Where are the super bands anymore?

[Thrill_KIll]

Some one posted a link to a Queen video the other day, and following it I came across this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD6ROpRH7Ag

It had been so long since I had seen Freedie and the boys doing live performances, I had forgotten how much of an ungodly vocalist he was. Hell, the entire band was superb top to bottom, both vocally and instrumentally.

Yea, he was SUPER gay, and funny as hell looking. He was one of the talented people we lost to AIDS back in the day. But they did things with guitars that people had to have synthasizers to mimic. Most old fogies here will remember the old Queen albums with the addages "No synthasizers used".

I was watching the performance in the link, looking at showmanship, talent, vocals, the whole deal. And I really felt sad in the sense there are no real super bands out there anymore.

We have become so used to studio bands sucking horribly live, that we don't expect talent anymore.

[Atnas]

Wow, he does sound good live.

[KellorKleft]

Because 1980s rock is the best and always will be.

[Red Morgan]

There are few things that truly deserve to be described as "epic" and Queen is one of them.

[Xzi]

Tool sounds badass live.

[Baralis]

I agree. I think its more about $$ these days and less about talent. If a producer can take someone and make them sound good in the studio and sell records thats all that matters.


btw my favorite live vocalist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3-eIv9vcdQ&feature=related

[Beeblebrox]

Come on, stop crying! Queen is gone, but now we have Good Charlotte!

[Jyibe]

Tool sounds badass live.

second this. awesome lights. awesome performances. Their songs are better live.

[Nehemia]

Well, the stage-act wasn't anything extra-ordinary, he did sound good live though.

[Mulambo]

Some one posted a link to a Queen video the other day, and following it I came across this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD6ROpRH7Ag

It had been so long since I had seen Freedie and the boys doing live performances, I had forgotten how much of an ungodly vocalist he was. Hell, the entire band was superb top to bottom, both vocally and instrumentally.

Yea, he was SUPER gay, and funny as hell looking. He was one of the talented people we lost to AIDS back in the day. But they did things with guitars that people had to have synthasizers to mimic. Most old fogies here will remember the old Queen albums with the addages "No synthasizers used".

I was watching the performance in the link, looking at showmanship, talent, vocals, the whole deal. And I really felt sad in the sense there are no real super bands out there anymore.

We have become so used to studio bands sucking horribly live, that we don't expect talent anymore.

Mike Patton is very good live.

Secret Chiefs 3 are also a good live band.

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.

etc.

[Beeblebrox]

The truth is nowadays there aren't many great epic bands no more...and the saddest part is no one seems to notice or care...

...maybe I'll just start listening to rap...or emocore....maybe britney...

[Mulambo]

Come on, stop crying! Queen is gone, but now we have Good Charlotte!

adn that rapper that ice-T told to eat a dick (forget his name, some superman song guy).

[Lotharr]

awesome lights.

While we're at it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGECJP3phyY

[Jyibe]

Daft punk is sweet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB3OzHFUcXk&feature=related

[Thrill_KIll]

I've seen Tool live, back in like 96 or so, when they were on tour with Aenema or however the hell you spell it...lol

They are a good band live, yea. And while they are a unique sounding band, they fall on Maynard for everything. I'm speaking of bands that were talented across the board. In other words, most big bands today are nothing more than vehicles for one guy who has all the talent, while the rest just hang on to his coat tail.


And I'm sorry, but anyone who looks at a lightshow as a basis of how good a band is live needs to go shoot themselves.

[Xzi]

I've seen Tool live, back in like 96 or so, when they were on tour with Aenema or however the hell you spell it...lol

They are a good band live, yea. And while they are a unique sounding band, they fall on Maynard for everything. I'm speaking of bands that were talented across the board. In other words, most big bands today are nothing more than vehicles for one guy who has all the talent, while the rest just hang on to his coat tail.


And I'm sorry, but anyone who looks at a lightshow as a basis of how good a band is live needs to go shoot themselves.
What? Tool's guitarist is amazing too.

[Gloomrender]

All the members of Tool are talented...in Lateralus everything came together to perfection.

Btw APC was awesome live too...maybe even better than Tool was live.

[Thrill_KIll]

What? Tool's guitarist is amazing too.



You are not grasping what "across the board" means. I am talking about those bands who every member was superb with their instrument, AND could sing their ass off. They could all read sheet music, wrote their own songs (not just one or two guys doing the writing), basically, what it takes to be considered a super band.

[Traep]

There are plenty of highly skilled musicians, both live and in the studio, nowadays but they don't sound like Queen so you probably don't notice them. It's really not fair to compare Queen to Britney Spears and make the assumption that music has gone down the tubes. You know, in the 70s, when Queen was playing, they had disco and songs like "Shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake that booty".

