Saw this on RYM the other day: Gary Numan currently has 28 live albums, including 14 in the last decade alone
That's nearly two for every one studio album. Nothing against Numan but he's not particularly known for his live show - who the hell is buying all these? Does Numan have a cult following of dedicated to trading bootlegs? Does anyone want to hear 10 different renditions of the songs on The Pleasure Principle? And should I buy the latest one?
― frogbs, Monday, 6 February 2017 20:50 (seven years ago) link
maybe he doesn't make a ton of money on his old studio albums? that's what i always think when someone has dozens of live albums. that it's just a way for them to make some quick cash and keep it all.
― scott seward, Monday, 6 February 2017 20:52 (seven years ago) link
Gary Numan fans are fucking obsessive though. Having a rabid fanbase who will stick to you through thick and thin explains a lot - there are 10 Grateful Dead live albums.
― Matt DC, Monday, 6 February 2017 20:53 (seven years ago) link
i always feel like Leonard Cohen has a crazy amount of live albums, especially in the last decade.
― nomar, Monday, 6 February 2017 20:54 (seven years ago) link
do people still do that thing where you get a CD-R of the show at the end of the night? remember when that was a thing? i thought that was kinda cool. talk about quick money.
― scott seward, Monday, 6 February 2017 20:54 (seven years ago) link
Although I'm not convinced that even Merzbow has heard all 74 of his live albums that apparently exist.
― Matt DC, Monday, 6 February 2017 20:54 (seven years ago) link
How Much Money Would It Take For You To Listen To All These Asia Albums?
― scott seward, Monday, 6 February 2017 20:55 (seven years ago) link
He has a fair number, but most of them contain some essential material.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Monday, 6 February 2017 21:05 (seven years ago) link
I remember when Pearl Jam put out that entire European tour on CD at once to undermine bootleggers. I walked into my local record store and there was a big display of identical looking plain brown cardstock CD sleeves. I liked the idea, but I feel bad in retrospect for the record stores who got box after box of Pearl Jam official bootlegs with zero quality control, who then had to figure out how to move all these things. Set lists between dates weren't exactly wildly different.
Also, while the Dead have ten live albums, they also have Dave's Picks etc, their 'official bootleg' series. I think there's like 150 released so far. Phish did something similar (because why wouldn't they?), they have three or four live albums and maybe 100 recorded live shows. Maybe more, I stopped paying attention when it became clear I would never in my life want to hear that many live Phish recordings.
― THAC0 Pastorius (Tom Violence), Monday, 6 February 2017 21:11 (seven years ago) link
Rush has eleven live albums. I never understood the appeal -- the whole point of live Rush (as they themselves have said) was to stick as closely as possible to the studio arrangement. So it's just like the record but...with crowd noise...and a drum solo.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 6 February 2017 21:14 (seven years ago) link
Nothing against Numan but he's not particularly known for his live show - who the hell is buying all these? Does Numan have a cult following of dedicated to trading bootlegs?
Yes, he does. Not only does he have a rabid cult following that love to trade bootlegs, there's further sub-groups of people that like to collect bootlegs from specific eras of this career. The 1979-1981 era of his live shows (when he was noted for putting on huge, expensive productions) being the most popular, naturally.
― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Monday, 6 February 2017 21:15 (seven years ago) link
there are 10 Grateful Dead live albums.
Give or take a bazillion.
― Fake posts from a failing poster (Dan Peterson), Monday, 6 February 2017 21:17 (seven years ago) link
Having a rabid fanbase who will stick to you through thick and thin explains a lot - there are 10 Grateful Dead live albums.
But tbf they are known for their improvisational qualities, aren't they? Never having ever heard one of their live albums.
― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Monday, 6 February 2017 21:17 (seven years ago) link
The Who did this for their '02, '04, and '06 (and maybe '07 and '08) tours. Setlists rarely (if ever) varied within a tour, and without Entwistle the shows were mostly pretty predictable. They tried selling the entire tours in mini road cases with Townshend and Daltrey's autographs and couldn't move them.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 6 February 2017 21:18 (seven years ago) link
Rush has eleven live albums. I never understood the appeal -- the whole point of live Rush (as they themselves have said) was to stick as closely as possible to the studio arrangement. So it's just like the record but...with crowd noise...and a drum solo.― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, February 6, 2017 9:14 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, February 6, 2017 9:14 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Also, it's better to hear a 1981 performance of, say, 'The Spirit of Radio' when you can hear it's still fresh to the band, rather than later performances where you can hear they've played it a million times.
― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Monday, 6 February 2017 21:19 (seven years ago) link
Grateful dead have more than 10 live LPs - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grateful_Dead_discography#Live_albums_by_recording_date
...but don't think "inexplicably" works well in this case.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Monday, 6 February 2017 21:24 (seven years ago) link
Devo has about 10 now (Wiki says 8 but there's at least one missing). As a fan I'm fine with it.
