Top Female Performer You've Seen Live

josevolution

Annie Lenox
Chrissy hynde
Joan Jett
Florence chick
Soussie & the banshees

g under p

josevolution wrote: »

Annie Lenox
Chrissy hynde
Joan Jett
Florence chick
Soussie & the banshees

I think it's Florence and something band. They opened for U2 on the 360 Tour down here in Miami Sun Life Stadium. I was in the stands couldn't see too much of the band or had never heard of them. Sixty minutes of music they were average/ok.

Peace

oftenreading

g under p wrote: »

oftenreading wrote: »

brianlux wrote: »

June Carter Cash. Fantastic!

Crystal Gayle. What a voice!

Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club). Terrific bass player, good singer.

The Go Go's. Early on, before these ladies were well known, they were more punk than pop and they kicked ass. What a group!

Debora Iyall (Romeo Void). Excellent singer, cool stage presence.

June Tyson (dancer/singer in Sun Ra's Arkestra). A lovely lady and fantastic dancer.

Sharon Isben. Superb guitarist.

Lydia Pence (Cold Blood). Nothing cold about this hot singer.

Jeannie Hoffman. (pianist/singer for the Jeannie Hoffman Trio. Back in the early 70's, a buddy and I used to go almost every week to see the Jeannie Hoffmann trio play in this little club on Van Ness in San Francisco. During regular hours, the band played mostly covers and Hoffman's voice and piano playing were superb. We got to know the band and bar keep well enough to stick around after hours and that's when things really got delicious- the band would jam and improvise like crazy. That was so cool!

One of my biggest musical regrets is not going to see Talking Heads when they were still around.

I was lucky to see them on the Speaking in Tongues Tour at the Hampton Coliseum Hampton VA with half of the venue closed off. Then went to Denny's late for work as a waiter. Then later in the morning on my graveyard shift guess who sits in my section to wait on him? Yeah David Byrne, he wine and a salad. He didn't believe me that I was at the show till I opened my uniform to show him my yellow no sleeve tour shirt. He laughed then I told him he owed me an autograph, he then preceded to give me one. That made my night along with a great great intimate show, never knew that would be their last tour.

Peace

Made your night? Would have made my year!

iammine16

Florence + The Machine at Bridge School blew me away. Also Heart and Fiona Apple were both great live as well

brianlux

oftenreading wrote: »

One of my biggest musical regrets is not going to see Talking Heads when they were still around.

I wish I'd seen Talking Heads early on as well but I did see the expanded group in 1982 that included the amazing guitarist, Adrian Belew, with Bernie Worrell on keyboards and Steve Scales on Conga. David Byrne was intense- so much energy.

And to make the show even better, the opening band was Black Uhuru which included another great lady performers- singer Sandra "Puma" Jones who, sadly, died of breast cancer and only lived to be 36. She definitely belongs on my list here.

g under p

brianlux wrote: »

oftenreading wrote: »

One of my biggest musical regrets is not going to see Talking Heads when they were still around.

I wish I'd seen Talking Heads early on as well but I did see the expanded group in 1982 that included the amazing guitarist, Adrian Belew, with Bernie Worrell on keyboards and Steve Scales on Conga. David Byrne was intense- so much energy.

And to make the show even better, the opening band was Black Uhuru which included another great lady performers- singer Sandra "Puma" Jones who, sadly, died of breast cancer and only lived to be 36. She definitely belongs on my list here.

Wow, that must have been one hell of a show. Now I wish to have seen BH in their hey day, Brian do you know if Sly and Robbie played at that show? I know they have played their bass and drums on albums but I don't know if they toured with BH.

Bernie Worrell if I can recall was with Parliament Funkadelic or started the band. He's also a exceptional player. Puma Jones was so good on all the albums I have of Black Uhuru, I can only settle for the live albums I have.

Peace

brianlux

g under p wrote: »

brianlux wrote: »

oftenreading wrote: »

One of my biggest musical regrets is not going to see Talking Heads when they were still around.

I wish I'd seen Talking Heads early on as well but I did see the expanded group in 1982 that included the amazing guitarist, Adrian Belew, with Bernie Worrell on keyboards and Steve Scales on Conga. David Byrne was intense- so much energy.

And to make the show even better, the opening band was Black Uhuru which included another great lady performers- singer Sandra "Puma" Jones who, sadly, died of breast cancer and only lived to be 36. She definitely belongs on my list here.

Wow, that must have been one hell of a show. Now I wish to have seen BH in their hey day, Brian do you know if Sly and Robbie played at that show? I know they have played their bass and drums on albums but I don't know if they toured with BH.

