Live albums are one of the greatest treats in metal, especially if the band sounds better live than it does in the studio. Fortunately there’s a high number of bands that sound great live in the heavy metal/hard rock genre. It’s important to the musicians and important to the fans. Here’s a look at my council of nine live albums.
Rush – Exit…Stage Left
Picking a live Rush album is tough. They’re all unique in their own way with one overarching theme: Really tight, proficient playing. Rush has been known and now has the reputation as being one of the greatest live bands of all time period. Exit…Stage Left is the perfect example of that. Some think that it’s All the Worlds A stage and that’s valid. I’ve met the odd Rush fan who really likes A Show of Hands which displays their more synth driven music. Exit…Stage Left is that happy medium in between Rushes first live album and their third. Combining heavy prog with early 80’s synth pop. This is the era of Rush where they found their signature sound. Still progressive, yet accessible to the average heavy rock listener. The only issue is that the audience sounds like they’re ten miles away which can give the illusion that this is a greatest hits collection. However, this shows Rush at their tightest and most hungry.
Van Halen – Live…Right Here, Right Now
This is a perfect live album. From one of the biggest tours of the 90’s, the Sammy Hagar fronted Van Halen hit it’s peak in 1992/93 on support of the F.U.C.K. album. The audience is with them from beginning to end. The live versions of the songs exceed the studio versions exponentially. Alex Van Halen’s snare finally pops like it should instead of that dead, boring snare that plagued the David Lee Roth era. Each member gets an extended solo piece on the album representing classic heavy rock concerts. The song choices are flawless with the exception of one missing song (Black N Blue). Sammy can sing the DLR material better than DLR can making the classics convincing and appropriate. I would highly recommend this live album to all live album fanatics.
Zebra – Live
The lesser know Zebra have an incredible live album. It’s one of those albums where the songs are extended from their studio versions into jam sessions. Guitarist, vocalist and main songwriter of the band shines through with guitar work that can only be achieved by being in solitude for a decade. The drums are phat, the audience is alive and Felixes bass and keyboards shine through making you wonder, “how the hell do they do all this so perfectly live?” Zebra live is the perfect example of how a live album can exceed the studio records it represents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6emjtFo6A
King’s X – Tales From the Empire, Live in Cleveland
Recorded in 1992, Tales From the Empire captures a truly unique band at the height of its game. It’s kind of indescribable. Another case of a trio performing live and killing it. Again I wonder, “how the hell is this sound achieved live.” Well, they all have perfect pitch and it shows particularly on this album. All of the backround vocals are perfect matched and evened out. This gives the album a studio quality with a live punch in the face. The extended jams are like no other. Ty Tabors guitar solo on Prisoner is one of the greatest solo’s/jams of all time period. It’s just a shame that this album wasn’t released until 2009 under the independent label Molken. Which no one has ever heard of.
Judas Priest – Priest…Live!!
Yeah, sure I could have put down Unleashed in the East which is what 80% of metal fans would go to. But Priest…Live I think is better example of how the Priest bring their own unique metal to the masses. By masses I mean a fucking football stadium full of people in Dallas. This is also the live album that had the partner VHS tape “heavy metal parking lot.” Which is a gem into the culture of 80’s metal fans. Women screaming “we want to do you Rob!” Well…he doesn’t want to do you. The energy of the parking lot translates into the live album, giving it one of the loudest audiences ever recorded. And the Priest knows exactly how to handle it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDDnuhbDFeY
Dave Matthews Band – Live at Mile High Festival
This show I’m a little biased towards. I was in the audience on this one. It was my first Dave Matthews concert and to be honest I wasn’t too thrilled. His studio work is straight forward and boring (for the most part). Live, it becomes an entirely different beast. Also, this show marks the first time Dave experiments with plugged in distorted guitar amply played by Tim Reynolds. This adds another layer to an already layered sound. It’s perfect, it’s the Dave that everyone wants to hear. Just rocking the fucking house. Look for an unbelievable solo from Reynolds on #41. And a truly bad ass drum solo from Carter Beauford on Two Step.
Dream Theater – Breaking the Fourth Wall
Just when we all thought Dream Theater doesn’t need another live album, boom!! They release their best to date. Breaking the Fourth wall is how we all want to listen to Dream Theater. Loud, phat with a crazy balls audience. Something we have never really heard from them. The sound quality is astonishing (no pun intended.) Mangini finally puts to rest any doubters of his drumming and makes up for the flat, paper thin snare sound from Live in Luna Park. Highlights include an extended Shattered Fortress where frankly, I’ve never really heard this amount of passion coming from Petrucci and Rudess. Also check out The Mirror going into Lie, it’s perfect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSlb6p4iy6s
KISS – Alive
Kind of had to have this one on the list. It’s not the first live album ever, but what it did was create a standard and pattern of record producing that lasted for 25 years. Three studio albums and then a perfect live album to explode into the mainstream. This is the first live album to feature extended versions, audience participation and is also the first album to officially receive the honorable Platinum award for selling over a million copies. This is album that started it all. We are thankful for the innovative KISS for giving us a standard of live that can never be broken. It’s all there, drum solos, guitar jams and of course Paul Stanleys signature audience banter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jr_jGyoEMA
Queen – Live At Wembly Stadium
Most live albums are special documents that have bands at their height recorded for eternity. However, it is rare that a live album comes out that has so much passion and electricity that it literally sounds like a bands last performance. Queen Live at Wembly Stadium captures that passion and electricity. Recorded on the Magic tour in ’86, Queen knew what the competition was and said “bring it.” The band has learned of Freddy’s illness while the rest of the world was oblivious. They knew they didn’t have many more years so they had to make the best of what they had. And they did. This certainly wasn’t the bands last show by any means. There was still two other albums and a major tour to go before Mercury succumbed To AIDS in 1991. This concert captures a band that is aware of it’s time limit and knows that it has to make the most of what it’s got.
