Greatest live disappointment

Frank Zappa 79 or 80.

gr8dane wrote: Frank Zappa 79 or 80. He picked up his guitar twice to play a solo. The rest of the time he conducted his band with a conductor stick. YAWN.

 

Edited by moshkito - November 17 2010 at 15:31

moshkito wrote: gr8dane wrote: Frank Zappa 79 or 80. He picked up his guitar twice to play a solo. The rest of the time he conducted his band with a conductor stick. YAWN.   There ... you just said it ... the biggest problem with rock'n'roll ... you are not there for the music! And one of the biggest problems with "progressive" music and the fans!   And you are not allowing the man to be himself and create music.   There is a reason why he is remembered and known, you know? ... and if you don't mind my saying it, you passed it right by!   It's like I used to tell a lot of new age'r fakey's ... it always has to be in a cd, or a book or as a star ... it can never be right there, right in front of you, slamming you in the face ... and saying hello to you!   There is a lot of truth to the saying that ... when you are looking for something, all you have to do is look inside ... and the saddest thing about many of the Frank Zappa fans, is that the only thing they can enjoy and appreciate is his guitar playing ... when his own compositional sense and orchestrational sense is far better and intuitive and original ... and the reason why he is remembered so fondly!

lazland wrote: Hawkwise wrote: "disenchanted with the whole concert-going experience due to the behavior of the audience. " As someone who has lived in Europe and North America i have come  find the audience here North America not as good as the once in Europe   ether at huge gig or at little gigs in Pubs or Bars ,  I Have been to a good few local gigs here in Southern Ontario found the audience rather  ignorant they seem to spend more time talking and making a noise and in  some instance making more noise than the band on the stage. i resiliently went to one gig where really nice blues band playing and most the audience spent the whole time with there back to the stage.  in my experience European audiences are far more receptive of Artist than i have found here in North America .      Not always, I'm afraid. When The The came on to play at Six Of The Best (the Gabriel/Genesis reunion), a ton of bottles simultaneously hit the stage. Lots of rock fans most unhappy with what they perceived as New Romantic crap. When I saw Yeggles at Deeside, half of the crowd continually shouted at the band to get Trevor Horn & Geoff Downes off the stage, and bring on Anderson & Wakeman from behind the stage. The other half merely walked out and went to the pub at the top of the hill.

 Apologies for being pedantic, but it was actually 'Talk Talk'

Dean wrote: richardh wrote: moshkito wrote: gr8dane wrote: Frank Zappa 79 or 80. He picked up his guitar twice to play a solo. The rest of the time he conducted his band with a conductor stick. YAWN.   There ... you just said it ... the biggest problem with rock'n'roll ... you are not there for the music! And one of the biggest problems with "progressive" music and the fans!   And you are not allowing the man to be himself and create music.   There is a reason why he is remembered and known, you know? ... and if you don't mind my saying it, you passed it right by!   It's like I used to tell a lot of new age'r fakey's ... it always has to be in a cd, or a book or as a star ... it can never be right there, right in front of you, slamming you in the face ... and saying hello to you!   There is a lot of truth to the saying that ... when you are looking for something, all you have to do is look inside ... and the saddest thing about many of the Frank Zappa fans, is that the only thing they can enjoy and appreciate is his guitar playing ... when his own compositional sense and orchestrational sense is far better and intuitive and original ... and the reason why he is remembered so fondly! You can appreciate a musician privately and in your time quite happily without bothering to spend money and effort to get to a gig just to see a guy basically do nothing. I would have demanded a refund to be honest if anyone dared to do this to me.Showed no respect to his fans imo.    I saw the Philip Glass Ensemble without Philp Glass and it didn't detract from the enjoyment of the performance - I went for the music, not the personality playing it. Zappa would fit into that category for me, then my favourite Zappa album is Yellow Shark.

