Best AOR Live Album

What are the best AOR live albums that have been recorded and released?

What Is AOR?

AOR stands for adult oriented rock.

As a teenager in the seventies when big name AOR bans like Foreigner and Journey appeared, I hated the commercialty and falseness. It was the time of punk and new wave rock.

I now believe that AOR stands for guilty pleasure music. You know you shouldn’t like it but it’s catchy, tuneful and not too loud or raw.

It avoids many of the instrumental excesses of prog rock and blues rock but bands moved from both of these genres into the AOR category although I think it’s mainly a North American phenomenon.

It’s the kind of music that it’s OK for someone in their thirties, forties and even fifties can admit to liking without appearing to desperately cling on to lost youth.

AOR really is music for grown-ups.

What Are The Best AOR Live Albums?

I will be creating a poll to collect votes from you and my other readers.

What Are The THREE Best AOR Live Albums Ever? (Click on the links to go to the reviews)

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In the meantime I’d appreciate some nominations outside of the obvious big names of AOR like Foreigner, Journey, Heart and Styx. Or perhaps I have missed a great live album by those group who are already included.

Boston is the most famous absentee as in many ways they were the group that established the AOR market with their first album and the classic single More Than A Feeling.

I must admit that I have a bias towards live albums recorded at the time the group was issuing the studio albums and singles that were making its name rather than the money making revival tours after twenty or thirty years.

4 thoughts on “Best AOR Live Album”

    1. I must admit I know nothing about Saga. I’ve looked them up on Wikipedia and I can see that they are from my era although the late 1970s and early 1980s were a tough time for prog rock groups. I see they’ve released a few live albums so what makes this one so good?

    1. Thanks for your comment but I’d struggle to define either as AOR.

      You’ll find the Frampton album in the poll for the best classic rock live albums and the Zeppelin album features in the polls for hard rock live albums and blues rock live albums.

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