Indie & Alternative Rock Live Albums
Live albums were the peak of fashion in the 1970s and are dominated by heavy metal, classic rock and progressive rock groups.
If the studio albums weren’t making the grade, a live album like Frampton Comes Alive or Live Bullet could launch a career.
By the time punk and new wave had evolved into indie and alternative rock, the live album had become unfashionable.
Groups seem to go out of their way to avoid releasing comprehensive live albums.
There wasn’t an Echo & the Bunnymen live album released when the group was at its peak in the early eighties. The Smiths only have one live album. There isn’t a live album by The Stone Roses.
The early and tragic deaths of Kurt Cobain and Jeff Buckley may have changed things. Because there is so little studio music recorded, and there can’t be any more live albums started to emerge, just as they did with Jimi Hendrix over twenty years before.
Considering that indie and alternative rock is a very broad category that captures much of the music released since the early 1980s, it is under-represented in terms of live albums.
I have a readers poll to help you to find the best live albums of what does exist.
Best Indie & Alternative Rock Albums
Loading ...This is a wide category covering music from the early 1980s through to the 2010s and I have a Second Division poll to try to capture this diversity. Albums can be promoted or relegated depending on the support they receive from voters.
Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.You may also want to check out the poll for Best New Wave & Punk Albums because it is difficult to say when one emerged from the other.
Indie Rock and Alternative Rock live albums include:
The Alarm Greatest Hits Live 2000 2001
Alice In Chains MTV Unplugged 1996
Alice In Chains Live 1990 to 1996
Laurie Anderson United States Live 1983
Arctic Monkeys At The Apollo 2007
Aztec Camera Spanish Horses Live 1991
Aztec Camera Dream Sweet Dreams 1991
Barenaked Ladies Rock Spectacle 1996
Bauhaus Gotham 1998
Bauhaus Press the Eject And Give Me The Tape 1981 1982
The B52’s With The Wild Crowd Live in Athens, GA 2011
The B52’s Live In London 2013
Bjork Live Box 1994 to 2001
Black Motorcycle Rebel Club Live 2007
Blur Live At The Budokan 1995
Blur All The People – Live In Hyde Park 2 July 2009
Jeff Buckley Live At Sin-E 1993
Jeff Buckley Mystery White Boy Live 95-96
Camper Van Beethoven Mississippi Nights St Louis October 12 1989
Camper Van Beethoven In The Mouth of the Crocodile – Live In Seattle 2004
Camper Van Beethoven Discotheque CVB Live In Chicago 2004
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Live Seeds 1992 1993
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Live At The Royal Albert Hall 1997
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Live From KCRW 2013
Coldplay Live 2003
Counting Crows Across A Wire 1997
The Cure Concert The Cure Live 1984
The Cult Dreamtime Live at the Lyceum 1984
The Cure Paris 1992
The Cure Show 1992
Dance Hall Crashers The Live Record 2000
Evan Dando Live at the Brattle Theatre 2000
Depeche Mode Songs Of Faith And Devotion Live 1993
Ani DiFranco Living in Clip 1996
Dodgy So Far On Three Wheels Dodgy On The Radio 1996
Dodgy Live 2013
Echo & The Bunnymen Live At The Royal Albert Hall 1983
Echo & The Bunnymen Live In Liverpool 2001
Echo & The Bunnymen Never Stop Live In Liverpool 2001
Fields Of The Nephilim BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert 1988
Fields Of The Nephilim Earth Inferno 1990
Foo Fighters Concert Hall Toronto Canada 1996
Foo Fighters Skin And Bones 2006
Green Day Bullet in a Bible 2005
Happy Mondays Live 1991
Robyn Hitchcock Gotta Let This Hen Out 1985
Robyn Hitchcock I Often Dream of Trains in New York 2008
Imagine Dragons Night Visions Live 2013
Jesus And Mary Chain BBC Live In Concert 1992 & 1995
The Killers Live from the Royal Albert Hall 2009
The Lemonheads Rockin’ The Shell 1994
Mercury Rev Live In Brixton ’92
Midnight Oil Scream In Blue 1982 to 1990
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones Live From The Middle East 1998
The Mission Live No Snow No Show for the Eskimo 1988 1990
The Mission Ever After Live 1999
Morrissey Beethoven Was Deaf 1992
