Iron Maiden is pretty cool live. Anyone who goes to the trouble of having a robotic personification of the band icon march across the stage is good live.

I saw Santana in February and he was good.

ah now to list some people most of you have never heard of :P

Lior does a great performance. it is jut him and a guitar coming out and his voice fills the space making it feel intimate in a moderately large venue. Then the band fill the sound even more and it is amazing.

Rufus Wainwright puts on a brilliant show. The awe if release the stars still stays with me. And his Judy garland impersonation.

Iron and Wine are magnificent. i only sort of liked them before seeing but they create such an engrossing arrhythmic atmosphere that it is an otherworldly experience.

Oh and i envy those who got to see Muse, manson and NIN >.< i would imagine all their shows would be awesome.

I don't know Lior, but I've seen everyone else on your list live at some point.
I'll check them out.

THE CURE THE CURE THE CURE!!. That's THE best sounding live band IN THE WORLD. I've been to plenty live shows in my 32 years of existance, I've seen old bands (Like Dylan, The Stones, David Gilmour, David Bowie, The Stooges, etc.); not too old ones (Echo and The Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, U2, Ministry, Ian Brown, Primal Scream, Skinny Puppy, etc.); and relatively new ones (The Strokes, Muse, Interpol, Kasabian, The Charlatans UK, Gomez, Beck, Blur, Radiohead, etc) and NONE of them sound as loud, energetic, CLEAN and overall just fucking awesome (not even near) as The Cure does. If any of you guys have the opportunity too see them GO, BY ANY MEANS, a The Cure Show is something that every rock & roll fan should experience.

*Wall of text warning*

ElArabDeMagnifico:
I also envy you for NiN, Tool, and especially Rammstein since they broke up, but I'm surprised you aren't telling us to go see tool "under the influence" - I'm not saying every tool fan is a drug addict or anything but the tool fans not giving out the whole "It's awesome when you are fucked up, I saw the lazers and was like 'woah' " speech is a bit annoying since they don't give details about the show, and more about their trip - and the people I have met who aren't giving out that little detailed speech are the minority, so sadly, I hardly ever get details about a Tool concert.

-and, when you say Pantera and "visuals" do you mean their "technical" visuals or their "stage performance" visuals? Pantera likes to dick around a lot. (or I guess "liked" ;_; )

I'll start with Pantera.

I saw them at Ozzfest in 2000 at the Gorge in George, Washington (we're clever up here in the northwest). If you have the opportunity, you should go see a concert there, simply amazing. Because it was a festival, they only had the basic stage lighting. Ozzy was the headliner that year and the stage was, rightfully, set up for him. Funny thing was, Godsmack were on right before Pantera (I thought they were alright), but after the Godsmack set they wheeled out about eight more 4' x 8' speaker boxes so that the back of the stage was just speaker boxes. Any visual was the basic lighting that you'd get from a festival show.

As for Tool, even being completely sober for that show it's hard to describe. The show was in support of Lateralus. If you have seen the music videos from that era (schism, parabol/parabola, etc.), that's what the visuals were basically. They did interesting things with the lighting. They even set their stage differently than anyone else I've seen. Instead of MJK being front and center, he was back on stage right. Here's a close representation of what it was:

MJK---------Danny Carey
Adam Jones--Justin Chancellor
_____________________________
Audience

From what I saw, they used either used black light effects for a screened backdrop or lighting effects through a screened backdrop from behind the stage (it was hard to tell). They had big screens at either side of the stage for animations and other visuals while the music was playing. If you are familiar with the lyrics for the song "Lateralus", at the start when it goes, "Black and White are all I see, in my infancy, red and yellow then come to be, reaching out to me, let's me see." For the concert they had hung a large mirror ball from the center of the building and shown lights on the ball so the entire building was lit up for that part of the show. Not overly crazy, but fun and different (for a heavy rock show). They do the smaller things like that. The visuals at a Tool concert are good and the tie into the music, but they don't distract you from the music.

I like the fact that the visuals aren't over bearing at a Tool show because the music is just so good that it would be a disservice to drown it out. It is really something that has to be seen to be truly explained.

As for Nine Inch Nails, watch the DVDs for And All That Could Have Been and Beside You In Time and you'll get a good feeling for how those shows were. If you want to see what they were like before that, try to find Halo 12, Closure. It has footage from the "Self Destruct" tour that supported The Downward Spiral.

ElArabDeMagnifico:

Rammstein since they broke up

they broke up since when? they're still together and making a new album

ElArabDeMagnifico:

I'm not saying every tool fan is a drug addict or anything but the tool fans not giving out the whole "It's awesome when you are fucked up, I saw the lazers and was like 'woah' " speech is a bit annoying since they don't give details about the show, and more about their trip - and the people I have met who aren't giving out that little detailed speech are the minority, so sadly, I hardly ever get details about a Tool concert.

ok that's just a dumb statement, the fact that someone likes to smoke some pot or take mushrooms/acid does NOT make them an addict. cause if that's the case then if you have a drink of booze by your logic you're an alcoholic

please don't confuse an addict with a casual user, they are two very different things and you do a diservice to everyone.

