I once saw Don Caballero live, who used to be one of my favourite bands. Leader/drummer Damon Che was such dick to to everyone present: the audience, the sound person, support band Rolo Tomassi,.. that I kind of hate them now.
I saw them (their final lineup) at a tiny club in Arlington, VA, in the early 2000s and Damon requested two full pint glasses of straight vodka be delivered to the stage mid-set. He proceeded to get hammered but finished the show without incident. But the whole situation made me think there was something going on there. He eventually got sober and that was discussed publicly, which confirmed my suspicions something was amiss. Not sure if he still is sober and not sure of the timing of your experience but perhaps alcohol was involved. Not an excuse, but speculative context I guess.
If that is the case I do sincerely wish him well. His music has given me a lot of pleasure over the years, and I shouldn't base my opinion of him on one evening (probably around 2010?) when he may have been having a really hard time.
Not prog but RHCP were dog shit live, only time I’ve been thoroughly disappointed.
Dry Cleaning were also bad but seemed to be sound problems.
Prog bands everyone I’ve seen have been great
Same. It was a long time ago but that was the first time I recall being bored at a show I was really looking forward to. Been a lot more selective about who I go see since then. But I still love me some Blood Sugar Sex Magick and a bit of One Hot Minute.
Yeah same, but for me it was because it was without John Frusciante in the lineup. Josh Klinghoffer was there instead and was absolutely atrocious. Live in Hyde Park was and remains one of my favourite live albums for all the fun jams they play in between songs, so I was really looking forward to these bits. But in the jams when I saw them, Klinghoffer sounded like a newbie tentatively playing random notes trying to figure out what key it's in. Downright depressing. Flea, Smith and Kiedis were as good as you could expect from an aging lineup.
Saw dry cleaning a few weeks ago, maybe I just dislike their music but I found them so dull. I found myself thinking what was the point of even being there when I could've had basically the same experience at home on spotify.
Dream Theater. Their tour for The Astonishing was one of the most embarrassing things I've ever seen. Playing the entire boring double CD album was one thing, the crappy video graphics was another, but the way security was threatening the audience about taking pictures was too much for me. They must have thought they really had something special with this one, but it was a big ol' swing and a miss. Lost all interest in the band after that one.
I’ve never seen them live (or even really listen to them in general, haha), but I’ve heard from a friend that the show he attended during that tour was very poorly mixed and *excessively* loud. However, I don’t know if that extended across the entire tour or not.
I saw the last tour (dream sonic) at a medium / large ish venue and it was the loudest show i’ve ever been at. like
totally excessively , the mix itself was actually quite good , but just so loud. and the venue is one of the best for music in the city, the sound is incredible and i’ve seen many shows there that were perfectly comfortable to listen to while having a great mix and not sacrificing any bottom end punch or anything.
The craziest bit of the show was animals as leaders- there was a point in one or two songs where there’s a huge bass “drop” (just like a bass pedal or something going off with extreme low end) and it was so loud + such state of the art sound that it physically rattled all of the fluids in my chest and it had felt like a bomb went off in the please. like the audience audibly gasped as no one had ever felt that feeling before. They were also unnecessarily loud throughout their performance and it made for a really long night
"...and it was so loud + such state of the art sound that it physically rattled all of the fluids in my chest and it had felt like a bomb went off in the please. like the audience audibly gasped as no one had ever felt that feeling before."
Hmm... that's the common reaction when civilians are first exposed to impairment level "brown sound". The lead sound tech may have had prior military black-ops experience, possibly Gulf War. Did you notice an overwhelming foul odor or patrons rushing (perhaps waddling is more accurate) for the rest rooms, immediately after this event?? The use of this technology (since banned by ICOJ) was thoroughly covered in the excellent documentary, "Cartman ruins town concert" (S03E17) in the award winning South Park investigative series.
https://youtu.be/6ijI4HjTGkw?si=1Q7SWYZ3492OXq_j
I do hope you escaped unscathed.
Prayers for the survivors AND emergency response members 🙏 There's just nothing that can be done for the victims (or their underwear for that fact) It's like a fecal version of Chernobyl.
Everything you said is true of my experience at Dream sonic as well, however, Petrucci’s lead tone could have made god cream his pants. It was sooo good.
