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Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?

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erikalbany
Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 06, 2007 03:56AM
I don't mean worst performance; I mean worst band. I've wrapped my mind around this and would have to say it was Zebra in the early '80s. I was 14, and they were playing at the college in my small town for 3 bucks. It was walking distance and I had no car. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Close runner up is when I had to review Backstreet Boys at Saratoga Performing Arts Center a couple of years ago (their "comeback" tour). Though I stand by the fact that "I Want It That Way" is a great tune. I also saw an Allman Brothers show that made me go narcoleptic when they followed a 25 minute drum solo with a 20 minute funky bass extravaganza.



Post Edited (03-05-07 23:58)
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satchmykels
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 06, 2007 04:33AM
i've only fallen asleep at four shows...

the go-betweens 1983, fleetwood mac 1984-ish, hole 1991 and superchunk 2001-ish, but i've walked out too many times to remember and stayed while some crappy band played even more often.

worst band i've ever seen was jane's addiction in the fall of 91. big dumb rock at its biggest and dumbest. also my last (indoor) arena show. eventhough some claim i entered that very same arena (st paul civic center) a few years later for a soundgarden/you am i show, i just don't think that's truthful. egads, soundgarden! they were every bit as big and dumb as jane's addiction, weren't they?

did see zebra open for rush (i think) when i was in college (gd, how did i get talked into that one?), but i got sooooo stoned that night, the music was the least of my problems.
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Delvin
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 06, 2007 08:22AM
For me, that would have to be a group called Black Spot. They opened for The Replacements when I saw them in '89.

The story I've gotten since then is that The 'Mats were getting more pressure from Sire at the time, and they reacted to it. *Don't Tell a Soul* was out, the single "I'll Be You" was getting a bit of airplay, the band was starting to play some bigger halls -- it was looking as though they were primed to break. They reacted to that in their usual obstreperous fashion: hiring the most vulgar, obnoxious, bottom-of-the-barrel band they knew to open for them.

On the other hand, The Replacements were great that night.
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mats84
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 06, 2007 09:16AM
I probably saw every crappy hair metal band in the early 80s, so to pick the worst would be tough. Basically going to a heavy metal show every weekend was what you did at my high school for fun...............just followed the packs of teenage girls.

Of course it should be noted that merely 18 months later those same girls would see me in my Husker Du shirt and drop pearls of wisdom like "What happened to you? You used to be sooooooooooooooo cool, don't you remember us sitting in your car and listening to Ratt?"

Ah, but I digress.

If I had to pick a "worst" it would be a band called Icon, who for some reason were insanely popular in my school, I think because their albums came with free posters inside.

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breno
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 06, 2007 12:38PM
Hair metallers Roxy Blue, opening for Spinal Tap. The poor dumb bastards didn't even seem to realize that they were the epitome of everything the headliners were shortly going to come out and mock.
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diskojoe
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 06, 2007 01:02PM
Some of the bands that opened for the Kinks when I saw them were aggressively mediocre. Just one sticks in my mind, one Jon Eddie, who I do have to give props to for making some stupid gesture with his arms and then saying, "If I was big, you would be going nuts now!"
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g-lovah
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 03, 2007 06:12AM
diskojoe wrote:

> Some of the bands that opened for the Kinks when I saw them
> were aggressively mediocre. Just one sticks in my mind, one Jon
> Eddie, who I do have to give props to for making some stupid
> gesture with his arms and then saying, "If I was big, you would
> be going nuts now!"

Just had to agree with you about Jon Eddie! Do you remember the part where he stage-whispered, dramatically, "Now is the time when..SEX has occurred?

I was ten years old. I am still traumatized.
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diskojoe
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 03, 2007 02:43PM
Nope, I don't remember Mr. Eddie's other line. I was 27 at the time & was not traumatized. The other memorable part of that particular Kinks concert was that it was at the same weekend my friends & I saw REM at the same venue (Great Woods in Mansfield, MA, now called the Tweeter Center). REM (I don't even remember who opened for them; it wasn't Robyn Hitchcock, which would have been nice) was on Friday night & the Kinks w/the wonderful Mr. Eddie were on Sunday night. We drove back 'n forth from the North Shore of MA, which was a pretty long trip.
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g-lovah
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 08, 2007 03:49AM
Actually, I just looked him up. 1) He's still around; 2) It's John Eddie, not Jon; 3) He's looking for a roadie, so if you need a job...

