Some Bands I've Seen Live

This was getting kind of big, so I figured it needed a page of its own. ;) I don't seem to be very good at this webwise art of presenting everything in tasty bite sized chunks. Anyhow, I should note that what I've assembled here are simply my personal opinions of some bands I've seen; they're not intended to be full reviews, but, if you like the same sort of thing as me, maybe you'll find them useful. From the feedback I get about this page, it seems that some of the bands do, too.

I try to provide links for all the bands I mention here, so if I've said something about your band (even if it wasn't complimentary) and you would like a link to your gig listings or a site full of glowing praise, let me know. I'm also happy to provide a link if your little sister has asked you to ask for one and you're not the sort of person who'd ask for one for yourself. And I am grateful for tip-offs about broken links, as it's difficult for me to keep all of this up to date.

• ABC - chic as ever, but never quite matching the impact of Poison Arrow, with which they just might have shot themselves in their creative foot. Fun live, but alas, if only their lyrics were as sharp as their suits.
• A-Ha - sadly written off by many as a teen-pop band, A-Ha are musically very impressive, especially live, and Morten Harket's voice is remarkable.
• Alien Sex Fiend - Skilled musicians with some really amazing material in their back catalogue, but not so good live these days. If they wanted to take a new direction, that would be fair enough, but recycling good old stompy songs as drawn out ethereal drug music is just tedious. Fun to watch only in small doses.
• All About Eve - Musically very impressive and good at engaging the audience, with vocals which display not only natural talent but also the subtlety and strength that come from years of experience. The songs still go nowhere, and are often quite bland, but, if you like that sort of thing, this is a group which remains well worth seeing.
• All Living Fear - a passable modern goth band who would perhaps benefit from a little more confidence and self-assertion onstage.
• Altered States - pleasantly melodramatic but not exactly innovative.
• The Amphetimeanies - polished, confident, melodic ska with strong vocals and accomplished instrumentation. A cut above their peers, it's no surprise that they have a strong cult following, but they don't yet seem quite ready to reach out and grab new audiences.
• Arch Visceral Parlor - this band has a superb vocalist who should leave them for somebody who can write more interesting material.
• Black Tape for a Blue Girl - one of the most boring bands I've ever seen live. What's passable on CD - Donald calls it "falling asleep in the bath music" - anaesthetises a live audience or, apparently, causes them to flee. Which is a shame, because they're musically competent. Knowing the right people in New York may have been enough to make them a big name act, but if they don't get it together they're soon going to be famous for all the wrong things.
• Bloco Vomit - the first and only punk samba band I've ever seen. Very energetic and with a fine Dead Kennedys cover in their repertoire, but half the fun has to be wondering for how long they'll all manage to balance on a small stage.
• Bubblefuzz Blue - Paul MacLaren has a damn fine voice, but was always better singing to himself at home than 'experimenting with new vocal styles' onstage. Still, fun while they lasted. Did anyone else ever hypnotise an audience with ad lib lyrics about roasting a chicken?
• Calvin - Musically more capable than Radiohead, so why do they try so hard to sound like them? Is it an homage? ;) It gets tedious, whatever it is. Their drummer, who has to be one of the best I've ever heard, is wasted on them.
• Captain Sensible - attitude and personality without all the usual bullshit, still apparently able to hold his own onstage, damned or not.
• Carsun - I actually think this is the worst band I've ever heard, and considering all the gigs I've attended as favours to friends that's really saying something. I'm still wondering which member of Duran they fucked in order to get that support gig. When the painful static buzz continues between songs, someone really ought to shoot the sound engineer.
• Chaos Engine - if these guys put as much energy and creativity into their musical compositions as they put into their set design and backdrops, they would really be worth listening to. As it is, they're alright, but fairly ordinary.
• Chevy and the Chasers - I understand that this band's usual singer was indisposed when I saw them, so they weren't at their best, but even accounting for that, I was underimpressed. Whilst it's charming that there are still young bands eager to throw themselves into the two minute high speed punk song thing, this kind of music needs strong ideas or direction, both of which are lacking here.
• The Core - backroom blues in the fine old Glaswegian tradition, with a ridiculously talented guitarist/keyboardist/drummer and a singer who really ought to talk to the audience a bit more.
• Corpus Delicti - proof that there is still fine original talent in the goth scene; at their best live. Everyone has a crush on the drummer, but personally I just enjoy listening to their music.