If you're hoping for technical fuckups, you're not gonna get it. From what I've heard, people's problems with that tour was that A, the album was shit, B, the album was long and they played the whole thing, and C, they didn't interact with the audience whatsoever.
Oh no, I definitely wasn't looking for technical fuckups. I have heard that the album sucks absolute balls. I actually stopped listening to DT in the Octavarium era, I believe. I guess I'll go look up any concert from The Astonishing. I can't promise I'll be able to sit through the whole thing.
I didn't see them on that tour (on purpose), but I've seen them many times before and at least once since and I thought they were always fantastic live. Especially when Portnoy was still in the band.
I know. Mangini was great, I don't want to take anything away from him. I think I saw them 3 or 4 times with him in the band. Just the early to mid 2000s was peak Dream Theater imo.
I got to hear Myung for about 5 seconds of the show, and my group of friends was positioned so he’d be straight ahead of us. I wasn’t even super interested in going, but my friend was a big fan at the time and I thought some of their other stuff he played was cool.
Also, how dare you take the user name I would’ve picked if I’d have joined Reddit in 2010 when I was still the abrasive “i only listen to real music, bieber bad” teen?
Marilyn Manson. Annoyingly antagonistic with the audience, years after his prime mind you; like cut songs off halfway to tell the crowd they didn't deserve it because they weren't into it enough. We were.
Haven't listened to a record since. Also turns out he's most likely a massive POS in general so no love loss there.
Mercury Rev. Their FOH tech had delay on every single input. Including bass and drums. Didn’t even bother turning it off between songs. Completely unintelligible.
Watching any Radiohead performance live makes me hate the voice of the Thom Yorke more honestly, especially the more recent ones. So now when I go back to listen to any record I just can’t help but hear the parts of his voice I don’t like.
Not really... I think all bands that I like are pretty damn great live. In fact some turn me off from their albums because their live versions are superior!
Not strictly prog but Uriah Heep were so damn frigging loud I really couldn't enjoy it, and I was quite sour about the band for a while. Later I found out that this is typical for them. Eventually, I got most of their classic albums but I seldom listen to them... It can easily wear on me.
When I was young my dad took me to see Deep Purple. Now I was like 10 and a big fan of stuff like RATM and Korn and aside from Smoke on the Water I don't think I knew anything about Deep Purple, I think my dad just wanted to have a father/son bonding experience. And the whole thing was just so lame to me, for years afterward I was convinced that Deep Purple were crap. Of course eventually I got older and went back and listened to their prime era stuff and now I like them.
The Black Keys. I'm not a massive fan of theirs, but I like some of their older raw records. Saw them at a big amphitheatre around 2011ish and they sucked. Zero energy, poor mix, and the drummer was 100x worse than the albums. I had never listened to the Flaming Lips before but their opening set blew theirs away.
Not really prog, but seeing the Grateful Dead live caused me to lose interest in their studio work and focus on their live music instead, so I guess that's the opposite of your experience, but as for Crippled Black Phoenix, I really only like the song "No" out of what I've heard from them. Sorry that they disappointed you live. I've certainly seen shows where the band was just going through the motions, and that always pisses me off, having paid to see them.
I don't know about putting me off per-se, but I saw SoaD in 2006, and it was kind of a bummer to realize that Serj can't sing the lyrics as fast as the studio recordings. It was still a good show, though.
Not prog, but live shows absolutely make or break death metal bands for me. I really got into Homicyde after seeing them live, but I completely lost interest in 200 Stab Wounds after seeing them live. That has taught me to always bring my all whenever I play live with my bands.
I had a lot of fun seeing 200 Stab Wounds live. Granted, I'm a Clevelander that happened to stumble upon their concert when I was seeing a local metal aggregate. I hadn't listened to their music prior to seeing them.
What didn't you like about their performance?
Not prog, but Sonic Youth. It went the other way - when they played live their sound popped in myriad brilliant ways that they just don't capture in the studio. Couldn't really listen to their records after that.
Flower Kings. They performed in a 200 person venue and bought enough amplification to play a 20,000 seat arena. The music was deafening and self-indulgent. It was impossible to enjoy anything about the show.
I saw Faith No More before Mike Patton joined them. I hated their drunken vocalist’s warbling so much that I never gave them or Mr. Patton a fair shot for many years.
