I love live recordings. So many folks at Head-Fi have a great collection of studio recorded audiophile CDs and LPs. I guess studio projects that take weeks or months to produce sound better than an over-amped one night concert. There is a quality or energy that live recordings contain that I enjoy. After time I found that a lot of live songs sound better than my studio collections. The live recordings have the songs better worked out. The rock songs have more power. Most must not feel this way. There seems to be less and less live albums every year. So I thought that a thread about those live rock recordings in the distant past would be fun to write about. There must also be some new live recordings that people love. The truth is technology has never been better to get a killer live snapshot of a bands performance. The last couple of live CDs I purchased have blown me away. It makes me wonder if the future will respond to this new level of sound quality. Maybe we have become too complicated in the studio? Will live albums make a comeback? List your favorite all time live records. List as many or as few as you want.
The Who - Live at Leeds
Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps
Deep Purple - Made in Japan
The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East
Talking Heads - The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads
UFO-Strangers In The Night
KISS-Alive 1
KISS-Alive 2
Ted Nugent-Double Live Gonzo
The Song Remains The Same Movie Soundtrack
Deep Purple-Made In Japan
The Who Live At Leads
Rush-Exit Stage Left
Judas Priest-Unleashed In The East
The Alice Cooper Show
AC/DC "Live" 2CD set
Deep Purple "Made In Japan"
ELP "Pictures At An Exhibition"
Band Of Gypsys S/T
King Crimson "On Broadway"
Led Zeppelin "How The West Was Won"
Little Feat "Waiting For Columbus"
Midnight Oil "Oils On The Water"
Rolling Stones "Get Yer Ya-Yas Out"
Santana "Lotus"
Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs "Live At Melbourne Town Hall"
The Who "Live At Leeds"
Yes "Montreux 2003"
The Who Live at Leeds and The Allman Brothers At Fillmore East were the two albums that sprang to my mind. Just goes to show how unoriginal I am.
As has been said, The Grateful Dead have a few candidates, although Live/Dead is the one generally mentioned and I'm not sure that any of them would individually count as better than Live at Leeds or At Fillmore East. If you're looking for "greatest" rather than "best" then take your pick from those two.
Bill Evans - Live at the Village Vanguard (both sets, 1961 and 1980)
Anthony Braxton - Quartet (Dortmund) 1976
Cecil Taylor - Silent Tongues
Irene Schweizer - Chicago Piano Solo
Keith Jarrett - Complete Live at the Blue Note
Rock:
Oingo Boingo - Farewell
Les Claypool's Frog Brigade - Frogs Live Set 2
Bauhaus - Rest in Peace - The Final Concert
Roger Waters - In the Flesh
...though many of my favorite live recordings never made it onto "official" releases
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