Great Live Albums

I like a good live album, especially if it retains a live (but good) sound and energy and some inane patter. Good covers, rare songs or cool alternative versions are also a big plus.

Among my favorites are:

Darkness Forever - Turbonegro
&
Nocturne - Siouxsie and the Banshees.

I also like Alive II - Kiss and Pressthe Eject and Give Me The Tape - Bauhaus. I'm sure I could come up with more, but I want to learn about other great live albums.

Opinions?

Here are a few I enjoy:

The Pirates (Johnny Kidd's former band): Out of their Skulls (side 2 is live)

The Doors: Absolutely Live (plodding at times, but fun if you've been drinking)

The Mermen: Live at the Haunted House

The Rolling Stones: Get Your Ya-Ya's Out; Got Live if You Want It.

The Morlocks (can't recall the lp's name)

Gene Vincent: The Lost Dallas Sessions 1957-1958

The Thirteenth Floor Elevators: Live

The Stooges: Metallic K.O. (Open Up & Bleed)

New Race: First and Last (Featuring most of Radio Birdman's lineup, Stooge Ron Ashton on guitar, and Dennis Thompson of the MC5 on drums)

The MC5: Kick Out the Jams

Sham 69: Tell Us the Truth

Plan 9: (can't recall the lp's name, but some tracks were recorded at the real 9:30 club, in DC)

The New York Dolls: Live in Paris

The Bobby Fuller Four (see Rhino comp. from the 80s. Magnificent).

The Wailers: At the Castle (the 60s band)

The Sadies: In Concert

Neil Young, both "Live Rust" and "Weld."

Oh yeah - and there's Link Wray live at the Paradiso (nothing like his 50s-60s stuff, but better than what most were doing in the 80s).

The Flamin' Groovies: Bucketful of Brains

DMZ (Live lp on the Voxx label.. band out of Boston that went on to become The Lyres, who also had at least one fantastic live lp).

The Fuzztones: Live in Europe

The Velvet Underground: Live at Max's KC

Shadows of Knight, The Seeds, many good things out there,

>4 Randy_Hierodule: re the Velvet Underground, I've always thought that "1969" was the superior live album.

The new Neil Young releases "Live at Filmore East" and "Live at Massey Hall 1971" are also worth hearing.

Not rock but Bill Withers "Live at Carnegie Hall" is a fantastic album.

Talking Heads "The Name of this Band is..." (and I suppose "Stop Making Sense").

The Who "Live at Leeds"

Again, not rock - James Brown "Live at the Apollo".

Bob Dylan "Bootleg Series vol 4".

The great missing live album - Funkadelic at their peak.

What about "unofficial" live recordings?

Unofficial live recordings are killing the official live recording industry!

"Before the Flood," Dylan and The Band, mostly because it had separate sets by each of them, and then they joined up.

The vinyl records are here to stay, and I prefer the sound reproduction of vinyl to the modern compact disc. I love the rock music from the Old School of Rock musicians e.g. Eagles, Deep Purple, Scorpions

Agree on the Velvet Underground album. Excellent. There's a live album by the English band Wire that I think is great too. It comes in a CD and Dvd package and it was done in Germany--(Hamburg (?)) at the Rockpalast (?).

Regarding The Who's "Live at Leeds," I suggest the Deluxe Edition. It has all of "Tommy" on Disk 2. The original album didn't have that.

LRILEY: The live Wire album I have is okay, I really like the "Trucks" track. Not a lot of patter or energy, though, that I recall. Is the CD/DVD package pretty lively?

ALL: Thanks all for the great suggestions, keep them coming!

slickdpdx--the title is 'On the box'. The concert was in 1979 so they were pretty young then and the music is taken from their first two albums with music also from their third which they were working on. Map Reference actually on this one is one of their worst songs here. As for the crowd--compared to today they are very subdued mainly clapping and cheering briefly in between. It seems a smaller and more intimate setting. Of the band itself the stage is small and there is not a lot of movement. I haven't watched it in a while. I remember B.C. Gilbert as seated most if not all the time. A lot of the material off of the first two albums I like better--they get more sound out of them. Anyway those first three are my favorites of theirs.

