What was the best live band on the planet for (fill in the year)?

Who totally held audiences in the palm of their hand in 2000? In 1963? In 2024? Who is/was surprisingly powerful despite not being that big a name?

How much does strength of material matter? Could Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show have been the best live band on the planet in 1972 with "Sylvia's Mother" in the set?

What makes a band the best live act on the planet?

Support your assertions with citations and video.

from the other thread where I was pondering this thread:

Every now and then I read someone making the statement "such and such was the best live band on the planet on that tour," sometimes paraphrased and sometimes in so many words. The most surprising one was about John Mellencamp, but I've read it about The Who circa 1969-1970, Talking Heads in 1980, King Crimson at different points depending on the view of the 81-84 lineup, etc.

I was thinking it might be a fun exercise to have a thread for campaigning for "best live band on the planet in (year)" but I'm throwing the idea out there before making a thread in case it falls flat on its face. Were Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five the best live band on the planet in 1926? Were the Rolling Stones ever the best live band on the planet? (I say no.) Africa '70? Sunn O)))? It would be interesting to see names tossed out there, if supported with clips and live album citations.

― be dang if it aint (WmC), Sunday, November 1, 2026 4:00 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i think it's a great idea.

― old helen (map), Sunday, November 1, 2026 5:20 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

"Were Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five the best live band on the planet in 1926?"

Best studio band, for sure.

― nicky lo-fi, Sunday, November 1, 2026 10:06 PM (yesterday)

prince and his various backing bands for quite a long time

corny af but the second thing that comes to mind is the afghan whigs in the mid 90s

― mookieproof, Sunday, November 1, 2026 10:13 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I'll start a thread tomorrow. I have a nomination for 1974.

― be dang if it aint (WmC), Sunday, November 1, 2026 10:23 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Elvis in the early 70s? that band was nuts.

― frogbs, Sunday, November 1, 2026 10:26 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I'll start a thread tomorrow. I have a nomination for 1974.

if you say zappa i shall require *hella* footnotes

― mookieproof, Sunday, November 1, 2026 10:35 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

just going to predict a 72/77 dead vote killing a number onem placement

― My homies buttthole surfers' record sounds like a f (Western® with Bacon Flavor), Monday, November 2, 2026 1:05 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Wasn’t the blurb for the Jesus Lizard in Touch and Go mail order catalogues in the early/mid-90s “The best live band on Earth and two other planets”?

― “Does anybody remember clapter?” (Ropy), Monday, November 2, 2026 4:18 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Interesting idea for a poll, but fear it will just end up being a best/favorite band of a given year, not necessarily the best live band. Someone is going to nominate the Beatles in 1962 instead of a jazz band just winning every year as it probably should.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Monday, November 2, 2026 6:09 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I fully support the requirement that nominations be "supported with clips and live album citations" as a way to discover good live recordings.

― o. nate, Monday, November 2, 2026 7:38 AM (fifty-one minutes ago)

None of this would work as a poll, obv.

I submit Little Feat for 1977, my evidence is the Waiting For Columbus album

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

Some maybes I wouldn't argue with:
The Who in 1970
Miles Davis Quintet in 1965
Talking Heads in 1980
Frank Zappa's sextet in 1974 (FZ/Duke/Brock/Underwood/Thompson/Fowler)
Richard Thompson at almost any point in his career?
Yo La Tengo in 2000

1994 - Boredoms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6B_V-Eh_jQ

1981 Motörhead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLC5itS0THQ

1970 MC5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfDoUIh23Wg

1940 Duke Ellington

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDtpZsJplW4

1938 Django Reinhardt’s Hot Club

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

1994 - Boredoms

heh, I was thinking about saying "Boredoms in 2005" because that's when I saw them. (At FIMAV -- o.nate was there too)

1979 - Joy Division

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrC1YIMd8jw

damn if 1994 wasnt taken already i wouldve proposed suede; brett rapping over bernard discordant guitar exorcism is next level, mustve been imagine witnessing this in person:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNlLkF3_cH8

imagine insane

Feel like the 70s shd be mostly split between Miles and Fela but the arbitrariness is the point

xp Well, no year is "taken" per se when it's mentioned -- I hope everyone will post their picks anyway!

