Most disappointing live act you've seen - Bands/artists that should stick to the studio

[Stormy Daniel's Lawyer]

This one is easy..

My wife was a huge Linkin Park fan, me not so much, but she begged me to go see them with her..So long story short, they absolutely sucked ass..They had this huge video screen behind their stage with some weird dude spouting random virtue signals all fucking night..I swear I felt like I was at the Democratic National Convention.. Good riddance, Linkin Park..

Close Second..

Willie Nelson..The old fucker talk/sung the first two songs, and so we bolted..This was at Blossom outside of Cleveland, amazing venue..Nelson was the headliner, I actually went to see The Avett Brothers who was the middle set of the show..They were awesome as usual.

Pennywise. Their music setup and instrumental setup was sloppy and their performance sucked. Maybe they were having a bad day but they're one of the worst acts I ever watched.
Social Distortion at least made up for it at the show with their good performance.

Not my experience but my husband went to Ozzfest and it had the now infamous performance of Iron Maiden where their entire set was ruined because Sharon Osbourne kept unplugging them on stage and cutting off their music because she was angry at them for "disrespecting her and Ozzy."

Pennywise. Their music setup and instrumental setup was sloppy and their performance sucked. Maybe they were having a bad day but they're one of the worst acts I ever watched.
Social Distortion at least made up for it at the show with their good performance.

Not my experience but my husband went to Ozzfest and it had the now infamous performance of Iron Maiden where their entire set was ruined because Sharon Osbourne kept unplugging them on stage and cutting off their music because she was angry at them for "disrespecting her and Ozzy."

I saw Social D open for the Foo Fighters..Great fucking band..

 

[Dolphin Lundgren]

I saw Social D open for the Foo Fighters..Great fucking band..

They were one of the best live acts I've seen. They're up there with Incubus and Red Hot Chili Peppers on the list of great bands.

I'm going to add Jack Johnson to my bad live acts list. He wasn't a bad performer, but after 30 minutes I got bored of the slow acoustic music. Sometimes you have to play something fast or else it gets boring.

 

[Pissmaster]

The Offspring were terrible. No audience interaction at all, no banter between songs, no stage effects even, except for some colored lights. I may as well have just sat at home and listened to one of their albums.

 

[Dolphin Lundgren]

The Offspring were terrible. No audience interaction at all, no banter between songs, no stage effects even, except for some colored lights. I may as well have just sat at home and listened to one of their albums.

That's a real shame. The Offspring were the first band I ever saw live and that was in 1999 right when Americana came out. They were great and Dexter did plenty of banter in between songs, and they were energetic. If that's what they're like now, it's kind of sad.

 

[Niggernerd]

Anytime Iron Maiden doesn't play Alexander the Great.

 

[Chad Nasty]

My own.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Portugal The Man
Absolutely awful. I thought they were having mic problems at first. The girl was kind of okay but they were all just really really bad.

 

[booklover]

For me, had to be Van Halen back in the day. Close to what the OP cited. Eddie Van Halen was drunk off his ass, slugging a bottle of Jack Daniels on stage. He sucked. The band sucked. And in the middle of trying to play "Jaime's Crying," He just stops and stands there and goes "I forgot the fucking words, man!" REALLY? It's not like there's much to the song other then "Whoa, whoa, whoa...Jaime's crying." Horribly disappointing because up to that point, I had liked their music. The best thing that ever happened to them is Sammy Hagar taking over the lead.

That "Jamie's Crying" thing? He did that at every show on that tour.

I saw them in 1982, and it would have been an OK show if they'd actually played some songs, but no, it was just Mr. Van Bertinelli running back and forth across the stage, shredding on his axe.

 

[Beluga]

Not my experience but apparently Rihanna is abysmal. A friend went to see her live, she was on stage for less than an hour, barely sang and danced. My friend said she basically lipsynced the whole night, walked around the stage and let the dance crew dance for her. My friend refused to buy or listen to her ever since, especially since the tickets cost a fortune.

 

[Spunt]

Bob Dylan, if you've ever heard anyone joke about his shows consisting of a mummy croaking into a mic, just know that those aren't jokes.

My dad worships the ground Bob Dylan walks on, for reasons I've never really been able to understand. He went to see him a couple of years ago and paid extra for an "entertainment package". My response was that only at a Bob Dylan concert do you have to pay extra to be actually entertained.

I don't know about worst, but one of the weirdest live gigs I went to was on Black Sabbath's 2010 reunion tour. Ozzy was utterly terrible. Hopelessly out of tune (until a few songs in when someone somewhere clearly pressed a button and turned on the autotune), mumbling incomprehensibly into the mic between songs and laughing at jokes that nobody in the audience could understand. At one point he poured a bucket of water over his head. By the end he looked like he was going to collapse and got the audience to sing "Paranoid" because he didn't seem physically capable.