• Crazyhead - fucking good fun, with lots of punch and attitude. And they can really move, too. I was happily surprised by this lot, especially when I discovered that they've written a lot of songs I had enjoyed anonymously in clubs before.
• These Crimson Dreams - pleasant enough, but a bit too floaty and girly for my tastes, really. Good at what they do.
• Culture Club - still very fine after all these years - Boy George's voice really deserves to be heard live. They always put on a good show. Shame they never understood why.
• The Damned - with a stunning musical range, an enormous supply of material and a ceaseless capacity to entertain, this band, which has not suffered one whit from the passing of time, must be considered unmissable. Very few acts combine having so much to say with being so much fun. This is what punk was invented for.
• The Day I Snapped - Competent enough for small venues, with occasional moments of inventiveness, but mostly forgettable.
• Deacon Blue - impressive vocals and an enormous repertoire of songs.
• Devolver - an old fashioned melancholy sound which I haven't heard in ages; a really interesting prospect. I hope they drop the cheesy imagery and develop this stuff.
• The Dirty Three - one of my absolute favourite bands of all time, finally headlining UK gigs as they ought to be. Some of the best violin playing I've ever heard, with a power, passion and aggression unusual for the instrument. Truly original.
• Dream Disciples - these guys used to be pretty awful live, though they were always impressive on record. In recent years, however, their gigs have improved vastly; they have a harder edged sound, and a lot more energy, and they're a lot more fun.
• Duran Duran - not so good live these days, hiding behind backing tracks one would do as well to listen to at home, and lacking the lovely John Taylor; yet they remain a striking presence.
• Faith and the Muse - I was persuaded to go see this lot because someone said the singer was cute, and she certainly is - but they neglected to mention she also has one of the finest voices on the planet, or that the songs are magnificent (I don't usually go in for swirly floaty stuff, but this transcends all the ordinary cliches of the genre), or that the musicianship of the rest of the band is admirably skillful. Superb. I saw them again more recently, and it seems their excellence is consistent.
• Frank the Baptist - it's nice to hear a singer with such a good voice who still appreciates understatement, making those few moments of soaring vocals all the more impressive. The rest of the band are likewise capable musicians. Sadly, they don't seem to have anything at all to say.
• Fuzz Light Years - Dreadful name, fucking excellent band, perhaps the best new act I've seen for four years. I'd call them the new Primitives (with perhaps just a hint of the Velvet Underpants and the New York Dolls thrown in), but they deserve better than to be called the new anybody, and the fact is, I liked them better than I liked the old Primitives anyhow, overall. The singer is one of those creatures who might, in a still picture, be taken for ordinary, but the way she moves and the way she expresses herself renders her inhumanly sexy. I'll be getting more just as soon as I can.
• Gene Loves Jezebel - still doing their thing well enough, though the man's voice no longer quite has that edge; capable, but just not terribly exciting.
• Gentech - experimentally interesting, at least to begin with, though ambient-industrial isn't really my scene; they might want to be a little more imaginative with their song titles. At least they dance.
• Goteki - the bastard offspring of Sneaky Bat Machine are musically as bad as one would expect, but are hilarious to watch live, as most audiences still don't seem to get it. A few genuinely political lyrics undercut the humour, but darlings, it's a swindle.
• Halo - strong, albeit unsophisticated, vocals; mediocre music; and where does everybody get that lyricist?
• The Horatii - one of the best modern goth bands around and always immense fun to dance to, especially in the pit, but perhaps past their best now, giving the impression of being a little bored with it and no longer producing quite such stomping good tunes.
• Horse - one of the very finest singers around, even in the acoustically unfriendly environment of an outdoor festival. I look forward to an opportunity to see her live again.
• Hugh Reed and the Velvet Underpants - Glasgow's most entertaining Underground style project, straying a long way from type and pleasantly silly about it.
• Hugh Reed Explosion - a later project, which shows in better teamwork from the band and better vocals from the man himself, though his costumerie hasn't been toned down in the least and he still plays all the good fierce stomping songs.
• The Human League - vastly improved over the last decade, charismatic and dramatic, and with some simply stunning clothes. Capable of blowing most any other band of their era off the stage.
