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Musicians that are awful in their live performances.

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ShamePain

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As opposed to the other thread, let's name all the bands/acts that plain suck when they play live.

Let's start with A Day to Remember, it's like the singer is bored/sleepy/doesn't give a shit about his own songs, no power in the singing. Although they have some good acoustic shows.
 
Anyone who mimes. Sorry, but that includes Michael Jackson at times. I go to concerts to hear live music, and anything after that is a bonus. MJ dancing and miming just isn't fun.
 
ANY rappers that just straight up rap over their own songs. Play the fucking instrumentals or get a band and rap over that.

EDIT: And that above, kinda the same sorta thing. It's why I don't get why people make a big fuss outta MJ's superbowl performance.
 
70+-year-old Bob Dylan. Still awesome, though. :D

Some would say any-age Bob Dylan. >_>

Nah, Dylan in the early 60s was amazing (although I'm basing that on CDs rather than actually being there, of course).

Went to see him in... 2002/2003, something like that. Couldn't understand a single word tha came outta his mouth, haha.
 
To be fair their are lots of Pop artists that kill it, and plenty of everything else that sounds good in the studio but blows live. I saw Mars Volta open for red hot chilli peppers. I was so pumped but by the end I wanted to put their poor singer out of his misery. It was awful and sooooo off pitch. He squealed like a pig. Kind of surprised me cause in the studio he sounded ok. The rest of the bad was actually mediocre. There was no cohesion. They all sounded like they never jammed together before. Such a let down.
 
I saw the Pixies recently and was so disappointed at their lack of enthusiasm and energy. They never once interacted with the crowd - just played song after song then stopped.
 
I've heard that ABBA was terrible on stage. It was just their regular songs without the studio quality, there was no point in having them sing live.
 
Worst major artist I ever saw with my own eyes was White Zombie. Rob just couldn't hack it. Admittedly, it was towards the end of a long tour, so he was probably tired.
 
InMe - Saw them support Serj Tankian back in the day and they were just dreadful.

30 Seconds To Mars - Granted, the music was good but that egomaniac Jared Leto would just stop between songs to revel in his own magnificence and fans of the band just ate that shit up.

Angels & Airwaves - Supported Foo Fighters when they played Hyde Park and again the frontman (Tom DeLonge) stopped to "talk about the environment". At an outside show with a load of generators, beer vendors with non-recyclable cups etc. Pipe down and sing the songs, you performing monkey.

On the fence with KISS at the moment because the last time I saw them, it took about 5 songs for them to actually sound like they cared about playing. Missed cues, untuned guitars and the look of boredom on their faces kinda made the festival crowd break away earlier than intended.
 
I saw the Pixies recently and was so disappointed at their lack of enthusiasm and energy. They never once interacted with the crowd - just played song after song then stopped.
They're hit-and-miss; always have been. Sometimes they're absolutely ferocious live. But yeah, not much stage banter. I'm OK with that.
 
To be honest, I don't find this to be a big deal. It's a great thing to be good live, but if you happen to be a studio kind of performer who makes good tracks, that's awesome too. Some artists just do things that are technically too hard for them to replicate live, whether that's due to sort of weakness or complexity.
 
I saw the Pixies recently and was so disappointed at their lack of enthusiasm and energy. They never once interacted with the crowd - just played song after song then stopped.

They have very mixed performances I've felt. Especially at the bigger shows they can be really awful and like they don't want to be there. Then I've seen them in smaller venues and they've been amazing - although, since Kim left, still no crowd interactions!
 
Jhene Aiko
To be honest, I don't find this to be a big deal. It's a great thing to be good live, but if you happen to be a studio kind of performer who makes good tracks, that's awesome too. Some artists just do things that are technically too hard for them to replicate live, whether that's due to sort of weakness or complexity.
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I love Jack White and Damon Albarn, but they just aren't good live.

Whoa, couldn't disagree more. Have seen Jack White 3 or 4 times through various band incarnations and every time he's killed it. Favorite was Raconteurs at Bonnaroo but every show was great.

I left my Chili Peppers show very underwhelmed. They weren't bad per se, but very meh. It might have been a case of sky-high expectations though; I had been waiting most of my life to see them. It was only a few years ago too, so perhaps they've lost a step.

And yeah, seeing Dylan 10 or so years ago was kinda depressing, though I'd do it again just for the experience of, you know, seeing Bob freaking Dylan.

Most rap shows I've been to mostly sucked, unless the rapper/group has a good backing band (Roots) or a ton of stage presence and sing-along, upbeat songs (Outkast).
 
Whoa, couldn't disagree more. Have seen Jack White 3 or 4 times through various band incarnations and every time he's killed it. Favorite was Raconteurs at Bonnaroo but every show was great.

I left my Chili Peppers show very underwhelmed. They weren't bad per se, but very meh. It might have been a case of sky-high expectations though; I had been waiting most of my life to see them. It was only a few years ago too, so perhaps they've lost a step.

And yeah, seeing Dylan 10 or so years ago was kinda depressing, though I'd do it again just for the experience of, you know, seeing Bob freaking Dylan.


Most rap shows I've been to mostly sucked, unless the rapper/group has a good backing band (Roots) or a ton of stage presence and sing-along, upbeat songs (Outkast).

Same here. Wouldn't be the greatest night out, but at least we could tell people we've seen one of music's greatest artists (on multiple occasions).
 
This is going to be a "duh" entry but as far as mainstream DJs (that I've seen) go, I don't think there's ever been one as terrible as Avicii is. I've seen him twice during festivals and it was just so boring :/ Even David Guetta was better at making the crowd happy.

The Mars Volta were also absolutely terrible.

As far as Pop go, Taylor Swift really isn't that great live. Katy Perry can't sing for shit (it's kind of hilarious when she goes for those high notes that she obviously can't do, I wonder why she keeps trying), but at least she makes it up with a fun performance.

But even being able to sing well doesn't make for a great live show, I've seen plenty of acts who had zero interactions with the crowd and it took the whole show down.
 
Maybe it was a bad night. I saw them at the Pearl Jam 20 festival and they killed it two nights in a row.

Could be. The first time was at a festival where they played in the afternoon after playing in Paris the night before, the second time was after playing in Italy and the night before that in London. European tours can be crazy inefficient.
 
Stevie Nicks does a much better job in the original version of Stand Back than the live one. Muuuuch better.
 
This is going to be a "duh" entry but as far as mainstream DJs (that I've seen) go, I don't think there's ever been one as terrible as Avicii is. I've seen him twice during festivals and it was just so boring :/ Even David Guetta was better at making the crowd happy.

The Mars Volta were also absolutely terrible.

As far as Pop go, Taylor Swift really isn't that great live. Katy Perry can't sing for shit (it's kind of hilarious when she goes for those high notes that she obviously can't do, I wonder why she keeps trying), but at least she makes it up with a fun performance.

But even being able to sing well doesn't make for a great live show, I've seen plenty of acts who had zero interactions with the crowd and it took the whole show down.

Well both david guetta and avicii are terrible anyways, live or not...

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Seen Ellie Goulding before Calvin Harris was playing at a concert.
She was just shit, there's no other way to put it. But I do like her music, just not when she sings live.
 
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