Usually when a band is being bad, the audience start to get restless, but this gig was different. The audience weren't there so much to see Ozzy and Sabbath so much as they were there to pay tribute to him. A lot of kids in the audience that weren't even sperm when Sabbath were at their peak, but they were more there to make some sort of pilgrimage to the band that started it all, and they were sort of willing him to get over the finish line and complete the set without dying. It was like the crowd at the Olympics cheering on the guy who fell during the race and finished last. Really surreal.

Oh and I saw Blind Guardian at a festival a couple of years ago. Not really a power metal fan, but I thought I've give them a shot. Awful. Though the singer clearly had a cold, and worse, apparently the truck carrying their gear hadn't arrived and they didn't have their own instruments, amps or stage scenery. They had to borrow Amon Amarth's apparently. After their set, then after Amon Amarth's headline set, I went back to the car park. On the way there I nearly got run over by a huge speeding semi-truck with German plates that was charging towards the entrance. Too late, guys.

 

[bluegenius8585]

Blink 182

Maybe it was why they axed Tom but honestly he sounded like he walked on to stage after drinking enough to knock down a horse

 

[Flaming Carrot]

I don't know about worst, but one of the weirdest live gigs I went to was on Black Sabbath's 2010 reunion tour. Ozzy was utterly terrible. Hopelessly out of tune (until a few songs in when someone somewhere clearly pressed a button and turned on the autotune), mumbling incomprehensibly into the mic between songs and laughing at jokes that nobody in the audience could understand. At one point he poured a bucket of water over his head. By the end he looked like he was going to collapse and got the audience to sing "Paranoid" because he didn't seem physically capable.

Usually when a band is being bad, the audience start to get restless, but this gig was different. The audience weren't there so much to see Ozzy and Sabbath so much as they were there to pay tribute to him. A lot of kids in the audience that weren't even sperm when Sabbath were at their peak, but they were more there to make some sort of pilgrimage to the band that started it all, and they were sort of willing him to get over the finish line and complete the set without dying. It was like the crowd at the Olympics cheering on the guy who fell during the race and finished last. Really surreal.

Back in 2004, I made my one and only trip to Ozzfest because both Judas Priest and Black Sabbath were playing, and I wanted to see them before somebody broke a hip. Anyway,, there were rumors that Ozzy was sick and wasn't going to perform, but they didn't actually mention that until Black Sabbath was about to go on. People were upset, but then they announced that Rob Halford was going to sing with the band instead, and people actually started leaving and flipping off the stage because they were so upset. Halford came on and did a fantastic job, especially considering that he had just done a full set with Judas Priest, but there were still people grumbling. Having seen videos of Ozzy performing live since then, I feel like I dodged a bullet, but Ozzy has fans who are ferociously devoted to him, despite the fact that he has been a disaster for years.

 

[heavycream]

I honestly do not care about when bands want to have elaborate (scripted) banter between songs or not. I'm perfectly happy if a band just gets up on stage, shuts up and plays their entire set back to back without all that filler. It's why I've always loved the Pixies - they are a phenomenal live band, at least back in the 80s and 90s, their music live almost sounded better than studio versions.
However, not so great is the Pixies' knock off band Cage The Elephant (check out their album 'Thank You,. Happy Birthday" to see what I mean by 'knock off'). Sure, the melodic virtuosity of Matt Schultz's vocals was never the appeal, but God did he croon and wail when I saw him and his band live. He wasn't even attempting to hit notes, no less scream like on the records, or on time. The rhythm and lead guitar were out of tune with one another, which made any time the band did dare to be melodic incredibly insufferable.
--
Also, since he's already been mentioned, Marylin Manson had pretty terrible live shows between the mid 00's and 10's. They got somewhat better, but I'd still say you're better off saving your money for his records.
--

Spoiler

Hole
Ex's favorite band

Here's a hint:

 

[Overly Serious]

I'll put a spin on this one and say best recovery of a show that could have been the worst. Donnington rock festival forever ago, Sepultura were one of the headlines and then Max Calvera (vocalist) had to drop out. I think because his son had been killed in a car accident back in Los Angeles. Terrible tragedy and nobody on Earth would have begrudged a no-show in the circumstances. But someone announced that in his absence the band wanted to do something special to make up for it. We didn't know what but Sepultura's drummer came out and started doing this fantastic solo set. Drums are probably the last instrument you can get away with a solo on but it was really. fucking. good. But then while he was drumming another guy came out with a different drum set and I think it was Biohazard's drummer. Took his seat and joined in. So now you had these two masters doing this drum jam with each other. If there's any instrument you'd think would be the last instrument you could do a duet with, yep - drums. But they were top of their game and it was fantastic. And then the third guy came out. I think he was the drummer from Paradise Lost but it might have been Fear Factory or Pantera. I can't honestly remember I just remember three absolutely amazing thrash metal drummers improvising this three-piece set. Crowd went crazy. All as a way to make up for an (entirely understandable) no show.

