The best live album in recent memory

Not "recent," but Iron Maiden "Live After Death" has to be one of the best live recordings evaaaar.

 

Live stuff is more likely to be available as a free download these days — I recently discovered the Legendary Pink Dots Bandcamp page and the live archival stuff was free ... and highly recommended!

 

Esbjörn Svensson Trio; Live in Hamburg. A triumph in music and (especially on vinyl) in sound!

 

~Wilco Roadcase Series of live concert downloads of both Wilco & Jeff Tweedy shows. First & foremost is this whole series: 23 Wilco shows documenting the work from June 2012 through October 2013, & 11 Jeff Tweedy show- 9 finished & 2 pre-orders for upcoming Summer shows, spanning from December 2013 June 10th, 2014.
http://wilco.kungfustore.com/categories/491-roadcase
My favorite band/artist is also my favorite live band/artist. Wilco vary their set lists constantly & thoughtfully. I simply see Wilco whenever & wherever I can. I was at 7 of the Wilco roadcase shows & 2 of the Jeff Tweedy ones. The Roadcase Show Series releases are just an incredible live music resource.

~"Paul Simon Live In New York City" 2 CD & live DVD album set. Although they butchered it down from an incredible setlist that still all could have fit easily on a 2 CD set...it remains an amazing document of as great a songwriter as there is, or has even been, touring on as great an album as he's ever released, "So Beautiful Or So What", with as great a band as has ever backed him.
He'd only vary the set list by between 2 & a half dozen songs a night, but I went to five shows on that tour & they were all amazing! He'd often play two nights in a city- one in a small hall & then the next night, one in a club. The two shows I saw in Toronto were like that...then I saw two small hall shows in Philly (those were my faves & were just before Webster Hall), & finally I saw the NYC club show (at Webster Hall) where the live DVD was filmed & this live CD was recorded.
I would have gone to another- something (1 or 2 maybe) on the second leg, but we were sure he'd be closing in NYC- especially as it was so close the holidays- a certain slam dunk...the announcement & shows never happened...he played New Jersey (after doing 3 NYC shows on the first leg with N.J. as well), & that was as close as he came.

 

I get the feeling that you might like King Crimson?

 

If we are talking recent as in the last 5 or 6 years then I would have to say Jeff Beck "Performing This Week" Live at Ronnie Scott‘s.

If it's over a much longer period then I would have to go with The Allmans @ Fillmore!!!!

 

Get this guy a cold beverage of his choice.

 

Wilco: Kicking Television...

 

Two recently released live albums that have impressed me a lot:

1. Adam Lane's Full Throttle Orchestra - "Live in Ljubljana" (rec. 2012)

A brilliant set of modern big ensemble jazz from the worthy successor of great jazz bandleaders. Like Charles Mingus and William Parker, Adam Lane also plays bass and delivers music, which transcends the genre's boundaries. Catchy, edgy and absorbing!


2. Marc Ribot Trio - "Live at the Village Vanguard" (rec. 2012)

Modern electric jazz guitar trio in full (over)drive in a program focused on Coltrane's and Ayler's classics. This may be not for everyone's taste, but those longing for exploratory guitar howl interspersed with moments of fragile melancholy should not hesitate a second. Fire!

 

At the moment i am enjoying this one:

 

I heard samples of that on ITunes. Killer!!

 

Lucero have just released an amazing Live From Atlanta album... These guys rock live...

 

Interesting thread! I take it that the consensus here (to the extent that there is one) is that there are plenty of fine live albums from the past 10-15 years, but that this recent era of live recordings doesn't quite measure up to the 1969-1985 era in live recordings--in rock/pop anyway. Jazz seems disproportionately represented in the live selections named here--disproportionately in relation to its overall market share, I mean.

So, one wonders why this is so, especially for those of us who feel like there's a lot of wonderful music today and who even more habitually listen to recent, rather than classic, rock and pop. I wonder if that's because two of the measures of great live recordings of the long 1970s era were instrumental excellence and vocal bombast, whereas these two values aren't so dearly held these days, judging by Pitchfork's recent list of 2010-2014 best: Deerhunter? Tame Impala? Beach House? Fiona Apple? Vampire Weekend? These are some great acts, but their virtues don't lie in the direction of vocal bombast or instrumental flash.

Comments?

 

lucinda williams - fillmore

 

They do not seem to measure up, because there has passed too little time to put them in the proper perspective. Also some great live performers from the post-1985 era have not been properly represented on live releases yet, while the former eras have been extensively documented, with a lot of top-notch archival live material getting exposed to wider public.

For emerging artists in traditional genres it is even harder, because they have to compete with the avalanche of historical documents surfacing every month. I guess we will have to wait a few good years more to see modern live rock albums (like the ones quoted below) popping up in the top/summary lists.

