This is why....

[Spliffman]

When I was a bit younger people used to say the Rolling Stones were the best live band in the world.

I thought about that statement a lot as a teenager and finally realized that I'd seen lots of bands, good and bad...and sometimes the good ones would have bad nights and the bad one's have good nights...so a blanket staetment of the best band could never be 100% accurate.

My theory was that on any given night there's a different "best live band in the world". Heck tonight it may be a bar band in Iowa who fanally have all the pieces click into place. Based on that I have spent most of may adult life going to concerts by the score.

I've seen lots of bands good and bad.

Many of the best ones are complete surprises that you don't expect...Ozomatli in a bar in San Diego, Billy Bacon and the Forbidden Pigs who tore the roof off a club one random night I saw them open for Los Lobos. Lynyrd Skynyrd (the real band in 1977), Barenaked Ladies, Oingo Boingo, the Blasters. Even the first time that I saw Springsteen in 1978 when I drove 100 miles on a whim and bought a ticket at the door to see what the buzz was about...

Music is art, not science. What touches us on moment may not the next...and we could never explain why.

Why try to pick a "best" anyway?

Enjoy the music and appreciate it more when it connects with your head and/or your heart.

[CrispyRed]

Well..... I can only speak for myself so here goes (and at the risk of sounding like a total wacko)

I first saw U2 in 1987 - I was 13, got the train from Liverpool with an older cousin to Leeds, phoned my parents from there to *explain* why i hadn't gone to school, where I was and that I was prepared to be grounded until I was 18! I saw 4 guys on a stripped down stage and they blew my 13 year old mind away. That was 30ish shows ago and each tour (with the exception of Elevation) has just gotten more and more elaborate and whilst I can honestly say i've never seen a bad performance, I do sometimes wonder if the lights and claws and lemons are at the detriment of the music. The end is much much nearer than the beginning for U2 and Bono isn't a 20 year old climbing stereo stacks anymore. £185 was a bargain for me to see 4 guys on a stage again and everything else Glasto has to offer was a very welcome added bonus but then it got to the point that U2 were actually the bonus, and the £185 for the whole Glastonbury experience was the bargain

[russycarps]

Throughout the 1980s U2 continued to be a good live band and I think the Live at Red Rocks video pays testominy to this. I saw them on a number of ocasions and was never let down.

[Tugger2k]

That Red Rocks gig looks utterly sensational. I'd have given anything to have been there.

U2s live show these days is a perfect example of style over substance in my opinion. A huge expensive stage and lightshow does not equate to "the best live band in the world". Muse fans on here are exactly the same.

[russycarps]

do you not think that that was why the U2 gig could have been special

all the bells and whistles of the tour would have been in america, they would have had to rely on the tunes. and at their heart, they are a, or at least were, a great live act

[Tick]

i can't understand why anyone would sell their glasto ticckets. i would have gone if every single act had pulled out and it was just 180,000 people camping in the sun for 5 days. it would still be wicked.