bands you stopped liking after you saw them live

Saw them in 1998 and they became one of my favorite bands for years.

Saw them after Amore del Tropico or whatever came out and I walked out halfway through the set.

I'm still moderatley interested in the new album.

I would have grown out of Deftones, anyway, but at one time I played _White Pony_ to death (I hadn't discovered the Melvins yet). I should've guessed they were unspeakably bad live. So horrid. No sense of dynamics, no spontaneity, nothing at all except piles of horrible distortion and the worst professional singing performances I've ever seen.

Also: Lambchop. The only show I've ever slept through.

I'm pretty sure Seth Putnam has sung this before

Autechre. After Untilted came out they played a terribly dull show. Repetitive arhythmic beats tweaked by small increments and the odd cacophonous peak palyed to a near pitch dark venue almost sounds like something I would find interesting - it wasn't. I left after an hour or so of their set. I've only recently started listening to them again.

a junior high version of myself liked the Dave Matthews Band at one point. it became very clear that i had made a mistake when i saw them live (shudder)

can't listen to Hail to the Thief after seeing Radiohead and all associated douchebag fans at alpine valley. though seeing them in Grant Park is still one of my favorite concerts

Apparently, real Decemberists shows are not much better.

they really need to re-evaluate their live approach. i've seen them twice now, and I couldn't even summon the interest to illegally download bitter tea.. it's like, "let's take the intricacies and dynamics of our song structures, the beauty of our melodies, and all the varied sounds that make us so unique and wonderful, and instead just have eleanore shout our stupid lyrics over an incessant, 45-minute drum pummel and occasionally let Matt demonstrate how utterly adquate he is as a guitarist." such a shame-- although the last time i saw them i was really drunk (like, nearly falling-asleep-standing-up drunk) and told matt afterwards at the merch booth 'awesome job,' anyway.

Fan Modine put on one of the most stage-struck shows I've ever witnessed (aside from my own) at a Grimsey Records showcase in '99. Chris Brokaw from Come was on guitar, but I think Gordon (Zacharias) did more sweating than singing. That qualifies as "Bands you pitied after you saw them live," though, not "stopped liking."

This thread could also dovetail with prior "Bands/artists you liked until you realized they were assholes" thread(s), in which case I'd rope in The Magnetic Fields as the principal example.

For some strange reason, mainstream female soloists have done badly out of this. Macy Gray (dear Lord, what WERE we thinking), Alicia Keys, Beth Orton, Nanci Griffith. And also My Morning Jacket, but I accept it might have been a bad night. (MIGHT have been.)

OTMFM!!! Also the way he kept humping the lamptop or at least that's what it looked like from where I was standing.

Anyway, to answer the question... Seeing Four Tet is definitely a deadly dull experience. Still can't listen to him without getting boring flashbacks.

Also, I saw Beck on a whim recently, and I'd never really been a fan, but I thought the show would be fun. It was maybe the worst concert I've ever been to in my life. I nearly walked out. It was just so self-consciously staged and "fun" in a terribly overbearing way. All wacky dancing and puppets and whatnot. YOU WILL HAVE FUN. FUN. FUN. But they all kind of seemed like they wanted to kill themselves. It was really bizarre. It was especially a disappointment after Jamie Lidell as the support act.

Lawd save us from grateful-to-be-here bands.

i can't bear to say more as it still infuriates/upsets me to my very core, but i'll just say 'glastobury 1993' and be done with it.

Still can't listen to him without getting boring flashbacks I listen to him and the boredom has nothing to do with flashbacks :)

Also the way he kept humping the lamptop or at least that's what it looked like from where I was standing.

There was humping a-plenty on this occasion too.

oh?
cool.
i'll pass anyway, thanks!

Completely forgot that the first concert I ever saw was an example of this: U2 on the Popmart tour. Technical issues meant the show started almost two hours late, our seats were so far back that it felt like I was watching a music video rather than a live band. The crowd was not into any of the new songs and I realized that Pop really sucked. Quickly after that I turned on them, All That You Can't Leave Behind was their first album I didn't purchase. Coincidentally I went through a reappreciation phase about ten years later when I saw them the second time. Pop doesn't really suck, it just half sucks

After i saw Odd Future Wolf in 2010 I only ever listened to Earl Sweatshirt once after that.

