Ok everyone goes to gigs hoping bands will live up to either reputation or the spirit of their recordings on disc and in many cases supercede them. Sometimes though, you get a gig which is a real let down cos the band either can't be arsed or simply doesn't cut it live.

Two from my experience:

The Strokes
The Vines

I agree!

idlewild - bad setlist.
blink 182 - just bad.

worst i think i've ever seen from a band just ooozing "this is just another day at the office" was The Stranglers at London Dominion in about 1984.

But to be fair to them, it was the second to last night of a horrendously long world tour, and it must be hard to get excited about playing every night, especially when the end is so near.

OASIS - A band just going through the motions. This was at Sheffield a couple of years ago and although they sounded good they just lacked any soul or bite !!!

Probably everyone will disagree but after seeing the likes of Muse, U2 and the Chilis they were just poor.

Not that their were that bad overall, they were still quite good, but i think the Icarus Line @ Reading'04 was quite dissapointing. I mean id heard so much about how crazy and all they were meant to be live but they barely moved the entire set and my mate evn left cus he found them really boring.

ive never seen u2 or chillies but muse are the best live band ive seen! Anyway the biggest disappointment had to be white stripes i must say they were realy dull.

blur at glasto a few yers back ,damon alban just cant cut it live in my opinion

The White Stripes were dull, but that wasnt a dissapointment, that was them just living up to my expectations.



And Damon would agree with you. He's said so on a number of occasions.

i was dissapointed with silverchair because they didnt really play any old stuff at all, but then the lead singe has had so much therapy h may not know that thir first 2 albums even exist.

Strange that
Blur at Leeds 03 were the highlight of the festy for me.

Would agree with Oasis though,they just stand there like a bunch of cardboard cut-outs!

Would agree with Oasis though,they just stand there like a bunch of cardboard cut-outs!

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Forgot about Oasis! Yep, have seen them a few times and sometimes they've been great (Knebworth 96 / Reading 2000) but sometimes shit (Wembley 2000 / Brighton Centre 2002) - seem to be no middle ground with those boys.

I saw oasis last night, they were pretty dissapointing!

Oasis, Kings of Leon at Glasto (They did nothing wrong, just too small for a crowd + stage so big.)

The Vines aredefinately the worst live band- along wiht the white stripes- all NME hype!!!!!

Kings of Leon, wherever they play. ive seen them twice now and both times theyve bored me sensless...just seem to lack anything that makes a live band engaging.

sum 41 leeds 03 wasnt really dissappointed at them was just surprised how shit they r live

who i was dissappointed with was franz ferdinand leeds 04 they just cudnt get the crowd going there better in smaller venues

I thought Sum 41 were pretty good at Reading in 2002. Maybe I was lashed, but they rocked actually. But then The Hives came on and shat all over them.

i'd agree with that, they emptied the tent to a certain degree.

one band that hasnt had a mention in this thread and thoroughly deserves one is THE STREETS! worst band i have ever seen live, but then i expected that so it wasnt really a disappointment

totally disagree.

the vines arent great musically but i've seen them 3 times and had a grand ole time at every one. i think they are good fun.

i think the white stripes are amazing live. 4 times and never been let down. i dont think they really got the crowd going at leeds this year (at least not where i was) as they maybe made a wrong decision playing loads from their first two albums, but i loved it and heard some of my favourites that i havent seen live before.

The two worst for me would be Blur and The Mars Volta at Reading '03.

cant really judge the mars volta if they were ne thin like at leeds they only played 3 songs

Thats what they were like at Reading as well and its not what i was expecting from them so it was a big disappointment

lost prophets leeds '04 were quite bad cos of the fact that i couldnt hear them.....even though i was pretty close i was stood at the side of the stage which although is where the speakers are i think the microphones were going off....

they wer actually very good though apart form that hitch

Portishead at Ashton Court a few years back - could've been at home with the CD on and had more atmosphere

japan - back in 198? something - they were utter shite and played for about 45 minutes - which was probably 45 minutes too long

hmm lostprophets at leeds, i have to admit i was disappointed with this performance, having seen them play exceptionally better on 3 occasions in the past year. But would still have been a grand show for someone who had never seen them before

Biggest live disappointment - Coheed and Cambria, they missed out tonnes of words, it was as if he was strugling for breath.

