Great Performances

[br d]

I've searched through the forum for this, I'm sure it's been done before but I couldn't find it.

Just give us amazing, ground breaking performances that stand out in your musical history. Doesn't matter what year, what genre or what artist, if it meant the world to you post it.

I'll start with something obvious (I could post a list of a thousand here but we need to start somewhere), Joe Cocker at Woodstock.
The man is comically high on LSD, absolutely off his tits but still produced this incredible performance.

https://youtu.be/NR-H2uFCQls?si=jVzj0cevdFDUCf-W

[br d]

And one more:

https://youtu.be/mE9H1bW-zQ4?si=3074yzUB2Y2uHQmi

[Mr Creosote]

An obvious one perhaps, but Freddie at Live Aid.

[Chimune]

1st time i ever heard of them... mind blown.



Not a duff note or average musician to be found !

[Warhavernet]

A few stand outs from the past:

MC5 - Kick Out The Jams album

The Who - Live at Leeds album

Cream - Crossroads , maybe best live track ever.

[White-Noise]

Metallica - cunning stunts and S&M
Thin Lizzy - live and dangerous

All great live performances to me even if the Lizzy one was doctored I heard.

I like the bit in CS when someone crashes the stage then you see them being carried off and they're still headbanging horizontally

When that S&M album was released I wasn't into Metallica. I was doing my photography GCSE, we had a set of speakers my mate was blasting it out all the time and it stuck. Was a great time in there hearing everyone's music.

I would also add in Dream Theater live at the Budokan.

Edited by White-Noise on Saturday 1st November 20:00

[Mr Tidy]

Alice Cooper's Halloween concert in Manchester in November 2017 was just fantastic.

Muse at the Etihad in June 2019 was also spectacular.

I've seen both of them again but neither was nearly as good.

[NDA]

Jeff Beck at Ronnie Scotts. It's on YouTube.

[Pupp]

A handful of favourites:

Richard Thompson kicking it out the park with Vincent Black Lightning 52
https://youtu.be/k5V0RkCIaXo?si=1HjB-QiPTGMuS8cY

Garbage - why Do You Love Me? At Glastonbury
https://youtu.be/OYqVB_E5jsc?si=8nSLvCxX9BZiG_3X

Neil Young - hey hey my oh my (just love the crowd on this)
https://youtu.be/w_hoW6qmeOo?si=A8h5B0Lz9y_rPd5H

Ani DiFranco - Napoleon (she s about the most percussive acoustic guitarist I ve ever seen; always awesome live)
https://youtu.be/rqGnIBlbkUY?si=b2dnncUNEuWG54UY

Disturbed - The Sound of Silence (from Conan TV Show)
https://youtu.be/Bk7RVw3I8eg?si=zclabmumJ_hkRdME

Bert Jansch - Angie
https://youtu.be/qOIt7fOgeFk?si=xQq7USSsh3beDaN0

Pixies - Gouge Away at the Eden Project - not the classic line up but a truly stellar recent performance of a great song
https://youtu.be/FiUNDeuBbi8?si=3Z_WwFGt81NxBWDa

The legend that is John Otway - House of the Rising Son at Cambridge in 2024 - hugely entertaining as ever
https://youtu.be/wN-5ZktiE84?si=xK1BhvqL1_XpRO40

[Simes205]

Chimune said:

1st time i ever heard of them... mind blown.



Not a duff note or average musician to be found !

Seen them live!
Seen Cory Henry (the soloist) many times too!
Check out the rest of their output, real music still exists.

[Pupp]

Chimune said:

1st time i ever heard of them... mind blown.



Not a duff note or average musician to be found !

How cool is that; fabulous

[Simes205]

Moving

Aretha Franklin - you make me feel.
The performance is a masterclass, the audience are clearly moved. I’d hate to be the next person to go on!

https://youtu.be/qz2efshhuq4?si=oRsikm0wtNEjaqCI

[Simes205]

Pupp said:

Chimune said:

1st time i ever heard of them... mind blown.



Not a duff note or average musician to be found !

How cool is that; fabulous

There are alternate takes but this is the one.

[spaximus]

My wife and I saw Elton John at Westpoint Arena in 2016. The organisation was a shambles and the weather was dreadful.

After the support act had finished Elton came on and the rain was soaking everyone including him even though the stage was covered to some extent.

He said I feel really bad for the weather but I will give you the best concert I can. He then started with Funeral for a Friend/ love lies bleeding and it was an incredible start, the technicians mixing the sound got it bang on and it was just like the record except he could not hit the highest notes so changed that.

The whole set he did was equally good and no one seemed to bother about the wet, it was without doubt the best live performance I have ever seen

[Simes205]

NDA said:

Jeff Beck at Ronnie Scotts. It's on YouTube.

Is that the one when Clapton comes on stage?
Jimmy Page is also in the audience!

[Rollin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igYpWqe3s6U

I was there for Prince at Manchester Academy

[cherryowen]

Great OP, br_d

Off the top of my head:-



The Led Zep rollercoaster at its best. Bonzo and JPJ as tight as anything, and Page's guitar work is effortless.



The wonderful Barenboim working hard on Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" 3rd movement



Still, for me, one of the epic live solo guitar performances ever

[Wacky Racer]

Saddleworth's finest Barclay James Harvest Live Drury Lane, London 1974 performing "For no one"

[cherryowen]

A couple more:-



One of the best blues guitar players ever. Died young in a helicopter crash. Incredible speed and touch using .013 gauge strings cables.



Dark, unusual, and compelling for 1992

[JoshSm]

Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing (Alchemy Live) always seemed a cut above.