amazing live videos of Bloc Party, The Cure & more to watch while every show is cancelled
Basically no shows are happening due to the coronavirus outbreak (though some artists are doing livestreams instead), but if you’re already jonesing to see a show, or just need a brief distraction from the insanity of the world right now, thankfully there’s YouTube which has an amazing array of live footage from throughout the history of pop music, from clips from concert films, TV performances and other pro-shot footage, to tons of fan-shot video from shows. If you’re looking for a place to start, we’ve been picking some of our favorites. Here are five more:
Bloc Party @ Glastonbury 2005
Last year, Bloc Party played their classic debut Silent Alarm in full on tour, and with all due respect to the band’s current lineup, there’s nothing like seeing the original lineup playing those songs, let alone when Silent Alarm was brand new and Bloc Party were rapidly on the rise. There’s a real urgency here (and sometimes a tiny bit of sloppiness… which kinda just adds to the raw energy), and the band already knew how to command a massive festival crowd, many of whom already knew every word to these songs that had only come out a few months earlier. [Andrew Sacher]
https://youtu.be/Cfafsnzl1Dg
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The Cure @ Berg en Bos Festival 7/18/1980
The Cure were picking up steam in 1980 and turning darker: Simon Gallup joined the band and “A Forrest” was the group’s first Top 40 UK single. Full goth was just around the corner but The Cure look kinda normal (and very young) at this July 1980 festival gig in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, though part of that is probably having to play in the daytime. They sound terrific, though, playing “A Forrest,” plus “Jumping Someone Else’s Train,” “Play for Today” and more. But it’s quite a different band than we’d see post-Disintigration in the Show concert film. [Bill Pearis]
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Ty Segall & The Freedom Band @ Teragram Ballroom 9/13/2019
Ty Segall & The Freedom Band’s 2019 album First Taste made the most of the group’s two-drummer lineup which made its tour equally thrilling, with Charles Moothart as the backbone and Ty moving to the other kit at least once per song. This show came in the middle of a 10-show L.A. residency where they played First Taste in Full, then followed it with a second set, playing a different album, in this case Manipulator. When Ty and Charles were dueling with each other, that’s when things really cooked, mixing krautrock rhythms and hard rock / psych riffs, building steam throughout the set, culminating with the awesome, mandolin-and-sax-heavy “Lone Cowboy.” [Bill Pearis]
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Fleetwood Mac (w/ Peter Green) in 1968-70
There’s lots of great live footage readily available of the Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac lineup from over the years, but footage of the band with guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Peter Green (who was in the band from 1967 to 1970) is harder to come by, so it’s very cool that YouTube user BadlyDrawnBallbag put together this compilation video with 43 minutes of Peter Green-era footage. They were a totally different beast with Peter than they were in their biggest hit-making era, and beasts they were. They churned out loud, psychedelic blues rock, and it’s a treat to see all this footage of Peter in his prime — he really makes that guitar scream. [Andrew Sacher]
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The Antlers @ Pier 54, NYC – 7/22/2010
As great as The Antlers are on record they’re even better live, and during the shows supporting their 2009 masterpiece Hospice, it felt like they sounded progressively huger every time I’d see them, as they built towering soundscapes around the album’s beloved songs. This show, which happened on a July night on a concrete pier off Manhattan’s west side, was nearly a year after the release of a re-mastered edition of Hospice on Frenchkiss, and the band debuted “Hounds” from 2011’s Burst Apart, too. [Amanda Hatfield]
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Check out photos of Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm show in Central Park last year:
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For more of our favorite live videos, head here.
