Most disappointing band/musician seen live

[theDudesmummy]

I am starting this on the back of another thread about best live performances. How about bands/performers you loved and thought were going to be great live, only to be disappointed for one reason or another?

I will start:

Neil Young, Royal Albert Hall 2003. I love his music, absolute soundtrack of my later years at university, but this concert was unbelievable in its shitness. Half of it was some unlistenable concept album. Never felt the same about him after that.

Van Morrison, some concert at a stately home type of place, maybe fifteen years ago? (Have blocked out the details). The booze completely ran out before we got to the bar for the first time (and no, we weren't late, he hadnt even come on stage yet). I guess that wasn't Morrison's fault directly but you would think he would employ/contract people to make sure this doesn't happen. DH and I soberly listened to two songs then shared a look and left to find a pub.

Nina Simone, probably also Royal Albert Hall, some time in the 1990s. Sorry, I know she is dead now, and was a legend, but when you sit right over to one side of the stage, practically in the wings, for the whole show, completely hidden by the piano so only half the audience can see you, then you are going to pass off even your most ardent fans. I never even caught sight of her.

(Bob Dylan pissed me off at the Brixton Acedemy circa 1990 by never taking his hat off, so I never saw his face, but I forgave him because he is Bob Dylan, and at least I saw the rest of him).

Jess Glynne at Isle of Wight festival in 2016. She was relatively new then, I wasn’t a massive fan anyway but knew a couple of songs so hung around to listen. Utterly dire, out of tune, out of time, awful voice, just totally grim. If I remember rightly I fucked off pronto and went to see Black Violin instead who were absolutely amazing 😁

Laura Mvula at the IW Festival this weekend. Very disappointing.

Billy Bragg was atrocious. His singing was as a fart. It mystifies me how people entirely devoid of musical talent can make a living as ‘musicians’ 🤔

Bragg’s singing was as flat as a fart was what I meant to type 💨🤦🏻‍♀️

The Police. Sting was so awful we left before the end.

Another vote for Marilyn Mason at Download. Bloody pathetic.

Kiss at Download in 2015 was Just. Dreadful. A tired old gimmick, old men trying to be sexy twenty somethings, piss poor sound quality (the sound engineers must have been mortified) and it was absolutely boring AF.

We saw Avenged Sevenfold supported by Disturbed in 2017. Boy was that lineup the wrong way round. Disturbed totally blew A7 out the water.

Arctic Monkeys, just went through the motions. Dire.

Red hot chilli peppers in glasgow a few years ago

Ellie goulding was awful live, just terrible

The Dandy Warhols. I honestly thought it would
never end.

Manchester arena about 20 ish years ago. 70s show with David Essex, Bay City Rollers, The Osmonds (minus Donny 😭😭)they were all brilliant. Top billing was David Cassidy who was on last. After a very long wait of about 30 minutes he finally came on. People had stared leaving already , fed up of waiting. He immediately launched into a long spiel about how he once met John Lennon, then started to sing some obscure Lennon song. We left after that. It was embarrassing because so many people were just getting up to leave!!

Paloma Faith just last week.
Not one of her better gigs.
Probably won't see her again.

Van Morrison has a reputation for being a twat.
Been to see him 3 times in the last 4 years.
first time in Harrogate and he was dreadful, muttered through songs and then just walked off stage.
Next time during lockdown in Newcastle...brilliant.
a few weeks ago at the sage mediocre.

Guess everyone has good and bad days.

Going back a few years now.

Franz Ferdinand. Absolutely zero personality. Flat as a witches tit.

Embrace - so fucking booooring.

Van Morrison was on after Joan Armatrading but he made her cut short her session as he wanted to leave early!!

He couldn’t have been less interested in his swiftly done performance and never addressed the audience once.

He was crap and she was brilliant, shame he bothered to turn up at all.

Van M definitely hit and miss. My parents saw him a few years ago, absolutely refused to play any “hits” and no interaction. Saw him this weekend at a festival and he was great!

I saw aha in Cambridge too! Morten just stood there and he seemed to think that taking his sunglasses on and off was the epitome of a good set. It wasn't. He never said a word! I know you're good looking morten but you have to do more than just stand there 🤔

Gutted to hear Counting crows were crap, August and everything after is one of my favourite albums 😩

The Manic Street Preachers were a bit of a disappointment. They refused to play Australia despite the crowd chanting it in between every song. Felt like they were trying to prove a point.
By contrast The Killers were amazing a few weeks ago. Really know their audience and make a real effort to engage with the fans.

Destiny's child at Wembley. Couldn't hear them , had no idea what the song was at any point, shocking sound.

Oasis, late 90s. Mainly one or other of them stropping off the stage then coming back on for 5 minutes then stropping off again. Plus some bellend in the crowd shining one of those laser light things in Liam’s face until he completely lost it.

Oasis at the first T in the Park festival (1994?). Dreadful - like watching 5 corpses nailed to the stage. Absolutely no energy or connection with the audience. Have never seen them live since due to that shit performance.

Run DMC at the Forum (or whatever it's called now) Kentish Town in the mid 90s. Came on late, did about 2 mins of each of their hits then just started shouting on repeat 'he's Run! he's DMC!' for the last minute of every fucking song. Really disappointing.

Erasure (or Andy Bell) at Rewind a few years ago - off his tits and out of tune.

Sugar at an Xfm thing in London many moons ago - Bob Mould didn’t seem to be able to sing in tune at all, just shout.

Saw Deacon Blue supporting Simple Mkmds and thought it was a Deacon Blue covers band! But our positioning was awful so could have been the acoustics.

Stevie Wonder - great voice but boy have his songs failed the test of time. Does anyone really want to hear “I just called to say I love you” live?

Lightning Seeds at a festival - sounded like a different band!

I see we were at the same a-ha concert 🤣

Whitney Houston at the o2. It was very sad.

Depeche Mode, just before they hit the big time & DG threw a toddler strop too.

The Proclaimers. Im not remotely a fan, but they played at a festival local to us. They were rubbish...no chat, po faced, totally uninspiring.

Van Morrison, some concert at a stately home type of place, maybe fifteen years ago? (Have blocked out the details). The booze completely ran out before we got to the bar for the first time (and no, we weren't late, he hadnt even come on stage yet). I guess that wasn't Morrison's fault directly but you would think he would employ/contract people to make sure this doesn't happen. DH and I soberly listened to two songs then shared a look and left to find a pub

so all artists are shit if there’s no booze?

was he actually any good? Did you listen to any of it? Or was it simply fuck come to this concert, paid for tickets, but going to sack it off in favour of drinking?

mine was Cast, in their heyday. Clearly bored, they couldn’t wait to leave. No stage presence at all.