worst reunions

Guided By Voices. Bad enough that I began to wonder why I ever thought they were good. Still undecided, but leaning heavily towards purging the 5% of their albums I own (which is like 8) and just keeping Human Amusement.

― campreverb, Friday, July 18, 2014 10:51 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

would probably go with this too. releasing a 4 hour live documentary called The Electrifying Conclusion and reuniting 6 years later is one of the most irrationally-angry-making things I can think of.

Feel like Steely Dan should have at least been an option. I've never listened to the post-Gaucho albums myself, or seen them live ($$$), but there's something weird about a band that was so much about hermetic perfection and no-live-shows becoming such a touring machine (including full-on human-jukebox whole-album shows).

Yes it was Von the black metal band. It was a review in Terrorizer of an (indoor?) metal festival that Ihsahn, Jarboe and Watain also played. It was highly anticipated but apparently it was awful. But that was just one show.

I didn't mean that I disliked live reunions, I just can't get that excited about even some of my favourite bands playing the hits. And some bands build such a legend in your mind that even though the idea of them playing live is exciting, it's very unlikely they'll perform at the level you'd hope for (actually Slowdive and Chapterhouse might fall into that category for me but I'd go see them if I could anyway). I found Butthole Surfers mostly quite underwhelming but that was a hiatus, which they seem to have went back on.
The two early gigs from the Pixies reunion were amazing, about as good as I could have expected aside from the dream situation where I could request two more songs ("Alec Eiffel" might have made it perfect).

Live reunions with no new recordings make total sense if they have no new worthy material, which might be most of the time.

I thought American Music Club's reunion albums and tours were very good and I don't recall anyone being unhappy about it.

I heard the Bauhaus reunion album was great.

Slint reunions totally acceptable to me. Nothing too embarrassing, and it allows Brian McMahan to support his family, and Britt Walford to support whatever the hell he does with his time.

Go4's rerecording of their best songs was pretty pointless, tempted to vote for that.

for the most part, but the original line-up versions of the Songs Of The Free were pretty outstanding

the Songs Of The Free material, I mean. LOOOOOOOVE their take on "We Live As We Dream Alone" esp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWb8_dDAaL4#t=47m23s

at 47:23

Most of these I don't even give half a shit a shit about but the whole Pixies debacle is pretty grim.

I don't know why people are being so down on GBV, I still find them kind of endearing.

man it totally hadn't registered with me that the Pixies had been back together for so long. why do they bother?

They've been reunited now for as long as they'd been broken up, and longer than they were together in the 80s/90s.

^^A thread idea I've never pulled the trigger on: "Bands whose reunions lasted longer than their original tenure"

OK, I totally forgive the Bauhaus reunion album, because it was both great, but also revealing of the cracks that broke them up in the first place.

what did them in finally? My recollection was that the final breakup was quite sudden.

Daniel and Peter; conflicting egos. Both of them got too used to being the sole frontman, I'd say.

They seemed to have several rounds of reunion, too. Like I remember seeing a reformed Bauhaus in NYC before I left in 1998, and then the album, in what, 2003, plus second lot of touring?

Reunes what I have seen:

Buzzcocks: There was nothing wrong with this one, all four dudes of the classic period, sounded like they'd never been away.

Velvets: Very nice of them to get back together and play my local midsized venue and have the elements conspire to allow me to get tickets.

In both cases, the following albums were .. Um, souvenirs? The buzz one was alright just about, the velvets live disc was kinda unplayable really.

When Television got back, I really did not want to see it, and I don't regret not going even though that means I have never seen them live.

I saw the Pixies play Doolittle, and had a blast. I had to admire how formulaic they were - they played the whole record in order, then played the B-sides, also in order. But they sounded great and the audience just treated it like a big celebration of this record that the Pixies were conducting. But after that I had no interest in seeing them again.

Pavement was great and they played better than they did in the olden days, with a killer setlist of just about every song you'd hope to hear from them. This was at the Greek in Berkeley when they managed to drag Gary Young out as well, who managed to hang in there for a couple of songs.

in terms of cred damage, it might be hard to beat Lynyrd Skynyrd 1987-present

i saw skynyrd on the '87 tour and it was awesome. but yeah

Write-in for Magnetic Fields without Susan Anway

write-in for magnetic fields without n3ll b3ram*

Didn't Yuck have a reunion after a breakup that lasted about 2 years at most? Does it count with relatively new bands?

I'm curious how people rate Mercyful Fate's reunion.

Write-in vote for the DKT/MC5 tour in 2008.

Bad Brains circa Rise, anybody?

Another write-in for Os Mutantes - maybe not the absolute worst, but the most disappointing for me.

yeah the Velvets one was amazing imo. saw them at Glastonbury 93 aged 19 and immediately bought the banana album on cassette straight after! i'd be amazed if anyone would begrudge them a bit of success and limelight as theirs was the classic way of doing it; come back, play a few shows then fuck off, no harm done.

first few uk Pixies comeback gigs at Brixton were an absolute riot.

no mention of MBV? great shows at first but less so the recent ones, the comeback album saves the day i suppose.

I saw one of the Roth van halen shows and it was probably the worst concert I've ever seen.

Last years Sabbath reunion resulted in a mediocre to fair album but the shoddy treatment of Bill Ward makes it a strong contender here.

