For me, Morrissey....
When I found out that Morrissey was billed to play at Glastonbury in 2004, I could hardly contain my excitement. I simply could not wait to sing along drunkenly to all of my favourites (mostly from Bona-drag). In my mind, this was a gig that simply couldn't go wrong, he has got such a brilliant back catalogue - Smiths material aside, that how could it? The fact was, I couldn't have been more wrong if I tried. Morrissey's set consisted mostly of stuff from 'You are the quarry' (which, although I think is a great album, had only been out for a month or so and most fans were still getting used to it) and partly of obvious Smiths tracks like 'Sheila take a bow' and 'Shakespeares sister', yeah great tracks, but it would have been nice to hear something a bit more off the beaten track, something that wouldn't be listed on the greatest hits anyway!
I am not sure if you agree with the above, or if you were there and you thought it was great, but to me this was a major letdown. I remember trudging to the toilets for a piss (strategically picking a spot to go for one) as 'Everyday is like Sunday' struck up, and I thought to myself great, there goes the Bonadrag part of the set.
There was no:
Ouija board ouija board,
Piccadilly palares,
Hairdresser on fire,
Suede head,
Interesting drug,
Last of the famous international playboys,
Alma Matters,
Reader meets author,
Dagenham Dave,
and why not for crying out loud?!?!
The 2nd time I saw him was at Benicassim. He did exactly the same except with the 'Ringleader of the tormentors' album. The crowd were even chanting for interesting drug and Mozzer was 'tormenting' them by saying "I know I'm interesting!"
What are your biggest live letdowns?
Massive Attack
Massively
I am not a fan, but why were they a let down?
Anything
I've been to at the Scala.
Why's this?
I've only been to the Scala once, for A Silver Mt Zion and it was fab. It felt like a nice intimate venue (despite being large enough to hold such a reasonably sized band). I loved it.
The Scala's great!
Seen ASMZ, El-P, Black Heart Procession ... all damn good gigs! One of my favourite mid-sized venues in London.
Because
their set was really lethargic and in all honesty I don't think they work well as a live outfit.
But there were other factors involved being that I was pretty much soaked to the bone and wanted to get back to my tent. Given that they're were decent I probably would have manned it out.
One of my biggest regrets is missing 'Public Enemy'
when they played at Homelands.
Absolutely gutted!!
You didn't miss much
PE were ok. Byut they came on at 1 or 2am. Evryone was soaked and the festival was less well equipted than Glasto to handle it. All the tents were leaking. No one seemed to be drunk or on drugs. Truly one of the worst festival experiences of my life.
Public Enemy had no chance.
What a terrible night it was.
A complete washout. The only reason I missed them was that there was another tent exactly the same as the one they played in. I couldn't find my friends for this reason, and gave up trying to see PE. What a crap night :(
twilight sad
at koko. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
that might just be their miserablism shining through though.
Modest Mouse
at the Royal Albert Hall. They even made Float On sound flat and soulless, and that's just unforgivable.
Also: Blonde Redhead, Cat Power, The Go! Team
That was kind of lame
But it was more the RAH itself, the sound just seemed to float off into the ether
weird
cos mogwai absolutely rocked there.. was louder than i've ever heard them before and the sound was top notch
Probably the Walkmen.
At the time when "The Rat" had just come out.
Live they were flat, dull and entirely devoid of charisma.
I saw them at Benicassim and they seemed okay.
Whereabouts did you see them?
Highbury Garage I think.
Thats a shame.
Will be good when that place opens up again.
i was there
on my own, got pissed, chatted up a girl after, woke up with a hangover, had the day off. Seemed to remember Walkmen being OK/good, tho sound was poop.
slipknot at reading
i watched them both years and they did nothing interestig. this was around the time when they were the most dangerous live band in the world. or something.
yeah i saw slipknot at reading..
it was possibly 2001?
It was totally laughable. a complete joke.
I saw them at Leeds in 2000
They were ace. I thought.
Slint @ ATP
:(
i saw slint offshoot for carnation
at the garage, thinking it would be vaguely godlike
erm...it wasn't very good
agreed
Slint should have been so much more
totally
not that they weren't good, but they weren't AMAZING, like they should have been :(
yeah
the whole slint reunion thing was a massive letdown. It was just like listening to them on cd but slightly louder. No live experience at all. Very disappointing.
mmm
yep!
Bob Mould
sadly. I even gave him a second chance, but he was rubbish both times.
The Prodigy.