• Iggy Pop - one of the best live performers I have ever seen, and no less impressive for age. I've been to a lot of manic gigs; I've watched international athletes at work and play; I've seen all sorts of people on all sorts of drugs; but I have never seen anyone leap about as much for as long as Iggy does. He can still sing superbly when he wants to, but mostly just yells the lyrics because he's too busy throwing himself around; it still works. When he's not dancing, he's stage diving into the crowd or easing up against the speakers in some delicious masochistic pose; and the way he smells is unforgettable. TV cannot equal this. Must see live again.
• Inkubus Sukubus - what can one say? They're so sweet, the vocals are superb, they play their instruments well and they really seem to put their hearts into it all, but... well, one can't help but wonder when the three foot high Stonehenge set is going to descend onto the stage for the little pixies to dance around...
• The Ivories - where have this band been hiding? Strong vocals, excellent drumming, and genuine ideas, both musical and lyrical, all pulled off with a flair and confidence which belies their youth. This is what we've all been waiting for.
• Jesus Loves Amerika - entertaining enough for a good night out, and quite danceable, but not the sparkling new thing I'd been led to expect.
• Die Kuntz - They pretend to be an in-your-face, hard man punk band, but a tenner says these guys have hair metal records hidden in their bedrooms in their mums' houses. Thinly disguised cock rock with no real balls.
• Laibach - imperfectly translated for an audience which knew them mostly as a cover band, they struggled to get things going when I saw them, but their own performance was spot on. Cheesy lyrics belie complex musical structures supported by skillful live vocal work. Their visual work and lightshow is fantastically well co-ordinated, and their drummers are stunning.
• Leading the Blind - vocally impressive, with a few interesting ideas which never quite develop, lapsing back into formula goffstuff; they could become interesting, with a little work.
• Leechwoman - excellent stompy music, interestingly constructed - but really, all else is dwarfed by the thrill of watching their dramatic indoor fireworks and wondering whether or not the venue is going to catch light.
• Libitina - fluffy and sweet, and at times a lot of fun. And very shiny.
• London After Midnight - cheese-goth of course, but good fun, and rather spectacular live, having a good sense of showmanship. Provided they didn't just drag their drummer home from a graveyard with a terrible hangover. And what does Sean use to get his hair that big? I'm jealous.
• Macrocosmica - appealingly naive guitar rock; a shame the bassist's better vocals are generally drowned out.
• Manuskript - a band I've been following from the start, once just an entertaining bit of cheese with unusually adventurous lyrics, these guys have matured into one of the best goth acts around. They have enormous energy and terrific stage presence, and the new material works as well as the old. Not one for those who worry about taking things seriously; lots of fun for everyone else.
• Marc Almond - the best singer I have ever had the pleasure of hearing, a man with such a fine operatic voice that the microphone seems unnecessary; yet still capable of understatement and pathos.
• The Mission - despite the drink and the toll of years, these guys sound pretty much just the way they used to - which should be reason enough to avoid listening to a whole set. They have the whole weepy drama thing going on very well, they just don't have a lot else. Still, they're very personable and enthusiastic, which goes a long way.
• Nervosa - very bouncy and great fun for a bit of OTT disco-goth dancing, though sometimes a little too ubiquitous for their own good. Worth watching for Craig's outfits alone.
• Nick Cave (and (sometimes) the Bad Seeds) - different every time he tours, so a bit hit and miss, but he usually keeps the fans happy. His recent material doesn't work well live, so I'd recommend catching him when he's focusing on the older stuff. He can be very subtle and eloquent, even inspiring, and he can be brilliant in anger, but he risks losing it and coming across as just another tedious common or garden wannabe psychopath. The instrumentation in his sets, however, is reliably superb.
• Passion Play - limited by that old two men and a drum machine small venue problem; nice enough songs, but not enough of a spark to really get the audience involved. They really need to move more, too.
• PJ Harvey - another performer with a ridiculously large repertoire, very strong vocally and full of energy onstage. A crap liar, though - there doesn't seem much point in yelling hard to get an encore when one can see the performer's feet remaining directly behind the base of the stage door.
• The Poisoning - if you're going to begin your act half naked, you'd better have the figure for it. If you're going to spend most of it screaming, you'd better have the voice. These guys score on the fairly reasonable level on both counts, but hard rock was never intended to be fairly reasonable.
• The Primitives - much better live than on record, with strong vocals and lots of energy; very good at creating atmosphere.
• Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - they've still got it. Angry music with an intelligent agenda, performed with passion and with an authority which few bands can muster.
