What was the most over-rated live act you've ever seen?

That isn't a bad setlist. Quite a few Born To Run/Darkness On The Edge Of Town tracks mixed in. There were a lot of "Magic" tracks but considering that was the recent album at the time, that's the way it should be. I hate it when bands drop new albums and yet spend less time with those songs than they do with an older record.

Why do people write off newer music of an artist just because it didn't happen to receive the airplay it would've when they were young and in their prime commercially? That setlist looks much better than Bruce doing a bland rundown of the Greatest Hits album with two or three album cuts and maybe one or two "new songs" early on to get out of the way before the "good stuff" kicks in. I'd take that Bruce setlist over the Stones setlist I had anyday.

 

Meeting across the River into Jungleland! Awesome set list!

 

Blondie. Now, don't get me wrong. I've got the complete catalog from Blondie through Ghost of Download, including all of Debbie's solo records. But my God, they were absolutely abysmal. Debbie wasn't in great form, and the rest of the band had no kinetic energy or sense of real musicianship. Pat Benatar made up for it with her performance, but I still left so disappointed.

Peter Gabriel was also a bit dull, which I wasn't expecting. Good, but nowhere near as mind-blowing as people make him out to be. I think he's lost.

 

Genesis on the ATTT tour! A total snoozefest and they looked lost without Hackett!

 

I had the opposite reaction. I used to go to a lot of shows (different acts) in the 80's. I got out of the habit for 20ish years. In 2008 I got last minute tickets for Springsteen. It reminded me how much I liked concerts. Since then I have seen Springsteen 6 times and actively sought out other concerts. In a small way it changed my life. (I had great seats in 2008 and the set list was great.)

 

Sorry you managed to be bored. Assuming you saw them at Louisville in 2006, they played 3 songs off Bigger Bang that night. Some nights they played 1 or 2 more. Beyond that, they do have a problem - too many hits.

 

CSN&Y 2002 they didn't do a soundcheck. Performances were lack luster from what I remember.

They were good in 2000 saw them twice!

sean

 

Alice in Chains was a huge disappointment when i saw them. I caught them in '93 on the 2nd ever Lollapalooza tour I think it was. Every song was slowed down. sounded like the whole band was on Heroin, which...yeah. The good news was the first band of the day nobody had heard of and they had a lot of energy and played some song called "Killing in the name of..." None of the bands the rest of the day could come close to that level of intensity. Rage was 45 minutes of the best metal show I've ever seen.

Tool was pretty good that day too, Lane Stayley came out and sang a song with them that was really intense.

 

Seek ye the bootleg from 1977 "Destroyer" in Cleveland. There is a 20 minute version of "No Quarter" with some incredible exploratory play from John Paul Jones and Jimmy. Never knew they could stretch that far in a good way. This concert was excellent. Some of these songs are much better live than on the records "nobody's fault but Mine" "trampled under foot" and "sick again" jump to mind.

 

Kylie Minogue. She sat around on props wearing "glamorous" clothing with outrageous head-dressing while all the dancers worked their bu**s off.
She should try Pink's workload!

 

My brother once had some Micheal Jackson tickets that he couldn't use, so he gave them to me. I think it was his Dangerous tour in '92. Overrated is an understatement. I was bored off my head.

 

Willie Nelson and Hank Williams Jr. Actually asked for my money back after seeing Willie Nelson talk for 2 hours and bang on his guitar. People looked at me like I was crazy for asking, but it is a ripoff to go to a concert and see that the artist is totally tired of his own music and could care less about the fans.

 

I dunno about "overrated," but the two worst performances I've ever seen came from Cat Power and Robert Glasper, the former I had to walk out of and the latter I wish I had walked out of.

Now, anyone can have a bad night. I've seen P.Funk lots and lots of times and it's almost always a religious experience, I've only seen 'em do one really off show (naturally that was the one time I took my wife to see the band). I've seen Springsteen maybe a dozen times since 1978. He really does deserve the reputation he has -- no one I've ever seen can make a large venue feel more intimate -- but I saw him play one of his first stadium shows in '85, and it was not good, since then I've seen him play a stadium show (I generally avoid shows in venues larger than around 3K, and especially at 100K capacities), and he's grown into it (the modern tech helps); and frankly I though the show I saw him do in '80 had pacing problems. So, you know, not every performance even by the greatest of performers is magical.

