Best Live Album

[gtcam]

Live at Filmore East - Allman Brothers
The Last Waltz - The Band
Skull and Roses/ Cornell 5/8/77 - Grateful Dead
Live at the Roxy/LIVE! - Bob Marley & The Wailers
Waiting For Columbus- Little Feat
Live at the Harlem Square Club - Sam Cooke
Made in Japan - Deep Purple
One More from the Road - Lynard Skynard

 

[imno1]

Nine Tonight - Bob Seger/SBB

Good stuff but not even his best live imo. I'll give that to "Live Bullet"

 

[nomar]

Little Feat - "Waiting for Columbus".... the Tower of Power horn section puts this band into another gear.

The version of Spanish Moon off Waiting for Columbus might be in my top 10 tracks of all time. "Tower of Power on horns..."

 

[nomar]

Greatful Dead Dick’s Picks, Volume 8 Harpur College (SUNY Binghamton) 1970). First set acoustic. Second and third sets electric. Magical stuff.

Live shows not officially released, but widely available and absolutely spectacular:
The Cars, Univ of Sussex, Brighton, England, 11/22/1978; Steely Dan, Live at JJ’s Bar & Grill, San Diego, 3/23/1974.

I have two bootlegs that I both love:

5/8/77 Dead @ Cornell
5/9/77 Floyd @ Oakland

The Dead at Barton Hall set is legendary.

Why Is The Grateful Dead's 5/8/77 Cornell Show Considered Their Greatest Performance?

On the anniversary of this classic show, we break down why the Grateful Dead's 5/8/77 Cornell performance is considered their best.

liveforlivemusic.com

And the Floyd show has them playing in support of Animals. It's not their best album but the songs lend themselves to live performances. Sheep is incredible. And the setlist also included all of WYWH.

Pink Floyd - Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, CA, 5-9-1977

Slowly but surely, I've been posting what I consider to be the best and most important Pink Floyd live performances. Most of those were perf...

albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com

Pink Floyd live in Oakland 1977 05 09 Best! Audio

It's just stunning to me that these two totally different but totally amazing shows happened on opposite coasts one day apart.

 

[beakumhawks]

Simon and Garfunkel Live in Central Park and Peter Gabriel Secret Garden Live are my top two

 

[8893]

I have two bootlegs that I both love:

5/8/77 Dead @ Cornell
5/9/77 Floyd @ Oakland

The Dead at Barton Hall set is legendary.

Buffalo and New Haven the same week also awesome.

 

[alexd]

Buffalo and New Haven the same week also awesome.

The Dead... "To Terrapin: Hartford '77" from the final night of that '77 spring tour is phenominal.

 

[HobokenHusky]

Am I really the first one to mention Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds live at Luther college?

Not sure if it’s the best but it soundtracked many fun times in Storrs.

 

[Husky Alien]

Isley Brothers Live 1973
Ernie Isley tears it up on Carol King's It's To Late at the end.

 

[Friarsnoop]

U2 at Red Rocks

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense

"The Name of This, Band is Talking Heads"

 

[ju6381]

Am I really the first one to mention Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds live at Luther college?

Not sure if it’s the best but it soundtracked many fun times in Storrs.

Love Dave. Any live album with him is A-OK with me.

 

[uconnfan68]

Alchemy is great.

Some Boomer will say Frampton Comes Alive.

Mark Knopfler is phenomenal. Great way to leadoff a thread.

Brothers in Arms. My 2yo daughter loved Money for Nothing (from MTV), because they were singing about baby chickens. We listened to that album a lot. Sorry it’s not a live album…

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

In the past few days, I have been working within a vast LP library, and yesterday, I retrieved from my own storage all live & radio recordings I have on cassette. Both of these make this thread too overwhelming to answer as asked, so I'll redefine the parameters simply to draw attention to some LPs that may not be familiar to some here.

I'm only choosing from LPs that I currently own. I offer nothing from what I once may have owned but don't own now, and nothing in any form other than a vinyl record.

This list doesn't mean these are my favorites ever or what I might consider the best. They just happen to be what I have under the stated 'rules.' These choices are made only from the remaining 78 rock albums I own. No other genres are eligible.

And there are no repeats of anything already listed. Whether I currently own or have ever owned them, there are many choices that have been posted here that I like (some very much), and several I definitely do not like or even dislike.

OFFICIAL RELEASES
801 - 801 Live
Dan Hicks & his Hot Licks - Where's the Money
Hot Tuna - Hot Tuna
Kinks - Everybody's in Showbiz
Ramones - It's Alive

COMPILATIONS
Stiffs Live
Roxy London WC2 (Jan-Apr 77)

BOOTLEGS
Van Morrison - George Ivan Morrison
Graham Parker - Live at Marble Arch
Graham Parker - Best Kept Girl I the West
Talking Heads - Compassion is a Virtue, But...
Neil Young - Young Man's Fancy

Truly, it's just a list of what I could physically produce if challenged, a defined sample with nothing omitted.

 

[storrsroars]

Kinks - Everybody's in Showbiz

Requires an asterisk. Double album, one studio, one live.

An underrated album, especially considering the commercial disasters that followed. But the studio album introduced us to Celluloid Heroes, while the live album has the definitive version of Alcohol, which alone is almost worth the purchase.

Oddly, they only teased Lola on the last track of the live album. Always wondered if a full live version that could've received radio play might've boosted unit sales.

 

[tdrink]

The music and playing on this album is incredible. The way it was mixed is dreadful.

If you like Yes and haven’t heard the Progeny albums , do yourself that favor. They are what Yessongs was supposed to sound like and absolutely prove that Yes saw themselves first and foremost as a live band.

 

[storrsroars]

Graham Parker - Live at Marble Arch
Graham Parker - Best Kept Girl I the West

I lost all my GP cassettes in a car break in and haven't listened to him in years. But what an underappreciated artist. Had some great originals, but what I remember him for most was having the audacity to cover Jackson 5 hits and actually pull them off quite capably and enjoyably. So thanks for the memories.

 

[imno1]

Has Mad Dogs and Englishmen been mentioned yet?

 

[8893]

I lost all my GP cassettes in a car break in and haven't listened to him in years. But what an underappreciated artist. Had some great originals, but what I remember him for most was having the audacity to cover Jackson 5 hits and actually pull them off quite capably and enjoyably. So thanks for the memories.

His 2012 album with The Rumour, Three Chords Good, is excellent.

 

[upstater]

The Living End -- Husker Du

 

[Cjone79]

Best live album in last 5 years: IDLES-Live at le Bataclan.

 

[ET7774]

 

[alexd]

The version of Spanish Moon off Waiting for Columbus might be in my top 10 tracks of all time. "Tower of Power on horns..."

THIS!!! The bass intro & then the horns!!!

 

[Husky1972]

Toss-up for me:
It's Too Late To Stop Now - Van Morrison
Miles of Aisles - Joni Mitchell

 

[karstenkibbe]

Foe those who appreciate the music of Joe Jackson, seek out his “Summer in the City: Live in New York” album, which was recorded over three nights at Joe’s Pub. Includes exceptional covers of the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby and Steely Dan’s King of the World. With his forays into so many genres in the last 40+ years, some consider JJ a bit of a musical weirdo. I consider him a musical genius.