Surprisingly good live acts

One of the best live bands around when they can be cba. Last few times I’ve seen them theyve been a bit meh mind.

James. Never been that fussed on the records, but I saw them at a festival about five years ago and they were excellent, really spellbinding.

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I always say that Happy Mondays in 1989 were one of the best live bands I ever saw. Not sure if that is surprising or not but it was amazing how good the musician part of the band were, especially the rhythm section.

think they’re just getting older - first time i saw them touring the third album they were brilliantly chaotic, lots of onstage antics and stagediving which you really wouldn’t expect from their albums. the guitarist tried to leap from the stage onto a big pillar at one point and missed, then ended the gig being carried around on the tallest audience member’s shoulders.

saw them touring the fourth album and they were a bit tamer but saved some antics for the last song, and then touring the sixth album which was pretty much antics-free (aside from all the foliage and odd stage-wear) but i still enjoyed their set a lot.

oh actually they did have their giant polar bear wandering through the crowd still.

always enjoyed this article

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They’re basically fine on record, but Art Brut have been pretty much brilliant every time I’ve seen them. Their schtick (if you want to call it that) works much better in a live setting.

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Caught Papa Roach on the back of their first alb at Reading expecting the low point of the day and they were great.

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Went to see Def Leppard play Hysteria with a pal who loves them at Wembley Arena. Thought it would be fine but they were incredible. Honestly one of the most fun gigs I’ve ever been to.

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Another vote for the Manics here. Went to one of the Holy Bible shows, which was unsurprisingly brilliant, but a year or two later The Twilight Sad announced they’d be supporting the Manics on their forthcoming Edinburgh date. I wasn’t at all bothered with any Manics material released in the 2000s (Journal For Plague Lovers excepted) so I basically went to see TTS. They were great as usual, but the Manics were fantastic too. It was a pre-Futurology show and I ended up buying that and Rewind The Film on the back of the gig, so it did its job well.

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Peter Andre, saw him at Reading as we got to the stage early and he was on before the act we wanted to see. He belted out Mysterious Girl then said I have some other songs but you don’t want to hear those and did a medley of Michael Jackson hits then back into the chorus of Mysterious Girl to end his set.

He knew exactly what a festival crowd wanted, was very entertaining and came across as a decent bloke. Really enjoyed his set.

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Gonna toss in another shout for the Manics as well.

Saw them touring Lifeblood which is guff, in the SECC which is the world’s worst venue and it was brilliant!

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Why is horrible injury so commonplace for them? Literally every story is somebody getting maimed

Manics are brilliant live. Probably the band I’ve seen the most and not really a fan (I like them, but I don’t love them. Just went to see them loads as my mates are huge fans)

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Yeah maniacs were great but it didn’t surprise me

Saw Jack Penate at Bestival one year because it was chucking it down and he was in a tent, really enjoyed it. Saw Justice and Major Lazer the same weekend, both rubbish on record but decent live (hard to say what if anything Justice actually do onstage though).

Feeder. Always brilliant fun and the big choruses sound enorm

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I saw Jimmy Eat World at Brixton about 10 years back, and it was just so good. Proper joyous atmosphere and banger after banger. Hadn’t expected it to be so good, and came away beaming

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Metronomy

Dont dislike them or owt but was baffled to see them headline End of The Road last year - they jutified it and were among the clear highlights.

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I’ll second Happy Mondays. Watched them at Kendal Calling in 2017. It was on the Thursday where music sort of starts at about 8pm for those who get there a day before the festival properly starts. Frightened Rabbit were on before them, and I’d got down early to see them.

Have never been a fan of the Mondays. Always thought they were a bit naff and a bit of a joke band. To this day I’ve never actually listened to any of their albums. However, they were absolutely fantastic on that day.

Always remember being blown away by how huge they sounded, particularly the low end.

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Assuming it goes ahead, I’ll be getting a day ticket for the Saturday of Bluedot to watch them headline. We did it for Kraftwerk in 2019 and had a great time.

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