[Lotharr]

And I'm sorry, but anyone who looks at a lightshow as a basis of how good a band is live needs to go shoot themselves.

A very good light system can improve a show. A good show doesn't have anything to do how good the actual tunes are, though.

Let me link you to a Sleeparchive (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gspj3iLs9k) live set. He might not have the craziest show in the world, but the way he composes the his live set on fly etc. is appreciated.

[Gloomrender]

You are not grasping what "across the board" means. I am talking about those bands who every member was superb with their instrument, AND could sing their ass off. They could all read sheet music, wrote their own songs (not just one or two guys doing the writing), basically, what it takes to be considered a super band.

Thrill...you're ignorant on this one.

Every Tool band member is superb with their instrument...Maynard's being his voice, the guitarist's their guitars, and Danny on the drums. They mix all the sounds together to make perfect music. That's what a rock band does. And in Tool, the whole band IS involved in the writing process...you just assumed out of hand that it was 2 of them, but you're wrong.

Your criteria for a "super band" would seem to be some kind of choir/band, with 10 people singing at once, and guitarists and drums in the background, hardly heard. Good for you if that's what you like, but I prefer my rock bands to be rock bands, and so do other people who are not Thrill Kill. Also half of Queen's songs were about the lead singers gayness, whereas Tool is way more meaningful.

[Amaryl]

I don't understand the fuzz about Tool live.

seriously, the music is good, but their stage performance...

they post huge screens that shows their videos, while they themselves play the instruments like statues, no energy. the singer stood in the same spot for the entire set, no movement what so ever, except turning towards another instrument...

I'd like to get a rush at concerts and tool just didn't deliver. maybe they're better in theatre shows...

at least that last year.

[Xzi]

I don't understand the fuzz about Tool live.

seriously, the music is good, but their stage performance...

they post huge screens that shows their videos, while they themselves play the instruments like statues, no energy. the singer stood in the same spot for the entire set, no movement what so ever, except turning towards another instrument...

I'd like to get a rush at concerts and tool just didn't deliver. maybe they're better in theatre shows...
They sound great live, that's all that matters to me. Bands that jump around like jackasses on stage don't rate any higher for me than ones that just stand still.

[Gloomrender]

I don't understand the fuzz about Tool live.

seriously, the music is good, but their stage performance...

they post huge screens that shows their videos, while they themselves play the instruments like statues, no energy. the singer stood in the same spot for the entire set, no movement what so ever, except turning towards another instrument...

I'd like to get a rush at concerts and tool just didn't deliver. maybe they're better in theatre shows...

They're the best live with their most current songs. Because of the cathartic nature of their music, It's hard for them to summon up the right emotions from songs long past, to play them like they did back in the day. That, and by tour date number 50, the songs get old.

[Baralis]

The way I have always looked at it...

If a singer dances and has dancers on stage with them they have no real ability other then singing. Now this is a generalization but it holds true most of the time.

[omnigol]

You are not grasping what "across the board" means. I am talking about those bands who every member was superb with their instrument, AND could sing their ass off. They could all read sheet music, wrote their own songs (not just one or two guys doing the writing), basically, what it takes to be considered a super band.
I agree I haven't seen an 'awesome' band in far too long, but your definition is getting retarded. Slash can't read sheet music, you don't mean GNR wasn't an epic band?

Also I have a very hard time seeing any decent work of art not being predominately envisioned by one person. Try drawing a picture with a 'team'. It will look like shit. Also I couldn't give two shits about how talented individual members of a band are, or what the fuck the did on their own(and I don't see most people caring either). I only care about how their songs sound, and whether they're morbidly obese(because then I would stop listening to them).

[Lotharr]

You are not grasping what "across the board" means. I am talking about those bands who every member was superb with their instrument, AND could sing their ass off. They could all read sheet music, wrote their own songs (not just one or two guys doing the writing), basically, what it takes to be considered a super band.

Do you mean something like The Raconteurs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raconteurs)?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ATQFFwU0_k

[Amaryl]

They're the best live with their most current songs. Because of the cathartic nature of their music, It's hard for them to summon up the right emotions from songs long past, to play them like they did back in the day. That, and by tour date number 50, the songs get old.

Well, even if they get old, it be nice if they performed with energy. and then I don't mean jumping around like jackasses. they're intentially moving the focus from their performance, towards the videos. if you're totally in the back the only thing you could see was a very small sillhouet of the singer. and the huge screens. there's nothing wrong with the music itself, but the delivery was bland, boring.

and you got a point about them summoning up the right emotions for to long enough. that really hurts the experience you have as a concert goer, looking to totally "freak out" and have an amazing time when the only thing you get is the same songs with the same videos, that i could have seen from watching their clips. There is nothing in the live performance that make you say "woah they're so totally awesome live!'

[NewRage]

FYI they are coming out with a movie about Queen. Good old Freddie is being played by Johnny Depp as well, so it should be a pretty kick ass movie.

