bands you stopped liking after you saw them live

Believe it or not The Cure on the "Wild Mood Swings" tour. Longtime fan and had seen them several times over the years prior beginning in '85 but wow...this was awful: an arena in New Jersey, a crowd full of pre-teen Hot Topic goths and their parents, Robert Smith in a NJ Devils jersey (!!) drunk out of his gourd running through a bunch of stuff I had and still have little interest in. It was a birthday gift ticket and I was waiting for * at least* a little pre-"Wish" action but it wasn't happening. I split early and didn't listen to them again until maybe 10 years ago.

Mercury Rev. I was going off them anyway but seeing their preening prissy preciousness in the flesh was the last straw.

Was this pre- or post-Deserter's Songs?

Definitely post!

Saw a Palace Brothers gig at the Borderline in London in '94, not 100% his fault but he was so purposefully quiet and weedy and the crowd were hugely rude and chatty that the whole thing was completely surreal. Took over a decade to realise I liked his music.

I still like Lloyd Cole, but my liking for him took a definite nosedive after I'd seen him live a couple of times, with his arrogant between-song banter and unfunny attempts at humour.

The other thing about Mercury Rev is they were supported by Flaming Lips - before everybody got bored with their shtick - and I've never seen an act so comprehensively upstaged by their support ever.

Disagree with a bunch of these, who live shows I've really enjoyed (Cake, Olivia Tremor Control, The Fall).

But I definitely have a few bands whose albums I stopped enjoying completely because of the live show:
- Slint - jesus what a slog that show was
- The Go Team - that Thunder Lightning album did not work live at all
- Four Tet - stopped going to laptop shows after this
- That band who sings "on every occasion, i'll be ready for a funeral"

Real Estate and Alvvays are the exceptions to rule here. Both shows were inexcusably dull, but it hasn't stopped me from loving the albums.

Cloudland Canyon. The first time I saw them live the lead guy got pissed off for some unknown reason and they cut their set short after like 3 songs. The second time I saw them one of their synths broke and they again cut the set short because they didn’t know how to get it working again.

lol @ Broken Social Scene. I caught a "secret" bar show in Toronto not too long after Craig's experience... so we were there for long and indulgent and I enjoyed it... however I'm not sure I've listened to them a single second since. It was just enough of that for my life. Also I think soon after there was that teen romance movie where the plot was based around making it to their show? Could've been partly this too.

Can't really think of a more direct answer on this topic. It's more typical that I'd get into a new band that has great live shows and get turned off by their first album.

From reading thread, got to stick up for Deerhoof - one of the best acts I've ever seen!

Buffalo Tom (especially after support act Bettie Serveert was great)

Can't really think of any offhand but can remember being put up in Wolverhampton after a Galaxy 500 gig (I think, could be a different occasion but I think that fits timeline) & the person putting me up's flatmate came back from the Chills show at another venue in town. I think they proceeded to destroy their Chills records but may have stopped just short of.

After seeing Pink Floyd in 1987 (the first post-Waters tour) I didn't listen to their albums for years.

I also quite liked Deerhoof live. One of the least showy bands I've seen but captivating in their simplicity, and they played super tight

I've always been too broke to splurge on gigs so I've convinced myself, Glenn Gould-style, that recorded music is generally superior to the live experience anyway. Besides, I tend to dislike communal events (dance, opera and theatre are simply not for me, give or take a few works) and prefer one-on-one interactions with aesthetic objects. Now that those brief caveats are out of the way, I've rarely been disappointed with live performances by musicians who operate in non-song-oriented genres (classical, jazz, 'avant', etc.), perhaps because their art is generally less reliant on recording mediums to begin with. Basically, if my sole reason for going to a gig is to hear the already-familiar alongside a crowd of randos, I'd rather stick to my couch, although classical music is an interesting exception in that the acoustics make enough of a difference to justify the ticket price (I'm also just more of a fan, I guess).

