Cool... I get to tell Cory he's wrong too...
I think bands just sound different live and sometimes when you get used to hearing the recorded music it's hard to accept a different rendition of it. I don't really like live "albums" but actually going to a concert can be great! A few years ago I made all of my friends and loved ones go to the Fairfax Fair to see They Might Be Giants. Now, Eric, my other, absolutely hated them and would cringe and whine about them when I would play their music at home. He now admits that their concert was one of the best concerts he's ever been to because they just perform so well live and he doesn’t whine when I play them at home now…
Other performers I've seen that have been completely amazing are Jethro Tull, David Bowie, Concrete Blonde and Violent Femmes. All of them were good because I liked their music but there were other factors that made them spectacular. Tull was really great because a group of us decided to risk the anger of the rain gods and get lawn seats and make it a picnic concert. It didn’t rain, so we had a fun evening sitting under the stars, and we had wine and cheese and strawberries and chocolate… and we took bets on whether or not our one friend, who was 8 months pregnant at the time, was going to roll down the hill when she went to get up… I saw Violent Femmes at a HFStival (can’t even remember who else was there, Counting Crows, I think and the Meat Puppets and Cracker maybe) and my friend and I had a blast singing along with every single Femmes song while Gordon Gano bounced around on stage with non-stop energy. Bowie is a born performer… I saw his Glass Spider tour when I was 17 and there was a giant spider draped over the stage and when he did Time, he floated down from the top of the spider (on a little platform) dressed all in white with big white angel wings… it was magical… Concrete Blonde also did a good performance. When they did Bloodletting, they turned off all of the lights except for some black lights and all of the band members came creeping out from behind the curtains wearing black body suits painted with neon colors to look like skeletons. It was spooky and fun and full of energy. Being there made the difference, if I had seen a recorded version of any of these concerts, I wouldn't have enjoyed it.
Heidi
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Okay, the Monkees reunion tour in 86 was fun too and my first concert!