• The Retrofrets - with a great drummer and two decent vocalists, this energetic little band are far too competent to make sense in the smalltime support roles they're currently getting. Music like this overwhelming sleazy little bars is what rock n' roll is all about - see them while you have the chance.
• Rosetta Stone - very danceable, but a little too formulaic. The Italian Emperor once accused Mozart of composing tunes with "too many notes" - he would've liked these guys.
• The Rushes - formulaic Scottish rock with a hint of folk and soul, heartfelt but unremarkable. The singer has a voice whose strength and potential range deserve to be better exploited, and I thought he might work superbly in musicals. They seem to be sweet guys, letting a wee brother up on stage to join in, but I've a feeling that it won't be until they split up horribly that anything musically impressive is achieved.
• Sheep on Drugs - I had high hopes for this lot (always foolish, I know), and was really quite disappointed upon seeing them live. They had less stage presence than Iain Duncan Smith and were accompanied by some bint who worked well enough doing backing vocals but sounded truly awful - and not in a good way - when taking the lead. The songs were still good, but one might as well have been listening to recorded versions in a nightclub. A shame, because they're nice guys, and seem like a lot of fun in person, which of course makes me feel awful for being unable to praise what they do on stage, but there you go.
• Sigue Sigue Sputnik - getting it together again now after a few months on tour, no longer looking like they shoot it up too often; hey, Jayne Mansfield, perhaps you're ready for your close-up now. Their few really strong songs are still fun to dance to, and their own renewed enthusiasm is infectious.
• Silver Ray - Highly accomplished instrumentalists, this Melbourne trio create complex orchestration and soaring melodies with just three instruments, and they really have to be seen (live) to be believed. Despite its intricate structure, their music is highly emotional, and touches on a certain post-punk pathos and subdued anger typical of their origins. One can only hope that they keep on developing what is already something special.
• Siouxsie and the Banshees - very strong and impressive onstage, but intimate perhaps to the point of fragility. Not so bold as they used to be. I guess she was right to wrap this one up after many brilliant years.
• Sisters of Mercy - life is short and love is always over in the morning. Even Mr. Eldritch's anger has gone now, along with his voice, his timing, his charisma, his interest. All that remains is the tragedy he fought so hard to disavow. It's fascinating to watch, but one feels cruel doing so.
• Sisters of Murphy - better than the real thing. Venues with smoke alarms beware. ;)
• Soft Cell - more of the energetic pop and fewer of the torch songs than a pure Marc Almond set, but otherwise stunning in all the same ways.
• Southside - standard 'epic'-style Edinburgh rock, but surprisingly durable, and not bad at what they do.
• Sneaky Bat Machine - energetic enough to make the car alarm genre rather more fun than usual, but sounding somehow slightly flat.
• Spahn Ranch - this type of industrial music isn't usually my thing, but these guys do it with a lot of energy and verve, and are great fun to watch. I was impressed.
• Stages of Cruelty - a good combination of romanticism and stompy leaping about tunes, kind of traditionalist goth. Better when poor Sam isn't persuaded to sing in too tight a corset. Her voice is improving nicely with time.
• Suspiria - pretty good musically when playing live, but they would have made a better impression on audiences if they'd remembered to move a bit.
• Swarf - unexpectedly stunning vocals. A bit more variety in the songs would be a good thing, but definitely one to watch.
• VNV Nation - more fun offstage with water pistols than onstage making music. Pleasant enough in their way, but nothing inspired.
• Voltaire - a polished pub entertainer, with good audience skills and passable musicianship, but why he's considered such a star on the goth scene is beyond me.
• Waterglass - now with only one original band member [hello Nadia!], but as strong as ever, just having released their first album. Not many bands are remembered enthusiastically for four years on the basis of a single live performance. The new vocalist has a superb range, the instrumentation is impressive, and they seem ready to go the distance.
• Wayne Hussey - surprisingly capable of putting on the whole show by himself, clearly still in love with the music and possessed of a genuine affection for the fans. Well worth seeing if you like that sort of thing.
• Zodiac Mindwarp - Capable, professional, but a bit flat; when I saw him, he was just going through the motions, and lacked the energy which his music requires. If one is going to sing about gratuitously having a good time, one needs to put some passion into it.
• Zombina and the Skeletones - the sexiest thing to crawl out of the grave this decade, Zombina are just as impressive in the flesh - lively, creative and full of energy. There's a frightening amount of musical talent in there too. Don't miss them.