Stand in the Fire is an awesome early album from Warren Zevon. He's got a full band and gets through a lot of his best material - Excitable Boy, Jeanne Needs a Shooter, Poor Poor Pitiful Me, Lawyers, Guns and Money and of course Werewolves.

Big Star Live. I like it better than most of the band's studio albums.

Soft Boys Live at the Portland Arms.

If my memory serves me (and, frankly, there a whole lot of reasons to suspect any recall from that era!), I thought that Iggy Pop's TV Eye (1977 Live) was a really awesome album.

This was from the 1977 tour with David Bowie on keyboards (Bowie would take a little ciggy break mid-show during the one-note keyboard line for Now I Wanna Be Your Dog) and is a great mix of Stooges classics and "Bowie Era" Iggy songs.

That was an excellent year for music ... Patti Smith's Radio Ethiopia, The Ramones' Leave Home and Rocket to Russia, The Sex Pistols' Never Mind The Bollocks, The Dead Boys' Young, Loud & Snotty, Talking Heads' Talking Heads 77, Richard Hell & The Voidoids' Blank Generation, Television's Marquee Moon, The Vibrators' Pure Mania ... ah, what a time to be a white punk on dope (OK, so that song came out in 1975)!

 

Hey. I just joined the group. My favorite live albums are R.A.M.O.N.E.S. Live NYC 1978, The Rolling Stones' Get Yer Ya Ya's Out, The Live Kinks, and Nirvana: Unplugged in New York.

Funny, I don't like any live Stones.

I was just reading that The Raspberries reformed and recorded a live album that got really great reviews at AMG.
I like a huge variety of music so pardon me if this list seems a little incongruous

Rush, Exit... Stage Left. Simply because it covers my favorite period of the band.

King Curtis, Live at the Fillmore. What an encridible band!

The Allman Bros, 2nd Set. Just because of that acoustic version of Elizabeth Reed and the bass solo. There is not really one single live recording of theirs that is best but a hodge-podge of tracks from different ones.

Cheap Trick, At Buddokon (sp?) The full concert not the abbreviated one.

Lou Reed, the track Sweet Jane with the long intro is great though the album as a whole is nothing special.

Jimi Hendrix, Band of Gypsys. Again, the full CD release. Can you imagine what he might be doing had he lived?

Husker Du, The Living End. They do Sheena is A Punk Rocker.

Bob Dylan with The Band. Rolling Thunder (as mentioned earlier) and The Last Waltz.

Otis Redding. Anything live from Otis is good.

The Who, Live at Leeds. Again, the full thing.

Bela Fleck & Edgar Meyer, Music For Two. I missed it when they came to town. A freind was going but he said it was a Flecktones concert. Damn him!

Nirvana Unplugged is good although I have the Stooges Metallic KO (mentioned above) and, I'm sorry, it's nearly unlistenable.

Springsteen's medley of Devil with the Blue Dress and Good Golly Miss Molly at the end of No Nukes is fantastic.

The Chuck Berry Chess box has a killer live version of Johnny B. Good combined with Bye Bye Johnny. It sounds like he just forgot which he was playing, but it doesn't matter.

I'm sure I could think of more, but this will do.

Springsteen's "Live at the Hammersmith Odeon 1975" is excellent, as if Neil Diamond's "Hot August Night."

I imagine "Hot August Night" has (or should have had) some great patter!

It was live at the Greek Theater in LA; at one point he acknowledges there are people who've climbed up into the trees surrounding the seats and asks, "tree people? You okay up there?"

That IS great.

The Horrible Truth About Burma was Mission of Burma's live album of their last show before they broke up. Of course, twenty years later, they're back together!

The live record is terrific.

What, no mention of Cheap Trick, Live at Budokan?

