Are you a live album connoisseur?

I've never even seen a vinyl copy and yes, I'm sure too that it was a limited release. One day!

 

Yes, I love live albums, got hundreds of them. Very much appreciate it when the well-known songs are done in a different arrangement. It happened to me quite a few times that I learned to appreciate a song after I heard it live.

 

Welcome Shakin! Nice to have another Dutchman on board. I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada now, but I was born in Den Bos.
I'm not sure how many live albums I have, but I know it's certainly will into triple-digits as well. There is something really energizing about listening to a live set.

 

HUMBLE PIE ROCKIN THE FILLMORE

 

So, do you prefer an album (or video) of a single concert performance in it's entirety or a collection of tracks from various related performances?

I love both....

 

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I have to confess, that I'm not really a friend of live albums. They can't cope with the experience I made during concerts, therefore I was disappointed too often.
An the few concerts from which I'd like to have a live album, for example Melody Gardot's Berlin concert from 2012, haven't been recorded anyway.​

 

I love a lot of live albums (from Beach Boys Concert! to Night of The Living Dead Boys; Otis and Jimi at Monterey; Stiff Little Fingers - Hanx!; New Race - The First And The Last; The Hitmen - Tora Tora DTK; James Brown at the Apollo; Sam Cooke at the Harlem Square Club; The Ramones ' It's Alive, etc etc)

And as a huge Springsteen fan,
I need the tons of live unreleased shows, cause his management can't see to release the best live shows, not by a long shot.

 

For Hendrix they are essential.

 

My favorite Beach Boys albums are Beach Boys Concert and then Live In London.
I love a great live album.

 

I rarely buy live albums. Those live albums I do buy are jazz, where the audience is generally out of the equation anyway.

 

For artists I like in "small doses", I try to find a live album that represents their back catalog well. I prefer this over compilations. A good example is USA by King Crimson. Given that, I still have very few of them.

 

Just spun another one from my large collection not heard in years - Ten Years After Recorded Live. Fidelity very good indeed and performances were great.

 

Both for me as well.

 

Used to buy live albums then realised that I always preferred the studio version.This is the case for pop/rock acts but I agree with others here who point out that folk,blues and jazz artists often have great live albums; maybe their musicianship allows for this.Miles Davis ,for example,can certainly entertain live but people like Elton John or The Beach Boys,to me, need the studio( with its time/layering/) to best present their songs.

 

I love live albums, specifically the following, and in no order:

1. Jerry Lee Lewis: Live at the International Hotel, 1970
2. Elvis Presley: 8cd That's The Way It Is
3. Richard Thompson: Small Town Romance
4. Miles Davis: Black Beauty
5. Johnny Cash: Pa Osteraker
6. Elvis Costello: El Mocambo
7. Allman Brothers Band: New Year's Eve, 1973
8. Allman Brothers: Fillmore, 1971
9. Allman Brothers: One Way Out
10. Grateful Dead: 1971 album (Skull & Roses)
11. Grateful Dead: Europe 1972
12. Van Morrison: It's Too Late to Stop Now
13. Pink Floyd: Is There Anybody Out there ?
14. Ray Charles: Shrine Auditorium
15. The Rolling Stones: Get Yer Ya Ya's Out
16. The Rolling Stones: Get Yer Leeds Lungs Out
17. The Rolling Stones: Brussels Affair
18. The Rolling Stones: Love You Live
19. Nina Simone: Emergency Ward / It Is Finished
20. Wings Over America

 

The older I get, the more I start to appreciate "live" music. There are however, very few live albums, I appreciate. Perhaps it is because not a lot of bands are able to create the atmosphere, or any atmosphere for that matter, that you can find on a studio album, on stage.

Than there are bands that play like the studio album, live and that doesn't do it for me either.

The live show that does it for me, is when a band or artist has the guts to go unplugged. After all, if you consider yourself an artist, you don't need electricity, to show it.

 

Back in the early 90's I had the New Order live Milan boot 'Blue Monday' on vinyl, it had a cool cover of 'When I'm with You', I ended up selling it off (regret) ,anyways a few weeks ago came across "Chosen Time" 2002 live which carry's it plus a few others from that early show, for those who like that old New Order rough live stuff, it's a good listen

 

There are artists I discovered via their live albums, Bob Seger and the Grateful Dead to name but two, and I still love those albums. I also have a large collection of live Widespread Panic CDs, but have never managed to get into them as a studio act. The albums just don't gel to me.

I am a live album connoisseur, but official and otherwise, and love nothing more than finding a recording of a gig I attended. Indeed these days I am almost disappointed sometimes when a show doesn't turn up online soon afterwards!!!!

Philip

 

I love live albums by bands like Widespread Panic since every show has a different set list and nothing is played the same way twice. Hard to get bored that way. Every show can be recorded these days as well. This is truly without question the best time to be a fan of live albums and those bands that can bring something new and great to the table night after night.

 

Listening to the Dickey Betts 1977 Bottom Line FM-broadcast CD right now.
Righteous.

 

Hello,

"Am I a live album connoisseur" ?...I love live albums by all my favorite bands, as there's an atmosphere, ambiance & energy that the studio just can't / doesn't capture...However...These are two very different arenas of performance, & I've always felt that a band that can deliver the goods live, can usually cut-it-well in the studio.

We must remember here too though, that "most" bands or artists spent many years performing in pubs, clubs, social events, & other live media before the "opportunity" arrived to record in the studio...This would indicate that they were good-enough to warrant the investment from a Record Company to strike a deal, & make Records in the first place !

There's nothing wrong with studio recordings either, I like them very much too, & it often affords a band the environment & time to produce something special, should the proceedings go well enough, & the advantage of the situation taken.

I like warts & all live recordings, since they're a real representation of the night that was, but I do have a limit to how poor a recording can be, & generally speaking, it's got to be pretty good, so I have a 50 / 50 hit & miss ratio with bootlegs, but modern technology "is" improving sound-quality quite dramatically I think. So all is looking good for past bootlegs if they've seen a credible sonic make-over !!!

Cheers,

Gregster

 

Quite the opposite. I once passed on The Who's "Magic Bus On Tour" because I thought it was a live album. I was 15 at the time and wanted the original studio recordings.

The only live albums I appreciate are those with a hit single on them, such as The Who Live at Leeds or Procol Harum Live In Concert with The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

 

In almost all cases, I prefer the live albums. I like my music raw, loud, and sloppy.

 

The live album of a rock band was the only version I had at one time. UFO Strangers in the Night, Scorps Tokyo Tapes, Made in Japan, Lizzy Live and Dangerous etc. The live versions were always expanded with greater guitar solos. I think Zep were close to 45 mins on Dazed and Confused by 1975!

 

Which is exactly why some folks don't like them. The sloppy part anyway. A lot of live albums are quite poor in quality -- performances intoxicated and/or uninspired, recording subpar, obnoxious crowd noise -- but are cheap to produce. Then there's the interminability problem. Passionate moments that come over great in person very often sound like pure masturbation on disc (half-hour "Free Bird" anyone?).