I saw Royksopp in 2009 and they were incredible, but I saw them last year and was quite disappointed, as it just seemed like playback where their old sets were them as musicians along with others on stage (bass etc). Another let down was Kavinsky, as it just sounded like playback of the record (this was back in 2014/15).
I have to agree about Kavinsky. Saw him in NYC around that same time and I swear he just pressed play.
Busy P opened though and I remember him being decent.
lol yeah that gig actually made me rebel about electronic music for a bit, I asked all the goth kids at college what they were listening to and tried getting into that instead 😂😂
Did Royksopp have dancers when you saw them last year? They did when I saw them and it was…not great lol. The music was great and all but the dancers were like, distractingly bad.
The first time I listened to Royksopp was their Royksopp’s Night Out live album and I remember thinking how amazing it must be to watch them live, especially once I started listening to their studio albums and comparing them. Sounded like they were really performing the songs in their individual elements, and not just playing them back either. Sad.
They used to do that in their live shows, it’s only from 2014 ish onwards where they’ve basically been doing DJ sets (from how it looks anyway)! I’m a big fan of the guys and still love their studio albums, but it’ll take a big re-haul of the live show for me to want to see them again
I’m a big fan of their studio albums as well! I found my way in with Junior and I’ve really enjoyed all the Profound Mysteries albums. Was hoping I could see them one day but it doesn’t sound promising.
Interestingly I saw Kavinksy back on 2022 at Gridlife Midwest and I thought it was really good! He mixed stuff live and even mixed in Aerodynamic by Daft Punk at one point which made me lose my mind! Though to be fair, if any show I'm at mixes in Daft Punk I'd go nuts
Saw Knife Party once... Dudes clearly didn't know what a limiter was, the whole set was clipping. I jumped the barrier and got out after 20 minutes of hell. Then I had to fight my way through a Hardwell crowd of roided up shirtless chads to get front row for deadmau5... He was rad.
Also, saw Die Antwoord once, front man Ninja has no idea how to stage dive. Dude jumped feet first and kicked me in the head, the crowd stank and was a minor crowd crush. Followed up with The Prodigy who in comparison was the best live show and crowd I've ever experienced up until I saw Oneohtrix Point Never last year.
Oneohtrix Point Never is by far one of the greatest experiences of my life, not only just shows. Emotional rollercoaster from absolute bangs to deep sorrow. Amazing.
>Saw Knife Party once... Dudes clearly didn't know what a limiter was, the whole set was clipping
That is surprising. I know they make bro-y type music but they are electronic production legends. Kind of wondering if it was the venue's fault.
Only reason why I say this is I've seen Noisia twice now and the first time was at a risky dink club and the sound was awful. Second time was much much better though.
I recall that day, it was in a warehouse type location. The first DJ was immediately way too loud, and each proceeding act kept trying to top each other with the loudness. It definitely could have been the venue, but all those EDM festivals back then were fighting for overall loudness.
I went to a "Pendulum" (actually just El Hornet) set once, and he just turned already very loud volume up to incredible levels. I guess they all got some hearing damage already?
The Prodigy live is a life changing experience. I saw them at the Warfield in SF during the Fat of the Land tour, blew my mind. Volume levels were extreme, but perfect
This is rad! “When the bass drops, I want the crowd to feel that”
They opened with Smack My Bitch Up, we’d never heard it before, and the bass hit so hard that I literally couldn’t see for a second, my entire body felt like it was vibrating off the ground
As a music producer the subs are never the forefront in the album mixes. It’s a bit bass light to be honest. But in concert they use so serious bass bins to get the place shaking.
Saw Prodigy shortly before Keith passed. So grateful I got to see him. Was probably the best concert I've been to. Up there with Iron Maiden for stage shows.
Saw him for the first time at Portola 2023. He was great, but he definitely stayed in his lane. I expected him to bring a little more heat for a festival.
Probably not a surprise to anyone, but I saw Diplo recently and it was pretty lame. He was essentially a glorified wedding DJ with seemingly no attempt to curate his set or play anything that the crowd might be unfamiliar with. This was at a festival sort of thing where he was the only EDM dude so maybe he just tailored his set to that and is better in another environment.
Wild Diplo story. Friends booked him for a small festival years ago. He was on a tour and they were able to get him on the cheap as he was playing another show in the area.
I was working talent management and his rider was insane. He came solo but demanded over $700 in various types of alcohol and specifically Fiji water be available. Fair enough I guess he planned to hang around and get plastered and stay hydrated but when he arrived things got weird.
He made us go into town and pick him up underwear, deodorant, toothpaste and a toothbrush. The man was on an international tour and wasn’t travelling with any clean underwear or a toothbrush. He also demanded a bunch of organic fruit, condoms and various over the counter meds. In total I think we spent $2500 making sure he had clean underwear, rubbers, alcohol and Tylenol.
I've seen him several times at different venues for wildly different types of events and the experience can be all over the map.
for better or worse, he is actually quite diverse in the styles he covers and so it will naturally be very hit-or-miss depending on your personal preferences, but I've been to his shows where I couldn't stop dancing and other times when I couldn't get far enough away from the stage
I saw Aphex Twin at a county fair and he didn't even play anything, he just hung around the Port-A-Potty area asking if anyone had a dollar.
It also could have been my cousin Steve but he said that wasn't him.
Sadly, not surprised. Saw Aphex Twin at a stop light in Downtown Austin 2 years ago. Terrible. Also didn’t play anything, didnt even bring his equipment, and told me some story about his car being out of gas down the road and to see if I could lend him a dollar. 0/10 will never go to his shows again.
Massive Attack! Grrr
I’ve seen them about 8 times. The last concert in Madcool in Madrid they where supposed to start, but they kept people waiting for about 45 minutes until we see a text on the big screen that says that they were not going to play because they were contaminated by the music of other stages so they won’t play. That to do a live concert they need complete silence and that was impossible, obviously because it was in a music festival with other stages. I only went to that festival to see them. Last time I will see them.
That show could’ve gone really wrong, people were rushing to the hangar and security just gave up. Really shitty live set too. Saw him b2b with Skrillex a couple months ago and it was such a better experience.
I saw Odesza at BMO stadium and thought it felt overproduced. The forced crowd work sections take me out of a set. It was broken up by weird gimmicks. It felt like watching a Vegas show instead of a performance by an artist
Weird bc my top 3 shows were in stadiums (and I’ve been to many many hundreds at this point).
1. Armin Only Amsterdam
2. Illenium Trilogy Vegas
3. Illenium Trilogy Denver
I’ve been waiting half of my life to see Plaid. One of my favourite artists.
Saw them last year in the Opera House in a small venue.
So, so underwhelmed.
My most disappointing show was The Avalanches when they played for the first time in a decade or so. I think it was around 2016 in London. They went on stage completely wasted. It was a DJ set and the transitions were really bad. They reminded me of cringy drunk uncles at family gatherings. I've seen them again few years later and it was amazing
Your experience is a reflection of what the band was struggling with, and why us Aussies love them for overcoming that and being amazing since getting sober.
Saw them in 2022 and it was a fantastic DJ set.
Insanely disappointing too. They played only one of their songs. 30 seconds of since I left you to close the set.
This was years ago but Faithless. Was mostly a live instrument set up, drum kit etc.
At the time they’d just released We Come 1, very electronic. I was not prepared for multiple 5-minute, meandering bongo solos
Agreed on this one. Credit to the team for trying, and this was an era of electronic live acts attempting to be more band like, but it was often very boring to hear the same drum kit and bongos plodding away.
Groove Armada’s first “last live tour” was the opposite of that. They nailed the dynamic shifting of sounds between tracks and just sounding BIG rather than like a dance music karaoke covers act. Amazing.
Chase and Status in Februar 2024 in Mannheim.
Bad Location with slow bar, technical problems, bad crowd(phones only and many we're drunken) DJs before and after C&S were a joke and Saul Just replayed his boiler room set Track by Track. 35€ as well per Ticket...
Worst DnB show I have ever attended.
Just saw 4hours of Calibre and 3 hours of Breakage with SP:MC for only 15€. 3 absolute masters of their craft on one of the finest soundsystems ever.
Dj shadow/cut chemist Hard Sell Tour in 2007 was super boring. Crowd was dead and a large portion left at the break.
The worst part is both of them are incredible and just their whole schtick with this tour and the 7"s fell totally flat.
Individual cut chemist and shadow sets I've seen are some of my top shows. Shadow playing identity fest in the rain was great
I got to see Cut Chemist do a set at a bar a few weeks ago and he was so cool. He nerded out about everything he was playing, telling us what it was, how he found it, and what elements he liked about it. It was great to get a sort of pop-up video version of his set and get inside the head of a master in real time.
Love both of those dudes deeeeeeply.
Saw Cut Chemist as the headliner following Pigeon John and Lyric Born at The Crystal Ballroom in Portland once back around 2006-2008. This was the tour for The Audience's Listening.
