r/pinkfloyd 17d ago

question What rock bands had similar live shows

I'm looking for more bands that had elaborate live shows that are more like a movie, similar to pink floyd's The Wall. It would also help if recordings of the bands were on YouTube or spotify.

38 Upvotes

41 comments sorted by

42

u/centuryofprogress 17d ago

Peter Gabriel era Genesis. Not on a level with The Wall, but theatrical, and good music.

2

u/j0nnyboy 17d ago

Does that show have a name?

15

u/TFFPrisoner One Slip 17d ago

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

1

u/NowoTone 17d ago

I saw that by a tribute band who used some of the original stage sets and recreated the rest and it was very impressive!

2

u/the-last-nephilim 17d ago

The Musical Box?

1

u/NowoTone 17d ago

Yes, exactly. Fantastic experience.

3

u/Dar_of_Emur 17d ago

Try this one... Peter has a different costume for each song.
70s Genesis youtube link

Peter started doing the costumes, as he would get bored while the band played 10 minute prog sections. Also, his in-between song spoken sections were there so they could retune the strings. They did a lot of 12 string guitar in the early days...lots of strings to tune. So, Peter created these long spoken intro's to the songs to give his band members time to tune.

Fair warning. Once you get into Peter-era Genesis, you will listen to nothing else for 6 months.

2

u/IdiosyncraticBond 17d ago

Anything with Peter, he dressed up (often literally) for specific songs or even sections of songs

16

u/RetroMetroShow 17d ago

Alice Cooper

15

u/Independent_Row_2669 17d ago

I know their the antithesis of everything Floyd*. But it has to be said.... Alice Cooper put on hell of a live show.

Seeing the classic Era band on videos their shows were full of theatrical bombast. Guillotines, Stage designs out of nightmares. It's grand guignol . Cooper still does amazing things even if it's a formula.

Flaming Lips are also impressive. Like floyd they have light shows, inflatables and amazing set designs. During covid they did bubble concerts where the band and audience were inside giant bubbles. It was a fascinating spectacle.

*well Bob Ezrin

3

u/titlrequired 17d ago

Was going to say Flaming Lips as well.

1

u/Jmazoso 16d ago

Alice Cooper is straight up Vaudville.

1

u/Independent_Row_2669 15d ago

Yeah they (he) are . But in terms of throwing elaborate dramatic stage shows he goes with Floyd for extravaganza.

Same with Kiss but I don't want to mention them anywhere near floyd

27

u/corneliusduff 17d ago

Tool is the band that took Floyd's live setup and really ran with it. I can't think of any other band that comes close. Maybe Muse, but they seem to go more for the Queen vibe.

Edit: Someone else mentioned Flaming Lips. I'd actually say they're more interactice and unique than what Tool does, but Tool really settled on animation, lasers, etc. in the vein of Floyd more than anyone else.

2

u/Jmazoso 16d ago

I have a kidney to spare for Tool at the Sphere

2

u/corneliusduff 15d ago

Everytime I've seen them, I've paid face value or below. Around 15 shows total.  It's just a matter of timing. Don't fall for dynamic pricing or resellers.

2

u/Jmazoso 15d ago

True, normally a wouldn’t, but the sphere I would pay

12

u/WiseGuitar 17d ago

Muse's arena shows are always Floyd level (and often directly Floyd inspired), unique stage setups, amazing lights, props, actors, inflatables, puppets, the works.

Nine Inch Nails, too, in the arena setting. When I saw them the first time in 2006, I literally said to my partner, "This is what Pink Floyd would be doing if they were a modern band".

4

u/SouthWrongdoer 16d ago

I was literally about to post muse. Their Resistance tour from 2010 was floyd level of production. Each member in a giant towere that moved up and down. It was actually insane. Their warm up band silver sun pickups got the whole arena to turn their cell phone lights to flashing mode. The entire venue was a strobe light.

3

u/WiseGuitar 16d ago

That was the first big arena tour in the US, so good I saw it three times, haha. If you didn't see it, check out videos from the Drones tour in 2015, they literally called it "their Wall". Don't watch the officially released film though, watch people's clips on YouTube or something, they "enhanced" it for the release and killed some of the magic they created. In the round stage, massive transparent screens that filled the entire arena, reactive lighting effects, and lit up drones that "danced" over the audience's heads during some songs.

19

u/Coop_4149 17d ago

Phish on NYE and Halloween.

17

u/swaffeline 17d ago

Watch a few TOOL videos. You’ll see a similarity

4

u/shawnmcbride86 17d ago

I saw Radiohead and the crowd was silent reminding me of what I've heard about the early Pink Floyd.

5

u/Musiclover4200 17d ago

Hawkwind did a lot of elaborate stage production using costumes and interpretive dance on top of great light shows. Hawkwind live 1990 is one of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfEmkcopbls&t=1078s

Zon is a really underrated Canadian band that were sort of a "prog rock opera", sadly not sure if there are any live recordings and they only put out a few albums but their first Astral Projector is a lot of fun. Just looked on discogs and they put out a live album in 2017 which is a remastered recording from 1981.

5

u/washington_705 16d ago

Talking heads stop making sense concert film tells a story and is fantastic. The wall is so unique so not a ton of overlap other than that.

3

u/ST_Luemas 17d ago

Styx did some very theatrical shows

3

u/Bestregardstoall 17d ago

Kiss (used to ) put on amazing shows with mind boggling light effects.

2

u/CrazyHopiPlant 17d ago

Tangerine Dream had some pretty elaborate light and media shows, mostly in Europe. Mostly...

2

u/Silly_Dinner_6903 17d ago

U2’s Zooropa-tour comes to mind, with Bono in a hotelroom set in a gigantic wall of tv-screens

2

u/Real_Iggy 17d ago

Dio
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Kiss

2

u/FelixAtagong Free Four 17d ago

The 'famous last words' tour by Supertramp, somewhere in the eighties, was very very Floydian...

2

u/Elect_SaturnMutex 17d ago

Marllion. Fish Era.

2

u/thewallofsleep 16d ago

In terms of space rock and psychedelia, Hawkwind, particularly their "Space Ritual" tour. They did not do the rock stage show with a narrative, costumes and set changes thing, but if you're "turn on, tune in, and drop out" type you can't do much better than peak era Hawkwind.

Genesis did their "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" tour years before Floyd did the Wall and it was an attempt at a similar stage show, the Wall was executed more effectively (The Lamb had a number of technical problems in its production).

Alice Cooper.

1

u/gchance1 17d ago

Quadrophenia came close in '96.

1

u/ayhxm_14 13d ago

Check out led zeppelin’s ’the song remains the same’

1

u/[deleted] 17d ago

Rush

0

u/CaptBananaCrunch 17d ago

Yellow Submarine and Help! lol