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Vanhalen

Best Live Album

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I was just wondering what you guys thought were the best live albums, cos I was hoping to collect some more, cos you get a different feel from them.

 

My top 3 are The Who - Live At Leeds

Led Zeppelin - How The West Was Won

Nirvana - Unplugged

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Guest Choken One

Life of Agony-River Runs Again-Live 2003

Life Of Agony-Unplugged at the Lowlands Festival 1997

Eric Clapton-Unplugged

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These are my favs

 

Iron Maiden - Live After Death

Genesis - Seconds Out

King Crimson - Absent Lovers

Rush - either Exit Stage Left or Show of Hands

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Guest BAR

Here's my top 5:

 

1. Is There Anybody Out There? - Pink Floyd

2. Live After Death - Iron Maiden

3. Live Shit: Binge And Purge - Metallica

4. In The Flesh - Roger Waters

5. Live Era - Guns N' Roses

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Guest Agent of Oblivion

The live disc of Floyd's Ummagumma springs to mind immediately, as does Slayer's Decade of Aggression, Rush's Exit Stage Left, and Under a Pale Grey Sky, by Sepultura. Fans of the latter band should definitely pick that one up. They cover Motorhead's "Orgasmatron" brilliantly.

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Stellar punning. Now, onto mine:

 

Sam Cooke, Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963. Sam Cooke is awesome and you know it even if you don't know the name - "Wonderful World," "Chain Gang," "Having a Party," "For Sentimental Reasons," and a bazillion other great songs. He's in Harlem playing for a crowd that really gets his music, and he's rough, raw, and soulful, giving all his pop hits a lot more depth.

 

The Ramones, It's Alive. "Hey, we're the Ramones, and this one is called 'Rockaway Beach'!" Another Ramones live album came out earlier this year, but that's this same set played 8 days later and not as well. It's 28 songs, 53 minutes, and pretty much all you need. Lightning fast, lots of covers, hyper crowd, and no stops - they take maybe two or three 10-second breathers and that's it. It's the only Ramones album I have and it's good enough to feel like the only one I need.

 

Portishead, PNYC. Portishead with a full orchestral backing, which is even smoother than it sounds. All the music is done live, either by the orchestra or DJ scratching, and Beth Gibbons is tons-of-great at singing. Pretty evenly split between their two albums, and just really, really cool for a band based around samples and synthesized loops to go this big.

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Guest RoyalBlue

Radiohead: I might Be Wrong.

 

I forget the name of it, but there's a Motorhead one as well that's absolutely brilliant.

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Cryptopsy - None So Live (I am feeling the new singer much more than the other guy)

 

Sorry Thumbtack but he's gone. And Lord Worm has returned for the vocals spot.

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Liveage - Descendents

What era of Descendents is that from? I somehow missed it back in the day.

Liveage was recorded during their final tour (I think) and released in 1988, pretty much signalling their final transition from the Descendents to All.

 

They do a great off-the-cuff version of "Allogistics".

 

They also have another live album with more of their "less-popular" songs called Hallraker. Included are "Kabuki Girl", "Iceman" and "Jealous of the World". If you're a true fan, definitely pick this up as well.

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I'm enjoying listening to the numerous Pearl Jam live cds on Rhapsody at any given time. It's scary how much fun it can be to compare how "Daughter" sounds on six different recordings.

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Rock in Rio - Iron Maiden

Live after Death - Iron Maiden

Alive in Athens - Iced Earth (My God, this CD is mind-blowing)

 

Agent, please explain the live Ummagumma CD to me. My buddy got the 2-CD thing which had Ummagumma and the live CD on it, but if I recall correctly, the live CD doesn't follow the same tracklist. I assumed it would. What's the deal?

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Guest mesepher
Rock in Rio - Iron Maiden

Live after Death - Iron Maiden

Alive in Athens - Iced Earth (My God, this CD is mind-blowing)

 

Agent, please explain the live Ummagumma CD to me. My buddy got the 2-CD thing which had Ummagumma and the live CD on it, but if I recall correctly, the live CD doesn't follow the same tracklist. I assumed it would. What's the deal?

