Top 3 most underwhelming bands/artists you've ever seen

[hardwood floor]

Yeah, he literally raped "The River" into something unrecognizeable far from the beautiful mellow song it normally is and should be.

 

literally? or figuratively?

 

last time i saw REM it was one of the worst shows of my life (literally)

 

first time i saw 'em was one of the best

[stagerug]

The Band (on a bad night.. post Robbie/Richard (BTW and of course))

 

OUUWWCHH!! That's too bad.

 

On a related note... my most underwhelming

 

Big Bob Dylan

 

Flaming Lips

 

Smashing Pumpkins

[PopTodd]

Neil Young

(Of course, I only saw him on the This Note's For You tour.)

[remphish1]

literally? or figuratively?

 

last time i saw REM it was one of the worst shows of my life (literally)

 

first time i saw 'em was one of the best

 

 

What tour did you see them on last? Why was it such a bad show(Set list, sound, other influences)? I have seen REM 10 times and maybe 1 was subpar...at that show though the soun was poorly mixed. I still enjoyed it though...

 

Neil Young

(Of course, I only saw him on the This Note's For You tour.)

 

I saw Neil Young on the Horde Fest in 97 and I was bored beyond belief. The 15 minute version of Down By The River in a 75 minute set didn't do it for me...

[PopTodd]

literally? or figuratively?

 

last time i saw REM it was one of the worst shows of my life (literally)

 

first time i saw 'em was one of the best

 

Yo La Tengo was like that for me: first time one of the best; second time one of the worst (maybe the worst).

[MattZ]

the first three that popped into my head:

 

Shins

Modest Mouse

Oysterhead

[cryptique]

I forgot one that would have made my list: Ben Folds Five.

 

Man, they sucked.

 

I did like the way they ended their set, though -- everyone wanted them to play "Brick," which was kinda big at the time, and as they finished the show there was a weird techno-dancebeat version of "Brick" playing over the P.A. as they walked offstage. That was the first part of the show that I enjoyed -- watching everyone get pissed off that they weren't going to play their big "hit."

[Moss]

I saw REM twice, once in the 80's (Fables tour) and once in the 90's (Monster tour) and neither of them were spectacular. Maybe just bad luck? I still love the band.

[hardwood floor]

What tour did you see them on last? Why was it such a bad show(Set list, sound, other influences)? I have seen REM 10 times and maybe 1 was subpar...at that show though the soun was poorly mixed. I still enjoyed it though...

 

yeah, it was mid-90s ... arena show ... after that, i vowed to never see another arena show and to never see REM again, and i haven't done either

 

the sound was awful, that was part of it. the band was incredibly remote and disinterested. i had seen REM tour during the early years with the dBs opening and with the feelies opening in small theaters and they were just breathtaking shows ... this was a lumbering, distorted, bloated, boring night ... just excrutiating

 

and yeah, the set list was a disgrace -- this was circa i think new adventures and they didn't play a single song from before out of time if i'm not mistaken. i'm not one to complain about set lists, but you have this incredible catalogue, would it kill you to just give the fans who've been with you since chronic town and stuck with you three minutes? just give me sitting still ... gardening at night ... cuyahoga ... anything

 

so when REM's popularity started sagging and now all of a sudden they started doing these shows jammed with old material, i thought it was hypocritical as hell. now that you're desperately trying to revive your legacy and your popularity, you're playing the songs everybody wants to hear. just pissed me off. i haven't been able to care about REM since.

[embiggen]

I can only think of one band off the top of my head;

 

Low - they opened for Wilco in June 2007 at the Hammerstein Ballroom. terrible and every song sounded the same.

[cryptique]

Another one I forgot: Shannon Wright. Absolutely putrid.

 

I saw her at Schuba's. I'd loved her band Crowsdell, and was hoping her solo show would be something like that, but it wasn't. It was filled with tuneless songs and pointless screaming -- really painful to watch. Her drummer (the only other musician onstage) seemed completely confused ... I felt sorry for him.

 

However, the opening band was fantastic (The Waxwings).

[remphish1]

yeah, it was mid-90s ... arena show ... after that, i vowed to never see another arena show and to never see REM again, and i haven't done either

 

the sound was awful, that was part of it. the band was incredibly remote and disinterested. i had seen REM tour during the early years with the dBs opening and with the feelies opening in small theaters and they were just breathtaking shows ... this was a lumbering, distorted, bloated, boring night ... just excrutiating

 

and yeah, the set list was a disgrace -- this was circa i think new adventures and they didn't play a single song from before out of time if i'm not mistaken. i'm not one to complain about set lists, but you have this incredible catalogue, would it kill you to just give the fans who've been with you since chronic town and stuck with you three minutes? just give me sitting still ... gardening at night ... cuyahoga ... anything

 

so when REM's popularity started sagging and now all of a sudden they started doing these shows jammed with old material, i thought it was hypocritical as hell. now that you're desperately trying to revive your legacy and your popularity, you're playing the songs everybody wants to hear. just pissed me off. i haven't been able to care about REM since.

 

Hmm I guess I can understand. I started getting into REM in 1991 so our time frame is different. I wasn't into them when they were touring behind all of those IRS albums. I just really got into REM when Monster came out and that was one of the albums that hooked me into them. I was excited to hear all the songs from the 90's live. Even though I was just getting into the 80's stuff at the time I didn't care because that was the album that I was playing the most at the time. Now when I see a show from an artist I like and they don't throw a good random song or two in from the back catelog I get a little dissapointed.

 

In terms of REM now playing back catelog stuff now I consider myself lucky because I never got into REM at the time they were regularly playing this stuff so now it is my opportunity to finally hear those songs live!