Speaking of lively patter: there's a wonderful live l/fatter day Elvis lp (please someone, let me know the name of it) on which the KING steers a song's introduction into a god-knows-what fueled rant against against journalists spreading rumors regarding his fuel intake and promising, in a saucy sub-mason-dixon brogue, to violently chastise them in the near future.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Frank Zappa Live in New York.

But I did mention Cheap Trick!

I see that now! Many apologies.

's OK.

Any recordings of Elvis Costello at the Palomino Club in 79' are excellent, as is the Stones "Liver Than You'll Ever Be"...not to mention Ozzy Osbourne's "Speak of the Devil",ironically...oh, and if it counts, i've always been fond The Paul McCartney and Wings b-side "The Mess I'm In", which was inexplicably slapped onto the back of "My Love" (yuck) in 1973..i think it's a bonus track on certain imports of "Red Rose Speedway".

My list (and I know some of these have been mentioned):

Springsteen's Live at Madison Square Garden, especially the versions of "Murder Incorporated" and "Youngstown". (The CD only; I find the video very annoying because of the cameraman's insistance of shooting close up after close up on each guitarist's hands as they solo. Hey! I want to see the whole guy!)

Allman Brothers Live at the Filmore

Poco: Deliverin' (this was the anthem of my high school days)

Grateful Dead: Europe '72

The Band: Rock of Ages

Humble Pie: Rocking the Filmore

Stones: "Get Yer Ya Yas Out" and "Stripped"

Along with the already mentioned Nirvana: Unplugged in New York, I'd have to say that The Dead Milkmen's Chaos Rules: Live at the Trocadero is one of the best live albums I've experienced. It strikes the just the right balance of punk/wit/political commentary and satire.

The Oingo Boingo live on Halloween album is also pretty great, how could I forget that.

#30 There are other people who want to see the guitarists hands and just what he's doing.
However, if you're a bass player you can forget it.
Any Led Zep footage ignores John Paul Jones almost completely. The only significant video coverage of bassists (hands or no) is in bands where the bassists is the singer.

#34 Well sure, if you're a guitarist, I guess. But the Springsteen video I'm referring to wasn't produced as an instructional video for musicians. It's there to give music fans an idea of what being at the show was like. If Steve Van Zandt or Nils Lofgrin are performing a guitar solo, seeing their body language and facial expressions are as much a part of getting the experience (or, actually, more a part, in my opinion) as watching their hands. To be clear, I'm not saying this camera shot should never be used, but to have it as the default view every time there's a guitar solo is overkill. Sez I, anyway. :)

I agree with you wholly that bass players almost always get short shrift in these videos and I think that's a shame.

If You Want Blood (You've Got It) -- AC/DC

Running On Empty -- Jackson Browne (experimental "live" album, melding live tracks into studio recordings, considered pretty "cutting edge" at the time).

richard thompson - 1000 yrs of popular music.
"American Poet" - Lou Reed, 1972 w/ the Tots in a NYC radio station.
Much better than the later/first "live" lp. Sorry about the awful title. (released 2001).
Marshall Crenshaw - "my truck is my home"
on DVD - Dylan @ Newport 63-65. Excellent sound quality and fascinating evolution from nearly self-effacing young kid on the block in 63 to Bloomfield and Dylan shredding the audience w/ Maggie's Farm in 1965.

Foghat Live -- (go ahead and chuckle, it nevertheless kicked some serious 70s Pontiac Firebird stoner ass)

UFO, Strangers In The Night, double-live, when the metal-guitar-god-kid-whiz, Michael Schenker (brother to Rudolf, of Scorpions renown) was in the band.

U2, Under A Blood Red Sky, iconic Red Rocks performance from the band in their youth. And don't forget U2s ep, Wide Awake In America, surprisingly good studio outtakes and a couple songs live off The Unforgettable Fire album, including a terrific live version of "Bad".

