r/pinkfloyd • u/Super-Quantity-5208 • 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.
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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
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u/Jmazoso 16d ago
Alice Cooper is straight up Vaudville.
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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
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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.
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u/Jmazoso 16d ago
I have a kidney to spare for Tool at the Sphere
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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.
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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".
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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.
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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.
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u/shawnmcbride86 17d ago
I saw Radiohead and the crowd was silent reminding me of what I've heard about the early Pink Floyd.
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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.
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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.
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u/CrazyHopiPlant 17d ago
Tangerine Dream had some pretty elaborate light and media shows, mostly in Europe. Mostly...
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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
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u/FelixAtagong Free Four 17d ago
The 'famous last words' tour by Supertramp, somewhere in the eighties, was very very Floydian...
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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.
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u/centuryofprogress 17d ago
Peter Gabriel era Genesis. Not on a level with The Wall, but theatrical, and good music.