[Moe_Syzlak]

I have a hard time thinking about what would be the most underwhelming. Maybe I've blocked them out. Two of my most disappointing, though, are listed many times in the "best live" thread:

 

- The '88 Neil Young This Note's For You Tour at Pier 84, NY

- Pink Floyd ~'88 at Giant's Stadium

[jff]

Counting Crows

 

Shins

 

Bob Mould (solo acoustic)

[Rusty Shackleford]

Modest Mouse was one of the openers for R.E.M. last summer, and I ended up wandering off to get some food during their set. High energy set, and the 2 drummers were kind of cool, but they really did nothing for me.

 

And on the subject of R.E.M., I would agree with hardwood floor that the Monster tour in 1995 was their weakest. They played big arenas with bad sound, they "Monster-ized" everything they played with too many guitars and muddy sound, and they played setlists that (1) didn't vary much night to night, and (2) focused heavily on newer material. This was especially awkward because most of their stuff they had done just prior to Monster was light and acoustic, which became all the more jarring when Monster-ized for the live show.

 

I will say, however, that I've seen R.E.M. on each of their subsequent tours (not having been scared off by the Monster show), and they've gotten much better. They've stripped down the sound to be more like classic R.E.M., the Accelerate material works better live than their last several albums do, and they mix up the setlists with lots more oldies. If you've ever been a fan, I would highly recommend you give them another shot if they come around again.

[NightOfJoy]

Aerosmith 1984, terrible just terrible

Pink Floyd 1988, oh my god so utterly boring

Sun Volt 2x, booooooring

GD 1995, Jerry looked like he was dying on stage

Bob Dylan, 1988, GE Smith ruined it with his metal riffs.....and mumblin' Bob wasnt in very good shape.

Blues Traveler, 1990(?), boring...boring.....BOORING. Even they were bored....they actually all LAID down on stage at one point.

[jff]

I have to add Concrete Blonde to my list. Horrible. The guy in front of me kept whipping me in the face with his greasy goth hair. That didn't help.

 

Widespread Panic always bored me, but somehow I wound up seeing them seven or eight times during the HORDE era.

[mfwahl]

RE: Brian Jonestown Massacre: I guess I should have expected it based on reputation but it was one good song followed by 20 minutes of making stupid comments and fighting with people in the crowd, followed by another good song, followed by 20 more minutes of jawing with the crowd. And instead of tuning at the same time he would argue with people, say inane stuff for 20 minutes, then proceed to start tuning his guitar. Then there was an interminable (felt like an hour) of them just making feedback noises with their amps until many of us left. Never again.

I'm still jealous. Not a big fan of those guys or of Anton, but I would love to see that trainwreck in person.

[PigSooie]

Howie Day Electric Factory Philadelphia 2004

 

 

This guy sucks ass on so many levels.

 

The venue was equally as shitty. almost as bad as the New Daisy in Memphis.

[Mrs. Peel]

I need to add another one....Neko Case. We've seen her several times, and up until last time we thoroughly enjoyed her shows. I've always loved the charming sarcasm and the "un-girly" persona, and when she belts out those types of songs she's unbeatable. But the last tour was in a proper theater, not a club. It's like the setting dictated which Neko we got. No banter with the crowd, no show stopping howls.....it felt more like a Norah Jones concert than a Neko concert. I was pretty disappointed.

 

 

And since it seems that some of you are listing opening acts, not necessarily who you paid to see, I can add a couple of those as well.

 

Fiery Furnaces - I think they opened for Wilco? They are absolutely not my cup of tea. I couldn't wait for them to be over

 

Cass McCombs - I saw them two nights in a row, opening for The Decemberists. Now, they seemed like really nice people. But OH MY GOD, they were boring. I felt like I was watching a band full of Mr. Rogers. I was up front, and no one behind the first row was paying attention. Either night. And since we were right in front of them we made a lot of direct eye contact and had to try to stay interested. It seemed like their set was in slow motion. They all sat in chairs on the stage, they moved sooooo slowly, whether it was to change guitars or pick up a tambourine or whatever, and at one point one of them knocked over their beer and it seemed even the spill was in slow motion. It was painful to pay attention.

[jff]

Social Distortion. I really wanted to like this one, but I was bored to tears.

[Doug C]

Social Distortion. I really wanted to like this one, but I was bored to tears.

Whoa! If I may ask, when was this? The times I saw them in the mid-late 80s, early 90s were the antithesis of boring.

[jff]

Whoa! If I may ask, when was this? The times I saw them in the mid-late 80s, early 90s were the antithesis of boring.

 

Must've been '92 or '93. Granted, they were playing in a college gymnasium (no alcohol allowed), which is a pretty sterile environment for a concert. I'd give them the benefit of the doubt, but I saw Beastie Boys, Fishbone, Mike Watt and Primus in the same gym within a year of the SD show and those were some of the best shows I've ever seen.

 

I remember that prima donna Mike Ness storming off after a meathead jumped on stage and stole his hat. A dick move from the meathead, for sure, but I have it on good authority that the band was saving their "classic" material for a lengthy encore. The encore never happened because Ness decided to sulk behind the scenes and punish 750 people who didn't steal his hat.

[Doug C]

I never saw them that late. The Ness incident unfortunately doesn't surprise me. I never experienced that level of douchebaggery but heard stories. I just remember that they never failed to completely rock the house. I was probably lucky...

[Lammycat]

I have a hard time thinking about what would be the most underwhelming. Maybe I've blocked them out. Two of my most disappointing, though, are listed many times in the "best live" thread:

 

- Pink Floyd ~'88 at Giant's Stadium

Agree on both counts, except I saw PF at Foxboro in '88.