Well, some of us have noted our favorite live shows, but which were the ones that you were so looking forward to only to be tremendously disappointed?

I have three:

1. Blondie/Laughing Dogs - Asbury Park, NJ - 1979 - Before the release of "Eat to the Beat" - Horrible show. The only show I ever went to where people were walking out during the encore. Their 2nd song was "Hanging on the Telephone". Their 3rd song was "One Way or Another." Only "Heart of Glass" was left, and the show had just started!

2. Rod Stewart - Madison Square Garden - 1979 - Blondes Have More Fun Tour - I was a huge Rod Stewart fan UNTIL I saw the show, and was so turned off by it that I stopped buying his albums. Rod's Disco phase, and he did NOT play one of my all-time favorite songs by anyone: "Every Picture Tells A Story". Best looking crowd I ever saw though...I don't know how Rod attracted so many good-looking women.

3. Joe Jackson - Asbury Park, NJ - 1980 - "Beat Crazy" to soon be released - Joe Jackson does his best Elvis Costello impression by cursing out fans, playing most of his cuts from the "Beat Crazy" album that no one knew anything about, and basically acting liking an asshole for the evening. That really made me want to go out and support his career!

I went to this horrible Missy Elliot concert last month. I paid over AUS$100 to see that crap, too.

The Call @ The Cotton Club, Atlanta. I always liked the Call, but this was BAD. Michael Been SAT IN A CHAIR the whole show. He's a very large man now. My buddy Cliff and I were SO bored (but we couldn't leave because our ride was actually enjoying that crap) that we started doing shots at the bar and chatting up the bartendress.

Sister Hazel @ The Roxy, Atlanta. I like a couple of SH tunes, and after an enjoyable opening set by the Pat McGee band, I was bored to tears by the headliner. Thank heaven, again, for liquor shots and chatty bartendresses.

Alex Chilton @ Variety Playhouse, Atlanta. Not a charismatic dude, but this show was marred by a drunk redneck hollering, repeatedly, for his favorite Chilton/Big Star tunes. Not one, or two, but a whole litany of them. I give him credit though...at least he wasn't yelling for "Freebird"!

Emmet Swimming @ the Cotton Club, Atlanta. A big fat dude caterwauling over untuned guitars. Blech.

Neutral Milk Hotel @ The Point, Atlanta. There were, like, 10 people on stage. None of them were playing the same tune. The guy playing the saw was the best thing going, and that ain't saying much.

I was so looking forward to Ministry's set at Lolapalooza 2 (1992?), but they were terrible that night. Nowhere close to what they can do. Luckily, the Chili Peppers picked up the slack.

U2 on the PopMart tour (Dodger Stadium) was sub-par.

Steve Miller mailed one in at the Greek Theater (L.A.) in 1993 -- a very boring show....

I'm probably coasting as much here as my accusees are. I mentioned in "My Top Ten" thread that when my wife and I saw the Replacements at UC Irvine, the entire show "reeked with stinkness." The Replacements, without a doubt, were one of the best bands I have ever seen, but at least, at this show, their and the location's incompetence, allowed me to have a romantic walk through my memory lane, which my wife would probably never had experienced otherwise. Even so, this qualifies.

I've only been to one live show (the SARS benefit in Toronto) which produced two bad shows, The Flaming Lips' and The Rolling Stones'. I'll do a little summary on both:

The Flaming Lips: The Flaming Lips were, to me, the band I wanted to see the most at SARS-stock. At least, them and Rush (I wanted to experience "YYZ"), but The Flaming Lips were big because it would've been my first experience with the band. I had never heard their albums or anything, but I had read a lot about them and was eager to see them. I was, somewhat, disappointed. The sound was awful, and Wayne Coyne seemed to be very big on getting the crowd going when we, or at least I, were hot, tired and reasonably miserable. The water stands were placed way up at the back, and it was so packed that it was just thoroughly unpleasant. Wayne Coyne obviously wanted people cheering and jumping and it was just not in us. I don't know if the band's incompetence had anything to do with it, as the sound was so bad that the band's playing could not be judged, but I know that they played two songs. The two songs were "Race For the Prize" and "Do You Realize??," songs that I've heard billions of times since in their recorded form. However, I did not know that they played those songs until today, when the personal mystery was uncovered, as I checked out the DVD release of the thing.

The Rolling Stones: I'd first like to point out that AC/DC stole the show from The Rolling Stones. It was packed, lots of jumping (and nudity, because, as it turns out, the cameraman has a bizarre fetish for naked breasts), and AC/DC played with tons of energy. The songs were done well, too. After all that, I had to wait for The Rolling Stones, who decided to delay things. Although I stayed for it, crowds of people left -- not because they wanted to see AC/DC, but because the 40-minute delay between the AC/DC performance and The Rolling Stones' taking of the stage was just too much -- and The Rolling Stones came out and just played to the remaining people. Their performance was okay, but uninteresting, and I was so drained and tired (plus, my back and legs were aching) that I was unenthused. It probably wasn't as bad as it was, as the band didn't sound too bad, but, from my point of view, it wasn't fun.

