Live In Japan is the first live album by Primal Scream. It was recorded at Zepp Tokyo in 2002 while the group promoted the Evil Heat studio album.
Primal Scream Live In Japan
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Category: Indie & Alternative Rock Live Albums
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
Jesus And Mary Chain BBC Live In Concert 1992 & 1995
BBC Live In Concert is a live album by indie rock band Jesus and Mary Chain that pulls together two radio broadcasts. The first from March 1992 and the second from April 1995.
Jesus And Mary Chain BBC Live In Concert 1992 & 1995
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Continue reading Jesus And Mary Chain BBC Live In Concert 1992 & 1995
Radiohead I Might Be Wrong 2001
I Might Be Wrong is a live album by British rock band Radiohead. It was recorded in at various concerts between May and August 2001 on the tour to promote the Amnesiac album.
Radiohead I Might Be Wrong
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The Smiths Rank 1986
Rank is the first live album by British indie rock group The Smiths. It was recorded at the National Ballroom in Kilburn, London in October 1986. It selects 14 of 21 tracks played at the concert which was broadcast on BBC Radio 1.
The band were promoting their studio album The Queen Is Dead at the time, which is often hailed as the essential album by The Smiths. This makes it a good time to issue a live album.
Unfortunately this is still the only live in concert album by The Smiths.
The Smiths Rank
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Echo & The Bunnymen Never Stop Live In Liverpool 2001
Never Stop Live In Liverpool is an extended 2 cd version of Live In Liverpool by Echo & The Bunnymen.
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Included in Never Stop but not on Live In Liverpool are: Continue reading Echo & The Bunnymen Never Stop Live In Liverpool 2001
Primal Scream Screamadelica Live 2010
Screamadelica Live is a live album by British indie band Primal Scream where they play their classic acid house album Screamadelica.
It was recorded at the Olympia Grand Hall in London on 26 November, 2010 as part of the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of this ground-breaking album.
Primal Scream Screamadelica Live
The Best Indie & Alternative Rock Live Albums
This poll makes me feel old but it’s important that the Best Live Albums Blog isn’t entirely stuck in the seventies, so what are the best indie and alternative rock live albums?
I don’t know. I believe that music belongs to a generation. You can go back in time but it’s very difficult to keep moving forward.
Indie and alternative rock emerged from punk/new wave/post-punk in the early 1980s with bands like The Smiths and Echo & The Bunnymen in the UK and R.E.M. in the United States setting standards.
Since then, any guitar based rock has often been tagged with the indie/alternative rock label unless it clearly belongs to one of the existing labels like hard rock/heavy metal. Bands like The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays also took indie rock into dance music.
Grunge bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam took indie/alternative rock closer to hard rock again. It keeps redefining itself as we move from the 1980s to 1990s to 2000s and 2010s.
From a personal viewpoint, it’s a category I find testing. Originally it wasn’t a problem as it was the music of my 20s and helped keep me sane when most music was dominated by synthesisers. I kept up-to-date in my 30s (the 1990s), by buying albums that performed well in the end of the year reviews. During Britpop, I felt connected because Suede, Oasis and Blur drew inspiration from David Bowie, The Beatles & The Rolling Stones and The KInks. Gradually the music meant less to me and I became more wary of liking the latest sounds. Legendary BBC disc jockey, John Peel could pull off staying modern and leading edge, I didn’t feel I could.
My Top Five Indie & Alternative Rock Live Albums
I try to tell you my favourite five albums in a genre but I’m struggling in this category. That’s partly because of me and partly because some of the most important indie bands aren’t well represented by live albums.
The Smiths are an obvious choice but the only option for an in concert experience is Rank and that doesn’t include all the songs from the concert.It’s a similar story with the Pixies and Vredenburg. They are, however, significantly better than nothing.
The Stone Roses, Teenage Fanclub, Pale Fountains and Shack don’t have concert albums. The Oasis live album is poor, Pulp don’t have one stuffed with live versions of tracks from Different Class and His ‘n’ Hers. Suede have only got interested in live albums in the 21st century. R.E.M are proving quite contrary although there have been some interesting concert recordings added as bonuses to their studio albums. The Auteurs have also added a couple of concert recordings to their studio album reissues.
I’m struggling to choose between very good albums when the other genres have a few live albums I think are brilliant.
My provisional top 5 mainly reflect the music of my 20s and are:
- Echo & The Bunnymen Live At The Royal Albert Hall 1983
- Pixies Live At Vredenburg 1990
- The Smiths Rank 1986
- The Waterboys The Live Adventures Of The Waterboys 1986
- ?
The Bunnymen recording from 1983 finally appeared in 2008 when it was added into a short-lived deluxe version of Ocean Rain. My head says that’s the right choice but there wasn’t any live album released in the mid 1980s and I’ve grown used to enjoying Live In Liverpool from 2000/1 which had been released in 2002.
I need you to vote and recommend other live albums by alternative and indie bands.
What Are The Best Indie & Alternative Rock Live Albums? Vote In The Poll And See The Results. Continue reading The Best Indie & Alternative Rock Live Albums
Oasis Familiar To Millions 2000
Familiar To Millions is the first official live album by Oasis. It was recorded at Wembley Stadium in London in July 2000.
My Overall Rating 21/30
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Echo & The Bunnymen Live In Liverpool 2001
Live In Liverpool is a live album recorded by a reformed Echo & The Bunnymen in 2001.
Before I saw this is a music store, I’d forgotten how much I loved Echo & The Bunnymen in the early to mid 80s.
I play this and it takes me right back in time. The band are older but they put on a fine show on this CD.
Echo & The Bunnymen Live In Liverpool
I love the moodiness of that album cover too.
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Nirvana MTV Unplugged in New York 1993
MTV Unplugged in New York is a recording of the Nirvana acoustic gig in recorded in November 1993 for the MTV Unplugged television series.
It was recorded less than 5 months before the suicide of Nirvana main man Kurt Cobain and released in November 1994, the first Nirvana album after his death.
Nirvana MTV Unplugged in New York
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