READERS POLL 07 No.3: Best Live Experience

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

A bit of a curious category in that obviously we've all been to different gigs. So by all means vote based on what you'd imagine the experience to be like!

[Poll #1105926]


I've generally gone for 'spectacle' over 'sound' on these where appropriate.

BATTLES: "Atlas" at the Empty Bottle, Chicago
CARTER USM: "Sheriff Fatman" at Brixton Academy
DAFT PUNK: "One More Time" in Turin
ENRIQUE: "Do You Know" in South Africa
GLASTONBURY: A performance from Glastonbury. And another one.
ROISIN: "Overpowered" in Rome
RUFUS: "Get Happy" in Paris


Coming up l8r: most horrible thing!! Feel free to add late nominations to all categories that haven't come up yet: http://community.livejournal.com/poptimists/489167.html

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I was all set to tick Daft Punk since I enjoy their live alBUM quite a lot (clearly not as good as EVIL BRO 39 by teh orb) but the YouTube actually changed my mind - ENRIQUE FOR TEH WIN!!

[whalefish.livejournal.com]

Much as I enjoyed seeing/drunkenly dancing to Daft Punk, it didn't feel that live to me. It was just a big pre-recorded megamix with a light show really.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'It was just a big pre-recorded megamix with a light show really.'

i.e. BETTAH

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I always secretly regretted not going to Jean Michel Jarre's amazing 80s lightshows and now I have a new French thing to regret.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd seen Daft Punk Alive 2007 but I did see Battles and they were amazing (Atlas being a bit of a highlight.) It was one of those gigs were I hadn't heard them before hand which made it all the sweeter.

Don't get me started on bloody Carter...

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

Oh come on, it can't be just me, I didn't even nominate them!

Bloody Carter...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Literally EVERYONE I know went to Daft Punk and the consensus was pretty much "best gig of our LIFETIMES" - I suspect I would agree if I actually liked Daft Punk. Which I don't. So no.

Wasn't Glastonbury, like, particularly horrible this year?? I saw the mud.

Battles - I still think the entire world is in on a malicious joke being played on me. SURELY no one ACTUALLY likes them.

Enrique and Rufus probably were good, but Roisin was the one I actually went to see and loved. So, her.

[avv.livejournal.com]

Re: DAFT PUNK - agreed, it was absolutely incredible - although I originally voted for Robyn in this category as it was sososo cute(playing to 100 gay men who knew ALL THE WORDS!)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I kind of think this entire poll is moot because it comes ahead of what will SURELY be the live event of the year ie the Rihanna-anna-anna/Ciara babydivafest on Sunday OMG

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Fun fact: the sound on the Carter video may actually be better than that experienced by the average audience member :)

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Tough choice between Glastonbury (which I went to) and Roisin (which I didn't, very very regrettably).

Yes, Glastonbury was particularly muddy this year, but it was still incredibly good fun, I've been three times and it really is quite a unique live experience, and most of my year's live highlights were there - especially Bjork's incredible set.

But having said that it wasn't as good as previous years (the mud really did seem to dampen everyone's enthusiasm), and so I went for Roisin instead as everything I've heard about it says I missed out big time.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Easy one this. Of the two I experienced, Glastonbury was bluddy horrible and Enrique amazing.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I experienced none of these, in fact I can't remember hearing any live music this year. So I voted on purely sectarian grounds. Enrique FTW.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

bah i was totally going to nominate the wedding present...

judging by the youtube vids as I've not seen any of these shows

[lastclearchance.livejournal.com]

Battles looks great but it took some digging on youtube to find a video that includes the crowd in any capacity. (They are tearing it up but I would still be bored at that show if I was the only onw not just standing there staring at the band.) It looks like the crowds are responding in what little I can find, though (this video from the Fuji Rock Fest (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Car2EmMQo) is very encouraging).

I never really listened to Carter USM so it's hard to get excited to vote for a final/reunion show but the youtube video looks super fun and sounds great. Not to mention that the Dismemberment Plan reunion shows were among my favorite shows this year.

Agreed with whalefish on Daft Punk, I think. I saw the Knife last September; afterward, everyone else was raving, but all I'd seen was a NYC crowd standing and watching a light show with a Knife soundtrack. Maybe I just wasn't standing close enough to be among people actually dancing. The crowd looks way better in the Daft Punk youtube video though.

Enrique's show looks better for the actual live instrumentation. Is it just a prejudice of mine that I'd prefer the Enrique to the Daft Punk? I mean, I've seen a bunch of shows where people were just playing sounds that still interested me; Moby accomplished it in 2002 by, it seemed, setting up each piece of equipment he was using as far apart from the others as he could manage so he was totally moving around and dancing and in some cases running from one setup to another, and engaged the crowd. Hell, the Silver Apples dude (saw him this year) did it by setting up a camera and a projector so we could see exactly what switches he was hitting and radio things he was modulating.

Glastonbury: I think it's really hard to judge a festival against a regular live show. (Especially since the only multiple-day live festival I've ever been to was Pitchfork Fest 2006 which is nowhere near an adequate comparison to Glastonbury.) I can only really speak to the lineup and the post-festival reviews, which both don't really impress me in comparison to my other options here.

Roisin Murphy looks really great. This is a tough poll!

Rufus Wainwright is out on a technicality, namely, if you're going to have choreography you need to make those dude rehearse more! That was super sloppy!

I think my vote is going to go to Roisin Murphy because I prefer smaller clubs and I like her record better than Battles's. But there are some great noms here.

My show regrets this year (maybe I should have proposed them) are R. Kelly/Keyshia Cole (Ne-Yo had gotten kicked off the tour by the time it reached me) and the (un-poptimistic?) 7/7/07 Boredoms drum show. fourfour (http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2007/11/beyonc-is-a-lun.html) also made a great case for the B'Day tour, now available on DVD.

[mackromackro.livejournal.com]

I nominated Daft Punk and voted for them. Easy choice.

I've seen Battles before -- pre-Mirrored granted. It was like a more nerdy instrumental more boring Don Caballero show. Don Cab live aren't really anything to write home about either, whom I've seen twice. Now, *Storm & Stress* were the best live act of the Ian Williams family of bands -- though S&S's recorded output may have been the most boring.

I'd def go to see Enrique if I were offered a ticket and had time.

But Daft Punk...

See, for live shows, I've grown to accept that there's MUCH more to a live experience than who and what is on stage when the engines are running. Just being around thousands of people who have been waiting "THEIR ENTIRE LIVES OMG" to see this was the major edge here. Seeing people go nuts to Kavinsky and Sebastian's DJ sets beforehand was such a great warmup. Seeing The Rapture live for my first time (as openers) was also perfect. (This was the Seattle show at the WAMU Center in late July.) It helped that Daft Punk's music mix, the amazing light show, and cool calm spectable of Les Robotes Deux bobbing their heads in that Numan-esque pyramid fit the aural output and excitement like a glove.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Oh I completely forgot I DID see Battles live for about 15 minutes at Field Day. They were shit obv, we wandered off to the Smagghe tent sharpish.