Who has the best stage moves?

but man don't say much!

the monkey-boy bass player from Archers of Loaf ...

the singer from My Morning Jacket ...

HR from Bad Brains actually levitated in front of me. holy shit.

the guy from Coachwhips had some great intense schtick lately like stabbing fingers into his forehead like "aaagh! youuuu don't understand what is in here but you are gonna get it AAAARGH!"

Mark from Missing Foundation/Spitters
Jello.

I always loved the ol' scarf-on-mic-stand. Aerosmith Rules.

Johnny Rotten too.

You'd have to say Elvis, then, though.

Oh, and James Brown.

One day, he told me he'd bought me tix for not just one, but two shows (Birmingham and Manchester) on their latest UK tour. So I went along. Fuck, it was free, why not? And I knew a lot of their material, thanks to him (his name was Stuart).

At the time, I was listening to a lot of post-punk (ha, I still do), and I'd seen the Pistols live, etc., but the Who blew me away. Townshend was incredible. This is so way before the kiddie porn arrest that that sorry chapter is irrelevant. The Who were simply one of the best live acts I'd ever seen -- and they still are.

Yet I still own little of their music. Can't really explain or justify it, but it makes sense on an intuitive level (ha!).

Good moves don't necessarily make me a fan, but they sure predispose me more toward liking a band/performer. But the opposite isn't really the case, either. I just saw Nina Nastasia, for instance, and she has no moves, but her show was amazing, magical.

Moves can be great, and can lead you into fandom, but as often they can be empty. It's not an either/or situation.

In the "crazy, arms-flailing" department, I pick Eye (Boredoms) and the lead singer of Six Finger Satellite.

They're both phenomenal frontmen in their own unique and distinctive ways (Dave as the suavest, most debonair corpse in the rock 'n' roll graveyard and Cappers as the most hilariously funny, yet down-to-earth, beer 'n' fags, geezer ever to walk onto a stage dressed in a nurses uniform / tutu / Womble suit / ballgown and Carmen Miranda hat / his birthday suit and call Princess Di a fuckin' old slapper and the rest of the Royal family a bunch of ungrateful, inbred, free-loading parasites); but the fact that they look and act as if they don't even belong on the same planet let alone the same stage somehow makes the gloriously chaotic whole of a (good) Damned gig even greater than the sum of it's (quite clearly certifiable) parts.

Morrissey goes without saying.... noty too sure about Pete Murphy, though.... too derivative in all ways to be of interest I think.

I haven't actually seen Kirk for several years but he seems to keep resurrecting both Theatre Of Hate and Spear Of Destiny (I believe he even did a small tour as / with both bands 2-3 years back) as well as having another band called 10:51. He also did a US tour a year or 2 back with a bunch of other largely forgotten '70's / '80's heroes (Slim Jim Phantom from The Stray Cats, Mike Peters from The Alarm, Glen Matlock and Billy Duffy of The Cult and of course Theatre Of Hate) under the title Dead Men Walking, and I gather they're touring the UK later this year http://www.kirkbrandon.net/tourdates/

I may just have to pop along to one of those now!

Pete Murphy, I always thought there was something incredibly intense about him that just kept me transfixed and he could be extraordinarily graecful in his movements too, like a kind of deranged ballet dancer.

btw, Mick Jagger is a twat. All of those moves are choreographed and he reads them from a teleprompter. ("Bitch Walk" is fuggin' hilarious tho.)

weirdest, AND best.

i second the Beck nomination. give the man a crown. (and corin or whatever - the slim one - from SLeater-kinney had her shit together, too.)

I hated you more for the Peter Murphy thing.

Also, I love bands with hype-men/dancers/cheerleaders. The Prodigy was great live, and they were basically just a dude with sequencers, two hype-men and a dancer. Avail's cheerleader is great, and so is Spliff Star. I was the dancer for a terrible high school punk band once, and holy crap that was fun.

Though he's calmed down some a bit with time, he's still got it -- at last year's show, the take on "Your Face," him on a darkened stage cupping a small light in his hands, executing a slow, graceful swirl on stage, was simply breathtaking.

The winner in a knockout - Prince.

That band.... Dead Men Walking..... hmmm.... could be interesting, if only to see how they've all aged (they look ok on the website).

I always loved SOD and TOH - both should have had far more mainstream success.

Truly awesome; but when I saw her, she was opening for Nick Cave, who's gotta be a main contender.

Ian McCulloch, while subdued, always strikes interesting poses.

Coolest subdued rockstarist thing I've ever seen: at an Electrafixion show, Ian stalks out for the encore with his first cigarette of the night hanging from the corner of his mouth, where it remains for the entirety of "The Killing Moon"; otherwise motionless, Ian plays only the one big chord (you know the one) whenever it comes up. Total cowboy.

Oh, and nice to see Pete M. get some props. (If you don't give him his due in at least the showmanship regard, I dunno what to say ...)

John Maynard is the cheese.

They came in the night
and they stole my bike
and they threw it in the river

Went to the police
they arrested me
and they threw me in the river

I FOUND MY BIKE!!!!

(I don't know anything about punk, so that could be a cover for all I know, but I don't think so)

Bloody ell, I meant Maynard from Tool.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Keith Richards. He sort of invented what bad-ass guitar players are supposed to do with their guitars. My favorite move of his is where he abruptly drops his shoulders and his whole body into a sudden skulk, and aims the neck of his guitar towards somebody, or towards nobody. Often he'll pull his pick UP across the strings for the next chord, hanging his pick-hand up in the air on some imaginary hook, like a marionette designed to play rock n roll.

Boy, those were the days.