I'm pretty sure that Kinks show (at the brand-new Ocean Center, for which one of the only remaining pre-WWII neighborhoods in Daytona Beach was flattened) was the second concert my dad ever took me to. The first was Alice Cooper, which I can say did me nothing but good -- guillotine, straitjacket, sexy nurse and all. Thanks, Dad. The Vinnie Vincent Invasion opened -- even then I knew they were bad, but nowhere near the level of John Eddie.


diskojoe wrote:

> Nope, I don't remember Mr. Eddie's other line. I was 27 at the
> time & was not traumatized. The other memorable part of that
> particular Kinks concert was that it was at the same weekend my
> friends & I saw REM at the same venue (Great Woods in
> Mansfield, MA, now called the Tweeter Center). REM (I don't
> even remember who opened for them; it wasn't Robyn Hitchcock,
> which would have been nice) was on Friday night & the Kinks
> w/the wonderful Mr. Eddie were on Sunday night. We drove back
> 'n forth from the North Shore of MA, which was a pretty long
> trip.
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jglauner
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 12, 2007 07:27PM
"I saw De La Soul in 1989 (for $3 at the UGA Student Center) & they were terrible."

I saw them in '95 or '96 at Tramps and they were excellent. Q-Tip came out and did a killer Busta Rhymes impression for "Scenario."

--At the first Lollapalooza, Jane's Addiciton were awful. Yech. So were Butthole Surfers, who should never play during daylight hours. Rollins Band stole the show ... in the 2 p.m. slot, no less.

--My band opened for 13 Engines in '89 or '90. For four songs, they were really good. Then, they realized how horribly drunk they were and the show quickly disintegrated into a complete disaster. To be fair, we were just as drunk and possibly even more awful. I got the impression that 13 Engines was a good live band who were frustrated that they got screwed by the promoter, who did not promotion, ensuring a crowd of 13, who were mostly our "fans."

--Sonic Youth performed rather poorly opening up for Neil Young (Social Distortion was much better) in Pittsburgh on the Ragged Glory tour. Sure, the crowd brimmed with a-holes who had no time for the two opening bands, but that's no excuse for throwing your guitar into the audience, Thurston, requiring one of Young's roadies to wade in and retrieve it. (SY were great touring on their own behind Goo in Columbus in 1990).

--Rakim, touring behind his comeback record, was awful. Prerecorded backing tracks, horribly mixed, no DJ (just Rakim and a mike) and a lot of "friends" walking across the stage, often obscuring the featured performer. An utter mess.
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Michael Toland
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 06, 2007 01:29PM
My very first concert was Night Ranger and the Starship. 'Nuff said.

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scratchie
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 06, 2007 08:24PM
I have to cop to seeing Zebra live as well, and they were pretty bad. They were opening for Loverboy, and they made Loverboy look good.

They were probably the worst arena band I ever saw. Worst club band is probably the Judas and Natasha Experiment, a mind-bogglingly awful "prog" band that opened for Fred Frith and included Boston Phoenix critic Michael Bloom. Imagine a female vocalist (not "singer") screaming pretentious lyrics while six or seven musicians make random noise behind her, without anyone (seemlingly) listening to what anyone else was doing. Or better yet, don't.

The only other contender would be a band that I once saw curiously sandwiched between two ska bands at an "indie label" showcase in Chicago. If memory serves (and why should it?) they were called Cheer Accident. My recollection is that one of the bandmembers was showing off his new "Larks Tongues in Aspic" tattoo before the set, and that the only thing they seemed to have taken from the music of King Crimson was feedback. At one point, there was literally a line at the door to get OUT of the club.

Why I even remember the names of these two bands is a mystery that wil haunt me all of my days. Who knows what useful information I might have stored in those brain cells instead?
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rhettlawrenceswife
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 06, 2007 08:49PM
Wang Chung, opening for Squeeze? or the Cars? Or someone like that, in the mid-'80's.

And to answer a variation on the question, the Cars were a positvely dreadful live act.
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scratchie
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 06, 2007 09:51PM
rhettlawrenceswife wrote:

> And to answer a variation on the question, the Cars were a
> positvely dreadful live act.

Oh, come on. Maybe they didn't put on a "show", maybe they were a little lacking in sponteneity, but they were a long way from "positively dreadful".
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ira
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 06, 2007 11:54PM
i know this wasn't the question, but the most incompetent performance by a band i liked (and i don't mean an off night, i mean they simply had no legitimate reason for being on a stage in front of paying customers) was by the Primitives at the World in NYC, December 1988. simply abysmal.

