 

[fabricated backlash]

This is a sign to see better bands.

That's the curse of festivals...

 

[jambo]

Not a band, but I saw Sean Tyas play a DJ set once where he was so drunk (and probably pinging) that he was just mashing at the mixer.

He got through about 3 or 4 songs, stopping and restarting them accidentally a few times each, getting effects stuck on and looping stuff out of time, before the promoter dragged him off stage and got the next DJ on.

It sucks because I love some of his tracks and was really looking forward to seeing him.

 

[fabricated backlash]

You sure about that?

Never heard of anything like this before.

Why not just let the roadies on stage then?


I guess they were tuning guitars and not playing the songs.

Nope, playing the full songs, I stood close enough to see. The Guitarists were turning their backs to the crowd as well most of the time, and the hand movement of the roadies was just perfectly in tune with the music... aside from the fact that the guitarist and keyboarder just threw around their instruments like crazy without missing a single note...

And why let the roadies in cargos and Iron Maiden Shirts on stage, when you can have a few finely manicured and dressed up showman on stage?

Not like MM can sing in the first place.

I can understand that some bands don't want to go all out on festivals. It's a sign of a shitty band nonetheless but I understand it.

But at least they weren't as bad as Linkin Park... that was really the most painful shit I had ever have to listen to. The Singer... absolutely trash.

 

[tearsofash]

Ozzy is pretty bad

 

[Persona7]

That shitty band the flame lips or whatever they are called. I was begged to go along and it was horrible. Seemed like they were all on drugs.

 

[liquidtmd]

Ian Brown solo (of Stone Roses fame) in Newcastle Upon Tyne about a decade ago.

Look, I will forever love the Stone Roses but his voice was beyond awful live and the energy was very strange.

Put it this way - after five songs the floor collapsed and the gig had to stop. That was the highlight of the show.

 

[Mad Season]

Gotta be this band

https://youtu.be/FjeMDvCdrtc

 

[BunnyBear]

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.

Linkin Park? I was waiting for Metallica to come on at a festival in Oz and LP were playing on a second stage right next to Metallica's. LP were off-tap. Even the Metalica fans were into it by the end. The lead singer kept running across to our stage and I think most people were pleasantly surprised. They sounded great.

 

[KeRaSh]

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.

Say what you want about their output post Meteora but their live performances are on point.
I've seen them four times over the years and they always delivered.

 

[amar212]

Well, watching Red Hot Chilli Peppers in Wienna for their solo concert was damn dissapointment.

It was boring, uninspired and boring. And boring. They literally played everything 100% accurate to the album versions, it was the most sterile concert ive ever watched.

However, they were pretty good on open air ive seend them gears before that.

 

[sycam0re]

the locust

lmaoooo. Can you elaborate?

Not a band but drake was pretty bad at 2015 coachella weekend 1

I'll back you up on this, Glassjaw blows.

That sucks, I've always wanted to see them on the west coast

dragonforce was the worse

I saw DF at this now shut down metal and hardcore venue in SF called The Pound on their very first American tour and while adult me thinks they are too corny that was an amazing and intimate show

 

[Chuckie]

Garbage played an E3 party a few years ago. Shirley Manson came onstage and began rambling on about how they didn't play for crowds like this and how she was certain we wouldn't get them.

Meanwhile, the band was clearly disinterested. After each song Manson complained about how the crowd was killing their buzz. They gave one of the worst performances I'd ever attended.

Sounds like they really shouldn't have taken that gig. I've been to Garbage twice, back in 1999 and again in 2013 and both times they were absolutely awesome.

 

[Makeda]

Without a shadow of a doubt the worst band I have ever seen live would be Winnebago Deal.
Admittedly I didn't go to see them they were the first opening band for Stone Sour back in '03 but damn, I have never seen anything like it since...they sounded like a nervous train wreck and got into an argument with the crowd when someone threw a bottle on stage and told them in no uncertain terms that they where shit & to fuck off.

 

[Calvero]

Thank god I haven't seen a bad performance so far.

There is a band I saw that I just did not like, no matter how much people hyped them up to me. I saw Best Coast open for Belle and Sebastian about 3 years ago. I couldn't stand them. I enjoyed the first two songs, but then it all just sounded the same to me and I started getting sleepy :/

 

[CelticKnight]

Elbow.

