Mike Masuri – Literatur, Film, Kultur und Politik

For a music fan like me, a concert experience in a small club or a huge concert hall is and always will be something exceptional, an impressive pleasure. Anyone familiar with a band’s studio albums will quickly notice the difference compared to a live concert. Good bands manage to demonstrate their skills in front of an audience, and sometimes they surpass themselves and deliver unforgettable musical performances. Some of these magical moments have been immortalized on live albums that eclipse the studio versions. Famous bands and musicians such as Queen, Bruce Springsteen, and The Rolling Stones have often thrilled tens of thousands of fans at their live shows and brought stadiums to a boil. Festivals such as Woodstock in 1969 and Live Aid in London in 1985 became milestones in music history.

In my selection of the 10 best live albums, I have used personal preferences and favourites. The list should not be understood as a ranking, and it is just a tiny selection from all the remarkable live recordings in history. It is much more an emotional and personal choice, linked to wonderful concert experiences, and provides an insight into my taste in music.

Bob Dylan at Budokan, Japan. 1978
In my opinion, this live album by the world-famous folk musician is one of his best recordings. It was recorded in 1978 during his world tour at the famous Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo, where The Beatles had also played several concerts in front of Japanese audiences. Almost all the songs that made Dylan famous – Mr. Tambourine Man, Like a Rolling Stone, I Shall Be Released, Blowin’ in the Wind, and All Along the Watchtower—can be found on this album, which has thus become a “best of” collection. Dylan did not have any more massive hits in his long career after that. The band members on this tour were the most prominent American live musicians of the 1970s. A real treat for Dylan fans and anyone who wants to become one.

Sting: Bring on the Night. 1986
Gordon Sumner, alias Sting, left his youth band, The Police, with whom he enjoyed great success, in 1983 and began his solo career. In 1985, he released his legendary debut solo album entitled The Dream of the Blue Turtles, which is one of his best studio albums ever. For the world tour that followed this release, he hired some of the most brilliant jazz and pop musicians of the time: Kenny Kirkland on keyboards, Branford Marsalis on saxophone, Omar Hakim on drums, Darryl Jones on bass… a true supergroup. The recordings were made at concerts in Paris, Rome, and Arnhem. The recordings were made at concerts in Paris, Rome, and Arnhem in the Netherlands and are simply world class, with many jazzy passages, a driving beat, wonderful harmonies, playful yet rhythmically impressive. The songs are a firework display of creativity and a testament to the talent of this great British musician, who continues to thrill his fans to this day. My favorites are We Work the Black Seam, Love is the Seventh Sea, and Moon over Bourbon Street.

Linkin Park: Live in Texas. 2003
The Californian alternative rock band Linkin Park, founded in 1996 by the congenial keyboardist and singer Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon, and Brad Delson, experienced a meteoric rise in just a few years with their unusual mix of hip hop, metal, rap, and alternative rock. Together with charismatic singer Chester Bennington, the US band celebrated great success with their memorable and powerful songs. Their second studio album, “Meteora,” was a sensational hit with magnificent tracks such as “Faint,” “Numb,” “Breaking the Habit,” “Somewhere I Belong,” and “From the Inside,” which quickly became world-famous and turned into hits. In 2003, the band played several gigs in Texas on their US tour in front of an enthusiastic audience, which was mixed into a truly outstanding live album. The voice of singer Chester, who took his own life in 2017 at the age of 41, goes straight to the heart, unmistakable and powerful. One of the best rock albums,

Dire Straits: Alchemy, 1984
The British blues rock and country folk band Dire Straits, featuring the Knopfler brothers Mark and David, John Illsley on bass, and Pick Withers on drums, enjoyed great success in the 1980s with their music and albums. At the height of their career in 1983, they recorded a live double album at the historic Hammersmith Odeon in London, which has become one of their finest works. The unique atmosphere and artistry of the musicians can be felt and heard in every note. Well-known hits such as Romeo and Juliet, Tunnel of Love, Telegraph Road, and the sensational Sultans of Swing, featuring one of Mark Knopfler’s best guitar solos, reach a phenomenal dimension here that far surpasses the studio recordings. And Knopfler’s legendary Going Home from the Local Hero soundtrack is a song that will stick in your head.

