Worst live band you have ever seen

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uncelestial said:
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.
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Can absolutely confirm. I saw them with hardly any money so I had literally one beer and - appallingly - no drugs whatsoever. The sound at the end of YMMR felt like it travelled through my body and - I shit you not - I felt like I was coming up on ecstasy. Incredible experience.
 
Never seen a concert by a famous band/artist that disappointed me so far, although I've not been to that many concerts in my life, so there's that.

As for smalltime bands, I'll never forget one time I was out and about in my hometown and an American guy outside a local pub (this was in England) was begging people to come inside and see his band play. My friends and I exhanged raised eyebrows at this obvious red flag but we figured what the hell, we had no real plans ourselves and went inside.

The band was called the Dirt Jake Replicas and oh boy, were they bad. This really generic, dreadful emo music. The only lyrics I remember making out from the singer's howling was "you fucked up my LIIIIIIIIFFFEEE!" We downed our pints and got the hell out of there.
 
I adore Mastodon but they are super hit or miss live. The best live show of any band I've ever seen was during their The Hunter Euro Tour with Red Fang. Completely blown away. Everything was spot on.

A couple of years before that, during their Blood Mountain tour, they kinda messed up everyhting when I saw them. A year after their The Hunter Tour, they did a surprise show here in Belgium and they fucked up. It was really bad. They were hammered and incoherent. Vocals were atrocious.
 
Denzar said:
I adore Mastodon but they are super hit or miss live. The best live show of any band I've ever seen was during their The Hunter Euro Tour with Red Fang. Completely blown away. Everything was spot on.

A couple of years before that, during their Blood Mountain tour, they kinda messed up everyhting when I saw them. A year after their The Hunter Tour, they did a surprise show here in Belgium and they fucked up. It was really bad. They were hammered and incoherent. Vocals were atrocious.
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Heard they're hit and miss but I saw them in 2014 and they were great. They were hammered though.
 
Opeth, I'm not a fan but a friend made me go. They played about 6 songs, looked like they couldn't be arsed (it was a stop gap gig between festivals, think they did Dublin and Belfast then went back to England)

Testament as the opening trio of them Megadeth and Judas Priest. Maybe I just don't like their music because the pit seemed to love them, but I thought they were shit.


I saw Sabbath a few years ago and Ozzy sounded surprisingly good.

Saw Neil Young last month, that was a mixed bag. Neil's gone up his own arse a bit, but the classic songs all sounded great.
 
Amy Winehouse. Fantastic talent but terrible live when I saw her. Late to stage, clearly drunk, slurred her way through a few songs, left the band to play for long periods without her (who were incidentally very good). No respect for the people who had paid good money to see her.
 
Richard Ashcroft played thirty seconds, pegged his tambourine at the stage and walked. His band kept playing for about a minute before they realised he wasn't coming back. To be honest it was pretty funny, I didn't mind. Danny brown doing pretty much the same thing was a different story :(

Grandmaster flash was shit tier. He literally played smells like teen spirit.
 
Sleigh Bells. All I could hear was bass and the occasional vocal come through with a few power chords. Not a boring show by any means, but damn if it didn't sound like absolute shit.
 
Not a huge band but I've seen Static X live and I have never been more legitimately bored at a concert before. Everything about that performance screamed phoning it in and going through the motions. Not a single ounce of energy or passion to be found.

That one hit wonder indie rock group from Germany that was all the rage last year, Milky Chance, also sucks live. They sound okay, but like Static X they are completely devoid of energy and passion. It's like they don't even care so why should the paying audience?
 
All the Blink 182 comments in this thread are hilarious to me, only because they are so, so true. I saw them several times at the Milk Bar in Jacksonville, and I don't think I ever paid more than $5 for my ticket, even after they started to gain national attention.

They knew what you were getting for your $5.
 
Weezer, around the time of the green album is one of the first that comes to mind. no energy, everything seemed half-assed, it was a terrible performance. not that I'd expect them to be running around the stage or anything, but they performed like they'd rather be doing literally anything else. and they were the headliners
 
Flavius said:
All the Blink 182 comments in this thread are hilarious to me, only because they are so, so true. I saw them several times at the Milk Bar in Jacksonville, and I don't think I ever paid more than $5 for my ticket, even after they started to gain national attention.