bands i've slept through (no critical opinion imputed, i was just TIRED) -- Black Sabbath, Husker Du and Pat Benatar (no, not really, but if i hadn't been standing i would have)

bands i've seen and wished would either stop playing and go away or die RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND: Black Oak Arkansas, Lynyrd Skynyrd (they at least obliged), Ted Nugent, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin (hey, it was during Moby Dick), Wilco, the Big F (don't ask), the Mission, KMFDM, King Diamond, Melissa Etheridge (a 1989 club show at which I was accosted by Rosie O'Donnell and harassed for my lack of enthusiasm), sonic youth, the shirts, meat loaf, primus, blind melon, smashing pumpkins, etc....
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Michael Toland
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 07, 2007 04:38PM
Three bands whose sets I fell asleep during:

Electric Wizard, a British Sabbathy metal band who I actually like quite a lot. I was exhausted, though, and had had to sit through three sets of very similar music and I just...nodded off. One of the club employees kicked me awake (gently) so they wouldn't get in trouble if a cop walked in.

The Big Wu, some jam band a publicist begged me to go see. I had to endure, once again, two very long sets by bands that played similarly aimless music, and it took only two songs for me to simply fall asleep...on my feet, no less. I came to right before my head hit one of the club's big metal support beams, barely avoiding a concussion.

Danny Barnes, doing one of his first solo sets outside of the Bad Livers. It was during SXSW, I'd had essentially no sleep for three days, and I made the mistake of sitting down in the back. Before his first song was over, boom! I'd nodded off for a little power nap. I awoke just as he was finishing. I felt bad, as I like his songs a lot and wanted to see what he'd do without the Livers. Oh well. At least I felt refreshed for the rest of the evening.

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Delvin
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 07, 2007 06:41AM
There's a band in Denver named "Call Sign Cobra." I've seen them as an opening act for several other acts, and every time, I've wondered where they got the idea that they had any business on stage in front of a paying audience. Sloppy playing, lousy sound, no discernible talent ... Last time I saw them, they had added a horn section (which only made the blare louder) and two skanky-looking female backup singers (which only made the band look desperate).

Then again, I can't say Call Sign Cobra has ever disappointed me, because I've never had any expectations regarding them. The Cars, in 1982, remains the most disappointing show I've ever seen. Great sound and playing, but an almost catatonic stage presence ... and an awfully short set for the money.

I saw Zebra too. (Sheesh, this thread is starting to look like a twelve-step program for Zebra survivors.) They were still a club band with a loyal hometown following in New Orleans (where I went to high school). Actually, I remember it as a pretty good show.
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Delvin
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 07, 2007 06:42AM
I just did a web search, and Zebra still exists -- same three guys! In fact, they're playing in Farmingdale, NY on 3/18/07.

Ira, do you think you'll make the trip out onto Long Island to check 'em out? You know, just to make sure they're as bad as erik and scratchie say they are?
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erikalbany
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 07, 2007 03:19PM
there's a 7-minute documentary on them on youtube, from their new DVD. (Yes, "7 minutes": some things provide their own punch line.) Among the "critics" interviewed is Stuttering John.
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diskojoe
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 07, 2007 04:08PM
The one concert that I fell asleep in was some sort of blues benefit gig in Boston in the mid '90s. All I can remember was that the leather couch I fell asleep on was rather comfy
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Aitch
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 07, 2007 09:56PM
Perth new waver nerds The Eurogliders were the second support for The Teardrop Explodes and were truly horrible and ended up arguing with members of the crowd regarding just how truly horrible they were. Worse, they had a long and fairly fruitful career.

Biggest dissapointment was The Damned in about 1987, I was so pumped for it but it was pretty sad, The Saints and Screaming Tribesmen both blew them away and that's taking into account a shocking front of house for The Saints and it being the beginning of Screaming Tribesmen losing the plot.
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John Brown
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 08, 2007 02:13PM
When I was a teenager, a friend of mine got tickets to a Yes show at The Capital Centre, in Landover Maryland. My god, how fucking boring! Just noodling, long, boring nonsense. The opening act was Donovan. We came in as he was singing his last song, so I don't have much to say about him. The audience was all died-in-the-wool, stoner-hippes. Pot smoke eveywhere. I fell asleep halfway through the show. My slep was short-lived because my friend made the point of waking me up. He really liked the show. I hated it. The Capital Centre no longer exists. It was demolished a few years ago. The Verizon Centre in downtown D.C. has taken it's place. I haven't seen my "friend" since senior year of high school. The only thing memorable about that show to me is that it took place the same day Elvis Presley died. The thought did go through my head that rock 'n roll died with him that day because of the lousy show that I had just witnessed from Yes. I bought Never Mind the Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols later that year, 1977. I knew then that rock 'n roll was still alive and well. As for a more recent lousy concert experience, I would say it came from watching a band called Tomahawk. I had never heard of them before seeing them. I doubt I will see them again, unless they are an opening act. When I saw them they were an opening act for TOOL. They just sucked with abrasive half-metal, all-nonsesne music. Tool was excellent. So, does that really count as a bad concert when the opening act sucks?
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Heff
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 09, 2007 03:50PM
The Voluptous Horror of Karen Black - I had read about them and their outrageous live show, so I decided to check it out. All it was some half-naked people dancing around twirling umbrellas to your standard garage rock music. If it got better I wouldn't know because I didn't stick around.