I saw Parliament a few years back and George Clinton was a complete emberassment. He came on stage over an hour into the set and walked back and forth mumbling incoherently. He didn't even stick around for an encore and when I was leaving I saw him outside rushing to the tourbus in an acid induced state of paranoia. Very disappointing, made worse by what I paid for the tickets.

i fell asleep during an aerosmith concert about 10 years ago. it was just plain boring.

smashing pumpkins are pretty bad live, too.

The worst all time live show that i know.. was ashlee simpson...ever heard of lip sinc?

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Originally posted by beartime:
i fell asleep during an aerosmith concert about 10 years ago. it was just plain boring.

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Falling asleep...reminded me of seeing the Monsters of Rock tour in '88 or '89 (Kingdom Come, Metallica, Dokken, Scorpions, Van Halen) and falling asleep (under the influence of Southern Comfort and the contact of 40,000 people smoking pot in a DOMED STADIUM!!!) during Dokken. "Dream Warriors", indeed!!!

Hmm, I fell asleep during Dinosaur Jr. at Lollapalooza and woke up during Alice and Chains! I was quite glad I did as Dinosaur Jr. were truly one of the worst bands I have seen live. There have been a few bands like that, who just didn't sound good outdoors to me. The Deftones were atrocious both times I saw them at festivals, and even the Reverend Horton Heat sucked outdoors, but the Rev. has absolutely kicked ass the three or four times I have seen him in a club!
I once saw a band that was opening for the Dayglo Abortions cover one of their songs as the set closer. It was so bad, the crowd bood heavily and a couple of the Dayglo's jumped onstage immediately to tell the crowd they had no affiliation with the offending band, and that it was the worst cover song they had ever heard! They started with the same song and proceeded to turn the room into a giant, old-school mosh pit!

My top three worst shows:

1) The Clash at McArthur Court in Eugene. This was after they split in half, with each half calling themselves The Clash. Not sure which half I saw (I don't think it was Joe Strummer's half), but my brother and I walked out halfway through and went home to crank their albums to rinse the putrid sound out of our ears.

2) Ozzy Osbourne at Memorial Coliseum in Portland, his first tour after Randy Rhoades died. First and last time I've ever fallen asleep at a concert. Didn't think it was possible.

3) ZZ Top at Memorial Coliseum in Portland. They played it straight off the album. For all the hype about Billy Gibbons' guitar skills, it would have been nice to see him improvise at least once.

i've never seen a bad show, but i have seen terrible opening bands:

new found glory and sugarcult, opening for green day

throw rag, opening for queens of the stone age

This fall, when I was at college in Vermont I saw Ratatat. Actually, I didn't see them because they turned all the lights off for some reason. To me, actually seeing the band is a big part of the reason for going to a concert. Anyhow, they played an extremely short concert, never said a word to the audience, and the music sucked. For half the concert I thought they were just warming up and noodling around, but eventually I realized that this was the concert. I didn't have to pay to (not) see them (though I suppose it was included in my tuition), so maybe I shouldn't complain too much, but it was just awful.

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smashing pumpkins are pretty bad live, too.

posted ages ago but i just saw it...geez i reckon they are the best live band ever...the way they completely distroy and reinvent their own songs is amazing (eg disarm played on every tour from 94 to 2000 was completely different)

ive seen heaps of bands over the years and i dont think i could seriously say ive seen a 'bad show' in retrospect some of the bands ives seen are embarrassing but i dont think they actually played bad or did a bad setlist etc...

LCD Soundsystem. (Can you say homogeneous?)

Also I saw Fuel once and was totally repulsed by the amount of ego-driven showboating.

And then yesterday I saw My Morning Jacket open for Wilco. God...talk about music that *begs* to impress you without really doing anything to do so. They also said that something along the lines of 'we finally made it to the top' as if opening for Wilco counted as 'the top'.

Then I went to a Family Values tour once to see Stone Temple pilots mainly and Linkin Park was on before them. Now, I don't use the phrase 'dipshits' very often, but..

I totally disagree about LCD Soundsystem. That was actually one of the best acts I've seen. I had decided beforehand that I would go batshit crazy because "Everyone here is afraid of fun." The music was like a catalyst to jumping around, dancing, and slamming into people. So loud! They were so great for going batshit crazy that I exhausted myself and nearly passed out from exhaustion before the end of the set. Every show since has seemed pathetic, at least regarding conduciveness to going batshit crazy.

Hey Bob, have you ever listened to My Morning Jacket on record? Do you realize that if someone was born in the '60s/'70s that they didn't "miss the '80s"? The "big guitar" sound you're referring to is apparently My Morning Jacket's attempt to recreate the echo chamber effects of their last two albums, both of which I love. For somebody who often shows disdain for flippancy in music reviews, I'd recommend that you bite your tongue a coupla times before you let it all hang out.

If I seemed flippant, I apologize, but there's a bit of a thin line between 'recreating' and 'copying'.

I didn't enjoy it because it was boring, and it bored me because it sounded to me like the type of music that tries too hard to impress you.