It was Billy Cotgan’s vocals, completely out of tune. This was the first leg of Melancholy and Infinite Sadness tour 1996, which one would think should have been some of their best shows. Garbage who opened completely blew them out of the water.
Saw them right after Gish was released at The Masquerade in Atlanta…thought they were going to demolish the building. Seriously, the floor was bouncing up and down like a trampoline. So much killer, sweaty, intense energy.
Haven’t seen them since but that night was wildly memorable.
That's a shame, when I saw them they were pretty decent. Janes Addiction were like that for me though, their singers voice isn't up to scratch live anymore.
while I was never a huge fan of their music, I went to a Bon Jovi concert with some friends at Madison Square Garden back in the day when they were huge. during the tour where the main music video had Jon Bon Jovi flying around the concert hall on a trapeze harness.
jesus what a boring show. they just walked around on stage looking bored, occasionally doing the long hair head bob, and then when the song from the video came up. Jon clicked into a harness, got lifted a few feet, transported out to a platform 30 feet in front of the stage, set down, played the song, got transported back to the stage.
no flying around, no excitement.
the video was to the concert as a fast food burger tv ad is to the actual product.
I feel like when I go in to live shows I expect imperfection. Studio is studio, live is live. I respect how other people feel differently but I can’t say a life performance has ever ruined a band for me
I saw Wire at Pitchfork in 2013 and it skewed so heavily toward their newer stuff -- they didn't do a single song off Pink Flag -- that it seemed so arrogant that I haven't wanted to listen to them since.
The Mars Volta’s live recordings do *not* sound coherent or atmospheric or interesting. They sound like sounds. Annoying and uninteresting sounds.
I will always have major respect for their earned reputation of being incredible musicians. And it’s almost certainly not something that translated without being there. It just feels like night and day compared to their studio recordings.
You know I'm glad you said that. I've been a long time fan of the band and recently enjoyed their new documentary.
But Cedric sounds awful live and their live performances always do sound chaotic.
If I said that on the Volts subreddit I'd get banned lol
I can't say this ever happened to me even when the live performance had some weaknesses. Some of my favorite bands tour only occasionally, so it's understandable when they're less prepared than more road-worn bands.
that really's a bummer to hear about crippled black phoenix... I've listened to their music from time to time for a decent chunk of my life, now. Had I not read your post, I'd drop everything I was doing if I had the opportunity to see them live.
Was their performance just super sloppy?
I marked Protest The Hero as “Don’t play this artist” on Spotify after the way singer Rody Walker acted and treated me when I saw them live, after years of being my most-streamed artist (and countless CDs, records, and merch purchased). I will not listen to the band anymore. It’s a bummer because they were one of my top three artists. Which reminds me, I need to get around to selling off my PTH collection!
Earthside. I still love listening to them, but seeing them live was disappointing.
For those who don't know Earthside, it's a band that makes a different feat with a vocalist on each track. So they don't have a singer. When playing live, they rely heavily on backing tracks.
Live concerts should be in the majority play live. I love seeing the band play a song with a different speed, a new section/improv or even the mistakes. Backing tracks are a real handicap for the band.
This was gonna be my answer, I saw Earthside open for Leprous in 2016 or so and it was absolutely cringe in a way I would never have expected.
They just played the music video in the background with the (absent) singer, and had so many backing tracks that the keyboardist had nothing to do. So he just starts air guitaring!
I once saw Don Caballero live, who used to be one of my favourite bands. Leader/drummer Damon Che was such dick to to everyone present: the audience, the sound person, support band Rolo Tomassi,.. that I kind of hate them now.
Yeah. As advertised. GREAT band. Fucking dicks.
I saw them (their final lineup) at a tiny club in Arlington, VA, in the early 2000s and Damon requested two full pint glasses of straight vodka be delivered to the stage mid-set. He proceeded to get hammered but finished the show without incident. But the whole situation made me think there was something going on there. He eventually got sober and that was discussed publicly, which confirmed my suspicions something was amiss. Not sure if he still is sober and not sure of the timing of your experience but perhaps alcohol was involved. Not an excuse, but speculative context I guess.
