Do you like live albums?

[METALMAN]

I've got quite a few actually. My favourite ones are:

Belle & Sebastian - The BBC Sessions/Live In Belfast

The Clash - From Here To Eternity (In my opinion far better than any of their studio work)

The Cure - Concert

Death Cab For Cutie - The John Byrd EP

Frightened Rabbit - Liver! Lung! FR! (2nd favourite live album ever)

Hawkwind - Space Ritual (it satisfies my inner prog rock nerd >_>)

James Taylor - Live

Jeff Buckley - Mystery White Boy

Jimi Hendrix - Live at Albert Hall (free gift with the Sunday Times!)

Modest Mouse - Baron von Bullshit Rides Again

Muse - Hullabaloo Live CD (HAARP was wank)

Neil Young - Live At Massey Hall 1971 (favourite live album)

Paul McCartney - Tripping The Live Fantastic

The Smiths - Rank

The Who - Live At Leeds

There's quite a few others that I like, as well as many more that are really just shit half-arsed record label cash ins. Of course, some of the ones I listed there are record label cash-ins (The Smiths...) but at least they're good. >_>

Oh and any mention of S&M is banned. As in Nirvana unplugged. ha.

I just find Nirvana Unplugged to be really sloppy and a rather painful listen. I know I'm missing the point of it completely but I really can't stand Nirvana Unplugged. And I do like Nirvana. For the most part.

Edited August 1, 2009 by Cnut the Great

[MalaCloudy Black]

I have a couple, one Neil Young & Crazy Horse (can't remember the album name), Get Up Kids live @ the Granada Theatre, and.. those are the only ones I listen to. >_>

[The Kraig]

Not particularly but AC/DC 'If You Want Blood...' album is fantastic, very good recordings and a lot of great crowd reaction. And it was recorded at a gig in Glasgow back in '78 which makes it even more awesome. I especially like the live versions of 'Whole Lotta Rosie' and 'Let There Be Rock'. The crowd chanting 'Angus' during Rosie is awesome. (clicky here for sexy-awesome)

Iron Maiden's 'Rock in Rio' is also an exception to my rule. Great album, and one of the first live albums I ever listened to all the way through.

I'm okay with NOFX's live albums as well ('I've Heard They Suck Live!!' and 'They've Actually Gotten Worse Live!'), but mainly for shits and giggles.

Edited August 2, 2009 by The Kraig

[Farmer Reil]

Sometimes I get why people dislike live albums, but when they're good, they're immense.

Blind Guardian Live, One Crimson Night, Rock In Rio, Burning Down The Opera, S&M...

[The Kraig]

Sometimes I get why people dislike live albums, but when they're good, they're immense.

Blind Guardian Live, One Crimson Night, Rock In Rio, Burning Down The Opera, S&M...

Ah yeah, I forgot about S&M, that was also awesome.

[GoGo Yubari]

I only have a couple of live albums. One of the best ones is A Radical Recital by Rasputina, which properly captured why Rasputina's live shows are infinitely better than their studio albums. The only thing it was missing is their usual live take on "Transylvanian Concubine."

I also have, off the top of my head, Live by Donny Hathaway and (of course) At Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash. Good stuff, both of them (especially the latter (again, of course)).

[Hobo]

I only really like a couple of live albums. Fragments of a Rainy Season by John Cale is one of my favorite albums of all time, Cale's Circus is also good. Loudon Wainwright's Career Moves is a nice live album as is Warren Zevon's Learning to Flinch. Nighthawks at the Diner is pretty cool too.

[Crybaby Bunting]

KISS was a band invented for live albums ¬_¬

[Draevyn]

I honestly do not like live albums. I love watching the concerts on DVD but I think live shows have to be experienced visually. Not to mention I hate when bands stop playing just to let the fans sing. I know it's all about fan participation but I don't pay $15 to hear the crowd sing, I pay it to hear the band sing.

[Lowerdeck]

I have a few, but I tend not to be a huge fan

Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood - Live at Madison Square Garden

Dave Matthews Band - Live at Fenway Park (Live Trax 6)

Armin van Buuren - Universal Religion 2008

Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers - Here Come The Noisemakers

Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsys

Bob Marley - Bablyon by Bus

Jeff Beck - Live at Ronnie Scott's

Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis - Two Men With The Blues

R.L. Burnside - Burnside on Burnside

Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green era) - Live at the BBC

North Mississippi Allstars - Hill Country Revue: Live at Bonaroo

[(həd)]

I honestly do not like live albums. I love watching the concerts on DVD but I think live shows have to be experienced visually. Not to mention I hate when bands stop playing just to let the fans sing. I know it's all about fan participation but I don't pay $15 to hear the crowd sing, I pay it to hear the band sing.