― everything, Monday, 6 February 2017 21:25 (seven years ago) link
xpost I thought it would be cool for a band to release every show they played, but digitally, and just marketed to hardcore fans. Like, after the tour is over, you can buy each show for $8 a pop in .flac and download it from the band's website. That way you're not pressing physical inventory that isn't going to sell well with the general public. Have any artists done this yet?
Oh, and those Instant Live CDs are/were great. I have one from a Superdrag show I saw in 2001 and a few from shows I didn't see that I bought secondhand years later. It becomes a memento, not just a live album. Some of them ended up on eMusic, I think? I have four or five John Vanderslice recordings from Bottom of the Hill. All the recordings I saw were from the same five or six clubs, so I don't know if it was the clubs putting the shows out or the Instant Live people having preferred venues to haunt or what.
― THAC0 Pastorius (Tom Violence), Monday, 6 February 2017 21:26 (seven years ago) link
― THAC0 Pastorius (Tom Violence), Monday, 6 February 2017 21:27 (seven years ago) link
Marillion have 9 live albums. Fish from Marillion has 23 live albums.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Monday, 6 February 2017 21:29 (seven years ago) link
Pearl Jam did that for a while, you could buy the show in flac/mp3 right after it happened.
― Dinsdale, Monday, 6 February 2017 21:30 (seven years ago) link
Or maybe the next day but you get the idea.
They Might Be Giants did that for one tour, though unfortunately it was in support of (IMO) their weakest album. Cool idea because they have like a thousand songs and frequently trot out old stuff they haven't played in years but sadly, they stopped doing it
― frogbs, Monday, 6 February 2017 21:32 (seven years ago) link
also, I was not aware of all these Devo live albums, looks like someone got ahold of some old tapes
― frogbs, Monday, 6 February 2017 21:33 (seven years ago) link
Thought of Numan when I read the thread title. I have a few of his live albums and The Skin Mechanic is the only one I really play. You could interchange any of his live albums of the last ten or fifteen years and not know the difference as long as you gave it a new name like Watchman Demons or Sad Omens.
― Dan.S., Monday, 6 February 2017 21:34 (seven years ago) link
Jefferson Starship had an "Official Bootleg Series' of some scope going for a little while. It kind of made sense on paper until you saw that 75% of the shows were the band performing at places like 'Little Darlin's Rock'n'Roll Palace' in Kissimmee Fl. in the early '00s.
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 6 February 2017 21:36 (seven years ago) link
exactly, though I liked the last album a lot so I might go ahead and grab the latest one. BUT THAT'S IT.
― frogbs, Monday, 6 February 2017 21:37 (seven years ago) link
ditto this for Porcupine Tree. they apparently have 12 live albums and they're all pretty highly rated but they do sound exactly like the records.
― frogbs, Monday, 6 February 2017 21:45 (seven years ago) link
Jefferson Starship had an "Official Bootleg Series' of some scope going for a little while. It kind of made sense on paper until you saw that 75% of the shows were the band performing at places like 'Little Darlin's Rock'n'Roll Palace' in Kissimmee Fl. in the early '00s.― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, February 6, 2017 9:36 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, February 6, 2017 9:36 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I'm not sure what's funnier; the idea that nobody bought most of these, or the idea that there was one guy who bought every single one. Of course there were probably plenty of buyers, but anyway. These were the kind of CDs I would find in the racks of discount shops in the Czech Republic in the early 2000s.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Monday, 6 February 2017 21:47 (seven years ago) link
Barenaked Ladies also did the whole "release recordings from each tour stop" for one of their tours, so now there's like 41 live albums to listen to on Spotify.
― MarkoP, Monday, 6 February 2017 21:53 (seven years ago) link
speaking as someone with a hell of a lot of devo bootlegs, i don't think their live album discography is particularly overdone (particularly given that they've been touring as a live band for, like, twenty years now and have had a lot more success with it than they have in the studio).
their first two live albums were sort of misfires - a live ep to cash in on the success of "freedom of choice" and a late-career live album to apologize for the crappiness of their last studio record- but that was the kind of live albums you got back in the '80s, and neither of them are _bad_. the "mongoloid years" is a sort of essential companion to the two "hardcore devo" volumes and is probably the record of theirs i listen to most. since then there's been another '77 show that doesn't really duplicate "mongoloid years" and contains two unique songs, a limited record store day '77 show which is a little redundant but that's rsd albums for you, their first comeback gig from '96, another unique set of them doing the "hardcore" material live in 2014, and a set from the new traditionalists tour. it's not just slight variations on the same stuff over and over again.
― increasingly bonkers (rushomancy), Monday, 6 February 2017 21:57 (seven years ago) link
Elvis has a massive catalogue of Fan Club live albums because RCA had practically every show he did in the 70s professionally recorded.
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 6 February 2017 21:57 (seven years ago) link
I suppose Yes is another example. I guess it's not unreasonable for them to have so many live albums since they have a long career and a ton of different line-ups, but the vast majority of these are from the last 20 years with Yes either past its peak or way past its peak, and the setlist is like 75% the same on all of them.
