Interactive Poll: Live Again!

^ Yes, that's how I prefer The Cure.

The A.R. & Machines track is quite intriguing, BTW. A pity that the audience recording does not do it real justice, but it raised my curiosity (didn't hear of him/them before).

My take on the suggestions, so far:

Lorenzo: Ou, with La mentita, stands out for me from your three tracks: original energetic and captivating. Tredici Bacci sound a bit more polished; nice except for the "singer". I'm a bit underwhelmed by the Springsteen track, nice to hear, but rather "standard", to my ears.

Christian: A couple of months ago I saw (excerpts of) a recent concert by The Cure broadcast on French television. I couldn't really stand it for a long time, because it all came over as one big mess of sound - I got back to it regularly, though. Hearing this track, I guess it is part of the The Cure sound. It starts off nicely, but when they're all playing together it becomes a big sound mess again, to me, and a bit too monotonous. Although music-wise I normally prefer The Cure, here I prefer the Killing Joke video. But from your three I'd Go with PSB, music wise and sound wise.

suitkees: Limbo should become the National Anthem of a country, but Têtes Raides should write one for France, to get rid of that hideous Marseillaise. Hildur plays the halldorophone: a kind of cello with an electronic feedback component for each string, which makes this sound like more than just a cello, whether you like it or not.

JD: Busker sound quite good, except maybe for the singer. Makes me think a bit of The Nice and early Yes. Joe Jackson's acapella piece has been brought forward before in one of these polls. Always nice to hear, but also very well known. Grand Funk bring actually Grand bluesy Rock 'n Roll. Not bad, very energetic, but maybe a bit too straightforward for my ears despite some wonderful passages in the second - jamming - part of the song. I prefer the Lee Michaels track here, great organ and emotionally more engaging.

Mila: I saw this Lamomali concert aired on TV a couple of years ago - was wonderful to see and hear. And this is a beautiful song; love it! Chedid/M is of course a very well known artist here (and the whole Chedid family, actually). Max Raabe with some mellow big band music to bring a funny text. Nice to hear, but not earth shaking. I find the Sara Renar track quite intriguing; accessable electro pop/rock with a nice sonic stance. I always hated hand claps coming from a drum machine and I think her music could become much more interesting if she would leave those things to the real drummer. A bit short, actually; I would have liked a bit more development. The Arthur Hnatek Trio brings for me the most interesting track, next to Lamomali. Musically speaking these two are the stand outs for me.

George: Cheap Trick, famous! But we don't hear them that often. Nice raw rock track, although the drummer sounds a bit too much like a wood chopper... I had forgotten how great the singer is! I remember Band Maid from an earlier poll. Not really my music, but super tight - I guess live this must be a great experience. Dongyang Gozupa - what's this? Eastern trad-folk metal, or the Dulcimer version of ELP? Whatever, it is a great listen and a real virtuosity on that dulcimer. My preferred one of the batch, easily.

Robert: Ow, this is a kind of nostalgia trip. A wonderful rendition of this Little River Band hit from the 70s. I must say I had forgotten about this band, but this is a great reminder. Jemig, dat is lang geleden dat ik wat van De Kast gehoord heb. This was quite a big hit in the Netherlands in the 90s. I never dived more into this band but they had some decent radio play in those days. Great song, actually, wonderful Nederpop. This was also used in a film, wasn't it? And then this exceptional Velvet Underground track. Cale is in top form here. Musically easily, for me, the most interesting of the three. Great selection!

George:

Cheap Trick: All tootraditional straightforward rock is not my thing, but of coyrse this works very well on a stage.

The other two are wonderful. Super-impressed by the energy but up by Band-Maid and it's so nice seeing them having some big fun. I know why I love proper live videos.

The Dongyang Gozupa one will need repeat listens to appreviate all the small things done here, but I already see that it has some good ebb and flow dynamic. This kind of instrumental whirlwind is another thing that I like a lot in a live setting.

Mila: Nice suggestion of Max Raabe. Even though this is not what I normally listen to, this is a proper one-off in these polls; I don't think we ever had something remotely similar, and the fun lyrics are not lost on me as a German of course.

The Lamomali song has the strongest live atmosphere incl. interaction with the audience. I know Fatomata Diawara well, she is a great singer, and the whole thing is brimming with positive energy.

I wonder whether the Sara Renar is actually live; can't find this in the description on yt (which is Serbian though). This is an OK song but for my taste too polished for a live poll.

Just from my musical taste Arthur Hnatek is the best out of yours; I love this cool understated instrumental style. Lake Geneva makes for a nice background.

Kees: Fischer-Z were a great 80s band. I saw them live once probably around 1988 but lost track of them a little bit later; nice to see they're still going. This song is big fun live, although this is another one that works better being in the crowd rather than on yt.

Tetes Raides obviously put on a great show and the sound is also very good. I didn't know this track but I've got to say it reminds me of too many things of this kind I've heard already.

Hildur Guðnadóttir may well be my winner out of yours, although I had this on while doing some other stuff first and I believe this really needs full attention to be appreciated as I figured out in the last 2 minutes only.

I just thought that out of competition I share this one with you. A friend from my hometown Hamburg made me aware of this. Achim Reichel from Hamburg is a proper German rock dinosaur who already in the sixties made some heavily early Beatles influenced music with the Rattles. In the first half of the seventies he went prog and experimental, and his A.R. & Machines project is actually on PA, if rather hidden and unknown. In between he produced some nice but rather unsophisticated German language rock with folk influences, which gave him the occasional small hit in Germany. I had lost him from my radar in the 21st century, but actually in 2017, aged 73 and still a local celebrity, he did a concert in Hamburg's most fancy supermodern concert hall Elbphilharmonie under the old project name A.R. & Machines, where he played his prog/ambient/experimental repertoire  again, with improvised elements. Here's a video from that event.