And we don't all take the same things out of it. The one time I saw the great James Brown, circa 1981, I though he was very good, he was JB, not JB at the peak of his powers in '66, but in full command of the stage, but it wasn't a great, mind blowing, transcendent experience for me. A friend I took to the show went to his grave telling me it was the best concert he had ever seen. A lot of this has to do with what we each bring into the show, as much as what we each take from it.

 

XL Center in Connecticut for Working On A Dream tour
and Brendan Byrne Arena, NJ for Human Touch/Lucky Town tour.

 

They weren't bad shows. They just didn't strike me as being by a performer who would blow anyone else out of the water in a live venue.

 

U2 at Manchester, 2005, typical stadium gig, nothing special.

 

Funny, I have the exact same opinion of Springsteen 2000 and GD 1979. My first Springsteen show was Halloween 1980. Really turned my head in a big way. Fantastic as only he can do. 2000 just seemed really Vegasy to me is the only way I can put it. I suppose $80 nosebleeds didn't help. The sound was so bad that the only way I could tell someone was taking a solo was to watch the jumbotron. But what really sent me over the edge is Patty. She's pretty useless. Like that band needs a 4th guitarist. She's so minimally talented that she's fully out of the mix, except for the contrived "I want a red-headed woman" schtick they probably do every night. Then they punch her way up in the mix so she can play the three chords she knows. When that's over, she goes back to being invisible. I never cared for Linda McCartney's role in Wings either. Just keep the wives at home unless they can truly pull their own weight (e.g., Tedeschi-Trucks).

GD 1979. I thought the band was just wretched post-hiatus. Somnambulant tempos, disinterested drumming and bass playing. I think I saw four shows in So Cal between 1977 and 1979, each weaker than the last. I gave up on them for a long time. They did pull it back together briefly in the early '80s. New Years '81-82 was great. Ventura 82 and 83 also very good. Post-coma? Fuhgeddabowdit. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. My last memory of the GD is Garcia murdering Wharf Rat in 1986 ("dow<croak>own and <croak><rattle> dir<croak>ty"). Wretched.

 

I was pretty underwhelmed when I saw Motley Crue in 1991 at Monsters of Rock in Germany, but when I saw them in '94 (with John Corabi) they played an excellent set.

 

I saw one of the (legendary) early '90s shows. I was blown away. So a few years back, he does a whole tour with (mostly) that same band. I thought it was very low energy and paint-by-numbers. Michael Landau, who was brilliant in the early 90s, a guy I often use as a blueprint for how to play electric guitar in a really big band, just sucked wind on the later tour. It didn't help at all that he insisted on ditching the pick and playing with his fingers most of the night. Every time he did, he got totally walked on in the mix. Don't get me wrong, I think Jeff Beck and Mark Knopfler do fine with the fingers thing, but they are also the primary artist, and get to tailor the mix to fit that (fingers don't cut through nearly as well as a pick). Every other guitarist, especially sidemen, should stick to using a pick, even if it's not trendy to do so.

 

I saw Van on an off night once and that was pretty underwhelming.

Thankfully, I've also seen him in the zone and it was nothing short of wonderful.

 

They warmed up for someone, who I can't recall, but Kid Rock, had to have the poorest band members we ever saw...or heard. It was like they picked musicians out of the crowd.....Unbelievable how lousy the band was....the only songs that got the crowd going was a song by Bob Seager.....the fact that they were so amateurish almost made it entertaining.....been going to hundreds of concerts since 1971 or so, but they were by FAR the worst.

 

I know this is a 3+ year old post...still
First row seats at what is considered by many as one of Yes's best tours and you read a newspaper during their concert? Do you expect anyone to believe this?

 

Probably the most overrated musical artist who ever lived, whether live or studio.

 

Probably Pearl Jam. I saw them open for Neil Young in 1993, which I guess fans count as a seminal era. Aside from McCready's Hendrix flourishes I was totally unmoved. "Wee-iii---aaa--yaaaa--haaaaaa-I'm stiiiill-aliiiive".