Dean wrote: richardh wrote: moshkito wrote: gr8dane wrote: Frank Zappa 79 or 80. He picked up his guitar twice to play a solo. The rest of the time he conducted his band with a conductor stick. YAWN.   There ... you just said it ... the biggest problem with rock'n'roll ... you are not there for the music! And one of the biggest problems with "progressive" music and the fans!   And you are not allowing the man to be himself and create music.   There is a reason why he is remembered and known, you know? ... and if you don't mind my saying it, you passed it right by!   It's like I used to tell a lot of new age'r fakey's ... it always has to be in a cd, or a book or as a star ... it can never be right there, right in front of you, slamming you in the face ... and saying hello to you!   There is a lot of truth to the saying that ... when you are looking for something, all you have to do is look inside ... and the saddest thing about many of the Frank Zappa fans, is that the only thing they can enjoy and appreciate is his guitar playing ... when his own compositional sense and orchestrational sense is far better and intuitive and original ... and the reason why he is remembered so fondly! You can appreciate a musician privately and in your time quite happily without bothering to spend money and effort to get to a gig just to see a guy basically do nothing. I would have demanded a refund to be honest if anyone dared to do this to me.Showed no respect to his fans imo.    I saw the Philip Glass Ensemble without Philp Glass and it didn't detract from the enjoyment of the performance - I went for the music, not the personality playing it. Zappa would fit into that category for me, then my favourite Zappa album is Yellow Shark.

I saw the Philip Glass Ensemble with Philip Glass and they were amazing! They did Koyaanisqaatsi live along with the movie.

Two shows I walked out of :  Tool, and Glass Hammer (Nearfest).

Tool, to be fair, may have been playing well, but the sound in the venue was so horrible I just couldn't stand to listen to it after about 5 or 6 songs (it was a sports arena, made for basketball).

Glass Hammer I just found to be a parody of prog rock.  I enjoy some of their stuff, but this show was focused on their Lex Rex album, which I had never heard (and still haven't heard the studio version), and it just seemed quite dull and a parody of good prog, like I said.

Other than that, I suppose I was disappointed with the Deus Ex Machina performance at Nearfest 2001, though again mainly because the poor mixing made it almost impossible to make out individual instruments.  Though the singer holding the lyrics sheet in his hand during most of my favorite songs of theirs didn't help at all either.

The Grateful Dead, a few days before Jerry died, performing in Pittsburgh.  The show wasn't bad, but just couldn't compare to the incredible shows I'd see in Las Vegas a couple years earlier.  Jerry's voice sounded awful, so the show was dominated by Bob Weir songs (guitar playing was still great though).

 


Edited by infandous - November 18 2010 at 10:17

I've got a few..

Grateful Dead in '78.  They waited AT LEAST 5 minutes between each song.  Captain Trips was having an off night, too.  Show was 4 hours long, I later heard.  I left after the first hour and a half.

Any Large Stadium gig is shyte, I have been to several of these all souless and I feel too far removed. I love small gigs where the band are on top of you and you feel that they are just playing for you. I can remember seeing Pallas at the Gallery in Manchester, about 20 people in attendance, the band giving us the March on Atlantis suite as it should be - 45-55 minutes of Mellotron and bombastic bass/guitar instrumental pomposity - by far the best gig I ever went to.....

dave-the-rave wrote: Suprtramp ‘Breakfast In America’ 5/31/79 Madison Sq. Garden - Like the record? Then you'd love this show, as it sounded exactly like the record. Had free tickets; walked out. Peter Gabriel 7/7/80 Central Park, NYC. I think this show featured most of the album where he's scraping away the cover with his fingernails. Huge snooze. No "Games without Frontiers." Aerosmith 3/5/78 Palace Theater, Albany NY. Mostly incomprehensible noise Rainbow/REO Speedwagon (Rainbow opened; I left before REO) 6/3/78 Palace. Rainbow played nothing from 'Rainbow Rising.' Unforgivable.