and to borrow from Mr Hicks "if you don't think drugs have done anything good, i want you to go home and burn all your records, tapes and cds cause the people who made them were real farking high on drugs"

cleverlymadeup:

ElArabDeMagnifico:

Rammstein since they broke up

they broke up since when? they're still together and making a new album

ElArabDeMagnifico:

I'm not saying every tool fan is a drug addict or anything but the tool fans not giving out the whole "It's awesome when you are fucked up, I saw the lazers and was like 'woah' " speech is a bit annoying since they don't give details about the show, and more about their trip - and the people I have met who aren't giving out that little detailed speech are the minority, so sadly, I hardly ever get details about a Tool concert.

ok that's just a dumb statement, the fact that someone likes to smoke some pot or take mushrooms/acid does NOT make them an addict. cause if that's the case then if you have a drink of booze by your logic you're an alcoholic

please don't confuse an addict with a casual user, they are two very different things and you do a diservice to everyone.

and to borrow from Mr Hicks "if you don't think drugs have done anything good, i want you to go home and burn all your records, tapes and cds cause the people who made them were real farking high on drugs"

You misunderstood me lol, I just had a bad choice of words, I'll edit my post. Anyway, what I meant is "I'm not saying everyone who listens to tool is on drugs" - just saying that I've had "bad informants"

Don't freak out next time please, it's hard to make everything "politically correct" >_>

Also, I thought Rammstein had one last album, and then they broke up soon after, I'll look on their main site, hope I prove myself wrong.

-and Frosk that has actually convinced me to go see Tool, it just sounds awesome since it's "like their music videos" - that'll be cool to see live. I'll make sure to pick up those DVDs (unless one of my friends has them) too.

The Go! Team sound completely different and completely awesome live.

Soil & "Pimp" Sessions are incredible too.

Gooble:

Appreciate the feedback, but I don't care! I started getting into them not long after they split, thought I'd never get to see them, and now they're back! I want to hear all their most awesome songs, even if you practically know beforehand which ones they'll play.

My sentiments exactly. I'm so damn excited at going to see Rage. I just got my T In The Park Ticket today, which is probably gonna go on sale in an attempt to get a Ticket for Leeds instead. Either way, there ain't no way I'm missing Rage live. I mean, watch this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzkGHoOp3AQ

Copter400:
Iron Maiden is pretty cool live. Anyone who goes to the trouble of having a robotic personification of the band icon march across the stage is good live.

Heh yea I went to see them when they did the "A Matter of Life and Death" tour and they were pretty good, but hands down the best band I have ever seen and any of you could possibly see is Megadeth.

No joke, I've seen my fair share of gigs and they were head and shoulders above all the rest by sooooooo much.

ElArabDeMagnifico:
-and Frosk that has actually convinced me to go see Tool, it just sounds awesome since it's "like their music videos" - that'll be cool to see live. I'll make sure to pick up those DVDs (unless one of my friends has them) too.

Just search for Tool live stuff on youtube. There is enough there to get a pretty good picture of what their show is like. But like I said, it has to been seen to get the full picture.

ehh the white stripes are awesome live, also the raconteurs are sweet live, Dropkick Murphys, and the strokes are sweet too, also Steve Winwoods pretty good

Razzle Bathbone:
Gogol Bordello.

If you only ever go to see one gypsy ska punk show in your life, make it theirs. You'll feel like your head was bashed in by a brick of pure joy.

Yes, they are awesome. Such a party to see them live.

My favourite live bands are probably Alexisonfire, AFI and Bad Religion. Saw AFI three times and they put on a great show, crowd is always really into it.

I didn't really like Dropkick Murphys live. I don't know, maybe because I don't like them terribly to begin with, but when I saw them with Bad Religion, I was disappointed. They were definitely outshined by Bad Religion.

Frosk:

ElArabDeMagnifico:
-and Frosk that has actually convinced me to go see Tool, it just sounds awesome since it's "like their music videos" - that'll be cool to see live. I'll make sure to pick up those DVDs (unless one of my friends has them) too.

Just search for Tool live stuff on youtube. There is enough there to get a pretty good picture of what their show is like. But like I said, it has to been seen to get the full picture.

I'm kind of hesitant to do so, I don't trust Youtube quality.

Frosk:
Just search for Tool live stuff on youtube. There is enough there to get a pretty good picture of what their show is like. But like I said, it has to been seen to get the full picture.

i like the one where maynard gives some fan who jumps on stage a rear naked choke and keeps singing the song

while i don't get to go to many concerts (I'm always busy when they come to Boston if they do) I do know for a fact Tool is absolutely skull-fucking mind blowing live.

Deftones weren't bad (actually got to see them live) Chino's got a bit of a complex onstage, what with inciting the crowd into one massive mosh whilst standing over it arms out as if he were their god. Two different bands, two different shows...

I could've seen Tool at the Werchter Festival here in Belgium, but I kind of overlooked them on the list and went to see Death Cab For Cutie instead. They weren't bad, but imissing out on Tool really pissed me off in the end.

Nine Inch Nails. Always.

Eric Clapton was great when I saw him.
Also Velvet Revolver, but with the recent line-up adjustments they're going through don't take my word for it.