Bright Eyes at Shepherds Bush was quite a big dissappointment; the sound quality was lame, and it was just a bit boring. Not good live music really.

conor probably wasn't drunk enough.

i hope to god he isn't a let down next month...

me too for the sake of you

I couldn't really think of anyone who sounded bad live but I was disappointed at Modest Mouse at Leeds 2004. They came on really late and ended playing very few songs I'd been looking forward to them for ages

The Farm in about 1989 and Northside around the same time. I dont know why i thought either would have been any good frankly, the latter in particular

Yeah they were crap at Reading too

Franz Ferdinand have been really unimpressive the two times I've seen them.

White Stripes are exactly the same. Bands like really struggle to get the crowd going yet they get raved about all the time for being great live acts.

If you want some awesome live acts check out Mad Caddies and Flogging Molly where the whole place just has a great time.

I would have to agree with that, Oasis at Glasto last year were very dull, I wandered off and found Spiritualized in the new bands tent, who were joyous

SFA.... boring boring boring. wanted to slit my wrists with disapointment

Finley Quaye (was way to pissed to perform!)
Actually he was such a BIG dissapointment i cant think of anyone else at the moment but im sure theres been a few more that havent lived up to my expectations.

I saw the White Stripes at Reading and they were dull, I just don't think they have much stage presence.

I have to say I was a little disappointed with the killers, saw em at Glasto and Reading this year and although they played their songs well they just didn't make much of a show of it IMO.

Paula, I agree with both of them - dull, dull, dull!

Red Hot Chillie Peppers, Reading 99. Most dissapointing band ive ever seen. Also totaly showed up by the offspring who pulled one of the best sets ive ever seen (though ive never seen them match it again).

think the white stripes are getting too much stick here, saw them on thursday and was overwhelmed. They are smart to stick to venues like manc apollo and blackpool empress ballroom, because although they sell out very quickly, they are the right size venue for the band.

Have seen them 6 times and I agree that The White Stripes do come over better in a smaller venue rather than the Arenas and Festis, the atmosphere is so much better for their style of music, they blew the roof off at their gig at Manc Apollo t'other week

I think the Strokes have made a also good decision to stick to smaller venues on their latest tour

Alabama 3 - they were so off their faces, one couldn't stand and was seated for the whole gig and the other danced weirdly and kept interupting the one sitting down with pointless ad-libs. Fucking awful compared to when I first seen them when they were great.

Kings of Leon - just have no stage presence.

The Libertines - just wasn't a good gig musically at all.

badly drawn boy, am a huge fan of the guy musically on CD, seen him live and he was appalling.

I second that, having just come back from seeing them at the apollo...

Blink 182. Definitely. Saw them back in my teenybopper years and they just sucked.

i saw the FLaming Lips one year at T in the Park, hurrendous. They had meant to be playing one of the tents if i remember correctly but then the White Stripes pulled out so F.Lips got put on as a replacement as the band before the headliner. I cant even remember who the headliner was now apart from i really wanted to see them( ) other wise i would have left!

How can you replace the White Stripes with the Flaming Lips!?

White Stripes at Glasto last year just didnt really do it for me, all a bit same-y, coupled with Jack's new discovery of voice effects made for a pretty middle of the road set.

The All American Rejects at reading were pretty poor, and agree with the oasis comments, sound great but just seem to be going through the motions rather than really enjoying it.

And Blink at reading a few years back, while their personalities to make for a funny show, Tom really cannot sing live.

The La's on their re-union tour last year. I've been a huge La's fan for many years and after hearing rumour after rumour I never thought i'd get the chance to see them. When it came it just wasn't very good at all. Lee Mavers looked like he didn't want to be there, the band sounded flat & they were using amps which looked like the sort you could buy from Argos.

Tricky when he had really lost the plot a few years back.
He used to be a class live act but just spent the entire time in pitch darkness screaming his lungs out. It was like watching a nervous breakdown with subtitles.
Only time I can remember ever walking out of a gig.