I didn't pay money to see them as they were a support band, but Christ I've never seen a more monotonous, tedious set. Technically they're fine musicians but the whole thing was just a dirge from start to finish.

There was also a band with a female lead singer that supported Muse a good few years ago, but I can't remember their bloody name.

 

[fabricated backlash]

Linkin Park? I was waiting for Metallica to come on at a festival in Oz and LP were playing on a second stage right next to Metallica's. LP were off-tap. Even the Metalica fans were into it by the end. The lead singer kept running across to our stage and I think most people were pleasantly surprised. They sounded great.

Mußt have had a cold that day then, because those whiny squeals that he tried to pass off as screaming were making dogs howl that night.

Seriously I never heard singing that painful with the exceptions of the Guano Apes at Novarock.

 

[Jzero]

I went to a music festival and there was a really shitty band called NOBUNNY dressed as a "furry" bunny. Too weird for me, i had to bail asap.

Another person that was absolutely terrible was Skyler Skjelset (from Fleet Foxes). His solo stuff is way too noisy and that's coming from someone who likes shoegaze, Lo-Fi

MGMT were terrible performers live.

Aww they're on my concert wishlist

I saw Crystal Castles live years ago and that's when I discovered that seeing bands live isn't my thing.
Not sure if that was their fault though. It's the only band I've ever seen live so it's automatically the worst.

I saw Crystal Castles 2.0 and they were fucking amazing. The energy in the room was off the charts.

The worst band I saw live was probably HEALTH.

Their epilepsy inducing lighting setup at the concert i saw them at was so freaking bad that it made me hate their music

That shitty band the flame lips or whatever they are called. I was begged to go along and it was horrible. Seemed like they were all on drugs.

Flaming Lips were amazing when i saw them, they looked sober too so that may have been the difference.

 

[Anondreas]

Was very disappointed in Wu Tang Clan, Serena Maneesh, early Tame Impala shows, and Animal Collective.

Bob Dylan is pretty awful. His voice and the arrangements for his music are both unrecognizable. It sounds like a guy with throat cancer leading a nufolk band that attaches Bob Dylan lyrics to their own compositions. He also has such bad arthritis he can't play guitar anymore, so he either stands there fairly motionless or tinkles on the piano. No effort to connect with the audience, heavy reliance on newer songs and very little stuff from his heyday in the 60s/early 70s. Meh.

This. I love Dylan, but when I saw him live it was horrible. No energy. I don't think he said one thing to the crowd. I was really disappointed.

 

[Mdk7]

Blink 182.
Seriously, they are just embarrassing live, the singer is terrible.

 

[oc]

lmaoooo. Can you elaborate?

Not a band but drake was pretty bad at 2015 coachella weekend 1



That sucks, I've always wanted to see them on the west coast



I saw DF at this now shut down metal and hardcore venue in SF called The Pound on their very first American tour and while adult me thinks they are too corny that was an amazing and intimate show

Maybe not the worst in terms of how well they performed but the fact that they headlined and played a 10 minute set. They were two albums deep, early 2000's. I sat through 2-3 hours of shitty bands to finally see them and they're done in 10 minutes. I still love their music but what they pulled that night was some bullshit.

 

[Mr_Appleby]

I want to say my band but tbh I've seen some fucking shockers over the years. The best is when they are so replete with ego they don't realise how awful they really are.

 

[smuf]

Lou Reed's from VU to LULU tour, though I guess I can't blame him too hard since he died soon after.

 

[Mathieran]

Limp Bizkit, no question about it. Sounded like complete and utter shit. Saw them in a line up with Metallica who played later, which only accentuated how shitty they sounded.

 

[koopathecat]

Ian Brown solo (of Stone Roses fame) in Newcastle Upon Tyne about a decade ago.

Look, I will forever love the Stone Roses but his voice was beyond awful live and the energy was very strange.

Put it this way - after five songs the floor collapsed and the gig had to stop. That was the highlight of the show.

Yup Ian Brown is terrible live both at festivals and on his own tour.

Have seen The Stone Roses a couple of times (back years ago and quite recently) and they were awful live too