^^

1912/1913 - James Reese Europe's Society Orchestra / Clef Club Orchestra

lol PVMIC

1913 is stravinsky, surely

I was about to say Sousa's Band when Arthur Pryor was in charge, around 1900-1903

xp are we allowed orchestras? feel like that's a different playing field.

1966 - The Monks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H-fmmNmrRs

1937 - Benny Goodman Quartet

1976 has to be pistols, right?

ok I'm going for a challops

1997 - Gallon Drunk

1983 Talking Heads as per evidenced in Stop Making Sense

2007 is Daft Punk

I wonder if Duke Ellington's bands would take much of the 1930s and 1940s.

xp I'm happy to hear the case for orchestras! My own thinking about this involves touring bands, which may or may not include orchestras, that completely capture the audience from the one every night. (Which reminds me, James Brown.)

strong material + completely played in, knowing the material inside-out + completely locked-in to the moment and with the audience, is how I break it down to an extent

1976 has to be pistols, right?

Sorry, but in 1976 Aerosmith would have eaten the Pistols alive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvNaEH0WnkY

ok so stravinsky def doesnt fit then as that was more of a one off event

2005 autechre untilted tour?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSpS3TFS3P0

Doubt there were many better live outfits than Ian Dury and the Blockheads late 70s/early 80s.

even though pistols obv couldnt live up to like aerosmith, queen or whoever on a technical level i think its fair to say the cultural impact of their live performances in 1976 was way more significant

sorry most boring obvious post ever made there

James Brown in the late '60s & early '70s, P-Funk in the early '70s. Fela in the '70s. Coltrane Quartet. D'Angelo's Black Messiah tour. Rebirth Brass Band '01 - '12.

king gizzard and the lizard wizard, either this year or last.

the rave sets, the entire field of vision festival in buena vista colorado, etc.

n.b. i don't see a lot of live music, i'm old now and a little antisocial, but i feel like not only does the music have to be out of this world, the whole vibe of the concert along with everyone there has to be turned on too, like it's some kind of inflection point.

"Religious experience not getting excited because King Crimson lad played the nerdiest possible solo" shd definitely be a factor heck yes

i wish i could suggest fushitsusha but theyre not really a touring band so it's hard to say what year they wouldve been most potent in terms of captivating audiences ... every time ive seen them play though has been god level, most recent was at this gig in 2022 at the tail end of covid, it was really amazing how even though the set list has remained quite static across the years the improvisational features afford the music a degree of novelty that you rarely hear in contemporary rock music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWiqlzMPR-E

whatever year Live II was recorded, that's the one for me

xp ideally there's like a balance point between "muso nerds who can't get laid nodding along" and "people being human beings together"

2007 is Daft Punk

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Monday, November 2, 2026 9:33 AM (thirty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is a pretty interesting pick, no doubt Daft Punk in 2007 was probably the best show on the planet but what exactly did they *do* during those shows? Every recording is basically the same, the entire set was premixed, all they really did was fiddle with the bass knob...but do people actually care?

2003 is definitely animal collective!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh3o73dDuHc

compare to say King Gizzard in the modern era, who are not only insanely good but also play vastly different sets every single night, apparently they played 150+ different songs during the tour I saw them on

1976 has to be pistols, right?

even just restricting this to punk, from reputations I would think the Ramones, the Saints and maybe the Damned would have been better live bands than the Sex Pistols in 1976

If we're talking only rock bands:

Can in 1972 (or any other year 1970-74 for that matter)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw8TcDsW-bc

King Crimson 1972-74
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIDrvoI_hJ0

HIGH RISE in the mid 80's no contest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7xFLG_JLzQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24imkAYXunc

Fushitsusha (Haino/Ozawa lineup with either Kosugi or Takahashi depending) in any year from 1989 to 1999 basically
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whoP1cSNCuc

though Caspar Brotzmann Massaker close second in the 90s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd4C7us3PfQ

The Psychic Paramount in the early 2010s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y8nvy8xgAM

In 2003 Animal Collective brought their schtick to Toronto on the “Ark” tour and the show was so widely derided and provoked walkouts and for one punter to break a window as he left. Handily the world concert I’ve ever seen— yes, it was that same format that you posted missingNO, my goodness

*the worst concert, not the world concert. I call myself an AC fan these days, too!

