Have any rock supergroups ever really looked like amateurs during their careers?
Asked by
andrew (
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July 19th, 2008
from iPhone
I’m currently struggling through yet another painful indie rock opening act. You know the drill: not the most “polished” sound, amps strewn about the stage, and most of all, a horrible stage presence. Yes, the venue isn’t a stadium, but they look like they’re performing in their garage.
Whenever I’ve seen a supergroup, they are riveting to watch. They interact with the audience. They are amazing, and it’s not just because they have a rockin’ lightshow.
I’m always struck by the fact if you just watched a band without any sound you’d me able to tell the opener from main act.
Did the coldplays, radioheads, and u2s ever look like a crappy garage band? Or is that part of the reason they are where they are?
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3 Answers
I saw Nirvana it 1991 with the RHCP and Pearl Jam in at the Forum in L.A., and boy did Nirvana suck. They didn’t play their instruments well, and the music was off tempo. I think Kurt only knew 1/2 of the lyrics. It was very disappointing. I never saw them again, but I hear they really improved, and that by the time Kurt died, they were great live.
System of a down really sucked at ozzfest a few years ago, we ended up leaving 4 or 5 songs into their act…..the guitar player told everyone to “clap their ass” and then gave a 10min speech about war in the middle east. If bands want to speak their mind about politics, that’s great and all but I didn’t pay $200 to be lectured about how shitty the president is…. And especially after I just had to listen to a 5 minute speech about war from Disturbed (who also gave a very poor performance) during their set. Avenged7fold was actually the only band at ozzfest that year, that was any good, I don’t even like Avenged7fold, but they really gave the best performance
It was ever thus. Here are a couple of excerpts from a Ten Greatest Rock Bands Ever blog:
April 1963 (emphasis mine): “At the time the Rollin’ Stones (named for the Muddy Waters song, Oldham added the “g”) were a ragged R&B cover band, but their run at the Crawdaddy had generated much attention. Oldham’s first act as manager was to demote the shambling (Ian) Stewart from the band’s live act for not keeping with his image of a lean, mean and sexy Stones.”
Summer 1975 (emphasis mine): ” Producer/talent scout Craig Leon went to CBGB’s and saw the Ramones. “A lot of people didn’t even think the Ramones could make a record. There were weeks of preproduction on a very basic level: like when the songs started and when they ended. Their early sets were one long song until they ran out of steam or fought. You could see it as a performance art-type thing, where you had a 17-minute concise capsule of everything you ever knew about rock ‘n’ roll, or you could see it as 22 little songs,” he said. Layers and layers of accumulated bloat and sheen were stripped away to reveal rock ‘n’ roll at its most basic and vital.”
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