Pixies is obviously they play this big a room under that name and this small a hall if they book as Frank Black. It's kind of surprising that they just did not keep going without Deal back in the 90s, since Charles pretty much pushed her tunes off the CDs. It's probably good some air got taken out of that balloon anyway, as they were cool and a good band but I think some people made them out to be a bit more than they actually were.

you're certainly not alone in that last opinion there, I never got them at all.

When I saw the Stooges play live it felt like they could not have possibly been any better than in the heyday. Of course that is probably wrong but it was such.an ecstasy. The album's have been poor for sure but I would still call their getting back togethor an unmitigated success.

Jefferson Airplane '89 lp is bland as fuck.

I've heard that VU reunion sped Sterling's death thanks to the way Lou was behaving. & I found that it seemed like the band felt like a unit plus his ego somewhat separate from watching them on tv. Wonder if that was different live in the same room .

I think it was the opposite, that he started to be unwell and did the reunion while he still could.

Also, my guess is that Lou tired of it fairly quickly. I was lucky to get one of the early gigs.

Well, it's good to know that piscesx has me on KillFile! ;-)

Weezer never split up

all I remember about seeing Os Mutantes is Sergio Dias soloing forever. Didn't know they'd released anything...

Write-in vote for the DKT/MC5 tour in 2008.

I remember thinking I wouldn't miss this for anything, knowing full well it was far from the actual 5. But when Evan Dando was announced as the guest vocalist for the show nearest to me, that completely killed any interest I'd had in seeing them. They might as well have picked James Taylor; I assumed it was a joke until it was confirmed.

no Eagles, no credibility!

― Lee626,

get over it

Clicked VU by mistake but was trying to vote Weezer. Funny to realize how brief the hiatus was now, versus the span of their career. But they were very definitely 'over,' and increasingly beloved, and then the green album came out and was lame and dumb and obvious and nothing has reversed that. they could have been an awesome legendary two-album band if the revival had just had some different name. Weezer of the 21st Century.

yeah, i left weezer on for very subjective reasons. in 1998-99 or so, i guess i could have tried to Ask Jeeves if weezer were officially broken up or just on hiatus, but the norm (for me at least) was still just talking to people in real life, and word on the street (in my high school) was that they were broken up, that matt sharp and rivers hated each other, and that rivers was going to harvard (or something). so when they got back together for the green album and touring it didn't seemed like more than a mere resumption of activities. and also at the concert i attended in columbia mo (supported by the get up kids lol) pretty much everyone was like "they're back together! yaywoo!". i realize the misguided opinions of early internet high school kids doesn't trump facts, but i didn't want to leave them off

so when they got back together for the green album and touring it didn't seemed like more than a mere resumption of activities.

yeah at the time the press and everyone was calling that 2000 tour a reunion

Slint were fantastic when I saw them at Dublin in 07 as were Pavement

Yeah Pavement was a lot of fun. Best reunion gig I saw was the first MBV one.

Also, my guess is that Lou tired of it fairly quickly. I was lucky to get one of the early gigs.

― Mark G, Saturday, July 19, 2014 4:25 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's ironic, considering the reason they broke up/scrapped their US dates (and MTV Unplugged) was because Lou insisted they stick with the "hits," while Cale wanted them to do new shit.

The Misfits coulda been serious contenders.

Foreigner might have avoided this list (and given how lame they were to begin with, maybe they should). Out of the Gramm-ashes, in the mid-aughts Mick Jones decided to sally forth with just him, longtime (but not original) member Thom Gimbel, and...a whole bunch of hired ringers. I saw them live (for free) in 2006 and it was awkward as hell. Sure, they sounded ok, but part of the fun of a concert is appreciating the unit. For a band as old as Foreigner, fans want to treasure the history of the band.

I am not one of those dudes who demands the lineup be original when I see concerts but fer god's sakes, it is a tad bit awkward when your lead vocalist, who was 15 when the band started, talks about how 'we've' been around a long time, and how 'this is one of our earliest tunes'. THEIR, not YOUR. YOU weren't there! None of you were!

But alas, they released THIS crapmonster in 2009:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8a/Foreigner_-_Can%27t_Slow_Down_%28September_9,_2009%29.jpg

Parroting the title of a Lionel Richie album? a big 'grade stamp' F in the middle of the cover? EXCLUSIVELY sold by Wal-Mart?

You were supposed to tour corporate events for the rest of your career, not record. the album was not well received - for instance, see this review: "http://www.nu.nl/cd-recensies/2196148/foreigner--cant-slow-down.html";, which puts it aptly: "De excellente songschrijfvaardigheden van Jones, Hansen en hitcomponist Marti Frederiksen (Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, Faith Hill) zijn routine geworden en hebben nergens meer de glans van de beroemde radiohits die hele volksstammen kunnen meezingen."

Write-in for the lifeless Police reunion of 2007. Early songs were slowed down to a geriatric pace that was more dub than reggae. Sting's kid's band opened. $300 million in revenues.

Gang of Four reunion was both cynical and ace.

The worst reunion ever (and not in the poll) was The Monkees in 1986 without Nesmith, resulting in this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2c/Monkees-Pool-It%21.jpg

Enough said. Couldn't vote for anything else.

Nah, i loved "That Was Then, This Is Now" as a kid. It was tacked onto the end of a K-Tel Monkees best-of tape we had in the car.

Pixies were pretty lifeless when i saw them in 2005. MBV were very good in 2008 but no urge to see them again. Saw and enjoyed the Afghan Whigs last night but do wish i'd seen the initial reunion with Rick on board.

what about the critically panned "Justus" album? xpost