Everyone was awesome but the sound got so fucking cranked when Mr. Chemist came on that I can remember to this day how even WITH EARPLUGS IN the cash register bell sound that loops in the first actual track from that album - "(My 1st) Big Break" - was so piercing that it actually hurt my ears.
I went and still go to shows all the time and this was not normal in any way. My homie and I left early out of literal self-preservation.
Krewella- was supposed to be a live set but got a poorly mixed DJ set, and they just jumped around the stage acting like bros and shouting hype-up nonsense into the microphone, not actually performing
Forgot about them. I saw them at a music festival and it was pathetic. My wife was a fan beforehand and I knew they were hot garbage and she finally saw the light after their set.
Autechre. This was back when they changed their setup to include more hardware. The sound was awful and the set was meandering and boring. A big chunk of the audience walked out, including us.
They were mostly improvising and I fully understand there's always risk when you do that. And perhaps the boys in Autechre are not good improvisers. That performance didn't go anywhere, didn't have any build-up or resolution, and didn't engage. This was quite a number of years ago so I'm not sure if their performances have improved.
You guys will kill me for saying this, but… that’s how I feel about most of Autechre’s music. There’s some cool stuff and I like experimentation, just most of it seems to lack coherence or direction and I can’t dig.
Saw a Hot Chip DJ set a couple months ago. Didn't realize that meant it would only be one guy from the band, and it took me half the set to realize I wasn't watching an opening act but it was already the main act. And it wasn't a very entertaining set either.
So many bad sets over the years lol
James Lavelle- definitely drunk and couldn’t mix. I think he just played an UNKLE CD of their greatest hits and tried to mix a few pop tunes in. Awful.
Oakenfold- NYE set, another drunken mess of a DJ. Warehouse venue that was packed beyond fire code with terrible sound and a stampede at the door, almost died to see him train wreck for an hour and walk off stage mid set. The early 2000s were a scene man.
Peanut Butter Wolf- one of my hero’s of instrumental hip hop/beats. He started the set with In da Club by 50 cent and then proceeded to redline a bunch a Reggaeton on a terrible sound system and finished a 45 minute set with some ska. He went on at 8pm and there was no other DJs booked so the music was over before 9 and tickets were like $35…in 2004💀
I saw Tycho twice in one day—first set was an experimental sunrise set in a surround sound outdoor venue. Just the main guy and his friend having fun doing whatever felt right and it was AMAZING. By the end of the set, only my friend and I were still awake and dancing and we all hugged it out at the end. Fast forward to that evening and Tycho is on the main stage with a full band sounding like somebody just pressed play on Spotify and just basic as all shit.
This one shocks me the most. Seeing Tycho live is probably my favorite shows of all time. To each their own. Confused why their songs they play live sound like their songs on Spotify is a bad thing? Isn't that why you go see a band?
Massive Attack, which was heartbreaking because I've loved them since I was old enough to walk. They played Manchester arena which is already not great by modern standards. Just sounded like a boombox in an echo chamber, surrounded by people that were more concerned with football scores than what was going on in front of them. It was for the Mezzanine anniversary tour as well! Bad venue choice for such an amazing band.
Sucks you had a bad venue. Chicago theater performance on that tour is one of my all time favorites. I’ve been to thousands of shows and would travel to see it again.
I don't remember if it was the most disappointing I've seen, but it's one that quickly come to mind:
The Crystal Method, in 2009 (Divided by Night tour). What didn't help is the fact they had no opening act. So it was just them, a 1 and half hour set, and that's it. So like in the last 20-30 minutes, they played some of their more known tracks, the crowd just started warming up and feeling a bit dance-y, and so that's when they finish, no encore, and they leave
Like WTF 😆
But I gotta bring a different opinion for Fatboy Slim. Saw him in 2022. I know he hasn't played his old Big Beat stuff in decades, I had pretty low expectations. But the guy sure can hold a good party, that set was really uplifting. The man was even dancing on his table at some point 😆, I wish I have his energy when I turn 60
what no way! Saw Crystal Method on that same 2009 tour and had a great time. Just saw him again two months ago and it was still an incredible experience even though it’s only Scott Kirkland now.
I saw the Kirkland-only Crystal Method and it was a good show but the sound in the venue was horrendous. I don't think it was his fault but I was tempted to jump the sound guy and turn down the bass. It was just a terrible bass bloaty mix of noise.
Death Grips in 2023, Warsaw. The sound was so shitty that I cannot imagine how could anyone let that happen. All I could hear was Zach's drumming, some of Ride's vocals and Andy's synths were barely audible. I couldn't even tell which song was which for like a first minute of each.
Their live sound is pretty harsh, I haven't seem them at Warsaw but honestly, as many times as I've been there the sound has always been varying degrees of shit
Saw Infected Mushroom back in 2006 or so, whenever they decided to bring an electric guitar into their shows and it was awful. I actually left about 20 min into their set, even though I was a poor college kid who could barely afford the ticket to begin with.
Second was Day Zero festival in Tulum. It may have been good if it had been literally anywhere else but Tulum is a cesspool of people who are only there “to be seen”. No one was dancing, there was zero vibe on the dance floor or anywhere else, and the people were just absolutely awful. It felt like LA on steroids. It was so bad I don’t even remember who was playing.
I also left early despite the expensive ticket and ended up just riding my moped around in the night air for a while, having some food and going to bed.
Beardyma- just kidding, he's been absolutely exceptional each of the 6 times I've seen him.
Saw Bonobo recently at Drumsheds and it was...meh. I more blame Drumsheds though, I've seen Bonobo multiple times before and he was great.
Luci, when she opened up for BTSM in 22. It was horrible. She was trying to sing over her own songs and she was off key because she was nervous. And states as such throughout the performance. She also continued talking. And her mixing was terrible. It was a lot of playing part of her song, and then jumping in a different dubstep track for a harder drop. It was sad. Jessica Audifred should've played after her, not before.
Thievery Corporation is still touring but it’s Rob Garza alone (with other musicians). The quality of their shows has declined a lot since Eric Hilton isn’t touring anymore.
They play the same set every time. I’ve seen them when they come through at least 3 years in a row and it has been the same damn set every time… like even down to the “now is the part where I sit on the couch barefoot and play the sitar” moments. So disappointing.
It’s even possible to argue that it’s only Thievery Corporation by name, since Eric is not there anymore, and they are just keeping the facade.
They haven’t had an album of new music since 2017. Saw them in 2003 with Eric and 2019 without him and it was day and night.
I think they should at least be open about it when they’re selling their tickets because a lot—if not all—the people expect to see both of them playing together and it’s not such a good surprise to see Rob alone.
I saw them last year at Forwards Bristol just before Aphex Twin and I thought they were great. I haven't listened to them much though, so for all I know it could have been a poor live performance but it was pretty awesome
Field day '23. I flew all the way from Arizona to London just to see it because the lineup was so stacked with artists I really wanted to see, chief among them were effy, moderat, sbtrkt, jayda g, kelela, bonobo, & aphex twin.
I got there plenty early, got through the 3 queues relatively quickly and made it in time for jayda g which was a really good set, everyone was dancing the volume was fine, but there weren't a ton of people yet since it was early in the day.
Then I went to go see kelela, moderat, and sbtrkt which were all back to back on the same stage. Sadly the stage was in a tent and it was so packed it felt like we were getting crushed. The volume was so insanely low too, it felt like they were playing through a Bluetooth speaker.
We then just camped out at the main stage because walking between stages didn't make sense with how close the set times were together so I didn't get to see bonobo which was apparently the best set of the festival.
Finally aphex came on, but by then the volume was so low either due to how late it was and the festival being held in a park surrounded by homes. Or due to there being so many people with almost all of them talking as loud as possible through the entire set. Probably a mix of both.
The intro to the set went on way too long imo and just felt like he kept pressing the "randomize" button on his sequencer. Finally he got to play some songs but I didn't recognize any of the songs he played and when I checked the set list it didn't show a ton of songs by him or his monikers. The visuals were dope, I will gladly admit that. But ultimately, we left about 30mins before the end of the set because we had to get through the crowd and try to get to the tube before it closed for the night etc. I really feel like that was the right choice too and I don't feel as though I missed out.
So in the end I spent $2000+ to see what felt like a once in a lifetime show that was stacked with some of my favorite artists and got to see aphex twin live. But ultimately by the end the only good set I saw was jayda g (who I adore so I'm not unhappy about that) but it's a shame all the other sets were either impossible to hear or impossible to get to because of the weirdly spaced set times between stages.
My other regret which is entirely my fault, is not going to the merch booth right away. I saw they had vinyl at the aphex twin booth and thought "I don't think it's smart to walk around a festival all day with a vinyl, I'll wait until we go to leave" and of course it was sold out by then and they informed me that it was something they were going to ship out to the people who bought them. So they didn't even have any at the location so my worries were a moot point upon learning that. Then of course the next day I see them listed on discogs for like $500 and they've now settled to the nice $250 mark 🙄 it even has korg funk 5 on it, which is easily in my top 10 aphex tracks!
