Acts that you like to listen to,but you don't have the urge to see them live,cause you got a feeling it will be boring

If I'm properly wrapped up in dancing to something I have to pay almost no attention to what my body is doing, it's a primal, almost subconscious thing.

animal collective. am i right?

popol vuh.

many drone acts fit this bill for me. at least with popol vuh you can get herzog

i actually REALLY wanted to go see Stars of the Lid, and could have gotten tickets, but I had to work both times until 10 :(

I'm sorry, SotL i try to support you.

i thought grizzly bear were one of the best live acts i've ever seen, yellow house doesn't even come close to capturing how good they sounded the night i saw them. i never want to listen to that record because of this, actually

To the guy who said Sigur Ros a year and a half ago - I haven't seen them since before () came out, but I saw them twice before that and they were fantastic both times.

you know what i saw stars of the lid on their last tour and it was a pretty great show. i think it may have had something to do with the live string players, who really did a lot to add to the grandeur of their whole sound and the event itself as a result. usually i'm sold if there is some type of offering made by the artist to make such a solitary and uninteresting-to-watch type of music palatable in the live setting.

if the music and the atmosphere are complementary, i have no problem with live droney stuff. but when i have to stand uncomfortably and struggle for a glimpse of some dude hunkered down in front of a bunch of machinery i wonder why i didn't just stay home

Acts I have seen live that have been boring seem to have been electronic groups, Autechre, Amon Tobin, Cex, Chemical Brothers - although not every electronic act is boring live.

I've seen a fair number of rap groups live - including Public Enemy - and live rap always seems non musical and inept to me, although not boring as in watching a car wreck.

Yeah, I've had some bad experiences with live electronic acts - I remember seeing Plaid live with Weatherall DJing beforehand and it wasn't that clear that the live set had begun. It could've been the sound desk for all the presence the guys had.

animal collective. am i right?
― Zeno

I dunno - I was very disappointed with them at Primavera last year, but a few years before that (at a club show, not a festival) they were truly awesome.

Electronic acts can indeed be tricky - I think my worst experience was with Push Button Objects, where I honestly didn't realise that the set had started... dude was just sitting in a corner of the stage, practically hidden, probably playing solitaire (had that solitaire-playing vibe with Four Tet at a show once as well, but he's also done a couple of good performances, so will let him off). Of course, then you get acts like Pluxus and DAT Politics, who do the electronic live thing so well that you realise it doesn't have to be symptomatic of the genre to be completely tedious.

Drone stuff really depends on the atmosphere of the venue, and the rest of the audience. Provided the act is decent in the first place, and not just some shitty knock-off who thinks that having a pedal and looping stuff is 'experimental'.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the Divine Comedy (in 2001 or so, at least) put on an absolutely rollicking little show in Toronto and it wasn't at all like a poetry reading. I think it was Neil's birthday though, that may have contributed to it. One of my best concert memories!

Drone stuff really depends on the atmosphere of the venue, and the rest of the audience. Provided the act is decent in the first place, and not just some shitty knock-off who thinks that having a pedal and looping stuff is 'experimental'.

Whenever I see a band set up a table of pedals and like a mixing board it's like ok we're in for some knob twisting. And some standing. I mean I like done/out stuff but this approach loses its charm pretty quickly.

lol at knob twisting

every hip hop act that is not Slick Rick

To respond to what's much higher up in the thread:
Nothing is less fun than feigned and forced dancing, especially to music thats hard to dance to. I think it's kind of ridiculous when people get up in arms about people not dancing to autechre, and it's is also why I'm suspcious of people who, at the same time, go into extremely ornante, semi-robot routines (sometimes it's to be seen, sometimes it's is about dancing for dancing sake's. Never about music, nor the primal, subconscious reaction to it).

So yeah, autechre, squarepusher, and almost all rock music I listen to, actually (same with live hip-hop).

Indeed, it's been the sit-down shows that have been some of the best things I saw in 08.

live rap always seems non musical and inept to me

The last rap group I saw live (EPMD at ATP New York) were fucking great.

Um... pretty much everything I listen to.

Um... pretty much everything I listen to.

^^^ there're a lot of ilm-ers who are with us on this, too.