They knew what you were getting for your $5.
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It's weird because both NOFX and Blink have the same schtick of the illusion of not caring about their live performances and fucking around on stage but NOFX pulls it off flawlessly and put on some of the best live shows I've ever seen and Blink just sounds SO bad live. Although as I mentioned earlier, the problem seemed to be Tom.

stump sock said:
Weezer, around the time of the green album is one of the first that comes to mind. no energy, everything seemed half-assed, it was a terrible performance. not that I'd expect them to be running around the stage or anything, but they performed like they'd rather be doing literally anything else. and they were the headliners
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I've seen Weezer twice and they were really bad both times but ESPECIALLY the 2nd time. Their songs are not at all complex yet somehow they kept fucking up the most basic stuff. Sounded like a high school talent show with old men.
They were also 40 minutes late. I also have spoken with the girl that dealt with tour riders and stuff for the venue they played and Rivers is apparently both a dick AND really weird.
 
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.
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I'm going to say there's a good to great chance what you saw was guitar techs working on guitars. There's literally no point in having "roadies" play backstage. Musicians that can play Manson songs are a dime a dozen.
 
The Strokes.

They weren't interested in being there. The sound mix was so shit you could hear the bass, the drums and the mumbling of the lead singer.

Babyshambles.

Saw them at a festival and it was just trash. Their songs are cheesy shit like a 12 year old came up with the puns and the singer could barely slur his way through the songs. The sound mix was fine, but the guitar style was just atrocious.

The worst gig I've ever been to was Alexisonfire, not because of the band, but people in the audience were lary as fuck. So many people were trying to start fights with me and with each other. Completely ruined the experience.
 
Greddleok said:
The Strokes.

They weren't interested in being there. The sound mix was so shit you could hear the bass, the drums and the mumbling of the lead singer.

Babyshambles.

Saw them at a festival and it was just trash. Their songs are cheesy shit like a 12 year old came up with the puns and the singer could barely slur his way through the songs. The sound mix was fine, but the guitar style was just atrocious.

The worst gig I've ever been to was Alexisonfire, not because of the band, but people in the audience were lary as fuck. So many people were trying to start fights with me and with each other. Completely ruined the experience.
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Yeah I saw one of the "final" AOF shows and the crowd was full of dicks. Doesn't surprise me.
 
Very few of you will know them but I went to a Fettes Brot concert last year and it was absolutely terrible. They seemed bored, the audience was bored, no energy at all.
 
Levyne said:
I haven't gone to a ton of concerts, but Eve 6 and Shinedown were good live. Rev Theory was not.
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I saw Eve 6 in the summer of '97 or '98 and was shocked by how great they were live.

Probably the worst show I've seen was Chevelle back around '06/'07. They sounded okay, but I have never seen performers who looked more disinterested in what they were doing.
 
Darth Pinche said:
Foxy Shazam, they were terrible sounding and trying so hard to be quirky and offbeat it was annoying.
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My old band opened for them in like 2005 or so. The singer for Foxy Shazam was hanging upside down from a light fixture over the stage and trying to jam the mic up his butt. Later on he abruptly ran out a side door next to the stage and disappeared for a while before returning to finish the set.
 
A Perfect Circle

Saw them 10+ years ago...all they did was stand there and they sounded worse than their album. Then the next weekend I went to a concert were the band was jumping everywhere and sounded the same or better than their albums.
 
I went to Metallica's Summer Sanitarium tour waaaay back when, simply to see them. Before they played, I had to sit through Mudvayne (I'm not a fan, but they put on a good show), Deftones, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park.

Deftones and Limp Bizkit were god awful, with Deftones being the worst. The sound was awful, and Chino couldn't have given two fucks about being there. Limp Bizkit was bad, but at least Durst seemed like he was having a good time.

Linkin Park I'm indifferent about, but this was when Chester was having massive health problems, and he still came out and gave it everything he had despite looking like he was about to drop dead.
 
I've seen hundreds of shows, and the bad ones really stick out. Some of the worst have been openers.


Kent, opening for the Cardigans. They were like a tiny little terrible Radiohead.

Ulrich Schnauss, opening for M83. Incredibly dull.

7 Year Bitch, opening for Cypress Hill. They were terrible, and got booed off a few minutes in.

Coco Rosie, opening for Bright Eyes. I can appreciate experimental music, but this was like chicken scratches on a chalk board. Unlistenable.

Sonic Boom during E.A.R's "Speak & Spell" tour. Yeah, I knew what I was in for going into it but man was it dull.

Pavement @ a poorly run festival in Toronto. They weren't remotely into it and unsurprisingly came off as incredibly entitled.

Malhavoc, mostly because the lead singer got blood everywhere when he carved a pentagram into his chest with a box cutter.

MF Doom with Madlib & PBW. Doom totally phoned it in.