The funny thing was that the opening band, Esmirelda, was really offensive but they had put so much effort into being offensive with a pretty elaborate stage show, that I thought it was one of the best things I had ever seen! I became sort of an Esmirelda groupie trying to go all her shows which entailed going to a lot of dives, where a whitebread guy like me really stood out.

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michael baker
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 10, 2007 10:09PM
pixies
replacements
bloodrock
loverboy
de la soul
blondie
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Delvin
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 11, 2007 07:18AM
I don't think I've ever fallen asleep during a rock show, but I came close when I saw The String Cheese Incident, three years ago.

A friend of mine (who's really into jam bands) had an extra ticket to see them on a double-bill with The Allman Brothers Band. The Allmans were up first, and I thought they were great. They held my attention for nearly three hours. Even though they took off on some long jams, they never lost track of the song, and their sound remained rock-solid throughout. And, at least to my ears, Gregg Allman sang like he meant every word.

Then The String Cheese Incident came on, and jeez, they sounded so flimsy. Their songs didn't have nearly the heft of the Allman Bros. songs I'd just heard, and their jams just seemed flighty and precious. People were dancing like crazy, though; I must have been very much in the minority that night. (There was an elementary-school-age girl a few rows ahead of us, and my friend commented, "Man, that girl's first-ever concert is String Cheese! What's gonna compare to *this*!" I kept my mouth shut.)
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STEVE
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
March 12, 2007 03:06AM
david lee roth and vern allen. sucked. 1981 west palm beach. i paid like eight or ten bucks.
jefferson airplane ripped their throats out.
i thought, youth IS wasted.
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Paganizer
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw?
March 31, 2007 07:15AM
edit::
oops, this thread is worst band, not worst performance

Mau Mau 55*
Ini Kamoze*
Van Halen (deedly deedly deedly deedly deedly wahhhhhhhhh)
Phish (I wish I could put them here..but...I admit...they were good)
Tubes (is this where i come in? oh, are we going off stage now?)
Jeff Starship
Widespread Panic
Loverboy
Blues Traveler
Rush
Primus
Black Sabbath (non-Ozzy era)
U2 (I could write pages and probably did)
Somebody opening for the Clash '82
Some Dead-related band that had no members of the Dead at a ski resort
Any jam band at a ski resort
Any reggae fest band I've ever been dragged to by dirtbag roommates
Probably Zebra (wtf were they? afraid to click)
Probably should be on the list at least critically: marilyn manson, gwar

seems like the question should be easier to answer

*"Why I even remember the names of these two bands is a mystery that will haunt me all of my days. Who knows what useful information I might have stored in those brain cells instead?" - scratchie



Post Edited (04-11-07 23:22)
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scratchie
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw?
April 03, 2007 01:11PM
Nice to see this thread has some legs, especially when I've become a footnote!

I have to second the nomination of Primus. I really enjoyed Oysterhead. I love (I mean LOVE) Les Claypool's Frog Brigade (the club show I saw by them in Providence was one of the best concerts I've seen in the last ten years). So even though I never liked any of the Primus I'd heard on album, I decided to give them a shot when they did their reunion tour a few years ago. In a word, they were boring. Boring, boring, boring.

People complain about groups like Yes being noodly wankers (a fair cop) but Primus's music was far more pointless (and less interesting) than anything I've heard from any of the classic 70s prog groups. To this day, the appeal of their music remains a mystery to me beyond the "If it's this weird, I must be really cool to like it" factor.

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madisdadi
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw?
April 03, 2007 03:33PM
My band opened for The Kings and Loverboy at a race track in northern Wisconsin. Our manager told us we were opening for the Kinks. The thought of it still makes the bile rise in my throat. This was still in the spandex, zebra shirt, headband days for both bands churning out the hits (or hit in the King's case). Was it the sheer mediocrity of the songs, the posturing, the pre-recorded synth intros to the Loverboy masterpieces, or just the effect this crap had on 10,000 drunk frat boys and their girlfriends? Yes.
(Though in fairness our drummer said the Kings just had a bad gig and they actually were pretty good otherwise.) The next night the atrocious Berlin sucked us all into a soul depleting vortex capped off with a panty-less Terri Nunn (he who fucks nuns will surely join the church) flashing her coochie for the punters.
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Delvin
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw?
April 03, 2007 10:00PM
> In fairness our drummer said the Kings just had a bad gig
> and they actually were pretty good otherwise.

