Musicians That are Better Live than on Album

[Strobe]

Yea, Creed's great live. Right when I thought they couldn't take me higher, they did.

I see what you did there

To be clear, I was just saying that Mark Tremonti was even better live, and that was true even back in his days playing in that not so great but oh so popular band. If you shut out the singer and just focused on the guitarist, you could enjoy it. I felt a little dirty for enjoying the show, but then I felt somewhat vindicated when Tremonti came out as such a great player afterwords.

 

[Jarmake]

Devin Townsend. Just crazy good live.

 

[metalheadblues]

John Mayer , Gojira

 

[bostjan]

I think it'd be much easier to list musicians who are better on the recording than live. In my experience, about 75-80% of bands I like sound better live than they do on their records. I think that when a band sounds better on the record than they do live, it's a sign that the band isn't as good at music as the producer who made their album for them.

This is excluding, of course, specific concerts where the sound system fucked up or the soundman sucked or something - that's a variable pretty specific to one specific performance.

Personally, I feel a lot more confident playing in front of a crowd or minicrowd or microcrowd or nanocrowd or picocrowd etc. than I feel about playing in front of a couple studio rats, because the studio guys are also usually good musicians and you know that they will likely be listening to every nuance of your performance a thousand times over. So, I usually play 1000x shittier in the studio than I do anywhere else.

 

[BusinessMan]

Sabaton. Loved them live, can't get into their albums.

 

[EmaDaCuz]

For me, Gojira, Rammstein, Ghost, Cannibal Corpse, Immortal, and Mastodon

 

[NickS]

Meshuggah.

I got to see them live in Australia in 2017. I didn't know it was possible to play that music live and sound as tight as the album. Not a single note or beat was astray anywhere. They were like machines, but it was still obviously humans playing. And the sound was incredible. Jens's live vocals are a bit different but great.

So it was like listening to the album, but with a live energy. But that's not all.

They kicked off with Clockworks. The light show they had was insane. The light wasn't just in rhythm with the songs - the light added so much to the experience. Not just flashing in rhythm, but the direction of the lights and where they'd swing to depending on the notes obviously had so much passion dedicated to programming them. It became a full audiovisual experience. You heard the music. You felt the music. You saw the music. The quickly oscillating red/blue lights also made the banners on stage appear to glitch out with the music. If you saw the lightshow only, and were familiar with their music, you would know which song the lights were for.

I think that's the first time I can honestly say when you see them live, you don't go to see them play music - you go to see music.

Very to glad to read this. I am seeing them here in Seattle on the 24th for the first time, at one of Seattle's best venues

 

[jwade]

Boris, Swans, Torche, Red Fang and Devin Townsend Project are all consistently stunning live acts. The fact that such impressive recorded songs are somehow that much more impressive live is astounding.

The previous lineup of Ghost was incredible as well, when Alpha/Omega/etc were still in the band. The level to which the songs improved/came alive was amazing, especially the tracks from Infestissumam.

By far the most impressive live act I've ever seen though? Def Leppard. To be fair, I saw them 15+ years ago so this may not be the current state of their live show, but when I saw them, I struggled to decide which of the guys was doing a more incredible job. Every song was so far beyond any of the recorded versions it actually made it difficult to listen to the old recorded tracks.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

I'll throw in a couple others.
Tommy Emmanuel is a super nice chatty dude, and he is just ridiculous live. The accuracy of his playing and the speed that he does harp harmonics is just jaw dropping.
Jesse Cook- Ton of energy at his show and they had a lot of variety from his albums, along with some cool covers (their version of cecilia by simon and garfunkel is great).
Necrophagist- I saw them years ago on the summer slaughter tour in at 1st avenue in minneapolis (it's not a very big venue). Muhammed came out with 4 4x12 cabs and a single ENGL head and proceeded to melt faces for over an hour.
After the Burial was also on that tour and I just remember having a massive hard on for their RG8s and their live tone.
Dying fetus was also on that tour, and for a trio they just absolutely destroy. I need to seem them live again, they kick so much ass.

 

[bhakan]

First that comes to mind is The Dillinger Escape Plan. I don't know that they necessarily sound better, but the energy of their shows is unreal and just lends an extra dimension to music that is already insane on record.

 

[USMarine75]

David Lee Roth!


I'll see myself out....