Do the sales numbers need to be reflected in the measuring of artistic greatness? If so, then we could safely claim that rock albums are overrepresented in this thread too.

Instrumental skills and craftsmanship were indeed the main factor driving music in pre-digital era. You had to spend some time practising an instrument to be able to play anything. These days you may limit yourself to be just a composer and you do not need even to ask any (proficient) instrumentalists to perform it. You can just create (program) "a score" and play it using digital technology.

Does it spell the death of a traditional "live" album? Not necessarily, because the score (studio recording) can be always (partially) adapted, arranged and performed by traditional instrumentalist on stage. Björk's live releases are a perfect example of such a new approach, with gloriously diverse re-arrangements of her studio output that apart from traditional rock arsenal include string octet, choir, table, harp and brass section.

Brian Eno's music got translated into live setting by Bang On A Can chamber group ("Music for Airports" and "Apollo", the latter released under Iceberg moniker), Scott Fields' big band tackled live the music of Japanese noise artist Merzbow ("Moersbow"), Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" was honoured with a stage adaptation by Zeitkratzer ensemble, while electronica artists frequently release live albums in cooperation with guest instrumentalists (e.g. Biosphere's "Wireless" and Fenesz' "Knoxville"). Hey, even pure synth music gets re-arranged for live tours, which get subsequently documented on live releases like Kraftwerk's "Minimum-Maximum" or the Orb's "Live 93".

Is instrumental/vocal excellence and live prowess in disregard these days? I would not say so. 8,1 note on Pitchfork for the recent (and excellent) Antony & the Johnsons recital "Cut the World", recorded with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra leaves no doubt that there is still high demand for traditional music craft (and "bombast" singing ).

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16902-cut-the-world/

 

Progressive crossover Japanese group Gato Libre have already two live albums: "Kuro" (rec. 2007) and "Forever" (2011), both well worth checking.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHTB3V903yQ

Equally hard to pin down Swiss pianist Nik Bärtsch's Ronin project has a stunning release "Ronin Live" (rec. 2009-11) on ECM.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXtKWpIMTKc

Another excellent disc "Live Extracts" (rec. 2010) filled with unclassifiable psychedelic landscapes comes from Norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSlGW8IAZQg

There is really a lot of premium modern live stuff that gets released these days!

 

Two recent-ish (last 15 years) live albums that I think are absolutely stellar:

Sloan: Four Nights at the Palais Royale
R.E.M.: Live At The Olympia

 

I've been listening a lot this week to a pretty recent live album released this year that is freaking fantastic: Joshua Redman's Trios Live. Highly recommended and for rock fans who might not be inclined to listen to a tenor too date the album closes with a bravura rendition on Zeppelin's The Ocean.

 

Hacienda Brothers-Music for Ranch and Town absolutely floored me. Unfortunately, OOP. And then there are the GD releases if they count.

 

I decided to actually look at my collection. In reverse chronological order, my most recent live records are:

Bruce Hornsby, Oregon Zoo 2011
Jeff Beck, Rock 'N' Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul)
Hooters, Both Sides Live
Joe Zawinul, 75
Adrian Belew, Side Four (Live)
David Gilmour, Live In Gdańsk

Good idea for a thread. I don't think that there are as many compelling live records being released as there used to be. I hadn't really thought of it. I tend to gravitate toward live records (if they are honest) because I like the honesty and spontaneity. I wonder if, in a world of autotune, choreographed dance routines, pyrotechnics, etc., if the live record hasn't gone the way of the dodo.

 

Apologies in advance for going off topic-
I may be only a highly biased, classic rock loving dinosaur that I admit to be, but to extend that logic I wonder if there's been some slight hesitation by current pop artists to release live albums because of the realization that any audio comparison to their studio tracks may reveal more than they care to display....
I don't have any examples, but just thought of this...

 

Not everything in the world of modern pop is artificially produced. There are pop artists who hire a competent backing band and just hit the road. And they can still pull a decent live album, like Katie Melua's "Live at the 02 Arena", recorded in 2008. Here is a pop track from her set-list, which should be ideal for a classic rock loving dinosaur.

 

Jay.dee thanks for posting that, I was curious about hearing more of her music. I'll have to check out more...
I have no doubts there are many current artists who can perform great live, but OK, I'll reveal my hidden agenda - or rather (auto) fine-tune what I'm getting at -
When a large concert tour performance requires 1001 highly synchronized performers, dancers, lighting effects, etc, sometimes raw spontaneous vocal and stellar musical performances may not be the main priority nor showcase. Again, maybe I'm just speculating and projecting some of my biases on today's current music.
All those amazing visually spectacular performances do not always translate well onto an audio recording.

 

Eivind Aarset has become one of my favorite guitar players !