I'm pretty much the same. I much prefer watching a live DVD than listening to a live CD.

That said though, I do have a few favorites.

Cypress Hill - Live at the Fillmore

Slightly Stoopid - Acoustic Roots: Live and Direct

The Misfits - Evillive II

Kottonmouth Kings - Classic Hits Live

Authority Zero - Rhythm & Booze

[Hobo]

Just thinking about it again, I like a live album if its from someone who makes a live album interesting to listen to. I've got Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan live albums but I don't really enjoy them.

Whereas I like to listen to say a Leonard Cohen live album because you get alternate lyrics to songs, for example he seems to always sing "If I have ever been untrue/its that I thought a lover had to be some kind of liar too" rather then "If I have ever been untrue/I hope you know it was never to you" when singing Bird on a Wire live. Hallelujah is another song that he's been known to alter in live versions. Also Cohen can be very funny when he speaks to the audience and because his style has changed the songs have changed too. I really like his recent Live in London album for that. It has updated, and in some ways improved songs. Loudon Wainwright III's live performances are something similar. He performs new songs, tells stories and often sings songs with a different inflection. The comedy and tragedy of his songs comes through better when you listen to him live.

However, I can't listen to Will Oldham live. His voice just isn't that strong and it comes across in some live performances, except for one or two tracks on a live EP called More Revery: Travels in Constants Volume 7, which I think is mostly covers which is pretty nice.

One more, there is a Kris Kristofferson live album called Broken Freedom Song. Which is composed mostly of his lesser known songs, ones that generally the studio versions were dreadfully over produced or just something about them didn't really work but they really work on that album.

[Nerf]

"Swallow This! Live" by Poison and "Live: Entertainment or Death" by Motley Crue are probably my favourites.

In terms of live DVDs, Guns N' Roses at The Ritz in 1988 is all kinds of cool.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

"Runnin' Back Thru Canada" by a reunited lineup of The Guess Who and "That Night In Toronto" by the Tragically Hip are probably my two favourite live albums. Queen's 'Live at Wembeley" is good too.

[lari]

I honestly do not like live albums. I love watching the concerts on DVD but I think live shows have to be experienced visually.

I'm the opposite. I watch a DVD once, maybe twice, but that's about it. It just doesn't interest me anymore and it seems like too much trouble to have to keep watching all the time while listening. A CD I can play anytime and focus on hearing all the instruments and live arrangements and all these little nuances. Not to mention nowadays live DVD directors seem to have been hired straight off MTV promo video production company - terrible, fast paced cutting, making the whole experience feel like a stretched out epilepsy seizure. I prefer those old-fashioned wide shots where you can see everyone in the band and you yourself can choose what you pay attention to. Now it's more like: stick hits a drum/cut to bass player moshing for a split second/audience jumps for 0.2 seconds/lead singer sings a word/cut to guitarist taking a step/back to drummer hitting the cymbal, this time the camera is tilted. Ugh.

But live CDs - those I like a lot. I end up playing them all the time if the music is good. My favourite is probably Iced Earth's Alive in Athens.

I have maybe a dozen concert DVDs, but at least double the amount live CDs. I do like those live CD+DVD packages though. I can watch the concert once and then just listen to the CD whenever I feel like it.

[Jayzon]

Fuck you all. We're talking live albums, and nobody's mentioned the best motherfucking live album ever?

Of course, you all know I'm talking about Motörhead's "No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith".

/thread

[Liam]

I'm a big fan of live albums for some reason. I've got several:

Motorhead 'No Sleep Till Hammersmith'

Jeff Buckley 'Live At Sin-e' and 'Mystery White Boy'

My Dying Bride 'Ode To Woe'

In Flames 'The Tokyo Showdown'

Metallica 'S&M'

Alice In Chains 'Live' and 'Unplugged'

Nirvana 'Live From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah' and 'Unplugged'

Bloodbath 'The Wacken Carnage'

Paradise Lost 'Anatomy Of Melancholy'

RATM 'Live At The Grand Olympic Auditorium'

Pearl Jam 'Live At The Gorge' and I think live sets from Penn State and New York also

I think I might have some more, but thats the list so far.

[Bron Yr Aur]

Live albums can be cool. Depending... I can't really stand Motley Crue live. I rather enjoy hearing ALL the lyrics, contrary to the 1/3 that Vince Neil manages to spit out.

How the West Was Won - Led Zeppelin

The Song Remains the Same - Led Zeppelin

Delicate Sound of Thunder - Pink Floyd

Unplugged - Alice in Chains

TranceFusionRadio Broadcast 04 - The Disco Biscuits

Those are probably my all time favorites. Especially the Biscuits, they're fucking phenominal.