Haha maybe DLR from the late 70's! There isn't much worse than DLR lately. Saw him in Boston after they reunited and oh sweet lord he didn't know the lyrics. At one point he was out of breath and just stopped singing and sat down on the drum riser for the rest of the song. Another one he just skatted... and another he just talked through. The morning radio show did a bit where they would play a line and have you try and guess what he was saying. Painful.

 

[fps]

Iron Maiden. I don't really listen to them on record, but live they are just the best time in the world.

 

[StevenC]

When I saw Vektor I went in with the highest expectations and they were all met. It's like hearing the album, but with everything good about a live performance and also being like "holy shit he's actually singing like that while playing the crazy guitar parts". Will also back up Meshuggah in this regard, and the lights.

St. Vincent- She's way more fun to listen to live.

I saw St Vincent on her most recent tour and was really let down. No band just simplified backing tracks for the older stuff, which were all inferior to the album backing tracks. She played Cruel slower than the record, like as a march, which kind of ruined it. Then the second half was the whole new album, which really only has a handful of good tracks and a couple really bad ones.

That said, I left with serious GAS. And Rattlesnake and Birth in Reverse were amazing. Hopefully on her next tour she does things differently.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

When I saw Vektor I went in with the highest expectations and they were all met. It's like hearing the album, but with everything good about a live performance and also being like "holy shit he's actually singing like that while playing the crazy guitar parts". Will also back up Meshuggah in this regard, and the lights.


I saw St Vincent on her most recent tour and was really let down. No band just simplified backing tracks for the older stuff, which were all inferior to the album backing tracks. She played Cruel slower than the record, like as a march, which kind of ruined it. Then the second half was the whole new album, which really only has a handful of good tracks and a couple really bad ones.

That said, I left with serious GAS. And Rattlesnake and Birth in Reverse were amazing. Hopefully on her next tour she does things differently.

Hmm that sucks. When i saw her at bonnaroo a couple of years ago she played with a full band and did a bunch of covers along with her own music (she played even flow by pearl jam, dog and pony by the beatles) . Birth in reverse, cruel and surgeon are super fun songs live

 

[StevenC]

Hmm that sucks. When i saw her at bonnaroo a couple of years ago she played with a full band and did a bunch of covers along with her own music (she played even flow by pearl jam, dog and pony by the beatles) . Birth in reverse, cruel and surgeon are super fun songs live

Yeah, I was hoping to hear Surgeon but instead she played Strange Mercy and all of the new album. It seems every other tour and show she's done with a band and seems to be great fun live, so I'd definitely go to see her again in that case.

Also, it was definitely the most hipster crowd I've ever been a part of and everyone seemed really into all the bits and songs that I thought were the worst, so that didn't help.

Also, she played a short film as an opening act and where I was standing I could only see 2/3 of the screen, because the screen was way at the back of the stage. Gave off a sense of cheaping out on a band and opener more than a sense of isolation that I think was the idea.

 

[mongey]

The Melvins

dig their recorded sutff but live in the room they are monstrous

and my Mastodon experience was pretty average. the drummer played terrible when I saw them . his rolls were all over the shop

 

[Ebony]

Behexen.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Yeah, I was hoping to hear Surgeon but instead she played Strange Mercy and all of the new album. It seems every other tour and show she's done with a band and seems to be great fun live, so I'd definitely go to see her again in that case.

Also, it was definitely the most hipster crowd I've ever been a part of and everyone seemed really into all the bits and songs that I thought were the worst, so that didn't help.

Also, she played a short film as an opening act and where I was standing I could only see 2/3 of the screen, because the screen was way at the back of the stage. Gave off a sense of cheaping out on a band and opener more than a sense of isolation that I think was the idea.

Yeah she tends to attract some really douchey fans, or maybe that's just all of bonaroo. I'd definitely see her again, her new album is quite good.

 

[Dayn]

Argh, I need to see Meshuggah live. I've been a fan since before Nothing came out, yet I've never gone. They'll probably retire before I do at this rate.

If you ever get the chance to see Meshuggah live, take it and don't look back. I'm obviously heavily biased as they're my musical heroes, but it was definitely one of the best moments of my life. I've seen a few other musical heroes of mine, but Meshuggah was on a whole other level.

 

[Hollowway]

Came here to say this. They don't just sound amazing live. The energy is crazy, even recently.
I showed my cousin this video and his jaw dropped

Totally! I saw them on that tour, as well. Plus, Rush shows are great, because (much like a lot of metal) everyone in the audience appears to be a musician, because they know all the stuff about the parts that only musicians would.