Morrissey Live At Earls Court 2004
Muse HAARP 2007
Nirvana From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah 1989 to 1994
Nirvana Live at Reading 1992
Nirvana MTV Unplugged in New York 1993
Oasis Familiar To Millions 2000
Pearl Jam Live on Two Legs 1998
The Pixies Live At Vredenburg 1990
The Pixies Hollywood Holidays 1991
The Pixies Coachella 2004 Free Download EP
The Pogues Live at the Brixton Academy 2001
The Pogues In Paris 30th Anniversary Concert At The Olympia 2012
Portishead Roseland NYC Live 1987
Primal Scream Live In Japan 2002
Primal Scream Screamadelica Live 2010
The Prodigy Worlds On Fire 2010
Pulp The John Peel Sessions 1981 to 2001
Pulp Party Clowns Live in London 1991
Radiohead I Might Be Wrong 2001
Red Hot Chilli Peppers Live In Hyde Park 2004
Red Hot Chilli Peppers Millennium Stadium Cardiff 06/23/2004
REM Live Greensboro Coliseum 1989
REM Live At Muziekcentrum Vredenburg 1987
REM Unplugged The Complete 1991 and 2001 Sessions
REM REM Live 2005
REM Live At The Olympia 2007
Simple Minds Live In The City Of Light 1986
Simple Minds Celebrate Live From The SSE Hydro Glasgow 2013
Siouxsie & The Banshees Nocturne 1983
Siouxsie & The Banshees At The BBC 1977 to 2001
The Smashing Pumpkins Earphoria 1991 to 1994
The Smiths Rank 1986
The Smiths Hatful Of Hollow 1983 1984
Spiritualized Live @ Royal Albert Hall October 10 1997
Soundgarden Live on I-5 1996
Split Enz Extravagenza 1993
Split Enz Greatest Hits Live 1993
Suede Brainshake 1999
Sugar Live At The Cabaret Metro, Chicago 1992
Suede Royal Albert Hall 24 March 2010
Suede 2013 European Tour
10,000 Maniacs MTV Unplugged 1993
They Might Be Giants Severe Tire Damage 1994 to 1998
They Might Be Giants First Album Live 2013
They Might Be Giants Flood Live In Australia
Wilco Kicking Television Live in Chicago 2005
Live In The City Of Light is the first live album released by Simple Minds. It was recorded in August 1986 with most of the songs coming from two concerts in Paris.
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Continue reading Simple Minds Live In The City Of Light 1986
Roseland NYC Live is a live album by trip hop alternative rock group Portishead and was recorded in 1987 with added strings by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. It was released in 1998.
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Kicking Television Live in Chicago is a live album by Wilco that was recorded at a series of concerts in Chicago in May 2005.
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From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah is a live compilation album by Nirvana pulled together from concert recordings between 1989 and 1994.
The Nirvana MTV Unplugged album had been a big success but it wasn’t the typical Nirvana sound.
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Continue reading Nirvana From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah 1989 to 1994
REM Live is a live album and DVD capturing REM (or more strictly R.E.M.) in concert at the Point Theatre, Dublin in February 2005 on the final nights of their European tour to promote the studio album Around the Sun.
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Worlds On Fire is a live album by alternative dance-punk group The Prodigy and was recorded at the National Bowl, Milton Keynes in England on 24 July 2010.
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Mystery White Boy Live 95-96 is a live album by alternative rock singer songwriter Jeff Buckley which has been compiled by his mother after his death from recordings made on the tour to promote Grace.
Jeff Buckley Mystery White Boy Live 95-96
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Mercury Rev Live In Brixton ’92 is a very early live album.
Mercury Rev Live In Brixton ’92
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Live At Sin-E was originally a live EP by Jeff Buckley but it has since been expanded to a double CD and DVD of this performance from July 1993 at the Sin-E a coffee shop in New York.
Jeff Buckley Live At Sin-E
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Brainshake is a fan club only release of a live album by Suede recorded in April 1999 in Copenhagen.
