Live albums better than all studio work of a band

^Cool list!

It's true more than one live album of a band can better all studio albums. In case of Kraan also their second live album Tournee does that.

I agree with you Lewian about Gentle Giant Playing The Fool, it´s my fav record of GG  over any studio disc

Arguably one of the King Crimson live albums is in this category, but I probably don't agree. I tend to prefer studio albums due to generally better sound quality and the more perfectionist approach.

To continue the German connection:

Frumpy - Live

And, as a band related to Frumpy (three musicians play on both albums), though not prog:

Atlantis - Live at Fabrik. Absolutely brilliant live album.

Here the first track ("Friends") of that live album:

And the final track (my personal favourite):

Hi,

Heck, the AD2 album "Live in London" is exceptional, and the only live album of theirs that is outstanding, in that the band is really on it, as opposed to some of the later stuff that is not cohesive at all, and likely lacked some more rehearsal ... but even in that Italian live video they were very good, were it not for some horrible sound moments with Chris Karrer not having his instrument plugged, and him having to search for it to start working so he could play it. A very sad moment, and it reminds me of OZRIC TENTACLES here in Portland, when they were coming through and I made sure a month earlier warn them in their website about Portland not knowing how to do keyboards (they can only do straight rock music!!!!!! and it is the reason for so much crap in the bars!) ... and sure enough ... Silas' keyboards were in and out all the time, and missing half the time. 10 years earlier Seaweed had the same issue with it at La Luna!

In general, in the early days, the OZRICS were better LIVE than on the record, considering that almost all of their 3 or 4 first albums, all came from the live material. But after John left, the band was still nice, but I don't think they were as well stretched out as they had been before ... and since then, it is just another rock band out there, with a nice guitarist ... who obviously can not do anything else other than his own ideas. Not bad, mind you, but the "liveliness" that it had before has not been there for 20 years!

One other special ... person. STEVIE RAY VAUGHN was great on stage, and for my tastes blew out any studio album. It is far out and impressive to see him do it on the stage ... and he deserves the touch and accolades that he gained in his lifetime. I was lucky enough to see him with Robert Cray, and on that night, Robert was just another rhythm guitar, because Stevie was on fire!

I was thinking NEKTAR. Their album "Sounds Like This" is EXACTLY what you got on stage. And when we saw them (Remember the Future first tour), they were note clean on all the material all the way through. It was uncanny, and it really made the albums come alive in your heart. You knew the band was true to its music live or not.

Possibly the kings of the LIVE stuff, would have to be THE GRATEFUL DEAD. No band EVER has had more fans trading shows and enjoying the material, even though it was bit here bit there different all the time ... it wasn't a problem for their fans ... of course this is something that PA fans can never appreciate (as much as it was then!!!!) anyway, since they like their stars to sound like the albums complete with auto tune and everything else.