I wasn't a massive fan, but I haven't listened to the Pixies since I saw them less-than-phone-it-in in 1990. From what I've read, this was/is apparently typical of Pixies shows.

In 1994, I couldn't wait to see Evan Parker. Based on the recordings I'd heard, I expected his sound to completely fill the room; it barely made it past the first three rows. (He redeemed himself somewhat two nights later with a brilliant soprano duo with Roscoe Mitchell.)

It took me many years to warm up to Pavement again after seeing them on the Crooked Rain tour

Neil Young after seeing Greendale live with actors. Man that was trash.

I wasn't a massive fan, but I haven't listened to the Pixies since I saw them less-than-phone-it-in in 1990. From what I've read, this was/is apparently typical of Pixies shows.

I was never a big fan either, and/but I saw them that same year, opening for Jane's Addiction, and I have absolutely no memory of their performance at all.

War on Drugs seemed rote and withdrawn after an intense opening set by Hop Along

It took me many years to warm up to Pavement again after seeing them on the Crooked Rain tour

Seeing them on that tour cooled me on them forever. I've never heard anything they put out afterward.

I had an underwhelming experience seeing them live as well but not so bad as to keep me from listening to the new recordings as they arrived.

Camera Obscura played the adelphi in about 2006/07 on the one hot day a year we get in Hull. and Tracyanne spent the whole gig complaining about the sound, the temperature, the microphones smelling bad. don't think I've listened to the records since.

Fear Factory, for a few years Burton C. Bell's screaming technique is totally wrong, so he's usually hoarse midway through the show, with his voice cracking. It happened at two separate shows of his that I saw, so every time I listened, I kept hearing his voice crack in my head.

then I got over it.

Garcia Peoples

Stevie Ray Vaughan in 1985. Only really knew of him through the Bowie connection and the rumors that his live shows were concussive like a Texan version of The Blasters. Meh. Uninspired directionless - not even "Voodoo Child" with Mitch Mitchell himself guesting on drums could spike up the energy. Best part of the show was having Bonnie Raitt opening.

I’d be interested in hearing more about how fans of Pavement’s records were turned off to the band after seeing them play in the CR era.

I’ve been to my fair share of bad shows but I honestly can’t wrap my head around the idea of liking a band and then hating their live show so much that you’d instantly start being less interested in listening to their studio records.

Yo la tengo around 96...James just stop playing those three notes

Slint - jesus what a slog that show was

Susan Alcorn. If she released a new album tomorrow I'd probably still check it out (does that count?) but that was one of the dullest shows I've ever seen.

Winged Victory for the Sullen was also a big disappointment. I haven't gone back to their records since.

Yo la tengo around 96...James just stop playing those three notes

Robbie Fulks. Not that I was a big fan or anything, but people like him, and I had a good time at one of his New Year's shows. But he was playing before my band at a small town festival, and seemed maybe a little drunk and picked up our sousaphone player's instrument and was running around playing it for some dumb comedy routine, and ever since my position is "fuck that guy".

"Stopped liking" is a bit of a stretch, but if you were at Knebworth in 1976 and didn't feel insulted by The Rolling Stones, then you've got different operating parameters to me, 10cc looked like they were parachuted in from Strawberry Studios to play live for the first time ever and I couldn't really appreciate Skynyrd as I honestly thought I was battling heatstroke.
Those were the days.

I saw Super Furry Animals around 2004 and felt old and out of place, despite only being 25 or so. When the band came out for an encore in eponymous costumes and the audience chanted something, it seemed to me that I was among ardent worshippers and that I didn't get the ritual. I never listened to SFA much after that.

I was enchanted by Kero Kero Bonito's Bonito Generation and made the trip from Minneapolis to Chicago to see them last year. This was another occasion where I felt too old, but then I was 40 so maybe in some sense I was. There was this mock-machismo in the audience, and the tall blond bass player for the opening act conducted the audience's applause like he was Bugs Bunny — I couldn't believe an audience would support such dickery. KKB weren't bad, though the big-rock element was at times obnoxious in live performance; the audience killed it for me, though. As it happens, KKB involved a stuffed animal in their set, too. Maybe stuffed animals in a rock show it can bring out the wrong kind of people?