I was bored by the show to where I questioned if I liked them as much as I thought.

but I think it had more to do with the fact that some young kid behind me in line saw my Wu shirt and snidely said "oh wow, Wu-Tang was all the way back in the 90s!" and hip as I tried to feel the rest of the night, I felt like Colonel Sanders attending a high school dance.

The trick to feeling young again isn't going to shows by [current year] artists. It's attending classical concerts.

i really liked the dutchess and the duke the couple of times i saw them. yeah, they were drunk but they totally didn't fall asleep; they had issues, for sure. but they laid down an almost "exile" vibe. those records will be rediscovered some day. (xpost)

damon and naomi were fantastic when i saw them. charming too. though even that wasn't enough to actually get me to listen to their records.

xp: wire played mostly pretty average new stuff and really seemed like they didn't want to be there, it's somehow retroactively made listening to their 70s albums more boring to me.

The Mars Volta in 2003. Incredibly boring, I never got to appreciate their albums since.

The trick to feeling young again isn't going to shows by [current year] artists. It's attending classical concerts.

― pomenitul, Wednesday, October 23, 2019 5:47 AM bookmarkflaglink

Or jazz clubs.

or, in 2019, p much any rock act that isn't a festival headliner

I was bored by the show to where I questioned if I liked them as much as I thought.

Its interesting to me how many of these stories dont involve the band playing an awful show or saying/doing something bad, but just being boring enough that it provides a moment to hit pause and closely reexamine your fandom

I'm not sure this has ever actually happened to me.

Even bands who were terrible live, Pavement being the most obvious one, I just didn't bother going to see them live unless they happened to be playing a festival I was at and there was nothing else on. didn't really change liking the records at all. but I'm having a hard time thinking of times when I've seen a band and they acted like arseholes rather than just being shit

more likely to be the opposite for me, bands whose records I was lukewarm on then I saw them live and it started making sense

oh there was Perfect Pussy, whose records I haven't actually heard, but I was going to listen to them, then I saw them live and they were deliberately playing really badly for some reason, just totally fucking around, the singer wasn't even bothering to sing into the mike, so there were absolutely zero vocals audible at all. I dunno if maybe the sound people or venue had pissed them off or something, but no reason to take it out on the audience, who seemed really enthusiastic to see them and everyone round me was confused why they were doing it. Never bothered with them after that

I'm not sure this has ever actually happened to me.

Same! I've seen some dreadful concerts (Sebadoh w/ a ranting Lou Barlow storming off after 1.5 song to never come back [it took me three hours to get there, plus a night in a hostel, it was done after five minutes lol]. Primal Scream who were 2 hours late and just put on a tape. Ariel Pink because they couldn't play for shit) but I didn't stop liking any of them, or not because of the concert anyway. I even forgave Lou Barlow :)

My nomination is actually the same as the very first band mentioned on this thread. I was a big Bright Eyes fan around 2002-4. Even though I didn't quite love I'm Wide Awake as much as everyone else seemed to, I still went to see them headline the John Peel stage at Glastonbury 05. Conor Oberst was in a terrible mood sulking all the way through it. Seemed like he was definitely on something too. He played nothing but songs from Digital Ash (no-one in that tent was there for that) and ranted in between songs which included him slagging off John Peel several times. That went down about as well as you'd expect. I sold all my CDs not long after that. I could never enjoy his voice again without thinking of that embarrassing performance that really was like witnessing teenager having a massive strop.

took me a very long time to be able to listen to anything by sisters of mercy after i saw them back in the 00s.
after an hour of seeing absolutely nothing but smoke i gave up and went home.
could have been a cd player via the PA system, we genuinely could not see anything the whole time.

Its interesting to me how many of these stories dont involve the band playing an awful show or saying/doing something bad, but just being boring enough that it provides a moment to hit pause and closely reexamine your fandom

kinda depends where you live I guess - if you're away from the major hubs like LA, Chicago, and NY then you don't usually get to see the stuff you're currently into. a lot of the shows I see are bands I was heavily into years ago and haven't really listened to since.

