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Live music is rubbish

I went to one "big gig" at Earls Court in the 70's, I was miles away from the stage. It was awful (not helped by the fact that the band was the post-PG Genesis ;)). I've avoided anything bigger than the Royal Albert Hall since and I find even that is too large really.

My main gripes at concerts are ...

1) People who insist on talking all the way through
2) People waving their mobile phones in the air to get a dark or blurry image of the stage
3) People barging through standing audiences
4) People continually getting up to go to the loo/bar in seated audiences
5) Bands who refuse to start on time making you choose between missing the last few songs or missing the last train home.
6) Ticketmaster's charges (The South Bank charges about £1.50 on top of the whole ticket order not £5+ PER TICKET PLUS AN "ADMIN" CHARGE)

Having said all that I DO enjoy live gigs. How many memories does anyone have of the first time they heard an album vs that time when you went to see <insert name here> when they played on that epic tour...?
 
This thread is a wind up, I hope! It is really hard to beat good live music IMHO. I love small venues and a few pints be it rock, jazz, folk, whatever. I guess I'm not a big fan of big gigs though.

I play in two bands. One is a wierd jazzy thing that play a few gigs from time to time. Very experimental and quite challenging for us and certainly for the people who come and see us.

My other band plays most weeks in pubs and clubs in the Bristol area. It's only a bar room band but we have a lot of fun as do the people that come and see us. It would be a sad day if some pubs didn't put on live music.

Here is a link from a gig we played a couple of weeks ago. I'm the handsome, if balding, chap on the bass!

http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NaSF4fTQAnw
 
I agree.
Live concerts are often crap and I now avoid going to large venues, the MEN and Sheffield Arena being the two nearest, unless the act is unmissable.
The O2 Academy in Leeds in a small venue and concerts can be excellent; Goldfrapp last year was great.
If everyone refused to pay inflated prices for tickets then there would be less touting on ebay and more tickets at normal prices for the average man.

Simon
 
Folk music live is OK not least because the musicians can actually play, the singers can actually sing, and the audience is there to listen and enjoy.
 
Proper Northern cities have city halls. You just visit the box office and buy tickets. Just expensive, rather than 'sell your first born' prices. I agree live sound is somewhat crap and getting worse again.

Mind you a DVD player through the stereo hifi does the job better. Most live DVDs are 1st rate recordings. If I want the full experience I suppose I could flush some money down the bog, stand where I can't see and put soap in my beer.
 
Well, the gig in question was Bonnie Prince Billy at The Fruitmarket last night. The first 45 minutes were OK apart from the odd "wooo!", queues at the bar, someone trying to get served from four rows behind me, and expensive beer in plastic glasses. But to be completely frank, it was a bore-a-thon after that. Very "samey". The sound was OK, but nowhere near as good as a decent hi-fi.
 
I definitely prefer smaller venues, but there have only been one or two occasions where I haven't really enjoyed myself. For me the live performance is about sharing the experience with friends, family etc. It's hopefully slightly more memorable than getting a group together in my lounge to listen to my system. I'd have to think twice about going to see a performance by myself.
 
dehavillandrfc said:
bob atherton said:
Here is a link from a gig we played a couple of weeks ago. I'm the handsome, if balding, chap on the bass!

Snap! Here's me playing bass on the same number from 2005... :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTppsonPU-8
Click to expand...

Bet the neighbours loved you :D Bob

The only bands i been to see in recent years are tribute bands and the like @ Mr kyps in Poole http://www.mrkyps.net/

The Bands we likes were limehouse Lizzy and Dirty DC seen them two many times know the stage acts of by heart. Made a huge mistake with The hamsters many years back saw them to many times

Ruthless Blues I ,loved when i first saw them again ruined seen them to many times

Eugene Hideway Bridges brilliant seen him to many times again oh dear
Click to expand...
 
Homehelp said:
dehavillandrfc said:
Bet the neighbours loved you :D Bob

The only bands i been to see in recent years are tribute bands and the like @ Mr kyps in Poole http://www.mrkyps.net/

The Bands we likes were limehouse Lizzy and Dirty DC seen them two many times know the stage acts of by heart. Made a huge mistake with The hamsters many years back saw them to many times

Ruthless Blues I ,loved when i first saw them again ruined seen them to many times

Eugene Hideway Bridges brilliant seen him to many times again oh dear
Click to expand...

That link wasn't to my band, that was another PFM'ers house party .

This is the one of my band from our gig at The Trout Tavern, Keynsham...!

http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NaSF4fTQAnw
Click to expand...
 