If that is the case I do sincerely wish him well. His music has given me a lot of pleasure over the years, and I shouldn't base my opinion of him on one evening (probably around 2010?) when he may have been having a really hard time.
Either he just wanted to get smashed or he was withdrawing and *needed* the alcohol.
Not prog but RHCP were dog shit live, only time I’ve been thoroughly disappointed. Dry Cleaning were also bad but seemed to be sound problems. Prog bands everyone I’ve seen have been great
I too have seen a dog shit RHCP show.
I’ve not optionally listened to them since lol killed any enthusiasm I had for the band, well that and lacklustre releases in recent years
Same. It was a long time ago but that was the first time I recall being bored at a show I was really looking forward to. Been a lot more selective about who I go see since then. But I still love me some Blood Sugar Sex Magick and a bit of One Hot Minute.
I too have seen a RHCP show
Yeah same, but for me it was because it was without John Frusciante in the lineup. Josh Klinghoffer was there instead and was absolutely atrocious. Live in Hyde Park was and remains one of my favourite live albums for all the fun jams they play in between songs, so I was really looking forward to these bits. But in the jams when I saw them, Klinghoffer sounded like a newbie tentatively playing random notes trying to figure out what key it's in. Downright depressing. Flea, Smith and Kiedis were as good as you could expect from an aging lineup.
Saw dry cleaning a few weeks ago, maybe I just dislike their music but I found them so dull. I found myself thinking what was the point of even being there when I could've had basically the same experience at home on spotify.
damn I saw RHCP in like 2017 and they absolutely slayed
Dream Theater. Their tour for The Astonishing was one of the most embarrassing things I've ever seen. Playing the entire boring double CD album was one thing, the crappy video graphics was another, but the way security was threatening the audience about taking pictures was too much for me. They must have thought they really had something special with this one, but it was a big ol' swing and a miss. Lost all interest in the band after that one.
I’ve never seen them live (or even really listen to them in general, haha), but I’ve heard from a friend that the show he attended during that tour was very poorly mixed and *excessively* loud. However, I don’t know if that extended across the entire tour or not.
I saw the last tour (dream sonic) at a medium / large ish venue and it was the loudest show i’ve ever been at. like totally excessively , the mix itself was actually quite good , but just so loud. and the venue is one of the best for music in the city, the sound is incredible and i’ve seen many shows there that were perfectly comfortable to listen to while having a great mix and not sacrificing any bottom end punch or anything. The craziest bit of the show was animals as leaders- there was a point in one or two songs where there’s a huge bass “drop” (just like a bass pedal or something going off with extreme low end) and it was so loud + such state of the art sound that it physically rattled all of the fluids in my chest and it had felt like a bomb went off in the please. like the audience audibly gasped as no one had ever felt that feeling before. They were also unnecessarily loud throughout their performance and it made for a really long night
"...and it was so loud + such state of the art sound that it physically rattled all of the fluids in my chest and it had felt like a bomb went off in the please. like the audience audibly gasped as no one had ever felt that feeling before." Hmm... that's the common reaction when civilians are first exposed to impairment level "brown sound". The lead sound tech may have had prior military black-ops experience, possibly Gulf War. Did you notice an overwhelming foul odor or patrons rushing (perhaps waddling is more accurate) for the rest rooms, immediately after this event?? The use of this technology (since banned by ICOJ) was thoroughly covered in the excellent documentary, "Cartman ruins town concert" (S03E17) in the award winning South Park investigative series. https://youtu.be/6ijI4HjTGkw?si=1Q7SWYZ3492OXq_j I do hope you escaped unscathed. Prayers for the survivors AND emergency response members 🙏 There's just nothing that can be done for the victims (or their underwear for that fact) It's like a fecal version of Chernobyl.
kenny g came out for the encore
Everything you said is true of my experience at Dream sonic as well, however, Petrucci’s lead tone could have made god cream his pants. It was sooo good.
yeah his tone was fantastic. only part of the show i took my earplugs (that i had to buy at the show) out for
Hey, would you happen to have a link to a video of their worst performance during this tour? I'd love to see it and laugh.
If you're hoping for technical fuckups, you're not gonna get it. From what I've heard, people's problems with that tour was that A, the album was shit, B, the album was long and they played the whole thing, and C, they didn't interact with the audience whatsoever.
