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The 16 Greatest Live Rock Bands of All Time

By YPB Team

Some built cathedrals of scaffolding and screens, others just plugged in and played for four hours. Where do you stand?

  1. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band — ranked #11
    Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
    Three-to-four-hour sets with no setlist fixed in advance, and the act Rolling Stone readers voted the best live act of all time.
    1000pts
  2. Metallica — ranked #22
    Metallica
    Four decades of arena headlining, and the band that made the in-the-round stage standard.
    809pts
  3. Queen — ranked #33
    Queen
    Twenty-one minutes at Live Aid in 1985 that are still the reference point for a festival set.
    560pts
  4. The Who — ranked #44
    The Who
    The loudest band of their era by measurement, and the one whose live album is better regarded than most of its studio catalogue.
    560pts
  5. Iron Maiden — ranked #55
    Iron Maiden
    A travelling stage set, a mascot, and a frontman who flies the band's own plane between cities.
    485pts
  6. Grateful Dead — ranked #66
    Grateful Dead
    Never played the same set twice, and taped every show for an audience that collected them.
    485pts
  7. Guns N' Roses — ranked #77
    Guns N' Roses
    Capable of the best show of the decade or a two-hour wait, sometimes on the same night.
    485pts
  8. AC/DC — ranked #88
    AC/DC
    Same two guitars, same volume, same cannons, for five decades without a bad night.
    485pts
  9. The Beatles — ranked #99
    The Beatles
    Played Shea Stadium in 1965 and invented the stadium show, then quit touring in 1966 because nobody could hear them.
    397pts
  10. Pink Floyd — ranked #1010
    Pink Floyd
    Turned the rock show into staged theatre — the wall, the pig, the quadraphonic sound.
    397pts
  11. The Rolling Stones — ranked #1111
    The Rolling Stones
    On the road since 1962, with the touring model — the stage, the crowd size, the run length — largely built to their template.
    291pts
  12. Led Zeppelin — ranked #1212
    Led Zeppelin
    Three-hour shows with no support act and long improvised passages that bore no relation to the records.
    291pts
  13. Pearl Jam — ranked #1313
    Pearl Jam
    Rotating setlists across a tour so completists have to attend every date.
    291pts
  14. Radiohead — ranked #1414
    Radiohead
    Reworked their own catalogue on stage to the point where the live versions became the canonical ones.
    291pts
  15. U2 — ranked #1515
    U2
    Built each tour around a different piece of architecture, from the Zoo TV screens to the Claw.
    0pts
  16. Nirvana — ranked #1616
    Nirvana
    Short, unstable, frequently shambolic sets that captured a moment better than any polished tour could.
    0pts

#music827#rock204#bands202#performances150

Comments

Shea Stadium in August 1965 was the first major stadium rock show, and thirteen months later that band stopped playing to paying crowds: https://youpick.best/articles/beatles-vs-rolling-stones-ranked

YP
ypb-team·Aug 21·
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