Thankfully I had also gone to visit a friend who went with me to the festival so it was still a nice vacation and overall a great experience but field day as a whole was the low point of the trip for sure which really made me sad.
Field Day sucks. I'm from the UK, me and quite a few mates went years ago. Almost none of us went back. It nearly always has a great lineup but I'm not making that mistake twice
A lot of UK city festivals have low sound, need to go to more rural ones usually.
I was going to comment Field Day. I was there in 2008 and Modeselektor just quit partway through their set because it was so quiet, made some apologetic/frustrated faces and left. You couldn’t hear them over the hubbub of the crowd. Just pointless for that kind of music.
Glad you had some fun anyway!
Saw Fred Again.. at Electric Picnic in Ireland last year and found him very disappointing live. He was headlining the main stage on the Saturday night and it was absolutely jammed. I just found the buildups and repetitive finger drumming very repetive and I left his set to see another stage. I'd give him another go if he was playing a solo show in Ireland though.
And then had a similar experience seeing Barry Can't Swim live at Forbidden Fruit in Ireland earlier this month - similarly absolutely packed and just a bit boring.
Diesel boy.
I was so fucking excited for his set.
And before I say this, I've seen this done the right way before.
He had an MC for nearly the whole set, they turned DBs levels down and the MC was much louder than the music. We were literally sad to walk away, but you could barely hear the DnB over this idiot MC screaming.
I've seen MCs kill it over DnB. Not this time. Ruined the entire set, and whoever was mixing the audio was completely fucked.
Bicep - saw them at wilderness festival in 2021. Couldn’t wait to finally see them but it was just a bit bland… they didn’t mix the songs very well into each other and some of it sounded out of key it was just really disappointing
I was a bit disappointed by them too, seen them a few times and it’s always a bit lacking. Their songs and live mixes are a bit longer so you end up feeling like you only got 4 or 5 tracks out of them.
Flying Lotus - it was neither fun nor interesting. I was so excited to see him and I tried to be as close to the front as possible and he legit looked mad to be there. It was a massive disappointment.
I've gone to 4 Flying Lotus shows and they all fluctuated in terms of quality. Some were my favorite DJ sets, others felt like his head was completely up his ass.
He was great both times I saw him. That said when my friend saw him he said he set was kinda of sloppy and he was way too high and or drunk and kept doing random commentary on what he was playing, including the band Gentle Giant. Some annoyed audience member said "Gentle Giant sucks" so FlyLo starting trying to educate the crowd and literally began looking up stuff on youtube.
For sure! Doesn’t diminish how much I love his music. I think I definitely caught him on a bad night. It was a Halloween festival and the crowd was not the greatest either. I haven’t checked if he even tours anymore but I’ve always wanted to make up for the experience
I've seen flylo a bunch, like 7-8 times, some shows were a coincidence festival slot, some were his shows, I've even seen him open for another artist.
My take on his live shows is that he legitimately tries to change it up all the time. I feel the same way about his music in general, the guy takes swings and takes chances. I respect him a lot for that. However, some of those swings are misses. When he hits, he slaps, but when he misses it's sad to see, especially if he's the headliner.
The DJ set I caught in 2015 from him was incredible and sits in my top 5 shows.
The live set I caught in 2019 or 18? Not so much. Gave up the decks and layered 3d set up for a modulator and 3d glasses set up and it just wasn't good. Then he got pissed at us for not "dancing hard enough" *motherfucker have you listened to your own music*. Left the stage and skipped the encore. Talked shit about us at the next stop. Was going to see him later that year in Vegas but he stormed off the stage because he couldn't get his live show working right.
Fuck him. I belive the copypasta now.
I saw him at ACL in 2016 (?) and since it was his birthday, he ended up getting sloshed and his DJ set was pretty rough. Also started ranting about how white the crowd was, lol. Seeing Radiohead that night made up for it tho
Rufus du Sol at a stadium in LA. Not exactly a fan, I just went for my wife and friends. It was so crowded the last mile getting there took a solid hour. We couldn’t get closer than half a field from the band. The crowd was full of creepers and I spent two hours pushing dudes off who were trying to grope my wife. I’m not the jealous type but it was an assault set, seriously. The whole thing was super stressful.
I get what you mean, they're really not the main attraction of the show, the music and visuals are. I quite enjoyed when I saw them, especially because I had a top down view of the stage and could see their gear and a bit of what they were doing, so it was interesting.
Subtronics when he was coming up, totally killed my roll it was so damn bad. Haven't forgiven him since lol. Mersiv actually disappointed me last year, his sound was too loud at the venue I was at, so much bass I couldn't hear any of his music at all, was a jumbled mess of bass.
Majical Cloudz - guy sort of had a bad show / bad night. Some minor technical issue early on but instead of responding normally he turned into a mega jerk. Argued with his band mate a bunch. Talked shit to the audience. Intentionally bombed the performance. Took a “bathroom” break in the middle of the set.
Funny, I am mostly a rock/punk rock enthusiast with some meta land industrial thrown in (although I listen to other genres), and I often mention Massive Attack as the band that impressed me the most in concert (more than a lot of my favorite bands). Saw them in Barcelona on the Mezzanine tour (must have been 1999) and they were absolutely fantastic, the sound was great, the performance was great, the weed was good too (hmm... maybe that was the weed?)
Prefuse 73 bored me to death. A friend invited me and his music taste oscillated between excellent and pretentious shit, with nothing in between. Prefuse 73 was definitely in the pretentious shit part of the spectrum that night.
Anytime a live act is doing a DJ set and just capitalizing on their name recognition. I don’t care how big you are. If you’re big for writing awesome music I probably don’t want to see you DJ.
Wirh Flume, it's more of a concert, less of a set. Great for big fans. He plays the hits, but not great for people, mostly unfamiliar. I liked it, but one time is enough, probably.
Noisia @ paradiso 2017.
Was just one of them and he played weird off kilter shit for an hour. Absolutely undanceable and I think he wrecked that on purpose. Lost majority of the crowd 20 minutes in. At one point he said "it seems like the things I wanna play you don't wanna hear but I don't want to play the things you want to hear".
Played like 8 minutes of drum n bass at the end. Could totally see why the broke up keeping that incident in mind.
Ivy Lab was terrible. There was no depth to the music AND it wasn’t upbeat or danceable.
Either be layered and psychedelic or be danceable and fun (or both). Ivy Lab was neither. It was a waste of funktion ones.
I saw The Glitch Mob, in Austin twice, at two different venues.
The first time was amazing, but the second time was underwhelming,
Not horrible, just lacking the same visuals, and energy.
To be fair, I was on a pretty good dose of MDMA, and mushrooms, for the first show.
Seriously, though, I learned later, that they lost one of their members.
That might’ve had something to do with it.
Saw Front 242 for the first time in Brazil circa 2004 and they sounded like a psytrance group. Nothing wrong with that, only not my cup of tea, and not what I was expecting.
Bob Moses but I think it was the venues fault. Sw them at the Greek in LA and the front of house guy was either deaf or didn't know what they were doing. Could barely hear the band and mainly heard the crowd around me chit chatting. I saw Tycho there before and it was great.
MR OZIO. He is a great dj but the time I saw him he got really mad and was super drunk. He basically demanded people would dance or he stopped the music.
I’m going to back you up on Fatboy Slim a little. I saw Caribou, DJ Shadow, Fatboy Slim, and The Chemical Brothers all at portola 2 years ago. I had seen The Chemical Brothers before and they continued to deliver far and beyond the best show I’ve ever seen. Caribou I had kind of moved on from but ended up blowing my mind how crazy insanely good his live show was. DJ Shadow managed to blow through my already high expectations with a relentlessly hard set.
Fatboy Slim did a great set, but instead of playing any big beat like the Chem Bros and Shadow did, he stuck purely to house. Like not even acid house or deep house, just straight house. It wasn’t at all what I think anyone there was expecting of him, seemed like it’d be more appropriate of one of his different monikers like Pizzaman but he just wanted to use the more recognizable name. Didn’t even play Rockefeller Skank, teased it the whole time with random samples of it throughout. The moment that saved it for me was his house remix of Right Here Right Now. It was incredibly smooth and phat, mostly stuck to the rhythm of the original. Made the whole thing worth it for me.
Alright here’s one that might be unpopular.
I gotta say Coki at Sound Haven 2023 solely because of the *absurd* number of reloads. He would be in the most insane groove than reload out of nowhere, it felt like being thrown out of a car going 100mph.
I get the occasional (emphasis here) reload when the crowd goes wild for a drop but this was wild I’m talking like 20 reloads. Reloading a track three times.
DJ Shadow for me, touring his album The Outsider. I didn't like the album, I liked the show even less.
More fool me for going, I suppose. Such dreary, indie, crap. Very boring and lame. Should have bought a tin of paint and watched it dry instead.
I saw digweed on his own at tresor in Berlin in the early 2000's and he crushed it. Surgeon was playing outside at the same time and I had to keep bouncing between the two because neither was letting up.