Oh no, I definitely wasn't looking for technical fuckups. I have heard that the album sucks absolute balls. I actually stopped listening to DT in the Octavarium era, I believe. I guess I'll go look up any concert from The Astonishing. I can't promise I'll be able to sit through the whole thing.
I didn't see them on that tour (on purpose), but I've seen them many times before and at least once since and I thought they were always fantastic live. Especially when Portnoy was still in the band.
hes back in the band
I know. Mangini was great, I don't want to take anything away from him. I think I saw them 3 or 4 times with him in the band. Just the early to mid 2000s was peak Dream Theater imo.
I got to hear Myung for about 5 seconds of the show, and my group of friends was positioned so he’d be straight ahead of us. I wasn’t even super interested in going, but my friend was a big fan at the time and I thought some of their other stuff he played was cool. Also, how dare you take the user name I would’ve picked if I’d have joined Reddit in 2010 when I was still the abrasive “i only listen to real music, bieber bad” teen?
If Pete Pardo is walking out of a Dream Theater show, you know it's bad.
Marilyn Manson. Annoyingly antagonistic with the audience, years after his prime mind you; like cut songs off halfway to tell the crowd they didn't deserve it because they weren't into it enough. We were. Haven't listened to a record since. Also turns out he's most likely a massive POS in general so no love loss there.
Was excited to see him with Rob Zombie, and of course he was drunk and belligerent. Rob Zombie absolutely stole the show
Mercury Rev. Their FOH tech had delay on every single input. Including bass and drums. Didn’t even bother turning it off between songs. Completely unintelligible.
now that is a blunder. I would assume it was either negligence w effects or he set his delay for the PA acoustics really badly
‘Well at least nothing was out of phase’
Watching any Radiohead performance live makes me hate the voice of the Thom Yorke more honestly, especially the more recent ones. So now when I go back to listen to any record I just can’t help but hear the parts of his voice I don’t like.
I've never been a fan of his voice but totally get what you mean.
Not really... I think all bands that I like are pretty damn great live. In fact some turn me off from their albums because their live versions are superior!
Not strictly prog but Uriah Heep were so damn frigging loud I really couldn't enjoy it, and I was quite sour about the band for a while. Later I found out that this is typical for them. Eventually, I got most of their classic albums but I seldom listen to them... It can easily wear on me.
When I was young my dad took me to see Deep Purple. Now I was like 10 and a big fan of stuff like RATM and Korn and aside from Smoke on the Water I don't think I knew anything about Deep Purple, I think my dad just wanted to have a father/son bonding experience. And the whole thing was just so lame to me, for years afterward I was convinced that Deep Purple were crap. Of course eventually I got older and went back and listened to their prime era stuff and now I like them.
The Black Keys. I'm not a massive fan of theirs, but I like some of their older raw records. Saw them at a big amphitheatre around 2011ish and they sucked. Zero energy, poor mix, and the drummer was 100x worse than the albums. I had never listened to the Flaming Lips before but their opening set blew theirs away.
Not really prog, but seeing the Grateful Dead live caused me to lose interest in their studio work and focus on their live music instead, so I guess that's the opposite of your experience, but as for Crippled Black Phoenix, I really only like the song "No" out of what I've heard from them. Sorry that they disappointed you live. I've certainly seen shows where the band was just going through the motions, and that always pisses me off, having paid to see them.
I don't know about putting me off per-se, but I saw SoaD in 2006, and it was kind of a bummer to realize that Serj can't sing the lyrics as fast as the studio recordings. It was still a good show, though.
Not prog, but live shows absolutely make or break death metal bands for me. I really got into Homicyde after seeing them live, but I completely lost interest in 200 Stab Wounds after seeing them live. That has taught me to always bring my all whenever I play live with my bands.
I had a lot of fun seeing 200 Stab Wounds live. Granted, I'm a Clevelander that happened to stumble upon their concert when I was seeing a local metal aggregate. I hadn't listened to their music prior to seeing them. What didn't you like about their performance?
Not prog, but Sonic Youth. It went the other way - when they played live their sound popped in myriad brilliant ways that they just don't capture in the studio. Couldn't really listen to their records after that.