1993 - Bark Psychosis - I saw them a few times that year (and the next), something about the band that was absolutely incredible each time, often teetering on the verge of collapse and unlike anything I've witnessed since.

ah, forgot somehow about THE EX with Getatchew Mekuria and Brass Unbound, in 2011 nothing on earth could touch them, video a poor substitute for the live experience but here's a complete concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZwqihLwk6U

Ween in like, 2003 perhaps?

i have this feeling the 13th floor elevators may have been an incredible live band for a brief period but i have no idea if that's true or not.

someone still needs to say 'the dead' and name like 10 years.

not getting excited because King Crimson lad played the nerdiest possible solo

Tbf that '80s band wasn't really about the solo, it was about being locked in on those crazy phasing parts and grooves.

surely the butthole surfers on that infamous european tour, whenever that was in the late 80s somewhere, for purely bad vibes.

even just restricting this to punk, from reputations I would think the Ramones, the Saints and maybe the Damned would have been better live bands than the Sex Pistols in 1976

― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, November 3, 2026 1:19 AM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

maybe, but the pistols were a much better live band than they ever got credit for, especially in the sid era ... they actually serve the material better in the sid era imo; in losing matlock's florid melodicism and gaining sid's strict root-note periodicity they start to sound a lot heavier while their contemporaries were increasingly moving towards a faster, lighter, spikier sound ... like you can really hear how influential they were on nwobhm and the early american death metal bands and idk if that nec comes across in the studio recordings

ok but Sid wasn't in the band in 1976

i was obviously extending the conversation to talk about the pistols as a live band in general, come on. but whatever, you win, the sex pistols were fucking shit, well done

lol ok...

maybe, but the pistols were a much better live band than they ever got credit for, especially in the sid era ... they actually serve the material better in the sid era imo; in losing matlock's florid melodicism and gaining sid's strict root-note periodicity they start to sound a lot heavier while their contemporaries were increasingly moving towards a faster, lighter, spikier sound ... like you can really hear how influential they were on nwobhm and the early american death metal bands and idk if that nec comes across in the studio recordings

Mmmmm... I listened to that recent set of four live shows from their final US tour and while they were a competent rock band (same set list every night), even with Sid on bass, they were just not that great. Never. They were a magnet for bored journalists their entire career, but just about every one of their contemporaries was better than them at actually making music.

wow @ that ex footage

yep, incredible, I fully support that choice

Objectively, 1983 or 84 U2 was really reinventing how stadium shows work. I don't like stadium shows now, but they were totally getting the audience to eat from their hands in a way that was different from the HELLO CLEVELAND! WHO HERE IS PARTYING!?? protocols of first-gen stadium rock.

The PJ Harvey show I saw in 1993 felt like a similar sea-change, a new gender dynamic in the crowd as much as on stage, this sense that women had bested the dude bands for the first time, pulled ahead even. (To CaAL's 1997 nom, Gallon Drunk opened that show and was darn close to PJ in stage intensity, if not with how it hit the crowd.)

1996, it may have been timing, in that I needed a jolt, but sleater-kinney blew me tf away, especially the first time at tiny Gilman St. But they continued to get stronger each year

Springsteen & the E St Band need to be here somewhere. I’m not enough of a fan to know which year(s) to propose but i sure do love that Hammersmith Odeon 75 show.

I feel like the Cramps need to be in here somewhere but I don't know which year

1982 imho

In 2003 Animal Collective brought their schtick to Toronto on the “Ark” tour and the show was so widely derided and provoked walkouts and for one punter to break a window as he left. Handily the world concert I’ve ever seen— yes, it was that same format that you posted missingNO, my goodness

― the populist doom loop (flamboyant goon tie included), Tuesday, November 3, 2026 1:27 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh shit, someone broke a window??? i guess we should just disregard all of the contemporaneous reports of the pre-sung tongs tours being peak ac because a le hecking big angry male american stronkman broke a window!!!!

