The live album that works
 

for some reason, i'm always a tad skeptic when it comes to live albums. i often feel it's a way of avoiding the obvious "greatest hits" compilations, but still making sure the ca$$$h flows in. i love good audience recordings of gigs, and listen to lots of them; mostly i find those more enjoyable than "proper", officially released live records (which tend to be formulaic run throughs of hits).

however, the exception for me, is when it comes to jazz. live jazz albums absolutely rock my socks off, and i often find myself loving live jazz albums more than the studio recordings. there's something about the nature of the music and the musicians that make jazz, that really sets this genre apart, in my opinion.

what do you lot reckon?

you may be partially right, but in a lot of cases, the live record is the best thing a band had done. the first thing that pops in my mind is hawkwind-space ritual. at the time of that performance/record, they were a perfect band. and when i say perfect i mean that they had a certain aesthetic, or ideas or whatever, and they fully realized those ideas. space ritual is a fucked up extravagant spectacle psychedelic hallucinatory masterpiece. just an amazing record.

others that come to my mind:
the contortions-soul exorcism
70s miles-live evil
wolf eyes and anythony braxton-black vomit

There is usually a good explaination for that. Most jazz musicians are skilled at improv. They can go nuts on their instrument playing completely different than their studio albums and they can make it sound good. A lot of rock bands, even if they are very talented, don't possess the same skill when it comes to improvising. This isn't always the case of course, for rock or for jazz, but its tends to be more often than not.

I dunno, I don't really like live albums, even if it's a band I really like. Well.. It's not so much about not liking it, it's more so it's hard to get excited for them.

But yeah sure I pretty much agree with what afterthefact said.

Ramones - It's Alive is my favourite live album, but it is a sort of best of from their first three albums.

Spiritualized at the Albert Hall is one of my favourite records ever

As for the Jazz thing, Jazz is all about the feeling the player gets from the piece. That feeling is intesified when its live on stage with an audience and the rush of a improv collaboration with your band when it goes fucking awsome.
Studios can drain alot of passion out of a performance when its sterile

kick out the jams motherfuckers!

Live albums aren't very interesting.

Any band that improv's live is pretty interesting. Bands that just play the same song the same way live are for fans only.

Cheap Trick - Live In Budokan
Kiss - Alive I & II

haha, oh yeah, duh, how the fuck did everyone forget that. prolly the best live album ever.

others i really like:
sun city girls-live from planet boomerang, live from the land of the rising
AMM-live
john fahey-live in tasmania
albert ayler-live in europe 64-66
coltrane-live at the village vanguard
james brown-live at the apollo
the gerogerigegege-live greatest hits
pink floyd-unmagumma, live at pompeii
incapacitants-live incapacitants
art ensemble of chicago-live at mendel hall
les rallizes denudes-live 77, OZ days live
gg allin-banned in boston
electro hippies-live
sutcliffe jujend-live assault
the blue humans-live new york, live london
oblivians-live in atlanta
the slits-live at the gilbus club
the greatful dead-live at the filmore east
syr8
kiss-alive, alive 2
nervous gender-live at target
laundry room squelchers-live recordings
scraping teeth-live recordings
flipper-blow n chunks
enema syringe-live at no fun 07
bob brozman-live now
taj mahal travellers-live stockholm 1971, july 15 1972, august 1974
lounge lizard-live 79-81
friction-live 1980
black flag-live 84
UT-live
rhys chatham-guitar trio is my life
diskaholics anonymous trio-live in japan, live in japan 2
yximaloo-live
melt banana-13000 miles at light velocity
derek bailey-the london concert
fred frith-live in japan
harry pussy-live fuck love songs
nihilist spasm band-live in japan
rorshach-live in italy
anthony braxton-circle: paris concert
fransisco lopez-live in san fran
neil young-live rust
smegma-live at no fun
septic death-time is the boss
kaoru abe-solo live at gaya
peter brotzzman-live in nerfetti
high rise-live
ground zero-live in tokyo



whoa, fuck, got a little carried away there

so phish is interesting? mars volta?

theres plenty of bands that spend thier time on stage noddling around improvising to the point where all you wanna do is go on stage and beat the shit out of every musician playing. to say "any band that improvises live is interesting" is the biggest stretch ive heard in a long time. id rather listen to the descendents back in the day play every song note for note from the record, than i would watch the mars volta go on for 36 minutes with some pointless sounds. it all depends on what the band is good at.

Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits

Tom, the band and the audience are all great on this one, it really showcases his impeccable live act.

phish is amazing, way better live imporvs than santana

mars volta? don;t really like the prog.

some live albums are genius, and capture a band at a time when they just fucking rule all.

however, most live albums are anything BUT live. they overdub the guitar solos, they add canned audience sounds, they clean up the vocal tracks and such. it is all a load of shit really

best live albums ever are

NEIL YOUNG AND CRAZY HORSE

LIVE RUST


RUST NEVER SLEEPS


I love them because you can hear all trhe "mstakes" and the shitjust blows me away.

LIKE A HURRICANE on LIVE RUST contaions the chunkiest most skronkariffic crashing chords I ahve ever heard. they sound like an airliner crashing to the ground.

I think Nirvana's Unplugged album is my favorite live album ever. Call me a square or obvious or whatever. But it is f'ing great, and I still listen to it often.

My favourite live album is John Coltrane's "Live At The Village Vanguard Again!" - completely monstrous and insane verions of "My Favourite Things" and "Naima" - it was also the first Coltrane album I ever bought...

Electric Prunes - Radio Stockholm 1968

Better by far than any of their studio LPs.

I've been looking for this on vinyl for a while.


Also I think Radiohead's live album is better than a lot of their studio albums.