― frogbs, Monday, 6 February 2017 21:59 (seven years ago) link
xxxpost I forgot to complain about what having a thousand live recordings does to an artist's Spotify and Discogs pages.
― THAC0 Pastorius (Tom Violence), Monday, 6 February 2017 22:38 (seven years ago) link
Einstürzende Neubauten do the "instant live album which you can buy at the merch stall on the way out" these days, but they sell them on USB sticks. I was at the stall after one gig and saw someone frantically copying them. I don't know, it seems kind of crappy to me. You don't get the encores, because they stop recording after the main set to start making the damn things, and obviously they're not mastered or anything. I much preferred what Dead Can Dance did (also the Pixies I think?) on their 2005 tour, which was to sell vouchers for the show at the merch stall and you got a properly mastered CD in the mail a few weeks later.
― heaven parker (anagram), Tuesday, 7 February 2017 08:40 (seven years ago) link
There was also that Psychic TV thing where they started doing a run of 23 live albums. I never worked out whether they ever finished it or not.
― heaven parker (anagram), Tuesday, 7 February 2017 08:41 (seven years ago) link
Robert Fripp seems to have mined the well of King Crimson live recordings pretty extensively in recent years as well.
― heaven parker (anagram), Tuesday, 7 February 2017 09:12 (seven years ago) link
It must really suck being a broke King Crimson fanatic.
― MaresNest, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 14:42 (seven years ago) link
Soul Coughing seem to have a bunch on Spotify too
― MaresNest, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 14:43 (seven years ago) link
there are a few web services like landr (and, naturally, some audio software plug-ins) that do a little analysis and do a quick "mastering" process that sounds decent. not like the tweaking you'd get for an actual live album release with eq work done across the different tracks or anything, but better than just dumping the master mix from a soundboard
― mh 😏, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 14:56 (seven years ago) link
see also: Fugazi's Live Series
― sleeve, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 15:20 (seven years ago) link
Wikipedia has eight official live releases from Neil Young, but if you add archival stuff like the Fillmore and Massey Hall albums, the number jumps to 14.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 15:23 (seven years ago) link
similar to the Rolling Stones
a lot of dinosaur bands release a live album for every new tour
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Tuesday, 7 February 2017 15:27 (seven years ago) link
Young's live releases make sense; each one is pretty distinct, and two (Time Fades Away and Arc) are all-new material (well, mostly-new, apart from the "Like A Hurricane" bits in Arc).
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 7 February 2017 15:45 (seven years ago) link
Jandek - Nothing for the first 27 years, then 29 live albums in 12 years.
― Hideous Lump, Wednesday, 8 February 2017 03:20 (seven years ago) link
Metallica sells downloads and in some cases CDs of all their live shows.
Rush's Clockwork Angels Live set is worth getting, because they toured with a string section, so the versions of old songs are in some cases radically different.
― Don Van Gorp, midwest regional VP, marketing (誤訳侮辱), Wednesday, 8 February 2017 03:42 (seven years ago) link
aren't jandek's live shows played with local musicians ... making those live albums unique?
― new noise, Wednesday, 8 February 2017 03:47 (seven years ago) link
"Also, it's better to hear a 1981 performance of, say, 'The Spirit of Radio' when you can hear it's still fresh to the band"
my first big concert! it was 1980. and they started that tour in 1979 so they had played that song a LOT by the time i saw them.
okay, i actually just checked. i saw the 80th show of 1980. so they did "spirit of radio" 79 times before they got to me.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 8 February 2017 04:04 (seven years ago) link
This has changed in the 00s, but Rush used to release live albums in a very logical way, each one would sort of speak to a certain era of the band's evolution: All the World's A Stage>Exit Stage Left>A Show of Hands>Different Stages
― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 8 February 2017 14:11 (seven years ago) link
It used to be one live album after four studio albums.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 8 February 2017 14:50 (seven years ago) link
probably based on a chord change equation
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Wednesday, 8 February 2017 14:52 (seven years ago) link
The Fall have 32 live albums.
― justfanoe (Greg Fanoe), Wednesday, 8 February 2017 14:55 (seven years ago) link
yeah King Crimson is one of those bands that should have a lot of live albums but holy shit have they overdone it, isn't there like 30 total CD's worth of 73-74 live stuff out now?
― frogbs, Wednesday, 8 February 2017 15:16 (seven years ago) link
Well, yeah. One for each bassist.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Wednesday, 8 February 2017 15:18 (seven years ago) link
― frogbs
give the people what they want
― increasingly bonkers (rushomancy), Wednesday, 8 February 2017 15:21 (seven years ago) link
Given The Fall's line up changes, Smith's penchant for improvisation, and the their policy of not playing songs from the past... I'm guessing many of those live albums probably offer something unique.
― Kim Kimberly, Wednesday, 8 February 2017 16:03 (seven years ago) link
sadly mark e. smith falling all over himself drunk on stage has long since ceased being "unique"
― increasingly bonkers (rushomancy), Wednesday, 8 February 2017 16:15 (seven years ago) link