Frankie Rose

Suicide opening for Grinderman, Kentish Town Forum. I enjoyed the occasional spin of their albums before the concert, but never wanted to go near them after that. They were just incredibly dull and played way too loud.

Jesus and Mary Chain, the first time they reformed at Brixton was terrible as well and put me off listening to them for a good while. Just boring, with none of the energy or vibe of their albums coming across at all.

Sebadoh w/ a ranting Lou Barlow storming off after 1.5 song to never come back

Where/when was this??

Doornroosje, Nijmegen (The Netherlands), probably in '97/'98/'99? I can't remember the exact year. Tried to google it to find it and see that he's playing there in just three days from now! :)

_hip as I tried to feel the rest of the night, I felt like Colonel Sanders attending a high school dance.

― When I am afraid, I put my toast in you (Neanderthal_

Me at the bar

I could never enjoy his voice again without thinking of that embarrassing performance that really was like witnessing teenager having a massive strop.

― kitchen person, Wednesday, October 23, 2019 11:13 AM (forty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

How awful that something could cause you to associate Conor Oberst's vocal delivery with that of a whiny teenager. How unthinkable.

_ I'm not sure this has ever actually happened to me._

Same. Records are documents, shows are a different animal. Sure some bands have no presence, are less skilled than you would assume, storm off stage...who cares. Maybe it’s just being in their presence for awhile that is what I expect and not a lot more

Feel that there could be an interesting adjunct thread for folks that have shared a bill alongside asshole musicians with the same outcome.

How awful that something could cause you to associate Conor Oberst's vocal delivery with that of a whiny teenager. How unthinkable.

― Evan,

Haha, true. I guess when I got into them I was still heavily in my teen angst phase (leading into my remarkably different early 20s angsty phase) and I thought his voice was raw, emotional and spoke to me in some way. Seeing him on stage behaving like that really made see how embarrassing his whole shtick was. I still wasn't out of that phase in 2005 and had some rough years ahead, but I often thought to myself as long as I'm coming across better than Conor Oberst at Glastonbury I must be doing ok.

Remember sitting down to watch Bright Eyes pre-Wilco at Glastonbury 2004, the first band of the day in the glorious sun at first ever visit to the festival. This is going to be amazing, I thought, being full of youthful excitement for simply being there, despite having never heard a note of his music. Very quickly formed the opinion that CO was the worst person in music at that moment in time.

Needless to say I wasn't at his set the following year, but I was told he referred to John Peel as being "a cokehead, just like myself"

Garcia Peoples

― alpine static, Sunday, October 20, 2019 10:05 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Gotta say I wasn't expecting to see that answer. I've never seen them live myself, but I've heard a lot of very, very good sets they've played. Usually I hear the opposite, folks weren't into them at all until they saw them live.

took me a very long time to be able to listen to anything by sisters of mercy after i saw them back in the 00s.
after an hour of seeing absolutely nothing but smoke i gave up and went home.
could have been a cd player via the PA system, we genuinely could not see anything the whole time.

You’d think I would give Ariel Pink another chance after a decade or so has passed since I saw him perform but nope, he was that bad

The Mars Volta in 2003. Incredibly boring, I never got to appreciate their albums since.

Nothing to add to this, probably the most tedious attempts at jamming I've ever witnessed and I've seen Phish

The Roots were booked to play the state university I went to in 2000. When I went, there was no Questlove or Black Thought; just Dice Raw, some hype men and replacement players.

Nearly all bands I've ever seen live, I pretty much stop listening to. Something to do with being subjected to music in that way for 90-120 minutes feels like it's absolutely my fill of that noise for a long long time

90-120 minutes? Most bands I've seen haven't played that long, it certainly would be the exception rather than the rule.

Yeah, most bands I see play 60-75 minutes. 90-120 if the band's headlining an arena, but club shows are substantially shorter than that.

Bands you stopped licking

In my experience 90 mins is the norm.

Yeah 90 minutes of licking, tops

re: Sisters Of Mercy, I don’t think the point ever was that you’d be able see ‘real’ artists playing ‘real’ music. I’ve been to two of those ‘let’s pump the room full of smoke and turn everything up to eleven’ shows and absolutely loved the experience, esp the flashes of Eldridge weaving in and out of the fog, hollering away.

Lol omar