Van Morrison: Live at the Grand Opera House, Belfast 1983
In practically the same year as Dire Straits, Northern Irish R&B musician Van Morrison also recorded a sensational concert at the opera house in his hometown of Belfast. The live recording of this concert, featuring outstanding accompanying musicians Pee Wee Ellis on saxophone, Mark Isham on synthesizer and trumpet, David Hayes on bass, and excellent backing singers, is a highlight of Morrison’s very long and multifaceted musical career. The live versions of his hits, such as Into the Music, Dweller on the Threshold,  She Gives Me Religion, and the wonderful Irish folk song Full Force Gale are songs, that I can’t hear enough. Van Morrison is and always has been an exceptional artist, and I have seen him live twice, but this concert holds a special place in my heart.

U2: Under a Red Blood Sky. 1983
It’s incredible anyway when you consider the founding year of this Irish band, 1976, and see the same band today in 2025, with the same lineup: Bono, The Edge (David Evans), Larry Mullen, and Adam Clayton on bass still playing their unique songs on international stages—almost 50 years after their formation. In 1983, this special quartet from Ireland recorded one of the best rock albums of all time: War. The songs on this great album are now U2 classics: Sunday, Bloody Sunday, New Year’s Day, 40, Red Lights, and Surrender. On their subsequent US tour, they recorded their first and most legendary live album and played additional songs from previous albums, such as Party Girl,  Gloria, and The Electric Go, which sent the audience into a frenzy. U2 went on to enjoy impressive success and conquer the charts for years after this album. For me, Under a Red Blood Sky is and remains their best live album, a musical legacy of one of the best bands of the 20th century.

Billy Joel: Songs from the Attic. 1981
New York pianist and singer Billy Joel began his music career in the early 1970s. With his 1973 album “The Piano Man,” he reached the charts and achieved international success that continues to this day. Billy Joel is one of the greatest and best American musicians, who has composed many magnificent songs and whose concerts are an indescribable experience. One of his best live albums is Songs from the Attic, a collection of live performances from a US tour, featuring unreleased ballads, rock and pop songs, with blues and jazz elements, and wonderful melodies such as Summer Highland Falls, Miami 2017, Captain Jack, She’s Got a Way and Say Goodbye to Hollywood. The live recording of The Ballad of Billy the Kid is a masterpiece and showcases Joel’s mastery of the piano. Or the song Everybody Loves You Now, an absolute earworm that you won’t forget. His creative output over the past fifty years is comparable only to that of the great American composers such as George Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael, Irving Berlin, or Paul Anka.

Esbjörn Svensson Trio : Live in London, 2018
I had seen many jazz trios live. For a long time, I loved the recordings of the Oscar Peterson Trio, until I heard the Swedish trio E.S.T led by the talented pianist Esbjörn Svensson with his colleagues Dan Berglund on bass and Magnus Öström on drums in the early 2000s and was enchanted. The jazz played by this masterful trio was unlike anything heard before, and it formed a new musical dimension of jazz. The live album, which they had recorded at a concert in London in 2005, was released in 2018, ten years after the untimely death of pianist Esbjörn Svensson, as a tribute to his magical talent. It is almost impossible to describe these instrumental pieces in words; new vocabulary would have to be invented: magical, sensual, wild, energetic, impetuous and tender, melodic and dissonant, tactful and experimental. Music that takes you to unknown spheres, an absolute masterpiece.

Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense. 1984
Stop Making Sense is not just a live album by this post-punk, new wave, avant-funk, and rock band from New York, led by the versatile frontman David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth, and Chris Frantz. The Talking Heads were formed in 1975 and quickly became known outside New York. In 1985, two years after their impressive album Speaking in Tongues, they filmed a concert movie with American director Jonathan Demme on a US tour, which won numerous awards. The film features all the tracks on the live album, making it a treat for the eyes and ears. The band’s greatest hits: Psycho Killer, Once in a Lifetime, Take Me to the River, This Must Be the Place, and Genius of Love—sound even better and more intense live. With this work, the Talking Heads created one of the best live performances on film, which, along with Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz with The Band from 1976, is one of my favorites.

Konstantin Wecker: Konzerte 90. 1999
The German Bob Dylan, as I call Konstantin Wecker, has long been a musical icon in his homeland, an artistic berserker, a charismatic stage performer, and an outstanding singer-songwriter. The critical musician from Munich has composed uncomfortable, honest, sensual, melancholic, and satirical songs and performed them on the piano and with various bands in numerous concerts. I have seen this poetic singer live twice myself and was thrilled by his show and performance each time. His lyrics are intelligent, moving, and always apt, sometimes political, sometimes humorous, sometimes thoughtful, always passionate and beautiful. On this album, he has compiled recordings of his live performances in Germany in the 1990s, which highlight the quality of his music and mark him as one of the greatest German-speaking artists.

Mike Masuri Oct 2025