Bernie Worrell if I can recall was with Parliament Funkadelic or started the band. He's also a exceptional player. Puma Jones was so good on all the albums I have of Black Uhuru, I can only settle for the live albums I have.

Peace

YES, they did! Sly and Robbie played with Black Uhuru and were so amazing I can't even find the right words. Watching that band was total body and mind groove.

And yes, Bernie Worrell was a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic and he was great. Really funky keyboard playing that fit that T.H. "Remain in Light" era to a tee. It seemed like he was having a great time too. And it was fun too see Steve Scales play congas because I'd seen him with a Hoboken band, The Bongos, around the same time.

That whole show just blew my mind. The afternoon before the show I had (accidentally) parked illegally and was towed. The parking ticket, towing and garage fees cost me a week's wages but that show was so amazing I didn't think about the car for one second.

g under p

That's so cool that you got a Big Bang for your bucks!

I'll tell ya I went down to Kingston, Jamaica with my friends to recording sessions of my musician friend Micheal Franti. He was in the process of recording his then upcoming 2006 album Yell Fire. Well my friends and I watched Sly And Robbie, Micheal and his band Spearhead worked their magic in creating rhythms (riddim) of reggae in the studios. Those guys were so good at what they do it was such a treat to see it on the island and city of my birth was so special to me.

The album turned out to be great, my second favorite of Michael with its booming bass and drums courtesy of Sly And Robbie.

Speaking of reggae....here's another female Frontwoman like Puma Jones I've seen....

http://youtu.be/lUOC2o8XR6Y

Natalie Pa‘apa’a Frontwoman of Blue King Brown.....

Began Her music career as a street percussionist, as well as with a band called Skin, before forming Blue King Brown. They opened for Michael Franti and Spearhead back in 2006, I did 3 city tour with them through VA. Mainly a roots, reggae band out of Australia with about 8 members, excellent musicians.

They're coming back to me one by one.

Peace

brianlux

g under p wrote: »

That's so cool that you got a Big Bang for your bucks!

I'll tell ya I went down to Kingston, Jamaica with my friends to recording sessions of my musician friend Micheal Franti. He was in the process of recording his then upcoming 2006 album Yell Fire. Well my friends and I watched Sly And Robbie, Micheal and his band Spearhead worked their magic in creating rhythms (riddim) of reggae in the studios. Those guys were so good at what they do it was such a treat to see it on the island and city of my birth was so special to me.

The album turned out to be great, my second favorite of Michael with its booming bass and drums courtesy of Sly And Robbie.

Speaking of reggae....here's another female Frontwoman like Puma Jones I've seen....

http://youtu.be/lUOC2o8XR6Y

Natalie Pa‘apa’a Frontwoman of Blue King Brown.....

Began Her music career as a street percussionist, as well as with a band called Skin, before forming Blue King Brown. They opened for Michael Franti and Spearhead back in 2006, I did 3 city tour with them through VA. Mainly a roots, reggae band out of Australia with about 8 members, excellent musicians.

They're coming back to me one by one.

Peace

Wow- cool story G!

corduroy10

Cat Power. I know Chan has a reputation for being a bit of a flake on stage (she's getting better about that over the years) but when's she's "on" she's amazing.

Wobbie

Thirty Bills Unpaid wrote: »

I was at the VH1 Rock Honours in Las Vegas where Gretchen Wilson played Barracuda with Alice in Chains. It was freaking awesome. If you haven't seen this video... you need to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqQkECIn738

They performed it as a tribute to Heart which came on afterwards and played 4 songs (these gals are the queens of female rockers!).

I remember that!

What ever happened to Gretchen Wilson?

Thirty Bills Unpaid

imalive wrote: »

Thirty Bills Unpaid wrote: »

I was at the VH1 Rock Honours in Las Vegas where Gretchen Wilson played Barracuda with Alice in Chains. It was freaking awesome. If you haven't seen this video... you need to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqQkECIn738

They performed it as a tribute to Heart which came on afterwards and played 4 songs (these gals are the queens of female rockers!).

I remember that!

What ever happened to Gretchen Wilson?

I honestly have no clue and I didn't want to profess to with a Google search. I wasn't necessarily a fan and really didn't know much about her other before she rocked it with AIC that night.

When we arrived at the airport, we were waiting for our luggage and my buddy said, "Look at that line-up!" It was ZZ Top, Heart, Genesis, and Ozzy Osbourne.

I laughed at him and said that there as obviously something up and that was not the actual line-up. A guy beside us said it was and told us of the VH1 Rock Honours event (which I knew nothing about).

We immediately went and bought tickets and what a great evening. Robin Williams introduced Genesis and with technical difficulties before they could begin playing... we got an improve for about 30 minutes. It was great!