A few years ago i couldnt move for people telling me "It doesnt get better than the Prodg' live!" Since then, ive seen them on 3 seperate occasions at different festivals, and they are like heavy meteal (without the metal) weak tea - the most astronomically overated live band ever!
Would have been better back in the day
circa Experience tour.
Last time I saw them they were partly responsible for the Leeds 2002 riots! Firestarter... :')
Bundoz, couldn't agree more.
I feel nauseous whenever I hear the 'Prodigy live rant'.
At reading something like 2002
they were rubbish, I think they played one song from before Fat of the land, when they were headliners. Played loads from the album they had out at the time, which was rubbish. They even teased us by playing 5 seconds of 'Out of Space', then didn't bother playing it.
I'll agree with whoever said Massive Attack as well, didn't think much of the Cure either or the early strokes shows.
...i loved the early Strokes shows...
...
Everytime I've seen them
at festivals, they've been really crap.
.
completely disagree... nevermind
Aye
Modest Mouse at RAH - though it was mainly the fault of the sound engineers, I hope.
Ipso Facto at the Camden Crawl - didn't imagine they'd blow my mind but they were exceedingly drab.
Prince at The O2 - Played mostly rarities which was nice enough but When Doves Cry/I Would Die 4 U et al only in a medley during the fourth encore?
Peter Bjorn and John at The Forum - muddied sound, terrible audience mostly the problem. Half empty after Young Folks.
Good Shoes at The Astoria - SO much better on record.
Prince medley
That medley was more painful than him not playing those songs at all.
I don't know if you went the same time I did, but it was just Prince and a keyboard. He said "I've got so many hits" or something along those lines before playing approximately two bars of Sign O The Times and doing the same for a lot of the songs from the highs of his career.
http://www.last.fm/event/262405
i thought that
about the sound engineers at modest mouse, but i went to see them at the forum and it didn't get any better
AND good shoes at the astoria was a real disappointment as well
ipso
facto... yep!
interpol
post 2003 - disappointing live ever since imo
^this, sadly
in newcastle
on their last run just after the ALLY PALLY shows they were absolutely amazing, totally worth the wait and dissapointments of AP and Leeds Fest
James Brown
a couple of years ago at T in The Park, fair enough he was getting on but just stop, he was so pish I left.
I'm surprised
you guys were saying you'd had good experiences at the Scala because it's quite famous for being the worst place in terms of sound in all of London. I've lost count of people saying they were disappointed by gigs there. Howlin' Rain back in November was particularly awful. It sounded like they were playing in a wind turbine.
Really?
The Koko and (especially) the Kentish Town Forum are *infinitely* worse. Scala's not perfect, but I've seen loads of good shows there.
absolutely
I actually refuse to go to Koko anymore, whereas the Scala doesn't seem to be much different from anywhere else of that size.
Weird!
I've been to some great ones at Koko. Maybe it's all down to where you stand...or something...
The Koko stuff makes me laugh
Everyone always goes "Oh it sounds SO bad". I have not once been there and the sound been bad. The same can not be said of The Scala (though I think that was a a one off bad day) The Astoria and The Forum
The sound at ASMZ was awesome
Despite them having monitor problems. I was at the front. I love the Scala
Archie Bronson Outfit
at the Scala last year was shit. Sound was terrible, plagued by problems, I left before they finished. totally gutted by that.
And the answer is.....
Cat Power.
Three times and all awful.
And I rate her records very very highly.
I've actually
heard very hit and miss reviews about Cat Power, so I went to see her myself. She put on a great show when I saw her - however, after reading so many times about her hit and miss shows, then I don't doubt for a fact that she puts out some really poor performances. I guess I just got lucky!
Very lucky.....
Was she not
a bit of a piss head? Hence the often shady performances.
all better now
apparently... but booze has floored her SO MANY TIMES.
think about it this way though, the more pissed she gets, the easier it is to slip her one without her noticing.
Modest Mouse @ RAH
reasons?
Terrible sound man
Johnny Marr
Inappropritate Venue
Johnny Marr
Liveless Crowd
Johnny Marr
Otherwise? Well the setlist was decent & 'Tiny Cities Made Of Ash' 'Trailer Trash', Doin' The Cockroach & Spitting Venom all worked really well live.
the whole of glastonbury 2007
with the exceptions of the awesome arcade fire, rufus, bright eyes and bootleg beatles
* Bat for Lashes
:)
+ Bjork
and !!!
I didn't catch Bjork, and was gutted about it.