As for where are the good all around bands... get with the times. Everything changes over time. Back before Kiss and Queen disco ran the show. Rock killed disco. Now pop killed rock (or probably a dual effort murder with the help of rap). There will most likely not be the epic rock bands again, but there will be (and are) epic pop stars and rappers.

[Gloomrender]

Well, even if they get old, it be nice if they performed with energy. and then I don't mean jumping around like jackasses. they're intentially moving the focus from their performance, towards the videos. if you're totally in the back the only thing you could see was a very small sillhouet of the singer. and the huge screens. there's nothing wrong with the music itself, but the delivery was bland, boring.

Tool doesn't like the attention to be on themselves as people, they want you to focus on their music...that's why they don't have themselves in their music videos, and why they practically hide on stage as well.

and you got a point about them summoning up the right emotions for to long enough. that really hurts the experience you have as a concert goer, looking to totally "freak out" and have an amazing time when the only thing you get is the same songs with the same videos, that i could have seen from watching their clips. There is nothing in the live performance that make you say "woah they're so totally awesome live!'

Well It's a give and take thing being a Tool fan...you get the highest quality emotionally driven music, and the cost is that it can't be replicated nearly as well live, years later, because those emotions have gone or are diminished, naturally, over time. You can't fault the band, unless you want them to make music like other popular musicians make music...and not get that quality.

[Lord Caim]

AC/DC is pretty bitchin live, and I just heard Petty and he wasn't too bad at all.

But I agree, today's nothing like it was back then.

[Khantrah]

Eh, I think with the music industry having to shift from record sales to live shows for their primary revenue source we could begin to see much better live shows across the board.

[Atnas]

Eh, I think with the music industry having to shift from record sales to live shows for their primary revenue source we could begin to see much better live shows across the board.

Hey, that's an observation I never thought of.

[Kaorn]

AC/DC is pretty bitchin live, and I just heard Petty and he wasn't too bad at all.

But I agree, today's nothing like it was back then.

AC/DC was so much better live than on record.

[Signus]

Some one posted a link to a Queen video the other day, and following it I came across this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD6ROpRH7Ag

It had been so long since I had seen Freedie and the boys doing live performances, I had forgotten how much of an ungodly vocalist he was. Hell, the entire band was superb top to bottom, both vocally and instrumentally.

Yea, he was SUPER gay, and funny as hell looking. He was one of the talented people we lost to AIDS back in the day. But they did things with guitars that people had to have synthasizers to mimic. Most old fogies here will remember the old Queen albums with the addages "No synthasizers used".

I was watching the performance in the link, looking at showmanship, talent, vocals, the whole deal. And I really felt sad in the sense there are no real super bands out there anymore.

We have become so used to studio bands sucking horribly live, that we don't expect talent anymore.

Its true enough there are very few amazing bands anymore, but even on the list of great bands of the past, Queen stands above just about all of them. Something like them isn't likely to come around any time soon. Seriously, every single musician was beyond talented, 3 of them could all hold their own doing vocals (only the bassist didn't sing, but he wrote some of the most famous Queen songs). They all stayed together until the death of Freddie, never any big controversies, and absolutely no drug problems. Seriously, how often do you get that?

They've been on the top 10 chart longer than any other band in history (including the Beatles), and they have one of the most amazing (and underrated guitarists of all time. Brian May. He's chancellor of Liverpool and a has a PHD in Astrophysics. Now THAT is impressive.




Well, the stage-act wasn't anything extra-ordinary, he did sound good live though.

Most respectable music fans will disagree. Its almost general consensus that the Queen at the Live Aid 85 concert was the greatest live show ever put on, and that's good considering the better known bands (at the time) were also there(U2, the Cars, ect) but Queen stole the show.

They created Arena Rock!


And I will agree, AC/DC was amazing live.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fdX-le1nlI&feature=related


Also, if you want to see something amazing...this song showcases the band's talent pretty well, everyone sings, and at the end, you can hear the backup vocals doing an amazing job while Freddie belts out the final lyrics.

[paade]

i will never get caught saying this in public, but...i miss the 80's:(

[Gloomrender]

Hey, that's an observation I never thought of.

Wishful thinking and hoping imo.

[Kraven]

Tool sounds badass live.

fail

[Atnas]

Wishful thinking and hoping imo.

Quiet you.

[Spineless_DoO]

Eh... There are so many clone bands these days the industry is diluted. Its not much different from the gaming industry imo. System of a Down was a super good live band, Not to many others I have seen as of late that make me want to put up with the crowds to see them though. Alot of the 70s bands are great.

The BEST performance I have ever seen was Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. What a fucking amazing show. Second was the Doobiebrothers. The Doobiebrothers throw alot of charity events. Fan or not those guys are awsome. They dont get up and play songs they literaly pull half the show out of there asses. Its great. Some of the songs are 15 minutes long and filled with some of the best solos I have ever heard. Its all about a good time.

