Which rock bands do you think have gotten too old to keep touring?

The Stones are still great live.

I think the Beatles should give it up.

What does age have to do with it? Guess who can sell out the big arenas and stadiums consistently. The old bands. That’s why they’re touring, because they sell tickets, and lots of them. The bands that should not still be touring are the ones without talent, old or new. It just seems particularly sad when an old band without talent is still performing.

@colliedog Well, there are only 2 of the Beatles left anyway.

I’m sure all these bands recognize they’re aging. But people keep going to see them, so who the hell are we to say they shouldn’t keep doing what they love?

KISS

The Zimmers

Metallica should. Just. STOP

The Grateful Dead

Hey if they can keep rollin along I guess they can keep rockin too.

@Snarp Agreed. This is a rather ageist concept—musicians don’t suddenly become useless once they hit a certain age. If their music is good, then let the band play.

Hanson

@erichw1504 You are right about KISS and Metallica (no great talent to begin with), but last time I saw the Dead it was a great show. Granted that was about five years ago, but when you’re that old a few years won’t change much.

I saw Asia a few years back. They sucked. Initial lack of talent plus age.
The Beach Boys are the one exception, they’re just too old, the pipes can’t do what they once did. Then again you could argue they lacked talent too.

I would have to agree with “KISS” . Have you seen the boys without their make-up? Egads. Then, if you get a close-up with make-up, you can see all of the creases and valleys in their faces. Poor, Paul Stanley. You were once beautiful.

The only bands who should stop touring are the ones who are dead. Though a zombie band tour might be interesting. Also, I suppose if nobody bought tickets to any of their tour dates, they might want to take the hint. But as long as people are listening, I say keep playing.

The Rolling Stones

With apologies to The Who, The Kinks, and Herman’s Hermits, Any band that had a hit prior to 1969 is too old to continue touring.

Well, I don’t think anyone should hang it up if they can continue to sell tickets, if people are willing to see them and they’re willing to play, where’s the problem? I will however say that most of the bands who have been around for a great number of years end up being disappointments live. A lot of them just really feel like they’re going through the motions. The worst I saw was Van Morrison…he sounded good, but acted like he couldn’t wait to get the fuck off the stage, and he only played for like 75 minutes. Compare that to someone like Prince or Elvis Costello, both of whom have now been in the biz for 30 years…you see one of THEIR live shows, they play 2½ hours , every show is completely different, they are full of surprises and you never know what to expect, but you get the feeling they genuinely want to be there.

I would put Aerosmith in that same category, one time I saw them it was OK, but the other time they focused so much on their more recent ballads, like that crap from Armageddon, the stuff that makes the girlies scream, and ignored the best things from their vast back catalog. I also saw Plant and Page when they toured for their second album after their reunion and it was clearly about playing for the money. Page just looked bored and old. Now a few people mentioned Kiss, and years ago, I might have agreed. I saw them in ‘90 on the Hot in the Shade tour, and the album sucked, they didn’t have make up, it was pretty lame. But I saw them a few years ago in full make up with all the original members, and the show was fantastic. Kiss is basically about spectacle, and they’ve been perfecting the spectacle for some time. And as a matter of fact, I happened to see them a 3rd time just a month ago, not the original lineup, but full makeup and they really brought it, very impressive for a bunch of old dudes. It was their 35h anniversary of their Alive album and they basically recreated the original show with a few adds and did quite a few more songs after that. Great pyrotechnics, great video presentation, some real fun acrobatics with Gene flying to the top of the arena and Paul swinging out over the audience. I have to say, their music is loud and dumb, but they’re still a hell of a lot of fun to see live, so I see no reason for them to hang it up.

The ones that annoy me are like I said the ones who don’t want to. I think if you don’t enjoy putting on a show, don’t do it. But there are a lot of bands who maybe once were something to me who I wouldn’t go see these days. Like Bon Jovi, I don’t think they’ve had a good song since 1988, but their shows have always sold out arenas. Same with Metallica, I haven’t liked anything they’ve done since about ‘89, but they’re more popular than ever. And if you get something out of seeing them, by all means do so, but I wouldn’t say anyone should stop touring. Even the Rolling Stones, I honestly don’t like them in the first place, I consider them to be the most overrated band in the history of rock and roll, but they could sell out 5 nights in any city they wanted to play in, and that’s just fine, even if Keith Richards looks like he died 30 years ago.

I would go see ABBA if they were still touring.