Has an artist's live performance ever turned you off of them?

A rare miss for them, I guess. One of the funnest bands to see live, like hanging out with great pub singers.

 

As much as I love Rickie Lee Jones, I was "lucky" enough to see a show on the Ghosty Head tour in 1997. Had a hard time listing to any Rickie Lee for a whole after that...

 

Counting Crows a couple summers ago. Adam probably changed the vocal melodies for every song, which I know he does, but it was hard to pick up any of their music for a while after that.

 

When Lana Del Rey was new to the scene she was awful live and I couldn't be much of a fan since. I recall that in LA they had her perform a small, intimate set at some fancy place in an attempt to kill the bad buzz but it didn't really help.

 

The Replacements. I saw them in the 80s sometime and I already knew that playing drunk was their schtick, but paying for a ticket to watch them have a train wreck on every song kind of sucked. The band also thought it was hilarious every time it happened, which didn't help.

Other than that, there were a lot of examples of artists who turned out to just be kind of mediocre and "meh." It didn't automatically turn me off but I definitely lost a lot of enthusiasm for them after that.

 

Modest Mouse. One of the most boring live bands ever. They had a reputation as not being that great live and I saw them on the Lonesome Crowded West Tour, The Moon and Antarctica tour, and Good News For People Who Love Bad News tour so I saw them at their absolute peak and it was a snooze fest everytime. You may be wondering why I choose to see them three times if they were so bad. The second and third times were at festivals so it wasn’t all about them.

 

The last time I saw him he did "Roxanne" and it started out as that same dreary lounge version he'd been doing for years. Then it hit the first chorus and the band launched into the original Police arrangement. The building exploded. It was one of those great moments that draw you to live music -- something unexpected and jubilant and wonderful and the whole arena was instantly on their feet dancing. And then the chorus ended.... and it was back to the lounge version for the rest of the song, choruses included. People sat back down and the energy instantly died. It felt to me like a really clear message -- "I know what you want to hear, I know nobody likes this version I've been playing for decades. F*** you." I haven't even considered seeing him since.

 

What did he say about Greeks?

 

Dylan, I'm sorry to report.
I mean, I still love Dylan, but his live show got under my skin, not in a good way, and it soured me a bit on his post-Modern Times work. Not sure I've quite recovered from that. He's one of the few acts on my iPod (hey, I love that thing! Don't mock my love!) that I'll hit "skip" with rather than just listen through the song. Not always! But often enough.

One of his warm-up acts that night was Elvis Costello solo on guitar. I adore Elvis Costello, but I thought the show was misconceived (I wouldn't have thought EC could carry a set without some accompaniment, and the show I saw did nothing to change my mind on that score) and it also got under my skin. Did it sour me on post-Cruel Smile EC? It did, for a time! And while I'm now again curious enough to pick up a title of his new material sometimes, I'm still a little bit shy with it, and I think that live set is part of the reason why.

Guess I was hard to please that night! Or, who knows, maybe it was them, not me.

 

Black Crowes, way too many f bombs from Chris. Just got old after awhile.

 

I'm generally not a fan of solo acoustic artists, but I've liked the handful of solo Costello shows I've seen over the years.

 

Know what you mean OD, not a big fan of solo acoustic, especially when it's someone who usually tours with a band. I've seen Graham Parker twice - first time as the opening act with full band, so a shorter but great set. As Cheap trick headlined, we got beat the rush to the exits.. Next time was in a small club in Toronto on his Live Alone In America tour (general admission, no seats, and a bar!). Actually got to shake his hand and exchange a few words. Very memorable.

 

Called a fan a “Greek c*unt” for lighting a flare which they do all the time. It was in a football stadium full of Greeks, in the capital of Athens.