Each member of the band got some LP space to themselves to record songs individually, that is the studio section of Ummagumma. The live disk is a concert from the glory days of the Floyd, back in 69. The record company failed to release the version of Interstellar Overdrive from that same show, though. Maybe someday that will see the light of day.

 

I hope thats what you meant by different track listings,

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Yeah, that's about what I meant.

 

Then why are they both called Ummagumma? Were they originally released in a package like that? I assumed they just added the live stuff to make the CD worth more money, or something...

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Guest Agent of Oblivion

It was a double album, and a pretty smart idea, since Ummagumma was their first real departure into concept albums. If the fans didn't feel the abstract studio stuff (which many didn't), the live album of good rockin' Pink Floyd is there.

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It was a double album, and a pretty smart idea, since Ummagumma was their first real departure into concept albums. If the fans didn't feel the abstract studio stuff (which many didn't), the live album of good rockin' Pink Floyd is there.

so it's kind of a half-assed, pussying out compromise?

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Guest Agent of Oblivion

Yeah, essentially, but that doesn't mean it isn't good. It wasn't really a commercial success anyway, (at least when compared with their more famous stuff,) so it's not like it really mattered in the long run.

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I'm only going to mention ones that weren't already mentioned:

 

Sabbath - Live at Last

Circle Jerks - Gig

Agnostic Front - Live at CBGBs

Phish - most of the live shows that they've released have been pretty good shows.

 

And I have to give a huge credit to notJames for mentioning Liveage ... that's the one that I was going to list if no one else had already (and I'd really thought that no one else would mention it at all)

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Trying to avoid mentioning anything that's already been mentioned, but I must say that Live At Leeds is my favorite live album of all time, right off the bat.

 

Aside from that...

 

The Rolling Stones -- Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!

You'll basically like this as much as you like the Stones. I think they're pretty good, so this is pretty good to me, but to people who are real fans of the band seem to think it's heaven. So take thas as you will.

 

Siouxsie and the Banshees -- Seven Year Itch

Again, depends on how much you like the band. This is from the reunition tour this year, and they play for the true fans -- picking cult favorites from the earlier records over commercial hits for most of the show.

 

The Grateful Dead -- Live/Dead

Really captures the Grateful Dead live experience... which you might enjoy more if you're high, but oh well. Might choose one of those Dick's Picks albums over this... I suppose it depends on which track listings you like better.

 

Phish -- Hampton Comes Alive

All you'll ever really need as far as Phish is concerned, though that series of like 20 live discs are still there for your choosing too, as some have some very interesting track listings... from covering the entire White Album to a meeean version of the Breeders' "Cannonball."

 

The Clash -- Live: From Here to Eternity

C'mon, the Clash rule it. If you're the type of guy who likes the Clash enough to buy past the first three albums, then you'll definitely want to pick this up.

 

The Talking Heads -- Stop Making Sense

Like pretty much every album I've mentioned so far -- if you like the band, you'll love it, if you don't... well, even if you don't, picking up the movie is something you should still do. Damn Byrn and the gang could put on a good stage show.

 

The Ramones -- We're Outta Here!

The Ramones' last show ever I believe, taking place in '96. Perhaps not their best live album, but it's still fuckin' grand, and worth having for historical purposes alone if you can find it cheap.

 

Cream -- Live Cream, Vol. 2

MUCH better than Volume 1, and just a fun album overall.

 

Lou Reed -- American Poet

Could very well replace the Who as my favorite live album ever. It's just brilliant. Of course, it's not a huge arena show... it's a small radio set, much like Nirvana Unplugged, but there's just so many great songs and so much energy going into them, it's nearly impossible not to love this. Lou plays the best of his early solo stuff, and some really good VU tunes, and it's all gravy, baby. Definitely worth picking up.

 

...That's all I can think of now, but I suppose that's not too bad considering that I threw in more names than anyone else so far. Aside from what I mentioned, I'd check out pretty much anything Pink Floyd-related, namely some of the Wall live shows and what was mentioned by those before me, and The Jimi Hendrix Concerts. OH! OH! OH! And but of course... Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! Can't leave that one out. :)

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