Judas Priest, Unleashed In The East (Live in Japan); released just prior to the band breaking big in America in late '79, though what with the apparent overdubbing, certain cynical metal purists dubbed the album, "Unleashed In The Studio".

#38> I'm not laughing at the Foghat Live reference. I love that album.

I've been listening to the live Derek and the Dominos double album today. I'd forgotten how sweet some of the renditions are. "Why Does Love Have to be So Sad?" is much better on the live album than the studio album.

Grand Funk Railroad live is fabulous

I agree. But I am a GFR fan. I checked that album out of the library as a youngster and just about wore out the grooves.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Live! At the Star Club. It sounds like it was recorded on an old laptop sized reel-to-reel, the crowd is awfully noisy to the music, but music in a club is like that. But the band! Oh, what a band it was. They played their hearts out. There is more energy on this one live album than any other I've heard. What a band! What a sound! How good were they! This is where one of the worlds iconic movements rose from the depths of amateurism to be the Greatest Rock and Roll Band Ever. And no, it ain't the Stones.

I think it was " The Beatles " at their peak at a Hamburg , Germany's nite club.

Trying to locate good "bootleg" recordings of the
Beatles beside their official studio albums.

#2 I found a copy of The Stooges' Metallic KO in a second-hand record shop in Edinburgh back in 1985. I played it once when I got home, but don't think I've had it on the turntable since. However, having read some of the recommendations in this group, I thought I'd give Metallic KO another play. It's amazing! Why on earth did I leave it so long? Thanks, benwaugh.

#5 I love 1969; the Velvets are my favourite band.

The Stooges and The VU are 2 of my favorites as well. The Stooges spawned a whole scene in Australia in the 70s-80s (members of the Stooges and the MC5 played in the resurrected Radio Birdman: New Race). I like the VU spin-off bands as well: early Modern Lovers, DC's Velvet Monkeys and (LA's) Dream Syndicate. I saw Jonathan Richman recently - he's a great performer and seems incorrigibly happy and upbeat.

I saw Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers back in 1977 at Manchester Free Trade Hall. They were very good, but what I remember most about the gig was the support act. A juggler; I think his first name was Jason, and he was pretty amazing. At one point he was tossing and catching an apple, a ball and a machete, whilst eating the apple. I saw The Ramones later that year at the same venue; in those days I was more impressed by what was coming out of the States than by the Sex Pistols, Clash, etc.

Gave Metallic KO another play today.

Previous messages have covered all of my favorite live rock albums by Dylan, Hendrix, Allman Brothers, and The Band. Here are a few of my favorite blues live:

Magic Sam - Magic Sam Live! contains performances (in varying sound quality) from several shows, but is essential for his blistering performance at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival.

Various - And This is Maxwell Street sound recording - Live blues and gospel recordings from the open air street market in the mid-60's - Robert Nighthawk, Carey Bell, and others.

Otis Rush - All Your Love I Miss Loving: Live at the Wise Fool's Pub sound recording -A relatively recent release of a great 1970's performance with crystal clear sound.

Various - Please Mr. Foreman - Motor City Blues: Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival 1973 sound recording -Blues revue with performances by a variety of obscure Detroit blues artists.

Also, the various American Folk Blues Festival cd's and dvd's all have great sound and video quality on live blues recordings from the early 60's onward.

What, no Frampton Comes Alive?

"Doobie Wah!" I like it too. Consider it duly recognized!

The Razz - Airtime Live EP -- recorded live at U of MD -- hot version of Hippy Hippy Shake -- Ted Nicely on bass. Too bad their atomic version of the F.Groovies arrangement of Have You Seen My Baby never made it to vinyl -- that one used to knock me off the table at the Varsity Grill...

The Flamin' Groovies' Still Shakin' (Bucketful of Brains?) had some great live tracks - I think the whole second side of the lp was live.

You Can't Argue With A Sick Mind by Joe Walsh,with a 'guest'or two from the Eagles
Real Live by Frank Marino, a man who just plays and plays his guitar like it was the only thing that matters.