I saw The Kings in 1981, and I thought they gave a great show. So I'd second your drummer's view.

I saw Berlin a couple years after that, and they likewise were excellent live. The band was tight and focused, and Terri Nunn was in good voice. No coochie-flashing involved.
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Delvin
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw?
April 10, 2007 10:45PM
Since I correspond with the guitarist from The Kings, I simply had to relay Madis' assessment to him. He asked me to post his response.

Hey everybody, my band The Kings got mentioned in the "worst band you ever saw" thread, but the problem is that we never played a racetrack show with Loverboy in Wisconsin. We did an arena show with them and a bunch of other bands in Chicago back then but that was it.

Please check out this video if you want an idea of what we are like in concert. We are still at it and can still get it done live!

Mister Zero, The Kings
www.thekingsarehere.com
www.myspace.com/thekingsarehere



Post Edited (04-10-07 19:45)
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michael baker
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw?
April 10, 2007 11:30PM
Pings is my fave nyc dim sum
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satchmykels
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw?
April 10, 2007 11:59PM
maybe madis' band opened for king...





Post Edited (04-10-07 21:17)
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erikalbany
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw?
April 11, 2007 12:10AM
At this point, I'd like to put forth a radical hypothesis: There might be more than one bad using such a rare moniker as "The Kings."
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Michael Toland
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw?
April 12, 2007 02:33PM
I saw Primus twice in 1991, once headling a club show and once opening for Fishbone, and thought they were terrific both times. But they kept the noodling to a minimum, without any extended jamming, and their songs still had some freshness, rather than formula. I've pretty much avoided them, live or otherwise, ever since.
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Paganizer
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 03, 2007 07:46PM
OK, this killed me.*
A girl was the very reason I too procured Loverboy tix.
When we got there, I had to meet all her Biffy and Buffy friends.

How was audience reaction to your band?

*On top of still laughing over breno's fast cars comment.

edit:: for atrocious typos, as usual



Post Edited (04-11-07 23:19)
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madisdadi
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 03, 2007 09:44PM
We actually were recieved pretty well since most people were still drinking in the parking lot, or in the line to get beer.
We asked for a sound check and were told "YOU are the sound check."
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Aitch
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 03, 2007 10:34PM
"We asked for a sound check and were told "YOU are the sound check."'

That's when you get the broomstick out at the end of the set.
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Jermoe
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 04, 2007 05:32PM
Now this is a topic I can sink my teeth into...

I'd have to go with Smashing Pumpkins. My friend's little brother was having the most powerful & moving experience of his 14-yr. old life as we, the jaded 23-yr. olds were reminded of this immortal line from Ferris Bueller's Day Off: "I weep for the future."

Side note: I saw De La Soul in 1989 (for $3 at the UGA Student Center) & they were terrible. I saw the Flaming Lips open for Lush in 1992 (for $5 at teh UGA Student Center) & they were interesting, but the absolute wrong band to be opening for Lush. Then, last summer, I ended up seeing both bands on the same bill (with Big Star, no less) for free (thanks to a certain distiller & monthly music magazine) at Centennial Park in Atlanta, and they both put on spectacular shows.
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breno
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 04, 2007 05:39PM
Oh Lord, I'd forgotten all about how awful the Pumpkins could be live. When they headlined Lollaplooza in 94, they were dreadful, especially coming on right after the Beastie Boys, who were great. The Pumpkins would play a song, then Corgan would stop everything and do some sort of crowd-baiting rant on something, then James Iha would chime in, then they'd do a half-assed version of a song, then another five minutes of attitude. We left after four songs (which was still close to half an hour into their set, I believe).

And hell, I actually LIKE the Smashing Pumpkins just fine. But I really wanted to storm the stage and beat the living crap out of them that night.
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Paganizer
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 04, 2007 07:27PM
Oh, I forgot about Hole!
Truly one of the biggest time-wastes of my life spent waiting for Sonic Youth.
Courtney could only sing about half the lyrics - every time she tried to go into the wail/screech her voice cracked! Drummer off beat. Bassist not keeping up. Guitarist confused. Love decides instead to go for "panty baiting" and crowd mocking. Young Hole fans thought it was a good show and misread it as a some sort of pro-feminist watermark.

I knew at the time they'd go nowhere since their coattailed songwriter had died. Sho nuff....