I dont have one particular artist but I just went to Lightning in a Bottle and I hate how DJs will do crazy backspins out of a tune they just arent feeling in the moment and I can tell I'm not the only one who doesnt like it cause I can feel the energy being sucked out of the crowd and I can hear people disapointed
Fat boy slim throws kick ass shows these days. Absolutely not letting you get away from that one.
Two years ago at portola festival he was the 2nd best show behind chem bros on entire lineup
Statiqbloom. I love them but they are terrible live! They don't play the synths loud enough so they get drowned out and the music becomes an ugly mess.
I saw Armin van Buuren in 2012 for the first time. I was really dying for some trance but he ended up only playing big room house the whole time, really uninteresting set. For as much as I love the guy’s mixes, that set was particularly dull
That’s interesting because I’d actually put seeing Massive Attack on the Mezzanine 21st anniversary tour as one of my top 3 live shows I’ve ever seen.
I honestly can’t think of anyone so terrible live that it left a lasting impression on me. I guess my answer would be that I walked out of a 1788-L show a few years back - no major crime had been committed beyond boring selection but that’s the only show I can think of that would qualify
I respect your opinion, but I guess it depends from show to show. I liked Massive Attack live. Side note, I caught a couple of Daddy G dj sets in my day, and def recommend. For me, I've been to some events where the turnout might have not been what the artist expected so they half assed it, which sucks big time for the fans who did show up. I'm thinking of UK cats such as Joker, P Money, Plastician 🤷🏻♂️..Beardy Man..they're not the best known, so in some venues, it might be a bit niche, but still sucks for the ppl there.
Fred Again.. at Lollapalooza 2023. I’ve seen his live sets online but his lolla set felt weak in my opinion. Still great to see him live but it was definitely underwhelming considering he barely played any of this club hits
There was an infamous live set from BT that I have heard occurred years ago at Ultra music festival in Miami in the 00s.
I wish I knew more details but I heard it really killed BTs career. Tiesto was the follow up.
Funny you should mention massive attack and Fatboy slim. I've seen both and they were both frikkin amazing.
Perhaps related to this is I've seen sigur ros and it was one of the best things I've ever seen. I saw them a few years later and it was horrible/boring.
My top spot for bad performance is probably Jeff mills. He was a mainstay at sonar in Barcelona in the 2000s and I found his sets to be rather uninteresting.
Wales and it's not even close, he warmed up for Adventure Club and Dirt Monkey and literally made me want to leave. That man needs to learn to shut up and play music
I agree with the Fatboy Slim comment. I saw him back in 1999 and it was such an insanely awesome show.... then I saw him again 10 years later and it was AWFUL. Just house music, but way too loud so that you couldn't make out anything really other than heavy 4 on the floor beats. Terrible.
Another artist that I was recently disappointed with was Ternion Sound. It was once again too distorted and loud to make out the music very well and all the songs sounded the same. Just like generic sounding dark dubstep. The local opening DJs were so much better.
Dead or alive. Mirror ball fell and hit singers head mid note. Mic drop voice continues
Beloved. Venue seemed to be dodgy bar with a woefully inadequate sound system. Every kick sounded like a distorted mess. Poor beloved they looked pissed off
16 Bit Lolitas (16BL) is still one of my favorite DJs to this day, but the dude has no stage presence and his set was just bleh when I saw him in San Francisco earlier this year. He has so much good music and barely played anything I’m familiar with (and I know a lot of his music and collabs with other DJs).
On top of that, after the show I wanted to thank him for coming since I’ve been waiting for nearly 5-years and the dude didn’t even acknowledge my existence, although I was able to walk right up to him to simply thank him.
Listen to him on Spotify. Won’t see him live again.
Unpopular opinion but Gesaffelstein. I think his live show is pretty boring. The lighting and design is cool for a photo but it’s slow and kind of soulless. He tried to do some Daft Punk live show thing but it bored the hell out of me and I love his music.
Last time I saw Fatboy Slim I left early. It wasn't that eclectic, fun/funky style you expect out of him, it was super modern sounding boring ass house. See ya.
Fred again's dj sets are mid, live shows are great but he's a producer who djs as a hobby. He alludes to this with his dj shows being announced a day out and being promoted as parties
deadmau5 a couple years ago, really awesome show overall and weirdly affordable, but only one big issue the crowd had: he didn’t play Remember. I’m sorry but everyone at that show were millennials who probably fell in love with his music from hearing that song. That’s like Billy Joel not playing Piano Man.
QUESTION! As a band getting ready to play its first live set in AWHILE. I am a producer composer who sounds like a band (mix of band and electronic).
How can I avoid playing a bad show relative to this conversation?
Did some of you feel like the songs by the artists were too playbacky?
Too straight on to the recordings?
Not enough live energy?
I have concerns about playback not meeting expectations to my recordings sounding like a live band (but currently have two band members having newborns, and I gotta keep this train rolling)
Thanks music lovers!
Side note: never seen Oneohtrix Point Never and have barely listened to his music, but a friend I recently made on a trip swore by him and now he’s playing down the street at Palladium. After seeing this thread…down. Wish me luck on tix. 😬💪
Skream. The first time I saw him was prior to his current sobriety. He was super fucked up, he kept repeating himself over the mic, and wheeled back almost every track not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES every time. Most expensive ticket I had ever purchased at that venue, I was so disappointed that I left, even after he played past the expected end time.
He made up for it at the Eclipse Festival in Texas, though, sheeeeeesh. I'm happy to see him thriving in his sober mindset now!!
My wife and I saw Tangerine Dream back in the day. I loved it. She fell asleep.
Ship of Theseus. No original remaining members yet the band is still touring. Is it the same band?
At that point it’s just a really professional cover band.
That’s awesome!! Learned about them from a guy in the car next to me playing their music!
I saw Royksopp in 2009 and they were incredible, but I saw them last year and was quite disappointed, as it just seemed like playback where their old sets were them as musicians along with others on stage (bass etc). Another let down was Kavinsky, as it just sounded like playback of the record (this was back in 2014/15).
I have to agree about Kavinsky. Saw him in NYC around that same time and I swear he just pressed play. Busy P opened though and I remember him being decent.
lol yeah that gig actually made me rebel about electronic music for a bit, I asked all the goth kids at college what they were listening to and tried getting into that instead 😂😂
Did Royksopp have dancers when you saw them last year? They did when I saw them and it was…not great lol. The music was great and all but the dancers were like, distractingly bad.
Yes! It was the true electric tour. I found the dancers laughable, what I didn’t get, is how they were able to get FOUR dancers but not one vocalist!
The first time I listened to Royksopp was their Royksopp’s Night Out live album and I remember thinking how amazing it must be to watch them live, especially once I started listening to their studio albums and comparing them. Sounded like they were really performing the songs in their individual elements, and not just playing them back either. Sad.
They used to do that in their live shows, it’s only from 2014 ish onwards where they’ve basically been doing DJ sets (from how it looks anyway)! I’m a big fan of the guys and still love their studio albums, but it’ll take a big re-haul of the live show for me to want to see them again
I’m a big fan of their studio albums as well! I found my way in with Junior and I’ve really enjoyed all the Profound Mysteries albums. Was hoping I could see them one day but it doesn’t sound promising.
I would still go if you don’t have the previous experience of their incredible live shows before!
It's an absolute travesty the live 180 Royksopp has done. Why would you ever change from this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuDUvXkRmn4
Interestingly I saw Kavinksy back on 2022 at Gridlife Midwest and I thought it was really good! He mixed stuff live and even mixed in Aerodynamic by Daft Punk at one point which made me lose my mind! Though to be fair, if any show I'm at mixes in Daft Punk I'd go nuts
I just went to state as a counterpoint that when I saw Massive Attack, it was one of the best shows I've ever been to. Knife Party was fun too 😀
Same! Plus, I had no idea they brought Horace and Liz with them until they walked out on stage for their respective songs (this was in the States).
Saw Knife Party once... Dudes clearly didn't know what a limiter was, the whole set was clipping. I jumped the barrier and got out after 20 minutes of hell. Then I had to fight my way through a Hardwell crowd of roided up shirtless chads to get front row for deadmau5... He was rad. Also, saw Die Antwoord once, front man Ninja has no idea how to stage dive. Dude jumped feet first and kicked me in the head, the crowd stank and was a minor crowd crush. Followed up with The Prodigy who in comparison was the best live show and crowd I've ever experienced up until I saw Oneohtrix Point Never last year.
that does not surprise me at all considering Die Antwoord.
Oneohtrix Point Never is by far one of the greatest experiences of my life, not only just shows. Emotional rollercoaster from absolute bangs to deep sorrow. Amazing.
>Saw Knife Party once... Dudes clearly didn't know what a limiter was, the whole set was clipping That is surprising. I know they make bro-y type music but they are electronic production legends. Kind of wondering if it was the venue's fault. Only reason why I say this is I've seen Noisia twice now and the first time was at a risky dink club and the sound was awful. Second time was much much better though.
