What bands do you prefer or collect more live albums than studio albums?  

But I do collect - well, actually "collect" is a bit of a stretch... I own quite a few live albums by:

Can

Tangerine Dream

+loads of live jazz albums from the 1960's-1970's. *and within the jazz realm I might actually prefer a few performers like Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans, Herbie Mann, Yusef Lateef... live. Ideally I'd like as much original material as possible on my live albums. Which is quite common in jazz - and uncommon in rock.

I too prefer live-jazz to studio. 

I only have the live albums by Polish post-rock band Ciśnienie but that's because all the albums they released they put out as lives.

I have more lives by Magma than any other band.  Quite a few Tangerine Dream and Miles Davis live albums too.

Live albums need to prove to be the whole greater than the sum of the parts, raising the music to a whole new level, to justify a place in my collection, such as Camel: Live Record, GG: Playing The Fool or Tull: Bursting Out 

Porcupine Tree, Coma Divine

I'd put ELP's Pictures at an Exhibition in that group...

I was going to say the same. Zappa live is awesome. Every concert was so different, particularly from line-up to line-up. I love hearing different interpretations of his music with each new group of players, new technology, and newer genres for them to parody. Plus, the improvised bits, both musical and comedic, keep each concert fresh. Especially any audience participation.

When you put it like that, it's quite frightening.... I only own these six, plus Coventry Cathedral (1975) and Deutschlandhalle (1973) at present, but will also get the Zeit 2CD set in due course.

It's a great album of course, but I own it because it's original material... 'Welcome Back' would be another fine example of where a band takes their studio material to another level artistically, and therefore is a collection essential.

Can

.... and

Tangerine Dream (via the Hades Boxset)

.

Hi,

Without a doubt these were/are the best live. 

KC is probably the most rehearsed and prepared of them all in concert. You don't do 3 drummers unless you know how and what you are doing! The film makes this clear.

Grobschnitt is one of those bands that is always fun and ready to play ... and they do show their abilities in a few live albums, specially the different versions of Solar Music live in the remastered album. 

Magma, would not be as good if they were not "clean" in concert, which is by very far a far out experience. 

Tangerine Dream, has the number of Live albums down the most, and the better ones, were actually in the early days ... when the bootlegs were what showed that TD could not quite replicate things as well as they were able to record them, but their adjustments and ability made them great anyway ... it probably wasn't until the late 70's that they started being able to control their music and then do it live. But you never saw them do the recorded material to a T ... it was always different and many times better live.

Can has excellent stuff in the days that Damo gave us ... and later, it did not show as many recordings without Damo, probably because there was no need for it. The albums were as live as they could be.

A few others ... 

The kings of the live show and album!!!! Grateful Dead, which has shared the largest amount of shows with their fans from the start ... although the big thing here was how different so much stuff was, but the musical talent and ability was way up there, sadly thought of by prog's and progressive folks as stony music and nothing else. They also, unlike a lot of bands, had the best sound system of any band ... even PF didn't come close in DSOTM.

The most talented ... Frank Zappa. And his bands were usually tight and well rehearsed, and in the days of George Duke, even more so, as he helped make it all special ... one look at the Roxy DVD ... and you always wish you were there ... a show that good? Goodness. Also try to see that bit by Steve Vai about Frank's ability to flow all over the place, with a massive solo that never played anywhere else. Steve still says that is the best guitar playing he has ever heard or seen.

But you erased Soft Machine. 

Hi,

My bad, and it is because I have not heard SM Live forever ... I have not listened to SM since RW had to leave.

I promise to catch up ... but even in RW days they were already a heck of a trip.

I think Steve has made a fortune from all the SM posthumous live releases I (we) bought from him (I'll include the few Nucleus live releases in there as well for me). Surely Steve will object to "making a fortune" out of those Soft releases, though.

TBH, I might actually pass as well on the latest Norwegian double header, as it might be a little of an overkill. 

There is a lot and I listen to their live material a lot more nowadays especially:

Mar Y Sol (Puerto Rico 1972). Great Hammond sound!

Live in Italy (Milan 1973). Has Karn Evil 9 1st Impression the same as the album (ie without the extended drum solo that almost ruins the triple album version) Carl Palmer's bass drum is very heavy indeed.

Welcome Back My Friends.. (Anahiem 1974). For the extended Tarkus but it's a muddy sounding album sadly.

King Biscuit Presents (has the same performances of Hoedown and Karn Evil 9 that were in the live triple above but with better sounding ''Straight from boards'' recordings)

Live Bootleg Series Volume 2 (this includes ELP's greatest live performance in the opinion of many fans at Rich Coloseum, Buffalo, NY in 1974. Sound quality is not great but you can still actually hear the quad system in action and it's insane!)

Nassau Coloseum and the even better Wheeling, West Virginia 2 CD set both of which I play the death out of. The latter is superbly recorded and the band were on fire by this time on the Works Tour (just as a 3 piece with orchestra long ditched)

If I listen to any ELP after their classic era then occasionally Live At The Royal Albert Hall from 1992 is decent. 

Eloy Live is one of the greatest live prog albums. Jurgen Rosenthal is in fire. BTW Jurgen wrote all of the Ocean album, a fact that not many are aware of. Neil Peart eat your hat!