I was still considering going last night when they came through Minneapolis, wondering if the crowd might be better. It sold out, so I was spared the trouble.

If you’re into an act enough this doesn’t exist

I saw the Detroit Cobras in Morgantown, West Virginia and they definitely thought (wrongly) they were too cool to be there.

Slint - jesus what a slog that show was

Saw em on one of their reunion tours and they were A+ imo. Remember the sound being particularly well mixed. Crisp and punchy.
― circa1916

I remember my main issue being the amount of time they were taking between songs. They'd play a seven minute song, then spend the next seven minutes tuning their guitars, just allowing any momentum they had built to dissipate, and finally the silences got so uncomfortable that some joker would yell out "freebird!" or some other inanity. It just left so much blank space to ponder why I ever liked their songs in the first place.

If you’re into an act enough this doesn’t exist

― calstars, Sunday, October 20, 2019 9:42 PM bookmarkflaglink

Take it to the Bands you stopped LOVING thread

Great idea for a thread, the kind of thing that happens to everyone sooner or later. (except calstars)

Titus Andronicus for me - I loved & played the hell out of everything up through The Monitor, but saw them around that time and the show totally soured me. Patrick Stickles' onstage schtick was just ridiculously annoying to me, corny messianic rockstar moves and super affected punk rock posturing, like making a big show out of ostentatiously slurring every lyric to the point where every song was just him moaning blah-blah nonsense noises. At the time I thought those first two records were incredible feats of lyric-writing and I couldnt understand why they would take their strongest element out of the mix like that. When combined with the crowd, largely macho jock dudes who screamed with joy every time someone onstage took a drink of beer, it all just seemed very childish, like being at a dumb frat kegger, and they just sounded silly to me ever since.

I’d be interested in hearing more about how fans of Pavement’s records were turned off to the band after seeing them play in the CR era.

― drunk on hot toddies (morrisp), Sunday, 20 October 2019 23:31 (yesterday) link

I walked out after a handful of songs, which no one in the band seemed to know how to play and Malkmus was peak aloof/bored with the whole affair, it was deeply off-putting at the time. I think it would bother me less now.

I saw a Mike Watt show that he has since apologized for that was beyond embarrassing, he was falling down drunk & I was such a huge fan it took a long time for me to get back on the boat, as it were.

Shouts tho to Nels Cline who attempted to single-handedly save the show through guitar heroics and he almost did, man was he fucking pissed.

"Alvvays" I just saw them open for the National and I loved them live. Maybe it's me, or maybe it was the show.

Here's one: Squarepusher. Man that was boring.

Warpaint

If you’re into an act enough this doesn’t exist

― calstars, Sunday, October 20, 2019 9:42 PM bookmarkflaglink

Take it to the Bands you stopped LOVING thread

Didn't really affect my appreciation of his records, but I was really excited to see Shlohmo after Bad Vibes came out, and he played a pre-recorded dj set. It was awkward, but did kinda have an idgaf punk rock vibe too I guess.

wasn't overexcited by the 2010 reunion and what remained of my interest soon evaporated after seeing a couple of shows at which I was increasingly irritated by the overlong, formless "epics" and Gira's increasingly messianic demeanour.

ha, I think I saw them in 2011, and me and my friend actually left in the middle of the show. I was texting with a friend having an emotional crisis and my friend was so irritated with the show itself, she was like, "fuck this, this is horrible, let's go to a bar." and I was totally fine w/that.

but I was fairly lukewarm on them (Swans) prior. ... C@lvin Johnson on the other hand ... though that was more about him being a jerk to me, personally, as the venue manager/booker.

Sigur Rós