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Is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers the best live band ever?

I usually hate the way bands sound live and prefer the heavily produced studio versions of their songs.

I just get really ornery when I know a song goes a certain way, but now the key is different, different note patterns are being played, or synthesizer parts are played by acoustical instruments or the sound has just been changed radically etc. I understand its due to the constraints of a typical live show, but also I think there are very few vocalists who sound good live, and can actually sing.
 
The Archies! ;-}

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Dave Matthews is pretty hard to beat ... incredibly powerful show ...
 
Grateful Dead on an "ON" night were incredible. The RAMONES in a small club could literally knock you off your seat. An obscure band I saw years ago, and still stands out was Duke Tumatoe & the All Star Frogs. Stevie Ray Vaughn. It's all so subjective.
 
I saw Tom Petty live at Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City back in the 70's, good show no doubt, but not the best group ever.
 
Little Feat, with LG would be a band that I wish I’d been around for. So much energy on “Waiting for Columbus”

I agree with 0Hz, I enjoy live music, but deviation from a studio track bothers me (unless it’s better)
 
jcamero said:
Grateful Dead on an "ON" night were incredible. The RAMONES in a small club could literally knock you off your seat. An obscure band I saw years ago, and still stands out was Duke Tumatoe & the All Star Frogs. Stevie Ray Vaughn. It's all so subjective.
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The OP's question is very subjective, I've seen them live and I would say no.

@jcamero

Absolutely spot on!! I couldn't agree more. For a one off I saw the B-52's in a gymnasium and they tore the place up same goes for Toots & The Maytals.
 
Chrisxo55441 said:
i know who was the worse at least in Minneapolis , i saw Led Zepplin a few times here and they always showed up late just seemed to go through the motions and never did an encore, they were my favorite band too :( when i saw Paul Mc Cartney recently he did a 3 hour set with no warm up band i would rate him very high for live performance. Stones were always awesome live too
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LZ were hit or miss I think. I never saw them live but have many of their shows on CD and they are phenomenal - especially 1975, but I have great recordings of fantastic shows from 1969-1979. I read the book “LZ-75” written by a reporter who went on tour with them in the Spring of 1975, which chronicles basically every show. The overall theme was some shows were good, some were unspirited. If you can ever get your hands on 2/12/75 Madison Square Garden or 5/25/75 Earl’s Court, give them a listen!
 
pretty sure the MC5 thought it was their job to rip the faces off any other band on the bill ; )
Cream refused to play grande ballroom detroit when they realized who the opener was ...
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another band i wouldn't have wanted to follow ... NRBQ
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I’ve seen hundreds (thousands if you include regional bands) of live acts and TP and the Heartbreakers really are amazing live. The live anthology box set is incredible.

To me, the good ol’ Grateful Dead are the best shows I’ve seen. Plus almost all of their shows are easy to get and listen to (start with 1977, 1972 and 1990). Other amazing live bands I’ve seen in no order: Stones and Pink Floyd (especially considering they were in stadiums), Phish, Widespread Panic, Black Crowes, Greyboy Allstars, Soulive, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Los Lobos. So many great live bands!
 
I have seen easily over 1200 concerts over the years Two shows really stand out Hendrix at Madison Square Garden 68, and Little Feat backed by Tower of Power in 78 for the Waiting for Columbus tour which is one of the best live recordings ever. After three encores they turned on the house lites NO ONE left every one stood there screaming must have been for at least 10 minutes. They came back for a fourth encore. In all those shows this was the only time I saw that happen.Never saw Petty but But would have liked too especially after my wife got me their Live Anthology a 4 cd box set. this is excellent very hi quality sound board recordings of songs from different shows .Just 4 great CDs
 
Funny, I always thought the crowd sounded subdued on WFC. The fella who introduced the album to me chalked it up to the crowd being stunned & overwhelmed.
 
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