New Pornographers & Belle & Sebastian....two (rightfully so) critically acclaimed indie darlings playing a WILD selection of their older material....in a venue hideously inappropriate for quality sound. It was like listening to a bootleg cassette recording.

Radiohead because well, it's Radiohead so it's bound to be bad.
sobrave
 
Cage the Elephant and Fiona Apple were absolutely garbage. They both were openers at the time so idk maybe they have improved.
 
Some french rappers manufactured to appeal to kids and sell them merchandise.

They shat in my ears (they can't sing for shit without computer post-processing) for 2 hours, and I had to go twice...

Fortunately I was being paid.
 
Greddleok said:
The Strokes.

They weren't interested in being there. The sound mix was so shit you could hear the bass, the drums and the mumbling of the lead singer.
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Holy shit, yeah this!

I recently saw the Strokes and the Killers on back to back days and it couldnt possible be any more different. The Strokes were just totally uninterested in whatever was going on, their presence was a disaster, setlist had no flow at all. I admit the sound was ok but nothing fantastic.

The Killers on the other hand were perfect! The main singer was 100% engaging the audience from the first song all the way to the end, the music mix was fantastic, the other musicians were totally into. The moment the stage went dark and Mr. Brightside came on, I saw a stampede of people rush to the stage like few times in my life, the cooks in the stalls straight up decided to ignore customers and just come out to sign and dance. It was amazing.
 
Lulzwagon said:
Yeah I saw one of the "final" AOF shows and the crowd was full of dicks. Doesn't surprise me.
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Yup, the one I went to was part of that goodbye tour.

Maoyama said:
Holy shit, yeah this!

I recently saw the Strokes and the Killers on back to back days and it couldnt possible be any more different.
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I saw them at the debut of their second album! I can understand not being interested now, but come on, they were relatively new, and trying to promote brand new material.

What I took home from that gig was that musicians are just people, sometimes they have shit days and don't want to be at work.
 
Lulzwagon said:
It's weird because both NOFX and Blink have the same schtick of the illusion of not caring about their live performances and fucking around on stage but NOFX pulls it off flawlessly and put on some of the best live shows I've ever seen and Blink just sounds SO bad live. Although as I mentioned earlier, the problem seemed to be Tom.
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Pfft, I heard they suck live.
 
truly101 said:
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
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You lucky, lucky bastard. I missed both their european shows, freak coincidence but every time they came here i was on fucking holidays. You wait 18 years for a band to reform and than that happens!
 
Saw The National like 2 years back and it was easily the most boring fucking show I've ever been to. They have the on-stage charisma of a sedated sloth, and the whole crowd was just awkwardly swaying like those dumb blow-up swaying dudes outside of used car shops.

I don't think they're meant to be listened to in arenas/stadiums/anything other than, like, a super intimate venue.
 
Of all the bands I have seen live the one I thought was the worst was definitely Fall Out Boy. Good lord was it terrible. This was back in probably 2005-2006 so they could be much better now haven't paid attention to them really since then.
 
Fantomas opened for Tool when I saw them once.

It was fucking awful. I'd never heard of them before, and I sure as shit didn't look into them further after.
 
The first show I ever saw was Snow on the Informer tour in 1994ish. He wasn't even the worst though, he had an opener who went by Rumble, who had a hit on MuchMusic in the early 90's that has been forgotten to time, but he was the worst. I don't think he even performed any songs, he just went up there, cursed a lot then left the stage. Everyone was like WTF?

As far as bands that maybe people have heard of, I Mother Earth (another 90's Canadian act), at Edgefest '96 was pretty unbearable. Like zero talent between all four "musicians". Crazy how many bands made it big back then based solely on their looks due to the whole music video revolution.

More recently, and Canada GAF is going to HATE me for this one, the Tragically Hip in 2007 at 10,000 Lakes Festival in Minnesota was probably the worst show I've seen that I can still remember vividly. They were given an amazing late night spot on the big stage right after the headliner (String Cheese Incident) finished their set. I wasn't a big Hip fan going into it, but the amount of disdain, or animosity they showed towards that crowd was embarrassing. I went to their show, as opposed to the other show because I'm Canadian and wanted to show some support for one of the few Canadian bands at this festival, but after this set, I don't think I told anyone I was Canadian the whole weekend.

This is like right after Hurricane Katrina and Gord goes up on stage, pissed drunk (which I'm fine with, it's a late night set), and before New Orleans Is Sinking, just yells "New Orleans is sinking and I don't fucking care!!!", and I don't know if he was expecting people to cheer or what, but it was just dead silence. And then it was some of the sloppiest playing and singing I'd ever heard from any band. Like, if they were playing a dive bar and there were three people in the crowd, they would probably be asked to leave the stage.

