Favorite Live Albums
by 
MadhattanJack 
Just to be clear, since this website doesn't promote or even list bootleg albums, this is more like a "Favorite Officially-Released Live Albums" chart. I went with the shorter title though, because I didn't want to seem excessively pedantic — even though that's what I'm doing right now, obviously.
- Chart updated: 06/23/2026 05:15
- (Created: 06/15/2026 00:07).
- Chart size: 60 albums.
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Hammersmith Palais, London, Dec. 22, 1980: This is sometimes considered the "most essential" XTC live album, and has appeared in multiple official and unofficial forms as "BBC Rock Hour 212," "BBC College Concert 9," "Black Sea Live," "Black Sea Tour '81," "This is Live," and "USA 1980" (that last one being a mistake on the part of an Italian bootlegger). It was also released as Disc 4 of the "Transistor Blast" box set. My personal favorite XTC concert recording is probably the almost-as-widely-bootlegged Jan. 29, 1980 show recorded at Boston's Paradise Theater, from a WBCN-FM radio broadcast, but I don't think there are any official versions of that one (yet).
[First added to this chart: 06/16/2026]
Portland Arms, Cambridge, UK, Nov. 1978: The Soft Boys played quite a few shows that we'd now call "acoustic gigs," often in relatively small pubs like this one in Cambridge (where they originated). They had minimal (if any) amplification, and played a lot of songs that verged on being comedy routines, never recorded by them in any other form — such as (in this case) "We Love Bananas" and the awesome a capella "Duke of Squeeze." If you're a fan of the Soft Boys, or any other aspect of the Soft Boys/Hitchcock/Rew Entertainment-Industrial Complex, then you'll definitely want this one.
[First added to this chart: 06/16/2026]
Hammersmith Odeon, London, Nov. 1977: The Tubes were, at least in my opinion, a much better live band than a studio band, not least because they put on shows that were "absolutely wild" and "totally outrageous," with plenty of weird costumes, bizarre props, and so on. This album doesn't adequately capture the wildness and outrageousness, as probably nothing really could, but if you did get to see them during their 70s peak, it's better than not having anything at all to remember them by.
[First added to this chart: 06/16/2026]
The Marquee Club, London, Apr. 27 1985: The Egyptians weren't much of a change from the Soft Boys as a live band, other than the fact that they didn't have Kimberley Rew (for this tour, they had Roger Jackson on keyboards instead). The set is all amplified (most of Robyn Hitchcock's live stuff is acoustic), and contains the best-known version of "Listening to the Higsons," the lyrics to which are where the album title comes from.
[First added to this chart: 06/16/2026]
Melbourne Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia, June 9, 1980: To get a live album to sound this good in 1981, you had to really be trying — which means they probably treated this gig as more of a recording session than a live concert. The only drawback here is that guitarist John McGeoch had already left the band at this point, but he was replaced by Robin Simon, who also played in Ultravox for a while, and who could definitely handle the parts. He arguably had a "tougher," or at least more distorted, sound than McGeoch usually had. Many of these versions are significantly different from the studio ones, and you can even understand the lyrics a little better in most cases.
[First added to this chart: 06/16/2026]
Howard Stein's Academy of Music, New York, Dec. 21, 1973: For this tour, presumably set up to support the "Berlin" album, Reed hired a ridiculously talented pair of guitarists, Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, both of whom were also popular and experienced session musicians. The rhythm section wasn't bad either (though not quite as well-regarded), and while some might claim that the higher level of professionalism "ruined" some of the songs they were playing, I for one was extremely impressed. Why he didn't include any numbers from "Transformer" is anyone's guess, but to me, that's the only significant flaw here. Three "Transformer" songs found their way onto "Lou Reed Live" (1975), which was apparently taken from the same concert, but that album doesn't sound as good for some reason.
[First added to this chart: 06/16/2026]
Year of Release:
1974
Appears in:
Rank Score:
708
Rank in 1974:
Rank in 1970s:
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Average Rating:
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Rainbow Theatre, London, May 5, 1973: This was Focus at their peak, and the version of "Hocus Pocus" (their only worldwide smash hit) that you see nowadays on Youtube reaction videos is often taken from the concert film of this very same recording since it's actually faster and more chaotic than the studio version. Without video evidence, you might not believe that humans can actually play that song that fast. This was, believe it or not, the first live album I ever bought — back when I was just a kid who thought progressive rock was The Future of Music. (I was wrong.) The only problem with this album, or rather with the show itself, is that the version of "Eruption" (from "Focus II/Moving Waves") is somewhat bastardized (or at least heavily edited), and they removed my favorite parts. Why would they DO that? I know they're from the Netherlands, but isn't that supposed to make them nicer and cooler than everybody else?
[First added to this chart: 06/16/2026]
The Cow Palace, San Francisco, CA, Oct. 22, 1978: This isn't just my favorite Neil Young album, it's the only one I genuinely like, though he's written plenty of nice songs over the years. On some of these tracks the guitars sound like they're literally about to explode, and this is years before shoegaze got off the ground. I have to assume this was a deliberate attempt to show people that punk and heavy metal just couldn't compete with 60s-era Canadian folk rock for sheer knockout power in front of a big arena- or stadium-sized audience.
[First added to this chart: 06/16/2026]
Year of Release:
1979
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,232
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University of Leeds Refectory, Leeds, UK, Feb. 14, 1970: Here's one of the best examples of a band treating a live gig as a recording session — they'd wanted to record a live album for a while, but hadn't been impressed with the sound quality they were getting, so they set up this gig's venue as more of a remote studio room than a regular concert stage. Though the audience is almost inaudible, the results speak for themselves as many of these versions are clear improvements over the originals, despite the (claimed) lack of overdubs. Unfortunately, the initial release consisted of only six tracks, three of which were covers. In 1995 they released an expanded 25th Anniversary Edition (14 tracks), and in 2001 an even-more-expanded "Deluxe" edition (33 tracks), and as if THAT wasn't enough, there's also a 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (2010) and in 2014, a digital-only "Remastered Deluxe" edition. If you're deciding between these now, that last one is probably the one you want as both a Who fan and live-recording aficionado, since it's the only one with the entire Leeds "concert" arranged (or rather, re-arranged) into the original setlist/running order.
[First added to this chart: 06/16/2026]
Year of Release:
1970
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,108
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Famous Apollo Theatre, New York City, Oct. 24, 1962: I don't even like James Brown all that much, and I'd still have to say this record is indispensable.
[First added to this chart: 06/16/2026]
Year of Release:
1963
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,673
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Total albums: 60. Page 1 of 6
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Favorite Live Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 1 | 2% | |
| 1970s | 21 | 35% | |
| 1980s | 14 | 23% | |
| 1990s | 9 | 15% | |
| 2000s | 3 | 5% | |
| 2010s | 6 | 10% | |
| 2020s | 6 | 10% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Blur | 2 | 3% | |
| Talking Heads | 2 | 3% | |
| DIIV | 2 | 3% | |
| David Bowie | 2 | 3% | |
| The Cure | 2 | 3% | |
| Various Artists | 2 | 3% | |
| Robyn Hitchcock | 2 | 3% | |
| Show all | |||
Favorite Live Albums chart changes
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 10 from 45th to 55thPlays Live by Peter Gabriel |
| Down 10 from 46th to 56th101 by Depeche Mode |
| Down 10 from 47th to 57thRoyal Albert Hall October 10, 1997 by Spiritualized |
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Other custom charts by MadhattanJack
MadhattanJack has shared 3 more fun charts with the community. Browse them all here.| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Next 46 Music Albums of 2023 | MadhattanJack | Custom chart | 2026 | |
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