i'm thinking about other shit stuff i've seen in festivals...

dimmu borgir!! the vocalist had like shit loads of effects to make his bm rasp and the drummer barely hit anything, it was all midi. in between songs, the guy tried to talk with his rasp but couldn't and sounded like he was going through puberty, they didn't even move or anything.

manic street preachers

Gumball too. Playing for the radio, and one of their guitars was missing somehow. Short set. And it didn't sound good. Their records have thin melodic songs, but live, nothing came out of them.

Holly Golightly.
But she came to the venue 15 minutes before the show. Had been stuck in the North of France, waiting for the rental car agency to open. A stressful trip. And Bruce Brand on guitar ain't particularly brilliant.
Fortunately, I enjoyed the opening act a lot and bought their record straight away.

and that coming from an archers of loaf fan too!

That's surprising they were the gig of the year for me last year.

Public Enemy (huge letdown)

John Cale (twice, the second time he was opening for Pere Ubu in a no re-entry club so I couldn't get away even though I knew he would do a piano ballad set that would make Barry Manilow cringe while fucking things up frequently)

Beastie Boys (only group I've walked out on twice, first time was on their legendary Licensed to Ill tour when they were so drunk they slurred all of their raps and just got rocker chicks to show their tits to them, second time was at the first End Fest in Seattle where they went on after Sonic Youth)

Nurse With Wound (I'd probably try again, but only if I knew the Stapleton wasn't going to enlist every musician within 50 miles for a pointless never ending jam session where nobody listened to anybody else)

Damo Sazuki (same exact story as NWW!)

Mother Love Bone (as a huge fan of Malfunkshun & Green River watching them band together and try to be Guns & Roses was truly traumatizing)

Dizzy Gilespie (sadly very past his prime and in a club where the sound system was picking up a country station in the speakers)

Autechre (I still love them, but that was the most boring "live" show ever)

Prolapse I saw thrice in their existence. I still think they were one of the better bands of that era. Mick, the mental Scotsman singer-cum-Archaeologist [!] was massively genial to two slightly confused 14-year-olds, one of whom was me.

JOMF I wanted to be much, much better than they were.

SHOTM let me down at ATP; utter bilge, to my ears.

The very worst thing I've ever seen (apart from some local bands, but it's a bit vindictive to mention people who no-one's heard of) was the Seen. They are/ were a load of moderately posh Londoners doing a shit version of the Stone Roses 15 years later than was polite. I've never been quite so catatonic with rage at how utterly shit a band could be. That rage lingered for a good fortnight as well. The show I saw was their single launch, and some record company sort was doing surveys after the show, and I went into a protracted tirade at how they were everything that was wrong with not just music but life in general. And I stand by that.

The Klaxons.

If you thought their records sucked then wait till you see them live!

Yes, but I have very high standards.

I saw them twice. Absolutely fan-fucking-tastic live band.




See, T&B.

Girls Against Boys

That's so true. I saw Gumball around that time and was totally underwhelmed. They seemed to be having a far better time than the audience.

underoath, throwdown, eighteen visions, every time i die, from autumn to ashes and many other bands i had to see at all the shitty "hardcore" fests that i went to in the past.

queens of the stone age
sloan
& i almost saw the reunited Van Halen several months back. that would've probably been included as well.

Good call. I saw Interpol a few years back and they were sooooo boring. I dunno what I was expecting. I mean, a lot of their music is kinda slow and the sound was pretty good... but I mean, cmon let's show a little fucking energy here. Maybe they just looked dead on their feet cause Q And Not U opened and they were super high energy and awesome.

while i don't regret seeing anything, here's a list of bands i went to see at other people's suggestion, none of which i enjoyed:

queens of the stone age
mars volta
the faint
and you will know us by the trail of dead
trans am
freakwater
interpol
buena vista social club

I thought the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion were good the first time I saw them and then terrible every other time after that.

q and not u were terrible when i saw them but it wasn't really their fault.

yes! show some fucking energy! this is ROCK N ROLL!
right?

I just hate it when bands look and act like what they are doing is hard work and not fun and a chore, becaus it makes me think "why should I stand here and listen to these fuckers and try to have a good time, when they are obviously NOT having a good time? "