Live Albums

[Dave_G]

Genesis - Live and Seconds Out

The Flower Kings - Alive on Planet Earth

Gary Numan - Living Ornaments 1979 and 1980

Uriah Heep - Live 1973

Mostly I prefer studio albums.

But!

I adore concert dvd's and VHS tapes. I have about 75 dvd's and about 20 VHS's.

There are some very good ones out there and some very bad ones...

Dave

[Dave_G]

Oh Yeth,

Some of my favorite concert videos:

Neil Young :MTV unplugged. This is EXCELLENT.

Camel - Coming of Age

Rush - R30

Roger Waters - In the Flesh - also excellent.

Plus many, many more.

Dave

[Ex Lion Tamer]

My favorites by decade....

The '70s

Back in high school I loved the following live records:
Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive
Kiss - Alive
Ten Years After - Recorded Live
Golden Earring - Live
Emerson Lake & Palmer - Welcoime Back my friends to the Show that Never Ends
Cheap Trick - Live at Buddokan
George Harrison & Friends - The Concert for Bangladesh
The Rolling Stones - Get yer Ya Ya's Out
Elton john - 11-17-70
The Alman Brothers Band - Live at Filmore East
David Bowie - David Live
Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsys
Genesis - Seconds Out
Lou Reed Rock & Roll Animal & Take no Prisoners
Bob Marley - Babylon by Bus


The 80s
In the 80s the "live" album played a much smaller part of my listening time, though, ironically, I was going to more live shows than ever before. However there were still a few that I bought and enjoyed...
The Velvet underground - 1969
Joy Division - Still (some of it was live)
Little Feat - Goodbye Columbus
Otis Redding - Live in Europe
The Smiths - Rank
Stiff Little Fingers - Hanx
Magazine - Play

The 90s
The name of the game in the 90's was jazz. Too many really to list, but here are a few faves:
Bill Evans - Waltz for Debbie, Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Live at Shelley's Manne Hole
Thelonious Monk - Alone in San Francisco & In Action
Sonny Rollins - A Night at the Village Vanguard
Wes Motgomery - Full House
Nina Simome - At The Village Gate
The Modern Jazz Quartet - European Concert
Ella Fitzgerald - Ella in Hollywood
Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert
and the that omni-present audiophile favorite: Jazz at the Pawnshop

The 00s
Not much so far, besides a boot here & there and
Ben Harper - Live from Mars
Bob Dylan - Live 1966 (Royal Albert Hall)
The Clash - From Here to Eternity
Wire - On the Box: 1979
Wilco - Kicking Television
Luna - Live

[Jim Clark]

And maybe Brad H will chime in too but most, certainly not all, live releases seem to be missing the soul of the performance. I have several hundred bootleg recordings mainly acts from the 80's to the present and I still get a big charge out of those suckers. There are some absolutely stunning shows out there. Of course there are some captured with a minidisc recorded right next to the wooo-whooo guy but I've been pretty good about weeding those out.

Some of my favorite:

Paul Simon-Graceland Live
Notwist
James
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Ramones (although I readily agree that It's Alive is just fine)
Pet Shop Boys
Wheat
Talking Heads
Interpol
REM
Smiths
New Order
Depeche Mode
Seal
The The
Black Angels (rool!)
Peter Gabriel
Green Day
Stan Ridgway
The Rainmakers
Joy Division...

jeez I could go on and on. I just got 6 very high quality Tool shows for my oldest son. He's blown away by the intensity and the quality of the recordings.

[musicman1999]

No pne mentioned one of the greatest live albums of all time
Deep Purple---Made in Japan


bill

[BradH]

And maybe Brad H will chime in too but most, certainly not all, live releases seem to be missing the soul of the performance.

I wasn't going to chime in but since you brought it up, yeah, it's a common gripe among boot traders that many official live albums are not the best live recordings available of that particular artist in terms of energy level. Somebody asked about sweeting of live DVD's. You bet, they're mastered just like anything else. I think Yes's Songs From Tsongas sounds way too smooth and processed. Someone stepped on that pretty heavily.

Anyway, I've got about 350 titles, not counting about 40 of those Ebbett's discs. Some of them, maybe about 20 or 30, I value as much as any official title.

Granted, you gotta really like live recordings to get into boot trading but once every couple of months I run across a jewel that reminds you why you do it. Not everything is an audience recording, although some of those are stunning, especially nowadays. A good audience recording beats an average soundboard by a mile, I think. It captures the dynamics of the band and the hall. Soundboards are almost universally "dry". Remember, an official live album usually has the soundboard and the hall ambience mixed. But don't forget, some bootlegs are professionally recorded this way too by radio stations. There are also live albums that were scrapped and never released. And even some soundboards sound just damned good in a small club because the mics pic up the ambience of the other band members. I think people are spoiled by the fake studio environment and the producers "vision". It may sound good (not always) but if you want to know what a band really, really sounds like, live recordings are the way to go.

Think of it this way: sometimes an amateur photograph can capture someone better than a mediocre professional can. Think of those Glamour Shots mall photos that narrow the range between who's hot and who's not. That's what happens in the studio too often.

Oh yeah, the other thing is you can make you own covers if need them. A couple of mine have become the "official" unofficial art.

Here's one Troy and I did.

[unleasHell]

My favorite LIVE CD's are:

Throwing Copper
and
Mental Jewelry

not sure what you guys are talking about(?????????????????)