When Nirvana did this kind of non-show (early days, see Year Punk Broke vid for the kind of show Nirvana liked to give) it was "punk" and funny in a "we're an opening band and don't give a shit and neither should you" kind of way. Love apparently mistook this as the true purpose of rock-n-roll, coming off as misguided imitation rather than dadaist interpretation. Oh wait, I'm reading too much into it - she just had no talent and sucked live.

I, too, wanted to storm the stage and beat the crap etc. But it was Courtney - she might have had me killed.
The Flaming Lips opening for Lush tour was after (my favorite) "Priest Driven Ambulance" had come out and featured Donohue on guitar - still my favorite incarnation. I have fond memories of that great show. Met up with band members afterword and then apparently attempted to drive home for work the next morning. Woke up parked on the side of the highway. Doh!



Post Edited (04-04-07 16:41)
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Aitch
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 04, 2007 10:25PM
There's a rather folkloric Hole gig at Selinas in Sydney, I wasn't there but my wife was. They were such a shambles someone threw a shoe at them and knocked out the bassplayer who was taken to hospital (I always wonder was it a shoe or a steel capped boot?) Courtney Love was so drunk that she tried to walk off stage through the back curtain and walked into a brick wall.
I saw the Smashing Pumpkins at The Big Day Out around the time of Siamese Dream and was quite enjoying myself when between songs D'Arcy suddenly blurted "you know a lot of people accuse us of being grave. Well I look at that guy up the back with his shirt off and I think 'that's fucking grave'" I thought Um .... OK!
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R. Totale
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 06, 2007 07:52PM
Without question, the Roches. They must have balled everyone in NYC to get the critical "respect" they were being accorded at the time.
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madisdadi
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 08, 2007 04:57PM
I did a Roche, didn't change that I thought they were okay live, but that Robert Fripp produced debut is great!
I think I remember the NYC blackout and they played acoustic with flashlights in a club and got a lot of press for that.
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madisdadi
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 11, 2007 01:20PM
I did a lot of drugs back then, but I swear we did a show with those Canadian bands at a racetrack. It might have been Illinois not Wisconsin. If so I stand corrected. Like I said, many of my friends including our drummer said the Kings were good.

Actually one of my bandmates set me straight, we opened for the Kings at a bar in Milwaukee WI called Zak's 3 days before the racetrack festival. Mister Zero should remember the gig because there was no dressing room and a huge fight broke out at the end of their set. They ended up standing at the bar until the fight ended before doing their last songs.
I still think we did a festival show with them,I swear I remember it.



Post Edited (04-11-07 10:37)
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michael baker
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 11, 2007 03:54PM
it was the kinks prolly
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breno
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 11, 2007 05:10PM
I suddenly remember (I guess I'd supressed the memory) the Nixons - one of those mid-90s bands who if they'd been around in the 80s would've been hair metal but since they were in the 90s they went with grunge. Geez, they sucked. And their big finish was dousing a guitar in lighter fluid and setting it ablaze. Ooooh! Radical.

This was at one of those outdoor radio station festivals that was a decidedly mixed show. Joining the Nixons at the "shoot me now" end of the bill was Better Than Ezra, but Big Audio Dynamite, Matthew Sweet, They Might Be Giants and the Ramones (their farewell tour) were also on the docket. And I think maybe Everclear, who I had mixed feelings about.

A pre-fame Jewel also managed to sneak on the bill - I think her first album had come out maybe the week before. The main thing(s) I remember about her was that she did an actually pretty damn funny impression of Dolores O'Riordan and that she was wearing a snug white t-shirt and there had just been a thunderstorm.



Post Edited (04-11-07 14:19)
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Michael Toland
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 12, 2007 11:56AM
Living in Texas, I remember the hype about the Nixons (who were from Dallas and played here in Austin regularly) well. I never saw 'em. I heard their major-label record and found it to be competent but rote alt.rock. Their subsequent disappearance was no surprise.
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satchmykels
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 12, 2007 05:35PM


> Living in Texas, I remember the hype about the Nixons (who were
> from Dallas and played here in Austin regularly) well. I never
> saw 'em. I heard their major-label record and found it to be
> competent but rote alt.rock. Their subsequent disappearance was
> no surprise.


never heard of the nixons, but i used to love the band called, Living in Texas...
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Delvin
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 12, 2007 02:12AM
Another response forwarded to me from Mister Zero of The Kings. (For the record, he's reading the board himself, but has not received any response to his request for an account here.)

erikalbany has a point, there are a lot of bands with "Kings" in their name, but there is only one that has done international business for over 20 years under the name "The Kings" and that is us.