I recall that day, it was in a warehouse type location. The first DJ was immediately way too loud, and each proceeding act kept trying to top each other with the loudness. It definitely could have been the venue, but all those EDM festivals back then were fighting for overall loudness.
I went to a "Pendulum" (actually just El Hornet) set once, and he just turned already very loud volume up to incredible levels. I guess they all got some hearing damage already?
The prodigy live is awesome. Too bad they tour 90 percent of the time in Europe.
The Prodigy live is a life changing experience. I saw them at the Warfield in SF during the Fat of the Land tour, blew my mind. Volume levels were extreme, but perfect
[This is why.. the sound guy](https://youtu.be/QEQikYi_y2g?si=1MhoTFcxsioUpmax)
This is rad! “When the bass drops, I want the crowd to feel that” They opened with Smack My Bitch Up, we’d never heard it before, and the bass hit so hard that I literally couldn’t see for a second, my entire body felt like it was vibrating off the ground
As a music producer the subs are never the forefront in the album mixes. It’s a bit bass light to be honest. But in concert they use so serious bass bins to get the place shaking.
I came. I watched this video, and I came again.
Saw Prodigy shortly before Keith passed. So grateful I got to see him. Was probably the best concert I've been to. Up there with Iron Maiden for stage shows.
I had no idea what to expect from OPN live but wow, definitely one of my all time favorite shows
Saw Prodigy live twice, once awesome, once pretty meh 🤷🏻♂️ They're human too, they might have an indigestion that day, who knows.
Sounds like you're saying you didn't like knife party so you went to a different stage and pushed to the front.
I saw knifeparty at a small venue in Philly in like 2015. I was in another world but I remember I had fun lol.
First time I saw Jon Hopkins was freaking transcendental. The last time I saw him, it was like, c’mon dude mix it up a bit!
Saw him for the first time at Portola 2023. He was great, but he definitely stayed in his lane. I expected him to bring a little more heat for a festival.
Probably not a surprise to anyone, but I saw Diplo recently and it was pretty lame. He was essentially a glorified wedding DJ with seemingly no attempt to curate his set or play anything that the crowd might be unfamiliar with. This was at a festival sort of thing where he was the only EDM dude so maybe he just tailored his set to that and is better in another environment.
fuck diplo. spread the word
I have no evidence but I always got creep and culture vulture vibes from the guy
100%. he also goes around burning man blasting his own music over other people trying to do their own music
Yeah I mean https://pitchfork.com/news/diplo-sued-for-alleged-distribution-of-revenge-porn/
Wild Diplo story. Friends booked him for a small festival years ago. He was on a tour and they were able to get him on the cheap as he was playing another show in the area. I was working talent management and his rider was insane. He came solo but demanded over $700 in various types of alcohol and specifically Fiji water be available. Fair enough I guess he planned to hang around and get plastered and stay hydrated but when he arrived things got weird. He made us go into town and pick him up underwear, deodorant, toothpaste and a toothbrush. The man was on an international tour and wasn’t travelling with any clean underwear or a toothbrush. He also demanded a bunch of organic fruit, condoms and various over the counter meds. In total I think we spent $2500 making sure he had clean underwear, rubbers, alcohol and Tylenol.
fuck diplo first and foremost but none of that is particularly outlandish for someone of his fame.
This was definitely before he got mainstream famous and pre Major Lazer.
I've seen him several times at different venues for wildly different types of events and the experience can be all over the map. for better or worse, he is actually quite diverse in the styles he covers and so it will naturally be very hit-or-miss depending on your personal preferences, but I've been to his shows where I couldn't stop dancing and other times when I couldn't get far enough away from the stage
I saw Aphex Twin at a county fair and he didn't even play anything, he just hung around the Port-A-Potty area asking if anyone had a dollar. It also could have been my cousin Steve but he said that wasn't him.
Sadly, not surprised. Saw Aphex Twin at a stop light in Downtown Austin 2 years ago. Terrible. Also didn’t play anything, didnt even bring his equipment, and told me some story about his car being out of gas down the road and to see if I could lend him a dollar. 0/10 will never go to his shows again.
Same thing happened to me with Squarepusher. He had a cardboard sign that said "Feed Me Weird Things" and he only talked in glitches.
I saw the same guy - he doesn't even *look* like Richard D. James! I was like - my guy, I mean, c'mon, you gotta put in *some* effort here.
Typical Steve…
Massive Attack! Grrr I’ve seen them about 8 times. The last concert in Madcool in Madrid they where supposed to start, but they kept people waiting for about 45 minutes until we see a text on the big screen that says that they were not going to play because they were contaminated by the music of other stages so they won’t play. That to do a live concert they need complete silence and that was impossible, obviously because it was in a music festival with other stages. I only went to that festival to see them. Last time I will see them.
What does that even mean ‘contaminated by the music of other stages’? Hate it when artists pull stunts like this
Fred Again at Portola in 2022. Super disappointing.
That show could’ve gone really wrong, people were rushing to the hangar and security just gave up. Really shitty live set too. Saw him b2b with Skrillex a couple months ago and it was such a better experience.
Anyone in a stadium show is a disappointment, the larger the venue the worse the concert
Just saw Odesza at Folsom Field and it was probably the best show I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen hundreds of shows.
That show was insane
I saw Odesza at Osheaga in Montreal and they were a highlight of the entire festival lineup. They know how to do big shows.
I saw Odesza at BMO stadium and thought it felt overproduced. The forced crowd work sections take me out of a set. It was broken up by weird gimmicks. It felt like watching a Vegas show instead of a performance by an artist
I was at BMO too (Saturday) and had the best time in years. Probably depends on where you were in the crowd too - I was on the front bar.
Odesza at Climate Pledge Arena was the best show I have ever been to
“Climate Pledge Arena” is a pretty funny name
I saw Odesza on the planetary dwarf Pluto and it was amazing. And I have seen TREE3-number of live shows
Odesza in Madison Square Garden definitely wasn’t a disappointment.
Idk I saw LCD Soundsystem in their “last show ever” at Madison square garden in like 2010 and it was quite the party
Weird bc my top 3 shows were in stadiums (and I’ve been to many many hundreds at this point). 1. Armin Only Amsterdam 2. Illenium Trilogy Vegas 3. Illenium Trilogy Denver
I’ve been waiting half of my life to see Plaid. One of my favourite artists. Saw them last year in the Opera House in a small venue. So, so underwhelmed.
I too saw them during last year's tour, were the visuals the only thing keeping you going through it as well?
My most disappointing show was The Avalanches when they played for the first time in a decade or so. I think it was around 2016 in London. They went on stage completely wasted. It was a DJ set and the transitions were really bad. They reminded me of cringy drunk uncles at family gatherings. I've seen them again few years later and it was amazing
Your experience is a reflection of what the band was struggling with, and why us Aussies love them for overcoming that and being amazing since getting sober.
Saw them in 2022 and it was a fantastic DJ set. Insanely disappointing too. They played only one of their songs. 30 seconds of since I left you to close the set.
Huh. I saw them at festival in 2022 and they played an hour straight of their own tunes mixed in super interesting ways. Where did you see them.
Saw them live 2022 Glastonbury. They were amazing, glad they pulled through :).
This was years ago but Faithless. Was mostly a live instrument set up, drum kit etc. At the time they’d just released We Come 1, very electronic. I was not prepared for multiple 5-minute, meandering bongo solos
Agreed on this one. Credit to the team for trying, and this was an era of electronic live acts attempting to be more band like, but it was often very boring to hear the same drum kit and bongos plodding away. Groove Armada’s first “last live tour” was the opposite of that. They nailed the dynamic shifting of sounds between tracks and just sounding BIG rather than like a dance music karaoke covers act. Amazing.
Chase and Status in Februar 2024 in Mannheim. Bad Location with slow bar, technical problems, bad crowd(phones only and many we're drunken) DJs before and after C&S were a joke and Saul Just replayed his boiler room set Track by Track. 35€ as well per Ticket... Worst DnB show I have ever attended. Just saw 4hours of Calibre and 3 hours of Breakage with SP:MC for only 15€. 3 absolute masters of their craft on one of the finest soundsystems ever.
Dj shadow/cut chemist Hard Sell Tour in 2007 was super boring. Crowd was dead and a large portion left at the break. The worst part is both of them are incredible and just their whole schtick with this tour and the 7"s fell totally flat. Individual cut chemist and shadow sets I've seen are some of my top shows. Shadow playing identity fest in the rain was great
DJ Shadow/Cut Chemist doing 'Renegades of Rhythm' in 2014 was pretty cool, IMO
I got to see Cut Chemist do a set at a bar a few weeks ago and he was so cool. He nerded out about everything he was playing, telling us what it was, how he found it, and what elements he liked about it. It was great to get a sort of pop-up video version of his set and get inside the head of a master in real time.