The crowds + the mud + our tents location saw it that we voted to stay where we were.
Idiotic, but we had no energy :(
"Idiotic, but we had no energy :("
Pretty much the story of Glastonbury.
+
The Go! Team
!!!
dull and (yawn)...
the whole festival?
chemical brothers were amazing...
fat freddys drop
los campesinos
klaxons (in the dance tent, NOT the other stage)
CHK CHK CHK (!!!)
Chromeo
Simian Mobile Disco
etc etc..
all brilliant.
And The Hold Steady
The Gossip were fucking brilliant
Africa Express
IGGY!
And Maximo Park was some of the most fun I'd had in an age, though I was four sails to the wind
for me...
...Stephen Malkmus.
I was lucky enough to catch Pavement live a few times, they were energetic, fun, put on amazing live shows. I didn't want to see Malkmus, because in my opinion, his solo records have been utter shit. I decided to give his live show a go.. it was full of 5 minute guitar solos and unfortunately he seemed as though his head was rammed firmly up his own arse. The only redeeming factor from the entire night was that he had a hot bass player.
god yeah
Malkmus at Green Man last year was pretty hard to watch.. and I like a fair bit of his solo stuff
Amen.
I got cold and retired.
Morrissey has a back catalogue of 200 songs
If you go expecting specific songs you are bound to be disappointed.
Especially if he plays the mediocre ones.
both times.
A lot of fans
Would say the list you made of your favourites were the mediocre ones.
Dagenham Dave isn't exactly considered a classic.
Okay, what about the rest?
I'd say you are in the minority with your opinion to be honest. And I would say that, in general, most people that were at both gigs I have described would be in agreement with me.
Don't agree
Any established artist with a big back catalogue will have fans with many differing opinions on what is the best work. They will all have their ideal setlist in their heads and they will all be completely different. The artist hasn't got a chance of pleasing everyone in that situation.
An example is you wanting something off the beaten track from the Smiths catalogue but then just wanting the "hits" from the solo catalogue. That's a very specific requirement.
I can see your point about
wanting to hear his solo hits as opposed to wanting to hear the lesser known stuff from The Smiths material.
I suppose my point is more that, he seems to take delight in knowing that he will not play what the crowd wants to hear. This was very evident at Benicassim.
i've seen moz
probably 15 or 16 times over the years and the only actual 'bad' show i've seen him play was at ally pally a couple of years back, and then mainly because both he and the crowd looked bored - like they were overfamiliar with one another.
an artist like him is only ever going to play what he wants to and i don't think people shouting 'interesting drug' at him is going to change that.
i don't believe he takes pleasure in NOT playing what people want to hear, i think he just plays what he wants in terms of back catalogue and promotes his most recent record like most bands do.
i tend to focus less on what's not played at his shows and more on how well he plays the ones he does!
I disagree. morrissey is very very well known for being an awkward prick.
In fact you could quite possibly be the first person I have ever witnessed, think the contrary. I go back to my original point. Festivals should not be used as a promotional tool for your latest project.
To be honest, I am quite flabbergasted that you have seen him 15 or 16 times and you have not realised the blatantly obvious. I pity you.
listen up
if i make a reasoned and completely non-argumentatie point i dont expect to be spoken to in such a pathetic, attacking manner.
you pity me?
you've never met me.
you though, it is plain, are clearly an utter worthless peice of shit - that is easily gleaned from your posts, no personal meeting required.
He isn't actually known for being an awkward prick at gigs
He's usually in a good mood and is humorous and down to earth. Hes got one of the most engaging stage manners you'll ever see.
The set list is decided before the gig so he isn't deliberately not playing stuff to piss people off. The truth is he's more interested in playing for his fans than playing for the greatest hits brigade. If you don't like his new stuff and are going to get annoyed with him playing it, it's usually a good idea not to go.
He saves being an awkward prick for managers and journalists.
Clap Your Hands
shit.
Bright Eyes, twice.
once they were upstaged by the faint, the second time at KoKo the sound was overwhelmingly bad.
smashing pumpkins
glasto 1997
played nothing off Gish or Siamese Dreanm.
Wankers
Ouch, I love Adore
but that must have stung a bit. Was Jimmy Chamberlain playing? If not, could have been the reason why?
it was pre-adore
* Glimpses [Yardbirds]
* Where Boys Fear to Tread
* Eye
* Tonight, Tonight
* Transformer
* Zero
* Thru the Eyes of Ruby
* By Starlight