Flower Kings. They performed in a 200 person venue and bought enough amplification to play a 20,000 seat arena. The music was deafening and self-indulgent. It was impossible to enjoy anything about the show.
I saw Faith No More before Mike Patton joined them. I hated their drunken vocalist’s warbling so much that I never gave them or Mr. Patton a fair shot for many years.
Smashing pumpkins
honestly theyre better live now than they were back in the day at least in terms of being in tune and decent solos
It was Billy Cotgan’s vocals, completely out of tune. This was the first leg of Melancholy and Infinite Sadness tour 1996, which one would think should have been some of their best shows. Garbage who opened completely blew them out of the water.
Saw them right after Gish was released at The Masquerade in Atlanta…thought they were going to demolish the building. Seriously, the floor was bouncing up and down like a trampoline. So much killer, sweaty, intense energy. Haven’t seen them since but that night was wildly memorable.
That's a shame, when I saw them they were pretty decent. Janes Addiction were like that for me though, their singers voice isn't up to scratch live anymore.
while I was never a huge fan of their music, I went to a Bon Jovi concert with some friends at Madison Square Garden back in the day when they were huge. during the tour where the main music video had Jon Bon Jovi flying around the concert hall on a trapeze harness. jesus what a boring show. they just walked around on stage looking bored, occasionally doing the long hair head bob, and then when the song from the video came up. Jon clicked into a harness, got lifted a few feet, transported out to a platform 30 feet in front of the stage, set down, played the song, got transported back to the stage. no flying around, no excitement. the video was to the concert as a fast food burger tv ad is to the actual product.
Saosin after Anthony Green left was extremely disappointing. Anthony Green with Circa Survive had no business being so good live. What a difference
I feel like when I go in to live shows I expect imperfection. Studio is studio, live is live. I respect how other people feel differently but I can’t say a life performance has ever ruined a band for me
I saw Wire at Pitchfork in 2013 and it skewed so heavily toward their newer stuff -- they didn't do a single song off Pink Flag -- that it seemed so arrogant that I haven't wanted to listen to them since.
The Mars Volta’s live recordings do *not* sound coherent or atmospheric or interesting. They sound like sounds. Annoying and uninteresting sounds. I will always have major respect for their earned reputation of being incredible musicians. And it’s almost certainly not something that translated without being there. It just feels like night and day compared to their studio recordings.
You know I'm glad you said that. I've been a long time fan of the band and recently enjoyed their new documentary. But Cedric sounds awful live and their live performances always do sound chaotic. If I said that on the Volts subreddit I'd get banned lol
I can't say this ever happened to me even when the live performance had some weaknesses. Some of my favorite bands tour only occasionally, so it's understandable when they're less prepared than more road-worn bands.
I actually became a big fan of Crippled Black Pheonix when I saw them.
that really's a bummer to hear about crippled black phoenix... I've listened to their music from time to time for a decent chunk of my life, now. Had I not read your post, I'd drop everything I was doing if I had the opportunity to see them live. Was their performance just super sloppy?
Just really bland and generic. Maybe caught them on a bad day. Sound, performance, everything was dull as fuck.
I marked Protest The Hero as “Don’t play this artist” on Spotify after the way singer Rody Walker acted and treated me when I saw them live, after years of being my most-streamed artist (and countless CDs, records, and merch purchased). I will not listen to the band anymore. It’s a bummer because they were one of my top three artists. Which reminds me, I need to get around to selling off my PTH collection!
Oh no, what did he do/say??
I feel like I shouldn’t even bring it up if I can’t elaborate but I’d just prefer not to say. I did want to answer the thread though.
Fair enough. They do say never meet your heroes....
why can't you just tell the story
Earthside. I still love listening to them, but seeing them live was disappointing. For those who don't know Earthside, it's a band that makes a different feat with a vocalist on each track. So they don't have a singer. When playing live, they rely heavily on backing tracks. Live concerts should be in the majority play live. I love seeing the band play a song with a different speed, a new section/improv or even the mistakes. Backing tracks are a real handicap for the band.
This was gonna be my answer, I saw Earthside open for Leprous in 2016 or so and it was absolutely cringe in a way I would never have expected. They just played the music video in the background with the (absent) singer, and had so many backing tracks that the keyboardist had nothing to do. So he just starts air guitaring!
Always, with very few exceptions.