Bands/artists you never got to see live in their heyday, but would've liked to.

Good observation about the NYD’s, @edcyn (The Sex Pistols also sucked live). When I was living in NYC in 1982 I saw Jerry Nolan’s pink Ludwig drumset in a pawn shop. Guess he needed a quick fix.

@larsman: Seeing The Beatles live was not about actually hearing them (they were barely audible when I saw them in San Francisco in ’65), but about the entire experience. I was about 10 yards away from John Lennon, and seeing him up close brought him down to human level for me. By the way, though it may be sacrilege to say it, they were not that good a band live. Honest. Now NRBQ, THERE was a great live band.

I actually saw Them in 1966, on their last U.S. tour with Van Morrison in the group. They were pretty darn great, tough R & B. What The Stones were unsuccessfully trying to sound like. Also that year The Coasters, who had a crackerjack 3-piece white band (they sounded as good as Booker T & The MG’s, high praise in my world). Not so good imo were the doors (lower case their choice, ala e.e. cummings), whom I saw in ’68.

I somehow never saw Moby Grape live, damnit. I also missed Merle Haggard, but have a good friend who saw a mid-70’s show of his at The Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California. We knew the guy doing the sound that night (he was our band’s sound guy in ’71-2), who asked my friend if he wanted to meet Merle. He took him onto Merle’s tour bus, were they found Merle’s band sitting around the kitchenette table, sharing the huge pile of blow in it’s center. ;-)

Though I did see and hear a lot of those listed here (Beatles, Hendrix, Cream, The Who with Keith Moon, Janis Joplin, Jeff Beck with Ron Wood and Rod Stewart, Johnny Cash, Albert King, Big Joe Turner with The Blasters, Mike Bloomfield and Buddy Miles in The Electric Flag---fantastic!, plenty of others), I was born too late to see Elvis with Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and D.J. Fontana (Billy Swan told me that in 1955 he saw them perform on the back of a flatbed truck in Tennessee) and The Rock ’n’ Roll Trio (Johnny Burnette and his brother Dorsey with guitarist Paul Burlinson. On tape at least the greatest of the Rockabilly bands.).

I feel very fortunate in having experienced NRBQ live, twice. When David Sanborn had them on his TV show, he introduced them as the best Rock ’n’ Roll band in the world. I thought that was The Stones claim ;-) . Saw them, they sucked. Also fortunate in having seen Dave Edmunds numerous times (he plays guitar like Keith Richards wishes he could)---solo and in his group with Nick Lowe Rockpile, Ry Cooder (as a member of Little Village. OMG ;-) and David Lindley.

And though I’ve seen The Band and Dylan, only separately, not together (I know two guys who saw Dylan with The Hawks in ’65 at The San Jose Civic Auditorium. Damn ;-) . I would love to have seen and heard Danny Gatton live, but he never made it out to the west coast (and is now dead). I’m holding out hope of seeing Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives, imo the current best band in the world.