And madisdadi, believe me, we did NO racetrack show with Loverboy. We could have easily played at "Zak's" in Milwaukee, I will try and find that out. I remember "Duffy's" in Minneapolis pretty clearly, but if a big fight and no dressing rooms are supposed to trigger a memory, I'm sorry but we've done tons of gigs with no dressing rooms and we used to think we hadn't done our job right if there wasn't a least one good fight on any given night. That is a byproduct of alcohol, rock and roll and testosterone. We never enjoyed that part of it, especially when the bouncers waded in and had a grand time busting heads. Gross.

zero
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michael baker
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 12, 2007 10:22AM
isn't signing up instantaneous?

ot does IRA do a B/G check? egads! i just slipped in then...
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madisdadi
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 12, 2007 01:43PM
Hey Mister Zero!
I got a lot of e-mails from my ex bandmates and yes we did open for you in Milwaukee and sorry, but you did suck. You played "Switch into Glide" twice in the same set among others. You may "get it done live" now , but you didn't then. Hey it's not the end of the world, just one mooks opinion of a gig you did a long time ago.
I still think you played that festival or maybe it's a blurred memory from one gig to another.
If you still want to call me out on this you can e-mail me and I'll forward you the responses I got instead of going through your secretary to post here.
Checked out your web page, congrats on getting a video out for "Switch into Glide" after 27 years! You guys rock! If you ever come through town I'll check you out man!
I gotta go now, I'm starting a corespondence with the Nixons!
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lpfcsi
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 12, 2007 10:04PM
Ok, I think I can settle this since I was at that show at Zak's.
There was a blizzard outside so the crowd wasn't huge, and The Kings were there promoting Amazon Beach (their 2nd album), and I'm telling ya, they not only "got it done", but they only played "Switch" at the end of the set, when you've got 2 albums worth of material you don't need to repeat.
I would be curious though, what was the name of your band that you say warmed up for them ?
I believe I still have the ad for the gig, so we can see if you are correct in your recollection.
I also recently saw The Kings back in Milwaukee with The Tubes at the Northern Lights Casino, and they were still on top of their game, oh, and they only played "Switch" one time that night as well.
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Delvin
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 12, 2007 05:20PM
If I'm Zero's secretary, then I gotta talk seriously to him about my salary — to say nothing of benefits. Hell, all I've gotten so far is a Kings t-shirt!
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Paganizer
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 12, 2007 07:05PM
The Nixons:




(none of whom are Living in Texas)



Post Edited (04-13-07 03:30)
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Delvin
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 12, 2007 09:09PM
Okay, as a secretary, this sort of clerical work falls on my desk ...

I did a count of awful bands (or, rather, bands that at least one person on this board remembers that way) on this thread. So far, I count 68 different bands, from the Allmans to Zebra. A few get mentioned more than once as being pretty lousy.

Personally, I've seen 22 of these "worst" artists. Fourteen of them were just plain great, the time(s) I saw them. One of these "worst" artists gave the single best show I've ever seen. And there's at least one "worst" artist on the list whom I would've given my eye teeth to see in concert.

No big brilliant conclusion here ... not that anyone expects it, I'm sure.
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Delvin
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 12, 2007 09:11PM
In Joe Jackson's book A Cure for Gravity, he offers excerpts from two performance reviews. One critic says that Joe was lively, engaging and fun onstage; the other dismisses him as stiff, pretentious and boring. Then Joe writes: "These are two reviews of the same show."
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ira
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 12, 2007 10:37PM
Joe Jackson? wonder if I wrote that dialectical review...



Post Edited (04-12-07 19:38)
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Delvin
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 13, 2007 12:00AM
No idea. But I recommend Joe's book. I'm confident that anyone on this board would appreciate it.
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madisdadi
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 13, 2007 04:37AM
I love this, first the band denies playing the gig then we get a guy just logged in (apparently Mr Zero can't respond on his first log on) calling me out too.
I'm sorry, I was just in a crappy band that opened for an even shittier band that doesn't even get a TP review.
Okay, we opened for them in the summer, there were no blizzards in the summer, from their first album.
I don't know how many times they played Zak's, we only played it once when we opened for them and I can garuntee there was no blizzard when we did.
Like I said, if you want to contact me via my e-mail I will send you the response I got, otherwise I don't see the point.
Holy shit Ira, I hope you don't get the same when you state an oppinion!
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satchmykels
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 13, 2007 02:53PM
wish i'd have seen living in texas! here's a wiki bit on their drummer:

"Fraser was born with phocomelia of both arms, due to his mother being prescribed thalidomide during her pregnancy."


click the pic, foo!
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breno
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 14, 2007 12:05PM
Hey! That's Kate Winslet's sister in the photo with that Living in Texas guy.
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lpfcsi
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 13, 2007 07:37PM
Now now, nobody is "calling you out", but the ad that I have for the gig was for a November show, but we can agree to disagree.
The problem comes from saying that they are a shitty band, because then those of us who are fans of The Kings will have to differ.
They must be doing something right though, because they are still rolling, and still have fans who are on board enough to rise to their defense !!

