Live albums

[Jaxxxson Mayhem]

Posted by: Gary Floyd April 02, 2009 11:38 pm
So yeah, what the title says/ Let's talk live albums.

Anyways. I listened to Portishead's live album today, and remembered how much I like it.

Posted by: Matt Young April 02, 2009 11:50 pm
You Scroby'd the title, Gary Floyd. It's "sequel", not "sequal".

*knows pointing out spelling errors is annoying, but cannot help it*

Posted by: Cheech April 02, 2009 11:52 pm
Everyone's going to crush me for this, but I like Live/Dead from the Grateful Dead. I love me some "Dark Star" even if it is the stereotypical stoner jam.

Does Band of Gypsys count as a live album, because that's only the Jimi Hendrix album I really like.

Oh yeah, Rust Never Sleeps is swank too. But we have another thread to talk about that one!

Posted by: King Kamala April 02, 2009 11:55 pm
My favorites;

Bob Dylan and The Rolling Thunder Review- Live 1975- The Rolling Thunder Revue (Bootleg Series Vol.5) (love the sound of his band in this one. If I had to make a list of my ten favorite songs of all time, the version of "Isis" here would be on it)

The Beach Boys- In Concert (Carl Wilson telling everybody to "shut up" is one of my favorite between song moments on a live album)

KISS- Alive! (speaking of between song banter- Paul Stanley's is always good for unintentional comedy)

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band- Hammersmith Odeon, London '75

Weird that three out of four were recorded in 1975. Great year for music.

Posted by: Cheech April 02, 2009 11:58 pm
QUOTE (King Kamala @ April 02, 2009 08:55 pm)
Bob Dylan and The Rolling Thunder Review- Live 1975- The Rolling Thunder Revue (Bootleg Series Vol.5) (love the sound of his band in this one. If I had to make a list of my ten favorite songs of all time, the version of "Isis" here would be on it)



About two weeks ago I was organizing my CD collection and came across a copy of this that I didn't even remember owning (I think my dad gave it to me as a gift). Anyways I set it aside to go back to it and totally forgot. I should go dig it out and throw it on.

Posted by: King Kamala April 03, 2009 12:02 am
Brainfarted and forgot U2- Under A Blood Red Sky. Probably the band at their live peak.

Shit---also forgot Queen- Live At Wembley Stadium. I'm sure Chriswok will back me up on that one.

Posted by: Captain of Outer Space April 03, 2009 12:06 am
<-- has a new double album out this week. Haven't picked it up, yet, but the setlist seems pretty definitive. Cohen's live shows either prove that his songwriting is rock solid or that he relies way too much on production, often within the same song.

Posted by: Skywarp! April 03, 2009 02:31 pm
I remember when I was a kid, my sister had a live vinyl Kinks album. It had pink cover art. Years later, I found my father-in-law possesses the same vinyl record. I listened to part of it and it was pretty vicious, with a distortion that transformed some songs from kinda light in the studio to kinda punky live.

Posted by: Cheech April 03, 2009 02:39 pm
I forgot all about Live At Leeds. That's basically the definitive live album, right?

Alive and Frampton Comes Alive both have their moments as well. I'm not a huge fan of either, but they basically did something live that they were never able to recapture in the studio.

Posted by: Kinetic April 03, 2009 02:53 pm
There's Live at Budokan, the album that made Cheap Trick. I always found it odd that so many acts had huge hits with live albums in the '70s, but at no time before or after that decade have live albums been popular.

Posted by: Cheech April 03, 2009 03:05 pm
That also reminds of Made In Japan, which is basically the only album that casual Deep Purple fans need.

I agree with Kinetic's point up there. Live albums always struck me as a cheap way to make a dollar, but the more and more I got in 70s rock I realized how great some of those releases were. In many cases, the live albums were miles better than anything else those artists did.

Posted by: King Kamala April 03, 2009 03:08 pm
I know Czech's not a fan but Ben Folds Live (and to a lesser extent, it's "sequel" Songs For Goldfish) are favorites that I omitted. Should live DVDs be mentioned in this thread? Ben Folds Five- Live at Sessions At West 54th is terrific, better than either of his two solo live albums. Though, like Czech, his live shows can become mirred in goofiness once in a while, I think he's got an energy live that hasn't been captured 100% in the studio.

Posted by: AboveAverage484 April 03, 2009 03:11 pm
Hearing Hammersmith Odeon makes me wonder why Bruce doesn't release more of his live shows from the 75-85 era. I think I read somewhere that he said that a lot of them were already available in excellent quality as boots, so he hasn't really been in a hurry to release them.

I wish he'd do something similar to Pearl Jam, release lots of shows from his career cheaply packaged and priced.

 

[Jaxxxson Mayhem]

Deep Purples Made in Japan and Metallica Live in Athens Greece are two of my favorite ever.

 

[Sesquipedaliantique]

Live at Leeds is far superior to any of The Who's studio albums. I honestly don't think it's even debatable.

 

[mellow]

Jeff Buckley's Mystery White Boy is a must for me, though I prefer the Live in Chicago DVD more.

 

[Red Baron]

Live at Leeds is far superior to any of The Who's studio albums. I honestly don't think it's even debatable.

I'd like to hear your opinion on this.

 

[Precious Roy]

Frank Zappa is the king of the live album, sooooooooo many awesome official releases. A newer one is Imaginary Diseases released a couple of years ago by Dweezil and Gail Zappa, it's an album of epic FZ guitar playing culled from his 1972 tour, it's really fucking great! They've released a lot of great "new" live stuff in the last couple of years.

Rush's Exit Stage Left is a classic

Phish's A Live One

 

[Mickey Massuco]

Live at Leeds is far superior to any of The Who's studio albums. I honestly don't think it's even debatable.

I'd like to hear your opinion on this.

D00d it's not debatable!

 

[Rendclaw]

Maiden's Live After Death is one of the best live albums hands down, especially when you get the b-sides to the LAD singles they put out. The concert video is even marginally better than the album.

Rush's Snakes and Arrows Live is excellent as well, but I have to agree, Exit Stage Left is their gold standard.

 

[Cheech]

How could I forget At Folsom Prison? Not only are the tunes great, the atmosphere is incredible.

 

[Edwin]

The more music I've listened to, the less interest I've had in live albums. There are greats for sure--Sam Cooke's Live at the Harlem Square Club is absolutely positively one of my favorite albums, and the Ramones' It's Alive captures their simple breakneck character better than any of their studio work--but I consider them pretty rare. Not a fan of even most 70s live records. Too much clapping, too much noodling, questionable song selection, and so on, which can occasionally be overlooked when you're there with the band but doesn't effectively translate the experience when you're not. If there's not much reinvention and it's just the band doing what it does but with an audience, I think a live album has largely failed at being much beyond the cheap cash grab to which Cheech alluded.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Iced Earth's ALIVE IN ATHENS is one of the greatest live albums I have ever heard. You can just feel the intensity on that album.

 

[Rendclaw]

That's another one on the list. I have to say, Iced Earth is one hell of a live band.