Billy Bob Thornton introduced ZZ Top with Nickleback playing Sharp Dressed Man as a tribute.
Cameron Diaz introduced Heart with AIC and Wilson playing Barracuda (best song of the night).
Robin Williams introduced Genesis with Keane playing That's All.
Jada Pinkett Smith and Criss Angel introduced Ozzy with Queens of the Stone Age playing Paranoid.

3 hours of rock awesomeness. One of my more favourable evenings at a live music event.

HughFreakingDillon

has anyone mentioned Courtney Love yet? :-O

facepollution

paulonious wrote: »

has anyone mentioned Courtney Love yet? :-O

Courtney put on an incredible show when I saw Hole at Glastonbury back in '99, it was during the Celebrity Skin tour, and she fucking owned the place.

Best live female vocalist I've seen though is Skin from Skunk Anansie, I'm not sure how well known they are outside of Europe, not only does she have amazing stage presence, but her vocals are absoluteluy STUNNING, check it out around the 3 minute mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT2ww673WxU

HesCalledDyer

Morcheeba (Skye Edward, vox)
Howling Bells (Juanita Stein, vox/guitar)
Tracy Chapman
Duffy

Haven't really seen a lot of female artists live. Saw Sleater-Kinney a couple times with PJ but I can't freakin' stand them. Musically they're okay but Corin Tucker's voice makes my damn skin crawl.

Thirty Bills Unpaid

paulonious wrote: »

has anyone mentioned Courtney Love yet? :-O

Have you seen her acoustic cover of Jeremy?

Horrible. Embarrassing really.

steeler4life

PJ_Soul wrote: »

I never thought about it before, but I just realized, to my surprise, that I've never seen a female performer in concert by choice. I guess I must have seen a few at festivals, but can't remember. And I saw Tegan and Sara open for a band once, and I hated them a lot.

I'm sorta in the same boat. I've only ever seen one female performer that I can remember, barely, and it is Grace Potter live at Farm Aid and didn't like her music that much. I almost saw St Vincent open for The Black Keys but wasn't able to make it to the show. I love her music and I've only heard great things about her live. I really want to see her live.

hrd2imgn

Gwen Stefani was great with no doubt

Taylor Swift was actually really good, and I mean it.

JH6056

This thread makes me SOOOO HAPPY!!!! And much to my amazement, just about everyone I'd mention has been mentioned, including people I didn't expect others to say, like Skin from Skunk Anansie or even Courtney Love (I don't like what I've seen of her as a person, but the Live Through This shows I saw were excellent).

The original question asked who was the top female performer we've seen, so my top list first but there are so many honorable mentions...

Top ABSOLUTE BEST female performers ever I've seen is like a 9-way tie:

Patti Smith
Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (totally ridiculously mesmerizing)
Cassandra Wilson (on her Blue Light Til Dawn tour)
Ani DiFranco
Janelle Monae
Ricki Lee Jones
Sinead O'Connor
PJ Harvey
Lauryn Hill (when she was still in the Fugees)

I've actually seen all of them multiple times (except Ricki Lee Jones) and they were all just... breath was taken away and mind was blown. By all.

Seriously honorable mention also goes to all of the following, who on a great night were also mindblowing:

The Kills (Alison Mosshart)
St. Vincent
Skin of Skunk Anansie
Lorde
Diamanda Galas
Sa Roc (up and coming Atlanta hip hop artist - excellent)
Queen Latifah back in the "Ladies First" days
Sleater Kinney
Natalie Merchant (esp in the original 10,000 Maniacs line up, whirling around)
Courtney Love (esp on Live Through This tour)
Babes in Toyland
Chaka Khan
Chrissie Hynde in the original Pretenders line up (even though she gave me the finger as I took a pic - damn I wish I still had that photo!)
Florence Welch (Florence & the Machine)


And in the "I only saw a few songs but was impressed with what little I saw" category:

HAIM

Lastly, in the "I haven't seen her live yet but I'm really excited to cuz I bet I'll add her to this list" category:

FKA Twiggs

morello

Tim Simmons wrote: »

BrainofBGA wrote: »

Out of curiosity anyone seen PJ Harvey. I have one of her albums- Stories from the City....

I saw her open twice for U2 and she was fantastic both nights.

PJH was my favourite artist for many years before I got on this PJ buzz & she is fabulous live!! I've seen her 4 times - London x2 & Auckland x2.

I've seen Cat Power twice, once she was 'on' once not so.

Saw Courtney/Hole at a festival back in the mid 90s

Seeing Sinead at a festival here in March(as long as I get a ticket...)

Saw Florence & the Machine a few years ago.

Want to see Patti Smith & Tori Amos.

Beth Gibbons from Portishead's voice blows me away!!!