[Titus Ultor]

I think we have a distorted view "of the now" because our minds and society hasn't culled the wheat from the chaff quite yet for the past decade or so. On the charts throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s, there were dozens of meaningless and derivative bullshit on about the same scale as there is today. For every band like the Beatles, the Who, Led Zeppelin or Queen there were a dozen copy-cat pop artists whose banality has banished them to the backs of everyone's minds and tongues. We have commercial hip-hop, they had disco and New Wave.

There are quite a few bands out today who put on solid shows and innovative albums pretty consistently. I bet everyone here in twenty years, we'll hear "music is such shit today! If only I was back in '08" just as often as we hear complaints as in this thread.

[Spineless_DoO]

Nah. I think Rock itself is dead in the water. With the R&B shit floating around its no wonder. I mean wtf are these people thinking. Im talking about a day when music was well, music. Now its all electronic. These bands suck live today because without a few million in sudio gear they become what they realy are and that is usualy a shitty bar band that got lucky.

Rap has to be the best. I mean the entire show is =

Yo yo yo yo yo word word word word. I often wonder how these fucking idiots live with themselfs and those that go see them dont end up throwing a shoe at the stage.

[Atnas]

Some rappers actually have messages in their songs, you know.

[Barbarossa]

I think one of the reasons, it may be the only reason, why there are no 'epic' bands any more is the advent of the music video.

Before video, the only chance you got to see an 'epic' band was in a music magazine or if the band had a film such as Led Zeppelin's "The Song Remain The Same" or if you were fortunate enough to live in, or close to the town, they'd be playing in on any given night years ago.

These bands had a mysticism, a mythology behind them because the written media was manipulated to make it so, mostly by band management.

In Zeppelin's case, it was their manager Peter Grant, who created quite a bit of 'epicness' for not allowing the band to get screwed by concert promoters. Yes, boys and girls, there once was a time when local promoters handled concerts and ticket sales, not Ticketmaster, it's true!

The following were all headliners, arena rock gods and all had a great deal of epicness heaped upon them.

Led Zeppelin

Pink Floyd

Queen

Aerosmith

Van Halen [a contract rider for this band included the elimination of any brown M&M's in the backstage buffet, one brown M&M found and the band basically had the 'right' to trash the place]

Believe it or not, even KISS had a mythology built around them because in the 70's. Back then no one knew what they looked like without their makeup. The band took full advantage of this as it added mythology as well as album sales.

These 6 bands were probably the biggest in the world during the 70's and few even carried on through part of the 80's and amazingly all of these bands have played concerts within these past couple of years.

In the cases of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, the album art itself lent to the mythology. Folks would pour over every inch of these albums searching for hidden meanings, symbolisms and secret messages.

Album art today is a wasted effort as it has been scaled down to accomodate a CD jewel-case. Back when a vinyl album cover was 1 square foot, you could put a lot of things in, a lot of sublety that you just don't see anymore.

Until MTV came along, you just assumed Jimmy Page was into the Devil because a few magazines and all of your friends said it was so. I mean how else could he play the guitar like that, right? Led Zeppelin stuffed sharks up virgin vaginas, ate the sharks and threw the leftovers out the 20th story windows of an L.A. hotel, right?!

Yep, it was all true...or at least partly true at one time. Most of us are a little older now to know most of those stories have been told so many times that they themselves have become epic in proportion, regardless of the fact there is very little truth left in these stories at all.

A line in the movie "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" comes to mind as I think about all these old rock bands, and I think it applies:

"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend".

That is something a lot of these old bands latched onto right away.

MTV was unable to do the same with film that was done with print, so we got tons of cookie cutter bands that all looked the same, and sounded the same, almost to the point that you didn't even know who was who any longer.

I think it's safe to say that since 1980, when Led Zeppelin offically disbanded and 1981 when MTV first came on the air, all traces of the epic band ceased to exist.

MTV packaged and canned bands like so much Star Kist tuna, that you can no longer distinguish one fish from the other.

[Lotharr]

Van Halen [a contract rider for this band included the elimination of any brown M&M's in the backstage buffet, one brown M&M found and the band basically had the 'right' to trash the place]

That reminded me of the Iggy Pop's contract rider (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1004061iggypop1.html). It's pretty epic.

[Jezrith]

They are a good band live, yea. And while they are a unique sounding band, they fall on Maynard for everything.


Are you fucking kidding me? Adam Jones wrote most of Tools music with Maynard handling lyrics more than anything else. He was also voted the 9th best Heavy Metal Guitarist of all time by Guitar Magazine. Not to mention that Danny Carey is probably one of the best drummers of our generation.

L2Tool...