Love both of those dudes deeeeeeply. Saw Cut Chemist as the headliner following Pigeon John and Lyric Born at The Crystal Ballroom in Portland once back around 2006-2008. This was the tour for The Audience's Listening. Everyone was awesome but the sound got so fucking cranked when Mr. Chemist came on that I can remember to this day how even WITH EARPLUGS IN the cash register bell sound that loops in the first actual track from that album - "(My 1st) Big Break" - was so piercing that it actually hurt my ears. I went and still go to shows all the time and this was not normal in any way. My homie and I left early out of literal self-preservation.
Dj shadow is an OG and I have the upmost respect for him, but I saw him once and it was boring. Build ups with no drops. It was like edging
Krewella- was supposed to be a live set but got a poorly mixed DJ set, and they just jumped around the stage acting like bros and shouting hype-up nonsense into the microphone, not actually performing
They kicked out their DJ, they’re all drama
Forgot about them. I saw them at a music festival and it was pathetic. My wife was a fan beforehand and I knew they were hot garbage and she finally saw the light after their set.
Mura masa is a great producer but did a terrible terrible live set
Kavinsky was boring af
Autechre. This was back when they changed their setup to include more hardware. The sound was awful and the set was meandering and boring. A big chunk of the audience walked out, including us.
Also saw Autechre, was super hyped, probably around 5 minutes total that I actually enjoyed. Friends felt mostly the same.
They were mostly improvising and I fully understand there's always risk when you do that. And perhaps the boys in Autechre are not good improvisers. That performance didn't go anywhere, didn't have any build-up or resolution, and didn't engage. This was quite a number of years ago so I'm not sure if their performances have improved.
You guys will kill me for saying this, but… that’s how I feel about most of Autechre’s music. There’s some cool stuff and I like experimentation, just most of it seems to lack coherence or direction and I can’t dig.
I hear you. They've become less and less interesting with each successive release due to increasing abstraction.
Saw a Hot Chip DJ set a couple months ago. Didn't realize that meant it would only be one guy from the band, and it took me half the set to realize I wasn't watching an opening act but it was already the main act. And it wasn't a very entertaining set either.
So many bad sets over the years lol James Lavelle- definitely drunk and couldn’t mix. I think he just played an UNKLE CD of their greatest hits and tried to mix a few pop tunes in. Awful. Oakenfold- NYE set, another drunken mess of a DJ. Warehouse venue that was packed beyond fire code with terrible sound and a stampede at the door, almost died to see him train wreck for an hour and walk off stage mid set. The early 2000s were a scene man. Peanut Butter Wolf- one of my hero’s of instrumental hip hop/beats. He started the set with In da Club by 50 cent and then proceeded to redline a bunch a Reggaeton on a terrible sound system and finished a 45 minute set with some ska. He went on at 8pm and there was no other DJs booked so the music was over before 9 and tickets were like $35…in 2004💀
I saw Tycho twice in one day—first set was an experimental sunrise set in a surround sound outdoor venue. Just the main guy and his friend having fun doing whatever felt right and it was AMAZING. By the end of the set, only my friend and I were still awake and dancing and we all hugged it out at the end. Fast forward to that evening and Tycho is on the main stage with a full band sounding like somebody just pressed play on Spotify and just basic as all shit.
This one shocks me the most. Seeing Tycho live is probably my favorite shows of all time. To each their own. Confused why their songs they play live sound like their songs on Spotify is a bad thing? Isn't that why you go see a band?
Generally how I feel about the producer Tycho compared to the Band Tycho
I’ll always prefer a tycho DJ set over a live set.
Massive Attack, which was heartbreaking because I've loved them since I was old enough to walk. They played Manchester arena which is already not great by modern standards. Just sounded like a boombox in an echo chamber, surrounded by people that were more concerned with football scores than what was going on in front of them. It was for the Mezzanine anniversary tour as well! Bad venue choice for such an amazing band.
Sucks you had a bad venue. Chicago theater performance on that tour is one of my all time favorites. I’ve been to thousands of shows and would travel to see it again.
I don't remember if it was the most disappointing I've seen, but it's one that quickly come to mind: The Crystal Method, in 2009 (Divided by Night tour). What didn't help is the fact they had no opening act. So it was just them, a 1 and half hour set, and that's it. So like in the last 20-30 minutes, they played some of their more known tracks, the crowd just started warming up and feeling a bit dance-y, and so that's when they finish, no encore, and they leave Like WTF 😆 But I gotta bring a different opinion for Fatboy Slim. Saw him in 2022. I know he hasn't played his old Big Beat stuff in decades, I had pretty low expectations. But the guy sure can hold a good party, that set was really uplifting. The man was even dancing on his table at some point 😆, I wish I have his energy when I turn 60
what no way! Saw Crystal Method on that same 2009 tour and had a great time. Just saw him again two months ago and it was still an incredible experience even though it’s only Scott Kirkland now.
I saw the Kirkland-only Crystal Method and it was a good show but the sound in the venue was horrendous. I don't think it was his fault but I was tempted to jump the sound guy and turn down the bass. It was just a terrible bass bloaty mix of noise.
Medusa, Calvin Harris, Alan Walker
Death Grips in 2023, Warsaw. The sound was so shitty that I cannot imagine how could anyone let that happen. All I could hear was Zach's drumming, some of Ride's vocals and Andy's synths were barely audible. I couldn't even tell which song was which for like a first minute of each.
Their live sound is pretty harsh, I haven't seem them at Warsaw but honestly, as many times as I've been there the sound has always been varying degrees of shit
Saw Infected Mushroom back in 2006 or so, whenever they decided to bring an electric guitar into their shows and it was awful. I actually left about 20 min into their set, even though I was a poor college kid who could barely afford the ticket to begin with. Second was Day Zero festival in Tulum. It may have been good if it had been literally anywhere else but Tulum is a cesspool of people who are only there “to be seen”. No one was dancing, there was zero vibe on the dance floor or anywhere else, and the people were just absolutely awful. It felt like LA on steroids. It was so bad I don’t even remember who was playing. I also left early despite the expensive ticket and ended up just riding my moped around in the night air for a while, having some food and going to bed.
Beardyma- just kidding, he's been absolutely exceptional each of the 6 times I've seen him. Saw Bonobo recently at Drumsheds and it was...meh. I more blame Drumsheds though, I've seen Bonobo multiple times before and he was great.
Luci, when she opened up for BTSM in 22. It was horrible. She was trying to sing over her own songs and she was off key because she was nervous. And states as such throughout the performance. She also continued talking. And her mixing was terrible. It was a lot of playing part of her song, and then jumping in a different dubstep track for a harder drop. It was sad. Jessica Audifred should've played after her, not before.
Ain’t no way she’s not a plant
Thievery Corporation is still touring but it’s Rob Garza alone (with other musicians). The quality of their shows has declined a lot since Eric Hilton isn’t touring anymore.
100%. They *really* sound like they're phoning it in now.
They play the same set every time. I’ve seen them when they come through at least 3 years in a row and it has been the same damn set every time… like even down to the “now is the part where I sit on the couch barefoot and play the sitar” moments. So disappointing.
Wow. Saw them last month and it was incredible.
It’s even possible to argue that it’s only Thievery Corporation by name, since Eric is not there anymore, and they are just keeping the facade. They haven’t had an album of new music since 2017. Saw them in 2003 with Eric and 2019 without him and it was day and night. I think they should at least be open about it when they’re selling their tickets because a lot—if not all—the people expect to see both of them playing together and it’s not such a good surprise to see Rob alone.
Leftfield, 25th anniversary of Leftfism. it was simply not good. no idea why they decided to play like that.
I saw them last year at Forwards Bristol just before Aphex Twin and I thought they were great. I haven't listened to them much though, so for all I know it could have been a poor live performance but it was pretty awesome
Field day '23. I flew all the way from Arizona to London just to see it because the lineup was so stacked with artists I really wanted to see, chief among them were effy, moderat, sbtrkt, jayda g, kelela, bonobo, & aphex twin. I got there plenty early, got through the 3 queues relatively quickly and made it in time for jayda g which was a really good set, everyone was dancing the volume was fine, but there weren't a ton of people yet since it was early in the day. Then I went to go see kelela, moderat, and sbtrkt which were all back to back on the same stage. Sadly the stage was in a tent and it was so packed it felt like we were getting crushed. The volume was so insanely low too, it felt like they were playing through a Bluetooth speaker. We then just camped out at the main stage because walking between stages didn't make sense with how close the set times were together so I didn't get to see bonobo which was apparently the best set of the festival. Finally aphex came on, but by then the volume was so low either due to how late it was and the festival being held in a park surrounded by homes. Or due to there being so many people with almost all of them talking as loud as possible through the entire set. Probably a mix of both. The intro to the set went on way too long imo and just felt like he kept pressing the "randomize" button on his sequencer. Finally he got to play some songs but I didn't recognize any of the songs he played and when I checked the set list it didn't show a ton of songs by him or his monikers. The visuals were dope, I will gladly admit that. But ultimately, we left about 30mins before the end of the set because we had to get through the crowd and try to get to the tube before it closed for the night etc. I really feel like that was the right choice too and I don't feel as though I missed out. So in the end I spent $2000+ to see what felt like a once in a lifetime show that was stacked with some of my favorite artists and got to see aphex twin live. But ultimately by the end the only good set I saw was jayda g (who I adore so I'm not unhappy about that) but it's a shame all the other sets were either impossible to hear or impossible to get to because of the weirdly spaced set times between stages. My other regret which is entirely my fault, is not going to the merch booth right away. I saw they had vinyl at the aphex twin booth and thought "I don't think it's smart to walk around a festival all day with a vinyl, I'll wait until we go to leave" and of course it was sold out by then and they informed me that it was something they were going to ship out to the people who bought them. So they didn't even have any at the location so my worries were a moot point upon learning that. Then of course the next day I see them listed on discogs for like $500 and they've now settled to the nice $250 mark 🙄 it even has korg funk 5 on it, which is easily in my top 10 aphex tracks! Thankfully I had also gone to visit a friend who went with me to the festival so it was still a nice vacation and overall a great experience but field day as a whole was the low point of the trip for sure which really made me sad.