Toronto isn't in America, please calm down

fwiw I agree they are a worthy 2003 nomination

To poop on

<3

more like anidull collective

wrt to the Ex when I think of the best live show I ever saw in terms of a total 3 band bill, it has to be 1999, the Congress Theater in Chicago: Fugazi/The Ex/Shellac, all three at the peak of their powers

andoullie collective

i am hungry

this is probably a fairly uncool opinion in 2026 but I reckon Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds around 1997 were as good as any live band I've ever seen - and the Lyre of Orpheus / Abattoir Blues tour wasn't far behind

predictable but Prince (2003) dwarfed pretty much very other act I've ever seen - both in an arena show and in a 500-capacity club

Primal Scream at the end of the Screamadelica tour (1992?) at the time I thought was transcendently good - I guess that's another one that hasn't dated too well - and is maybe informed by my mega-fandom of that time - but that (plus drugs) was a pretty incredible show and that was definitely their peak

weirdly when I think of the best shows I've ever seen Steve Earle ranks really highly - I never listen to his music but someone took me to see him and it was incredible

andoullie collective

i am hungry

― brimstead, Monday, November 2, 2026 7:15 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

and dulli collective

animal collective + greg dulli

I was lucky to have seen Link Wray in the mid 90s when he was touring with SF punkers Dieselhead and it was incredible - Link could probably fit into any year really depending on who his backing band were. The best show I've ever seen anywhere was Prince in 2011.

OTOH, there's definitely some peaks and valleys to bands depending on album, band members, whether their drugs are working for them or against them. I mean which Nick Cave do you want? The one with Roland S. Howard, Kid Congo, Blixa, or Warren? What year for Sly and The Family Stone? 1969?

I saw Link Wray at The Phoenix Festival in 1996, he had broken his leg and his wife was half-carrying him everywhere, still incredible though.

easiest answer for me off the top of my head - Fever Ray, on tour for their debut album.

Other great ones -

Stereolab on their comeback tour, Underworld at the Hollywood Bowl, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Sleater-Kinney at ATP in 2002, Reigning Sound, U2 at the Rose Bowl in 2009 and in Chicago in 1992, Leonard Cohen playing a 3 hr set at age 79 with only a brief break, OMD every time I've seen them have killed it, Belle and Sebastian, Luther Allison in the mid '90s only a few months before he passed away, Yo La Tengo, Kylie put on a killer show, Robyn a couple months back was kind of mind-blowingly good, and shout out to Steve Roach for his incredibly immersive performance in a Pasadena cathedral.

I love the Boredoms, but lets be real, 1994 is Nine Inch Nails

The main missed show regret of my life was just after a move, Link Wray playing with the Flat Duo Jets and me not going because I didn't have a job yet. Like, a 5 dollar weeknight show.

Mine is the minutemen. 1985. I was only 15 so yes an idiot, but I already loved them and they were playing at 7th st entry. My friend group was in downtown St. Paul and a couple of us got on the bus to mpls to see them. For some reason I didn’t go along.

Fugazi probably owns one or a few of the years they were active

Same for Fishbone

Bill Withers - 1973, judging by Live At Carnegie Hall.

uncool answer but Arcade Fire owned 2005

Agree.

sorry for being a dork but 1976 has to be Gentle Giant, idk if we'll ever see anything quite like that again

Good call, I am compiling my list and was having trouble with ‘76

Didn't catch them then but the Dirty Projectors 'Bitte Orca' tour ('09/10 presumably) was reportedly stunning, too bad there's not more documentation

nz view you might go something like 1981: the clean / 1982: the fall 1983: the gordons 1987: the skeptics 1992 : the 3ds 1993: the terminals 1997:crude

i would also suggest for consideration the stooges 1970 / bo diddley 1963 (beach party recorded) / albert ayler or ornette coleman 1968 / sun ra 1969 / nina simone 1971 peak throbbing gristle must have been something / les razilles denudes also its an interesting thing to think about but i guess i dont have the energy to do it properly