Usually when a band is being bad, the audience start to get restless, but this gig was different. The audience weren't there so much to see Ozzy and Sabbath so much as they were there to pay tribute to him. A lot of kids in the audience that weren't even sperm when Sabbath were at their peak, but they were more there to make some sort of pilgrimage to the band that started it all, and they were sort of willing him to get over the finish line and complete the set without dying. It was like the crowd at the Olympics cheering on the guy who fell during the race and finished last. Really surreal.

Back in 2004, I made my one and only trip to Ozzfest because both Judas Priest and Black Sabbath were playing, and I wanted to see them before somebody broke a hip. Anyway,, there were rumors that Ozzy was sick and wasn't going to perform, but they didn't actually mention that until Black Sabbath was about to go on. People were upset, but then they announced that Rob Halford was going to sing with the band instead, and people actually started leaving and flipping off the stage because they were so upset. Halford came on and did a fantastic job, especially considering that he had just done a full set with Judas Priest, but there were still people grumbling. Having seen videos of Ozzy performing live since then, I feel like I dodged a bullet, but Ozzy has fans who are ferociously devoted to him, despite the fact that he has been a disaster for years.

Related - Ozzy was headlining that same gig I talked about above. I think by this point people just want to be at the gig where he finally drops dead on stage because we all know that's how he's going to go. Love the man, though. My own similar experience was Meat Loaf a few years back. I don't know if he even completed the tour - he sounded like he was going through Hell for us trying to keep singing. His voice was gone poor man but like with Ozzy, the level of goodwill in the audience was amazing. Comments were of the "I know, but it's the Loaf" variety. I don't know if he still tours but I hope Mr. and Mrs. Loaf are enjoying a happy and well-deserved retirement from performing if not. He had one Hell of a run and I'm glad I got to see him at least once.

 

[butterflyrot]

against the grain. i love their music but holy fucking shit were they sloppy when i saw them. they were opening for GWAR (who kicked total ass by the way) and they must have been hungover or something because all of the music just blended together. their set went on way too long but the other two bands were great. GWAR was perfect as usual.

 

[W00K #17]

I got stuck for a period of time in the crowd for the stage MGMT was playing at I wanna say bonnaroo like 10 years ago. Was tripping face and was not into it.

 

[Bitcoin Henchman]

I don't know if it was disappointing to me, because I wasn't there to see them, but the worst I've seen was Chavelle around 5 years ago I think. Me and my cousin went to see Hellyeah and Halestorm at an Evanescence concert, dual headline with Chavelle and not only was their music awful I'm convinced the singer can't actually play guitar. For some reason they had the big stage screens zoom in on the singer playing his guitar more often than anyone else and he would just strum one note, then after maybe 10 seconds he would look down and try to readjust his fingers to a new note, get it wrong seemingly, and have to readjust his fingers again. I could potentially forgive that but their sound balance was off so you couldn't really hear the singing either. I don't remember any excuse for it but I don't think that would make a difference.

The second most disappointing was Marilyn Manson in like 07, my friends had been telling me about how cool his stage shows were and shit for like a year so when I finally saw him live I was disappointed. He didn't have almost any crowd interactions, no cool stage show, and he seemed almost disinterested in even being there, everyone else at the show was good so maybe it's just soured in comparison, but still disappointing.

 

[Nintendo Switch Engage]

Smashing Pumpkins was probably the biggest live letdown ever. I had gone to a concert with a friend, they liked half the bands and I liked the other half. I'd been a really big fan of SP for a long time and was excited to see them. I guess they were headlining the whole thing, cause they were the last act. I was hyped. The other bands were energy through the roof, but as soon as SP came on stage all that energy went from 100 to 0 in a matter of thirty seconds. Zero stage prescience. Literally the entire band just stood there like statues playing and singing. They almost looked fake, like the robo children in Small World at Disneyland. Anyways, they were so terrible and boring we left after two songs. That was the last time I ever felt enthusiastic about Smashing Pumpkins.

 

[M0JY0]

I got stuck for a period of time in the crowd for the stage MGMT was playing at I wanna say bonnaroo like 10 years ago. Was tripping face and was not into it.

I have to second this. I also saw them about ten years ago, and I was pumped because at the time they were my favourite band. They were fucking awful. I couldn't even understand Andrew as he was singing, he sounded like he was on drugs from the way everything slurred together. I don't know if they have improved since then, and I am not wasting my money again to find out.

 

[RockPaper]

Knew a coworker who said he went to see Van Morrison, and he played with his back to the audience the whole time just because he felt like being a dick. They were rushing the refund window like shoppers on Black Friday.