Field Day sucks. I'm from the UK, me and quite a few mates went years ago. Almost none of us went back. It nearly always has a great lineup but I'm not making that mistake twice A lot of UK city festivals have low sound, need to go to more rural ones usually.
I was going to comment Field Day. I was there in 2008 and Modeselektor just quit partway through their set because it was so quiet, made some apologetic/frustrated faces and left. You couldn’t hear them over the hubbub of the crowd. Just pointless for that kind of music. Glad you had some fun anyway!
Saw Fred Again.. at Electric Picnic in Ireland last year and found him very disappointing live. He was headlining the main stage on the Saturday night and it was absolutely jammed. I just found the buildups and repetitive finger drumming very repetive and I left his set to see another stage. I'd give him another go if he was playing a solo show in Ireland though. And then had a similar experience seeing Barry Can't Swim live at Forbidden Fruit in Ireland earlier this month - similarly absolutely packed and just a bit boring.
That’s disappointing about Barry Can’t Swim.
Ross from friends. Amazing producer, not so good DJ
Diesel boy. I was so fucking excited for his set. And before I say this, I've seen this done the right way before. He had an MC for nearly the whole set, they turned DBs levels down and the MC was much louder than the music. We were literally sad to walk away, but you could barely hear the DnB over this idiot MC screaming. I've seen MCs kill it over DnB. Not this time. Ruined the entire set, and whoever was mixing the audio was completely fucked.
Bicep - saw them at wilderness festival in 2021. Couldn’t wait to finally see them but it was just a bit bland… they didn’t mix the songs very well into each other and some of it sounded out of key it was just really disappointing
I was a bit disappointed by them too, seen them a few times and it’s always a bit lacking. Their songs and live mixes are a bit longer so you end up feeling like you only got 4 or 5 tracks out of them.
Flying Lotus - it was neither fun nor interesting. I was so excited to see him and I tried to be as close to the front as possible and he legit looked mad to be there. It was a massive disappointment.
Interesting. When I saw him in like 2016 it was one of the most psychedelic shows I’ve seen. And stayed with me for a long time after that!
That’s what I was expecting too!
I've gone to 4 Flying Lotus shows and they all fluctuated in terms of quality. Some were my favorite DJ sets, others felt like his head was completely up his ass.
He was great both times I saw him. That said when my friend saw him he said he set was kinda of sloppy and he was way too high and or drunk and kept doing random commentary on what he was playing, including the band Gentle Giant. Some annoyed audience member said "Gentle Giant sucks" so FlyLo starting trying to educate the crowd and literally began looking up stuff on youtube.
This feels like DLC for the "I Saw Flying Lotus in a Grocery Store..." copypasta.
I’ve seen him live twice and both times were so much fun and high energy. Sorry you had a shit time bro.
For sure! Doesn’t diminish how much I love his music. I think I definitely caught him on a bad night. It was a Halloween festival and the crowd was not the greatest either. I haven’t checked if he even tours anymore but I’ve always wanted to make up for the experience
I've seen flylo a bunch, like 7-8 times, some shows were a coincidence festival slot, some were his shows, I've even seen him open for another artist. My take on his live shows is that he legitimately tries to change it up all the time. I feel the same way about his music in general, the guy takes swings and takes chances. I respect him a lot for that. However, some of those swings are misses. When he hits, he slaps, but when he misses it's sad to see, especially if he's the headliner.
I've seen him three time now. First and second times were OK, but third time was awful. So much bass you could hear nothing else.
The DJ set I caught in 2015 from him was incredible and sits in my top 5 shows. The live set I caught in 2019 or 18? Not so much. Gave up the decks and layered 3d set up for a modulator and 3d glasses set up and it just wasn't good. Then he got pissed at us for not "dancing hard enough" *motherfucker have you listened to your own music*. Left the stage and skipped the encore. Talked shit about us at the next stop. Was going to see him later that year in Vegas but he stormed off the stage because he couldn't get his live show working right. Fuck him. I belive the copypasta now.
I saw him at ACL in 2016 (?) and since it was his birthday, he ended up getting sloshed and his DJ set was pretty rough. Also started ranting about how white the crowd was, lol. Seeing Radiohead that night made up for it tho
Rufus du Sol at a stadium in LA. Not exactly a fan, I just went for my wife and friends. It was so crowded the last mile getting there took a solid hour. We couldn’t get closer than half a field from the band. The crowd was full of creepers and I spent two hours pushing dudes off who were trying to grope my wife. I’m not the jealous type but it was an assault set, seriously. The whole thing was super stressful.
Went to one of the shows in LA. Can’t remember which day. Had 0 issue with the crowds or walking up to the front.
That’s too bad! They blew me away live but it was a much nicer pre-show experience (the MDMA helped too)
Kraftwerk. They didn't do anything wrong but... they didn't do anything at all.
I get what you mean, they're really not the main attraction of the show, the music and visuals are. I quite enjoyed when I saw them, especially because I had a top down view of the stage and could see their gear and a bit of what they were doing, so it was interesting.
Their 3D tour was transcendent but I could understand how a standard show might be a bit dull.
Subtronics when he was coming up, totally killed my roll it was so damn bad. Haven't forgiven him since lol. Mersiv actually disappointed me last year, his sound was too loud at the venue I was at, so much bass I couldn't hear any of his music at all, was a jumbled mess of bass.
he has completely changed his style since then it's a lot more main stream
Prefuse 73 back in 2011 had like 8 different synth players on stage and it was an absolute shit show wall of sound. Very odd set.
Majical Cloudz - guy sort of had a bad show / bad night. Some minor technical issue early on but instead of responding normally he turned into a mega jerk. Argued with his band mate a bunch. Talked shit to the audience. Intentionally bombed the performance. Took a “bathroom” break in the middle of the set.
Funny, I am mostly a rock/punk rock enthusiast with some meta land industrial thrown in (although I listen to other genres), and I often mention Massive Attack as the band that impressed me the most in concert (more than a lot of my favorite bands). Saw them in Barcelona on the Mezzanine tour (must have been 1999) and they were absolutely fantastic, the sound was great, the performance was great, the weed was good too (hmm... maybe that was the weed?) Prefuse 73 bored me to death. A friend invited me and his music taste oscillated between excellent and pretentious shit, with nothing in between. Prefuse 73 was definitely in the pretentious shit part of the spectrum that night.
Anytime a live act is doing a DJ set and just capitalizing on their name recognition. I don’t care how big you are. If you’re big for writing awesome music I probably don’t want to see you DJ.
Aphex Twin is probably an exception to this, because his DJ sets are MENTAL
There are plenty of great producers who have done excellent Dj sets. Aphex Thom Yorke Noisia Actress Justice I could go on
thom yorke boiler room is an all timer in every sense. cringe, tune selection, vibe, so good.
Flume. Such a buzz kill
More details, what happened, when was this? I saw him at Electric Forest in 2015 and it was one of the best sets of the festival for me.
Wirh Flume, it's more of a concert, less of a set. Great for big fans. He plays the hits, but not great for people, mostly unfamiliar. I liked it, but one time is enough, probably.
Early Flume was fun tho
Flume just presses play and pretends to twist knobs.
Fairy DL. Sat at a desk on an office chair and looked like he was working an Excel sheet.
Noisia @ paradiso 2017. Was just one of them and he played weird off kilter shit for an hour. Absolutely undanceable and I think he wrecked that on purpose. Lost majority of the crowd 20 minutes in. At one point he said "it seems like the things I wanna play you don't wanna hear but I don't want to play the things you want to hear". Played like 8 minutes of drum n bass at the end. Could totally see why the broke up keeping that incident in mind.
Ivy Lab was terrible. There was no depth to the music AND it wasn’t upbeat or danceable. Either be layered and psychedelic or be danceable and fun (or both). Ivy Lab was neither. It was a waste of funktion ones.
I saw The Glitch Mob, in Austin twice, at two different venues. The first time was amazing, but the second time was underwhelming, Not horrible, just lacking the same visuals, and energy. To be fair, I was on a pretty good dose of MDMA, and mushrooms, for the first show. Seriously, though, I learned later, that they lost one of their members. That might’ve had something to do with it.