There were two bands playing at the same time, and the Hip were definitely the bigger of the two bands playing, on the bigger of the two stages, but by 3 or 4 songs into their set almost everyone went to see the smaller band (Trampled by Turtles) at the smaller stage, or just went back to camp since there wasn't a ton of room at the smaller stage.
 
theechrisfox said:
My old band opened for them in like 2005 or so. The singer for Foxy Shazam was hanging upside down from a light fixture over the stage and trying to jam the mic up his butt. Later on he abruptly ran out a side door next to the stage and disappeared for a while before returning to finish the set.
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LOL!
 
In This Moment. Only time I've (knowingly) seen lip syncing live in person. She wasn't just using a backing track, either. She was clearly not singing a single fucking word. It honestly felt weird to sit there watching it for some reason, just knowing it was fake.
 
Probably The Strokes.

They are boring. I mean the guitarists played well, the drums were fine but the singer did not want to be there and everyone just kind of stood on a stage and stared at the floor.

Unless you count some of the shitty bands I was in when I was first learning to play guitar. Those were pure suck.
 
There have been a bunch of horrible local bands that I don't remember the name of. Nobody likes belly dancing at a rock show.

Deafheaven was alright but the black metal vocals and ambience don't work pre-Anthrax and LoG.

Megadeth was surprisingly bad. Dave's voice wasn't there and you may as well have closed your eyes while listening.

Zakk Wylde on the Guitar Generations tour was at the same time bad and good. He spent like 10 min noodling on the pentatonic scale in the aisle which was fun but got tiring. Just put out a great album too so idk why he did that.
 
Screaming Meat said:
Can absolutely confirm. I saw them with hardly any money so I had literally one beer and - appallingly - no drugs whatsoever. The sound at the end of YMMR felt like it travelled through my body and - I shit you not - I felt like I was coming up on ecstasy. Incredible experience.
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It's too bad they're not touring anytime soon :(

I'd love to see them live
 
Wynter Gordon.

She was drunk. Late. Only had one track to give the DJ. Then got mad she couldn't finish the one song. Shit talked the DJ cause he didn't have her music. Said she was never coming back again and left.
 
I never went to concerts growing up, but I went to a music festival in Japan two years ago and saw a little of Suicidal Tendencies because it was one of the handful of western bands there that I had heard of. Holy shit they were bad. One thing in particular, which has been forever cemented in my memory, is a thing the lead singer said in-between songs. It was the most mind-numbingly idiot thing I have ever heard from a human being. This is what he said (remember, this is in Japan):

"What Americans don't understand is, its not about what you say with your mouth, but what you say with your heart."

This is coming from a guy singing lyrics that sound like they were written by some faux-anguished highschooler. And to preface it by saying "what American's don't understand" just left me in stunned disbelief. I keep browsing YouTube trying to find a video of their set so I can relive that moment, but nothing has come up so far.
 
DJChuy said:
Alice in Chains back in 2013 at some festival. No energy and no crowd interaction. The crowd pretty much died when they started playing. There was a lot of energy in the crowd before Alice took the stage.

Deftones is another one. Saw them twice, and the singer was just awful both times.
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As a 90s kid who adores both these bands, I tend to agree, mainly with Deftones - Chino just throws his shit out too much and wrecks his voice then whispers. Band is on point tho.

AIC was good but the new singer is not and never will be Layne Staley.

My personal pick: Stone Temple Pilots. Band was on point but Scott was on his own planet... forgetting lyrics and mumbling and all sorts of shit.

---

To mix it up - BEST band ever live: Pearl Jam.

They melted my fucking mind at Bonnaroo 2008. I was crying for half the show. Just amazing.
 
All Time Low. Their songs are great, but I've seen them 3 times at festivals now. The whole time is just them doing all they can other than playing music to make their fangirls scream, and making weird sexual comments to their mostly underage crowd. I don't even remember if they played the songs well, I just remember all the talking inbetween songs.

I also had the pleasure of seeing this Marylin Manson performance.

Bam Magera on the FuckFace Unstoppable tour was a drunken drugged up mess, no one on that stage had any idea what was going on, but it was still good fun with a lot of energy, and a naked Brandon Novak stage diving.
 
man idk i saw blink a few years ago with MCR right before MCR broke up and both were great. blink were a lot of fun.

was legitimately shocked at how great MCR were live, btw. played maybe 2-3 songs off that last album they released that sucked and it was all jams from their old albums. great set.
 
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