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

I liked Arctic Monkeys from their first album until their fourth or fifth album. But I saw them live 3 times and each time was so lifeless...I think it helped me finally lose all interest and see there really was not much there to begin with... Though the first album was a great teenage album. Though I was in my 20s when it came out.

 

GBV shows were terrible unless you like getting trashed and watching a band get trashed on stage.

 

The scene that instantly comes to mind is of John Lennon prancing around the stage at the One to One show with an army helmet on. His political naïveté shone through at that moment like never before and I actually felt embarrassed for him and for myself as a life time fan. I’ve only seen this on film but as live moments go of an artist I’ve admired, this took the cake. I had to exercise instantaneous tolerance for what I just saw as a very “offbeat” moment.

 

Strange choice here perhaps, but Paul Williams. He's not the only one who did this, but he would not really sing his songs so much as recite the lyrics. That might've worked for Leonard Cohen or William Shatner, but few else. I find it generally disrespectful of an audience to give such little effort, but maybe he had a few off years? Neil Diamond has done this a bit too I understand.

 

Indeed...excellent points, great post!

 

YES ! I used to be a big fan of George Lynch especially his solo band Lynch Mob last time I saw him and what was pretty much a thrown together band it was embarrassing to say the least, it was billed as George Lynch featuring Lynch Mob he was rude to the crowd of maybe less than 200 I lasted maybe 2 songs and left after the rude interaction with fan in front who offered him a drink he looked right the guy and said into Mic "Why would I want this ? what..do you want me to get aids ? to add insult to injury he followed it up with "can't you read (referring to the banner behind the drum riser) it's George Lynch and Lynch Mob"

I know people can have a bad day but this was way beyond that.. there is no denying Georges talent but the the treatment of the people who help you pay your bills do not deserve that kind of treatment no matter bad your day has been going

 

For me there's 2.

Beirut at the Sydney Opera House in the early 2000's: I realised that he sings the same note (or at least in a very narrow register) the whole time. It got boring pretty quickly.

Deerhunter at the Fillmore, SF about a year ago. It was earsplittingly loud and there were multiple instruments playing at top volume at what felt to be the exact frequency of my tinnitus.

 

"Does this make me look fat?"

"No, but you look ducking ridiculous."

 

Butch Storm and his Polzeath Boys at the corn exchange in St Ives...
bloody shambles that, my sons...them twats was WELL off the bloody lash that night...
Yer man stumbled in from the local Boozer and kept fondlin him twig n berries the lads had a well
proper punch up in the lane them done...sent him off, the daft prik them done
well done, Lads!

 

Yes, I think she played a red Fender Mustang.

 

No but the use of off of turns me off.
Like a Beatles thread the of is redundant.

 

Out of interest what time period did you witness this. Thanks

 

Yup, saw the Pretenders in Auckland about 20 years ago, the band rocked but Chrissie Hynde was clearly not interested in being there. Now, I no longer am.

 

Bob was in great form (most) of the times I saw him since 2003 or so. Give them a chance - the current band is awesome and Bob is a pro!

 

I also saw that tour. Counting Crows was flat-out horrible. The band sounded ok; Adam Duritz sounded like he had never heard any of the songs and someone just handed him a lyric sheet and shoved him out on stage. It just killed the band for me. (The Wallflowers were very good.)

 

I mean I was pretty much over Dylan by the early 80s, but I had the chance to see him live in London probably around 2004/5, can't remember the exact date. Just appalling - he never picked up a guitar the whole show, and spent all the gig hunched over what looked like a Casio keyboard churning out unintelligible versions of presumably some of his most famous songs plus a bunch of other garbage. Worst gig I've seen in my entire life.

 

Van Morrison, Ryan Adams, Ray LaMontagne, White Stripes.

I'm still pissed at Jack White for making us wait 1.5 hours after the opener to get on stage at the Berkeley Greek Theater, only to play 45 minutes.

Ryan was maybe a year or two after Gold was released/ pre me too revelations. His self absorbed show had no rhythm because he stopped after every song to say something unintelligible and smoke a couple of cigarettes.

Ray got belligerent when the crowd turned on him because he refused to play anything other than his latest album.

Van was the worst though. My wife and I were listening to his albums almost nightly... We were really deep into a Van Morrison groove. And his show (also at the Greek) just sucked so hard that we haven't really listened since. It was not a marvelous night for a moondance.

 

Fleet Foxes - Amsterdam 2011
Their debut album had a huge, emotional impact on me. It felt authentic, organic and ‘close’.
None of that came through on stage. Peckold and band did not say a single word during the entire concert, and made zero effort to connect with the audience. What really turned me off, and totally killed any flow of the concert was the endless tuning of their guitars between every song, even when fresh guitars were handed to them by their crew.
I get you want your songs to be in tune, but taking up to 2 minutes staring down in complete silence at your instrument for tuning loses your audience quickly. After the fifth song I did lose interest and actually started to get annoyed. Since they were playing the songs exactly as recorded there were no surprises either. My appreciation for Fleet Foxes never really recovered.

 

20 plus years ago we were living in the SF Bay Area and we went to Golden Gate Park for a free concert, mainly to see Alison Krauss and Union Station who were just amazing live. Well the headliner was Emmylou Harris who came on after Alison and Emmylou was so amazingly boring, lifeless, could barely hear her. We left after four songs. I own no albums by this woman, probably never will.

The flip side of this question would be Squeeze. I saw them in the 80's in Dallas at the Bronco Bowl, wasn't expecting much, but was blown away by the professionalism, the way they dealt with the crowd, musicianship, and the show sounded wonderful. Huge fan!

 

Cat Power will never see another penny of my money after the shockingly poor live performance I saw her give many years ago, in New Orleans, LA. People say she’s cleaned up her act since then, and I believe them, but my policy on this remains firm.

 

And the irony is that Neil would be pleased that his music had that effect on you.

 

It's just a shame that in later years Geddy Lee screamed the lyrics live rather than singing coherently. This happened on both occasions when I saw Rush. He just messed up the experience.

 

I saw Rumer for the first time recently and, while I had heard about her reputation for having suffered from stage fright in the past, I found her presentation really off-putting.

She can sing, no question, and on record she is a marvel but there was something disconcerting about this show - technically perfect but a bit bloodless on the one hand but also a sense that something was emotionally off kilter on the other. This was especially noticeable as the three backing singers were really bringing it by comparison.

To say her own performance was phoned-in would be unkind and inaccurate but it felt like it was coming from that general area. The whole thing had a touch of the Van Morrisons about it. Would I go again? Possibly. Though it would probably take a killer new record to get me there.

 

Thinking about 10 years ago, or so. Not all the original guys. They were playing the local casino.

 

Beck (not Jeff)
I have a couple of Beck albums I enjoy quite a bit..... saw him live, and it was amateurish.... I felt like I was watching a rank amateur do covers of songs.
Terribly disappointing... couldn't bring myself to buy any more of his stuff, even when folks raved about it.