I disagree live music is crap, OK large stadium live gigs mostly true, but go to smaller venues like The Brook in Southampton or the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth, Cellars in Eastney etc and you can see some really great stuff for a reasonable price. Most large towns or cities have similar venues with capacities below 600 or so where you can hear and see the band, dont have to queue for hours to get ridiculously priced beer or leave the venues etc. Ok they often have a lot of tribute bands on which arent my cup of tea but you can see lots of good stuff as well, egs of people ive seen at these places who were infinitley better that listening to the album... Thea Gilmore, Aynsley Lister, SAS Band/Red Sox Band, Ezio.
 
Tony L said:
The only way to watch music is when the bands are starting out IMO, by the time Ticketmaster etc are involved the band is already stale and playing awful big stadiums or festivals. Far better to catch 'em young and hungry in pubs and cubs.
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I actually think (nice) festivals are a pretty good way to watch a band you like - there's normally plenty of space, you're more likely to have snuck in a drop of pinch or whatever takes your fancy, and if it's really not working for you there's a pretty good chance that you'll discover something great going on in that tent over there.
 
I have to agree with Bub and most other posters on this thread. If we are talking about rock gigs, it seems that most here seem to agree; small gigs good, large gigs bad. The exception being Festivals which some like. My experience is generally small gigs good or even very good. Large gigs; mixed. I have long (30 years+) been suspicious of BIG gigs. The few I have been to have been mainly disappointing with flashes of fun and enjoyment. Best gigs have usually been in College sized venues; there is something about the size of the venue that gets the balance right for Rock gigs.

Stand out gigs for me as I write would be:

Yes just before the Yes album came out, College sized gig, they were amazing and I am not a big Yes fan. Still stands as one of the best gigs I have ever been to.

Can, twice, both smallish gigs; astonishing.

Grateful Dead under the stars at a small festival in the North of England; magical.

Soft Machine, twice, both small gigs.

Floyd at a Garden Party; they were very good and this would be my main exception to my large gig prejudice.

Early Hawkwind at an all-nighter in London; strobetastic. Saw them at a larger gig a few years later and they were dreary.

Arthur Brown in a very small club in Lewes prior to his Glastonbury gig in 2010; astonishingly good.

Rod Picott at a small gig in Surrey; what a brilliant performer and writer.

Only two of these were BIG and one was under the stars so my vote goes for small.
 
Bub does have a point regarding rock concerts. Personally, I'd rather visit the dentist vs standing next to some toothless ex-biker screaming "Freebird" for an hour and a half straight while his old lady pukes on her shoes and tugs at my sleeve and two thousand others proclaiming it's formed Jesus' face.

Nothing like a really good acoustic band lightly miked in a decent auditorium surrounded by others who are there for the music as opposed to a drugged night out. The last one I went to that fit the bill with a national performer was The Dave Grisman Quartet at a local auditorium in Raleigh, NC. Great music, perfect sound and a perfectly behaved and appreciative audience.
 
pqpq said:
A lot of this doesn't tally with my experiences of live music at all. I've been to quite a few superb gigs in the last few years - ones that spring to mind are Shellac, The Unthanks, Lau, Bonnie Prince Billy Micky Greaney and Kraftwerk. All amazing, .
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Shellac...I don't think the original poster would complain about "boring sound" there.

If live music is boring, I truly don't mean this in a mean spirited way, but you probably have bad taste in music.
 
pqpq said:
A lot of this doesn't tally with my experiences of live music at all. I've been to quite a few superb gigs in the last few years - ones that spring to mind are Shellac, The Unthanks, Lau, Bonnie Prince Billy Micky Greaney and Kraftwerk. All amazing, engaging perfomances I felt privileged to witness.
Click to expand...

Bonnie Prince Billy was the inspiration for this thread. Spectacularly dull.
 
The industry may be turning a little bit as people wise up to the fact they have been treated likle mugs the last 6-8 years by the live music promoters. I attended a conference on Auditoria design for large scale music events. The economic analysis projected forward was scary for operators of these ventues. They rely too much on legacy acts and are not investing in the next generation of 'Breakthorugh' acts that would be filling these venues in several years.

The outdoor festival model seems to be better long terms where can fill them with mainly B or C grade bands and still make a profit. It is going to get harder to fill the 15,000 to 20,000 indoor venues as the older acts die off (literally).

There was a presenter there from Ticketmaster and she was savaged. Someone finally had the guts to ask - when you pay extra for a VIP upgrade isn't that really what should be included in the standard price. They had no answer for that one.

There was also alot of talk about technology and how wi-fi networks can't deal with large crowds effectively. They are going to solve that problem and when they do it will be completely shit at these gigs - people will be TOTALLY consumed with their bloody phones.

They will reap what they sow eventually (just like the record industry).
 
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