I do want to say that all of this is done with good humor, and that the guys in The Kings are pretty cool guys, so I would say that next time they come around I'll email you and we'll take to the show !!!!
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satchmykels
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 13, 2007 08:50PM
not that anyone cares, but "this beat goes on/switchin' to glide" was a very popular cover on the hair metal circuit...

not sure if i ever saw the kings (seems they opened for someone, but my brain keeps accessing the fabulous poodles file when i go there), but i've still probably heard those songs performed live more than most.

usually got me out on the dance floor, too.
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Delvin
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 13, 2007 06:11PM
Since I seem to have given this ball the initial push ...

I re-read the posts, and I don't see anyone getting "called out." I see disagreements, differences in recollections, even arguments, sure. But those are part & parcel of this board (especially a thread such as this one). I didn't see any name-calling, threats or requests to step outside.

I think anyone who's been in a band, and was told that their band tanked, would want a chance to speak up. That is, if they feel they have good cause to. (If/when anyone tells me they saw my band back in the day and thought we were lame, I don't argue. I still have the old tapes, and I know we didn't have much room to brag. We sure had a good time, though.)
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madisdadi
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 13, 2007 09:26PM
last time on this:
we opened for the kings at Zak's during the tour for their first album. That was our only time we played Zak's. The show you saw in a blizzard was from a tour to support their second album.
I did get an e-mail from a rabid King's fan (who was one of 20 to attend that first show) who told me the only reason they played "Glide" twice was that THE CROWD WAS SCREAMING FOR IT, and they did 3 encores before they played it for the second time. Okay fair enough, but they did play it twice. Also, everybody still has the flier from that show after 20 some years,(!!!!!)so at least I'm going to get a faxed copy. Oh and tell them to quit sending me e-mails already, I get their point.
In my opinion the Kings tanked. In the e-mails I got, the opinion was that my band sucked ("bad punk band", "noise" "unrehearsed out of tune"). We worked hard to get that out of tune noise. Actually our goal was to sound like Pere Ubu covering the Gun Club. I too have the tapes to back up our ineptness, though at the time we blamed it on bad equipment.
I take it you live in Milwaukee. I don't. I lived outside of Chicago for a year when my family moved from New York. We played Milwaukee 2 times and I did like some of the local bands from that time. I now live in Orlando so if you want to fly me up to Milwaukee for a King's show give me a couple of weeks notice.
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Delvin
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 13, 2007 09:35PM
I can't wait to mention The Kings on a future thread! (Just kidding.)
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Paganizer
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Lurk?
April 13, 2007 10:02PM
I figure (and often allow for this when I post) the lurker-to-poster ratio on this board is at least 40:1

Now we have an idea what bands/genres will draw out the lurkers.

One of my favorite draw-outs was this post:
[trouserpress.com]
in defense of Rundgren
Check the poster's website

Anybody wanna draw out the A-Ha lurkers?
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Delvin
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 13, 2007 10:12PM
Or perhaps these Lurkers.

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rhettlawrence
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 15, 2007 04:18AM
On this "playing a song twice on the same night" business, when I saw Shriekback in 1986 or so, they opened their (headlining) set with their big hit "Nemesis" and then played a fairly boring hour or so before announcing "This is 'Nemesis" - good night!". After playing it for the second time in an hour, they left the stage and I believe they failed to come back for an encore.
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breno
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 15, 2007 11:56AM
At a friend of mine's wedding reception, the band played their version of Mike & the Mechanics' "The Living Years" twice. I never understood why they felt like a maudlin tribute to someone else's dead father was appropriate for a wedding reception to begin with, let alone why they would play it twice.
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Delvin
Re: Worst Band You Ever Saw Live?
April 15, 2007 05:29PM
Perhaps the song was intended, at that reception, as a tribute to someone. I've attended more than one wedding that included a special tribute/dedication to a deceased family member — a special candle, a particular floral arrangement, or a splash of color in the bride's ensemble.

Invariably, though, when such a tribute is included, the couple wants everyone there to know about it. So I'm probably over-thinking this. Somebody at the reception just wanted to hear "Living Years" again. Hey, a wedding band plays what the crowd wants.

Hmmm ... looking at the forecast, I believe it's about to thread. We'll be back after these messages.
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