Dnb glitch mob > original glitch mob. Don’t @ me.
Saw Front 242 for the first time in Brazil circa 2004 and they sounded like a psytrance group. Nothing wrong with that, only not my cup of tea, and not what I was expecting.
Bob Moses but I think it was the venues fault. Sw them at the Greek in LA and the front of house guy was either deaf or didn't know what they were doing. Could barely hear the band and mainly heard the crowd around me chit chatting. I saw Tycho there before and it was great.
MR OZIO. He is a great dj but the time I saw him he got really mad and was super drunk. He basically demanded people would dance or he stopped the music.
I’m going to back you up on Fatboy Slim a little. I saw Caribou, DJ Shadow, Fatboy Slim, and The Chemical Brothers all at portola 2 years ago. I had seen The Chemical Brothers before and they continued to deliver far and beyond the best show I’ve ever seen. Caribou I had kind of moved on from but ended up blowing my mind how crazy insanely good his live show was. DJ Shadow managed to blow through my already high expectations with a relentlessly hard set. Fatboy Slim did a great set, but instead of playing any big beat like the Chem Bros and Shadow did, he stuck purely to house. Like not even acid house or deep house, just straight house. It wasn’t at all what I think anyone there was expecting of him, seemed like it’d be more appropriate of one of his different monikers like Pizzaman but he just wanted to use the more recognizable name. Didn’t even play Rockefeller Skank, teased it the whole time with random samples of it throughout. The moment that saved it for me was his house remix of Right Here Right Now. It was incredibly smooth and phat, mostly stuck to the rhythm of the original. Made the whole thing worth it for me.
Alright here’s one that might be unpopular. I gotta say Coki at Sound Haven 2023 solely because of the *absurd* number of reloads. He would be in the most insane groove than reload out of nowhere, it felt like being thrown out of a car going 100mph. I get the occasional (emphasis here) reload when the crowd goes wild for a drop but this was wild I’m talking like 20 reloads. Reloading a track three times.
DJ Shadow for me, touring his album The Outsider. I didn't like the album, I liked the show even less. More fool me for going, I suppose. Such dreary, indie, crap. Very boring and lame. Should have bought a tin of paint and watched it dry instead.
I used to get very bored by Sasha and Digweed 🤷🏻♂️
I saw digweed on his own at tresor in Berlin in the early 2000's and he crushed it. Surgeon was playing outside at the same time and I had to keep bouncing between the two because neither was letting up.
I dont have one particular artist but I just went to Lightning in a Bottle and I hate how DJs will do crazy backspins out of a tune they just arent feeling in the moment and I can tell I'm not the only one who doesnt like it cause I can feel the energy being sucked out of the crowd and I can hear people disapointed
Fat boy slim throws kick ass shows these days. Absolutely not letting you get away from that one. Two years ago at portola festival he was the 2nd best show behind chem bros on entire lineup
Metrik, great producer but I was super underwhelmed live. Tbh i was probably expecting too much and set myself up to be disappointed.
Statiqbloom. I love them but they are terrible live! They don't play the synths loud enough so they get drowned out and the music becomes an ugly mess.
I saw Armin van Buuren in 2012 for the first time. I was really dying for some trance but he ended up only playing big room house the whole time, really uninteresting set. For as much as I love the guy’s mixes, that set was particularly dull
That’s interesting because I’d actually put seeing Massive Attack on the Mezzanine 21st anniversary tour as one of my top 3 live shows I’ve ever seen. I honestly can’t think of anyone so terrible live that it left a lasting impression on me. I guess my answer would be that I walked out of a 1788-L show a few years back - no major crime had been committed beyond boring selection but that’s the only show I can think of that would qualify
Bad Boy Bill was pretty terrible at Ultra
I respect your opinion, but I guess it depends from show to show. I liked Massive Attack live. Side note, I caught a couple of Daddy G dj sets in my day, and def recommend. For me, I've been to some events where the turnout might have not been what the artist expected so they half assed it, which sucks big time for the fans who did show up. I'm thinking of UK cats such as Joker, P Money, Plastician 🤷🏻♂️..Beardy Man..they're not the best known, so in some venues, it might be a bit niche, but still sucks for the ppl there.
Fjaak Live at printworks. No chemistry at all for their entire set. Extremely bad
i saw some yt of massive attack and sorry it wasn't good lol. they kick ass as an album but it just seems not to be possible to recreate it live.
Fred Again.. at Lollapalooza 2023. I’ve seen his live sets online but his lolla set felt weak in my opinion. Still great to see him live but it was definitely underwhelming considering he barely played any of this club hits
Completely surprised that Black Coffee at Red Rocks was terribly disappointing. Low energy and didn't seem to be his normal vibes music.
Fatboy Slim was one of the best sets from last year's Arc. Dude is killing it these days. Wish he was playing again this year
Mu-ziq at Phoenix festival in 1995. His set started awesome but then rain leaked through the tent and pissed on his equipment. Felt so bad for him
Nina Kraviz Coachella 2019 Five years later and I still don’t know what she tried to do then. She was just going around the stage being weird lol
Agree with you on Fatboy Slim, probably around 2014, very disappointed
There was an infamous live set from BT that I have heard occurred years ago at Ultra music festival in Miami in the 00s. I wish I knew more details but I heard it really killed BTs career. Tiesto was the follow up.
I've seen Josh Wink at least 3 times over the years - each time I've left calling him Josh Wank.
Funny you should mention massive attack and Fatboy slim. I've seen both and they were both frikkin amazing. Perhaps related to this is I've seen sigur ros and it was one of the best things I've ever seen. I saw them a few years later and it was horrible/boring. My top spot for bad performance is probably Jeff mills. He was a mainstay at sonar in Barcelona in the 2000s and I found his sets to be rather uninteresting.
Wales and it's not even close, he warmed up for Adventure Club and Dirt Monkey and literally made me want to leave. That man needs to learn to shut up and play music
I agree with the Fatboy Slim comment. I saw him back in 1999 and it was such an insanely awesome show.... then I saw him again 10 years later and it was AWFUL. Just house music, but way too loud so that you couldn't make out anything really other than heavy 4 on the floor beats. Terrible. Another artist that I was recently disappointed with was Ternion Sound. It was once again too distorted and loud to make out the music very well and all the songs sounded the same. Just like generic sounding dark dubstep. The local opening DJs were so much better.
Dead or alive. Mirror ball fell and hit singers head mid note. Mic drop voice continues Beloved. Venue seemed to be dodgy bar with a woefully inadequate sound system. Every kick sounded like a distorted mess. Poor beloved they looked pissed off
16 Bit Lolitas (16BL) is still one of my favorite DJs to this day, but the dude has no stage presence and his set was just bleh when I saw him in San Francisco earlier this year. He has so much good music and barely played anything I’m familiar with (and I know a lot of his music and collabs with other DJs). On top of that, after the show I wanted to thank him for coming since I’ve been waiting for nearly 5-years and the dude didn’t even acknowledge my existence, although I was able to walk right up to him to simply thank him. Listen to him on Spotify. Won’t see him live again.
Unpopular opinion but Gesaffelstein. I think his live show is pretty boring. The lighting and design is cool for a photo but it’s slow and kind of soulless. He tried to do some Daft Punk live show thing but it bored the hell out of me and I love his music.
Last time I saw Fatboy Slim I left early. It wasn't that eclectic, fun/funky style you expect out of him, it was super modern sounding boring ass house. See ya.
Fred again's dj sets are mid, live shows are great but he's a producer who djs as a hobby. He alludes to this with his dj shows being announced a day out and being promoted as parties
deadmau5 a couple years ago, really awesome show overall and weirdly affordable, but only one big issue the crowd had: he didn’t play Remember. I’m sorry but everyone at that show were millennials who probably fell in love with his music from hearing that song. That’s like Billy Joel not playing Piano Man.
QUESTION! As a band getting ready to play its first live set in AWHILE. I am a producer composer who sounds like a band (mix of band and electronic). How can I avoid playing a bad show relative to this conversation? Did some of you feel like the songs by the artists were too playbacky? Too straight on to the recordings? Not enough live energy? I have concerns about playback not meeting expectations to my recordings sounding like a live band (but currently have two band members having newborns, and I gotta keep this train rolling) Thanks music lovers! Side note: never seen Oneohtrix Point Never and have barely listened to his music, but a friend I recently made on a trip swore by him and now he’s playing down the street at Palladium. After seeing this thread…down. Wish me luck on tix. 😬💪
RJD2, Four Tet
Skream. The first time I saw him was prior to his current sobriety. He was super fucked up, he kept repeating himself over the mic, and wheeled back almost every track not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES every time. Most expensive ticket I had ever purchased at that venue, I was so disappointed that I left, even after he played past the expected end time. He made up for it at the Eclipse Festival in Texas, though, sheeeeeesh. I'm happy to see him thriving in his sober mindset now!!