Oh man, hell yeah. axl rose was the only thing giving juice to the band of junkiies known as guns and roses.

I have seen Bardo Pond about 20 times, and not one was less than stellar. I honestly think they are one of the top live rock bands in the USA, along with Kinski and Comets On Fire.

Inconsistency is one thing, and I can acknowledge that in a band, especially if they improvise a lot. NNCK falls into this category for me; I have seen them be both fantastic and mediocre, and I know it's a gamble going in. A gamble where I like my chances, but a gamble nonetheless.
However, to claim that inconsistency is somehow "what makes a band great" because it's "sincere" is not going to fly with me. You can be a sincere as you possibly can and still put on a lousy live show.

yes, most of those bands have disappointed me live as well, sadly. i still like their records, but most of what i've seen seemed utterly bored and boring in a live setting.



other bands frequently mentioned in this thread:

pavement - only saw them once, enjoyed that (but afterwards also stephen malkmus twice, boring as fuck)

mogwai - twice (enjoyed it the first time, around 1998 or so; second time was last year on some festival and bored me a lot)

matt bower - hototogisu twice and skullflower once; would definitely go again whenever he comes back with whatever band.


oh, and the first gig i ever went to was guns n' roses and i enjoyed that a lot... but i was 14 at the time.:D

Brothers Of The Occult Sisterhood didn't do it for me live either, and I was really looking forward to that show. They have some great recordings.

I have seen Comets on Fire play 3 times. Each time I was tired of their stoner prog about 30 minutes ioto it. I just wanted to tell them to stop and play REAL COOL TIME, so i can hear the REAL shit.

Bardo I have seen three times. Once I enjoyed it but I was stoned to the bone. The other two times I again got bored with their prog rock noodling, which is hilarious because once I was waiting to see GYBE! who are progged out but RULED live, and the other time was for tortoise who are also in their way progged out BUT RULED!

I do love Bardo Pond on album though, when i am i nthe mood.

Explosions in the sky was good but not before Fugazi. I wanted to hear FUGAZI and instead I got an hour's worth of what i call "couch rock", best enjoyed sitting on the couch. bardo and GYBE! fit into this too.


I have yet to hear Kinski live. I do dig their albums.

PROGGGGED

Funny, I thought GYBE were insufferable live. Plus they berated a sold-out audience of full-on sympathizers for the actions of a president whom I would be surprised if more than 6 people in the room voted for. 20 minute crescendo. I get it already.
Tortoise used to be a great live band; I saw them several times in their early days and they were fantastic. Their material of late has been far too dry for my liking though.

jackie-o motherfucker. horrid. i had someone ask me why i liked double
leopards live so much, but not jackie o. damn, maybe because they're
two different bands, and that whole type of music isn't as entirely
interchangeable as people who don't know much about it imagine?

I saw Jackie O very early on and they were really bad, but at the second DeStijl/Freedom From fest they were really fantastic.

I might be biased because I love them so but the 4 times I have seen NNCK they were totally ace each time. The 'worst' was probably in the Volksbuhne (sp?) in Berlin but mainly because it's a big, seated theatre and not as intimate as the other occaisions I have seen them. They did get to wig out on a Steinway grand piano that time though.

Oh yes, Z'ev was also lame but I only watched about 10 minutes of it so I can't really say.

Well, I will say that the one time I thought NNCK were musically somewhat lacking, they more than made up for it with seriously entertaining "performance antics," so it was far from a total loss.

the second time i saw tortoise was a huge disappointment, it was like a tired rerun of the first gig which had been about 2 years prior


and what was that gig we saw of john moloney/tom greenwood/mick flower & co? that was pretty lame.

Sebadoh live killed my expectations of them as a band.They were:
1 - Smug
2 - Simply not very good musicians
3 - His lyrics took a more maudlin resonance that simply didn't cut it with me
4 - They were a little too self-conscious and irritatingly indie for my liking


Another band that i've seen live and they were both shit and annoyed me is Yo La Tengo.They came accross as these geeky,boneless,clean-living creatures and that's not appealing in my book.Stereolab really disappointed me too live on a few occasions.Mogwai have become a bit of a joke but in their prime they brought the house down.

I don't enjoy Stereolab like I used to, but in their early and middle period they really rocked hard live, I thought.

united light
http://www.myspace.com/unitedlight
i also thought that was disappointing, considering the personnel involved. particularly tom greenwood's vocals were annoying me after a while.

I'm talking about late period Stereolab.In their early days the surely rocked and droned like no other.

I greatly disliked the Who live and have barely listened to them since. There seemed to be no passion in their performance

corsano/flaherty/yeh at atp, which surprised me because corsano/flaherty
at the noise against fascism show of '05 was the highlight of that whole
night.

up until a few weeks ago, when i was able to reflect a little better, i thought wolf eyes at atp were lackluster, until i realized that i actually enjoyed the performance but it came after 10 or so minutes of my cat is an alien, which actually threw my personal equilibrium off it was so hypnotizing. wolf eyes didn't disappoint, they just couldn't shake the MCIAA haze i was walking around in.

They probably missed their daily intake of viagra that night.

Reading this has reminded me how disappointing I found Tortoise when I saw them, which in turn reminded me that The Young Gods were utterly awful when I saw them too.