Name: Top 30 Greatest Live Musical Performances Ever
Uploaded: 2025-11-22T16:55:57.000Z
Duration: 31 min 28 s
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Welcome to watchmojo and today we're counting down our picks for the top 30 greatest performances in the history of live music.

For this list, we're focusing on raw live performances, no half and half studio shows.

Adverbs of degree

I'm gonna give you my love I'm gonna give you my love number 30 guns n roses at T Mobile arena there's nothing quite like seeing your favorite band getting back together after years of radio silence on the idea.

In 2016, Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan finally let bygones be bygones and reformed to rapturous applause in the newly built T Mobile arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

A band as volatile as Guns N Roses was never gonna have an especially long shelf life, but

time has a way of healing all wounds, so to see much of the original lineup getting up there and well and truly knocking it out of the park gave the band's fans a well deserved dose of nostalgia.

Cream at the Royal Albert hall all good things must come to an end for Cream.

Three critically adored studio albums and one final coda were enough for them to call it a day.

I've been thinking so long to be where I'm going 10 tensions between singer Jack Bruce and the famously difficult Ginger Baker had gotten to a point where resolution was near impossible.

Thankfully, they did decide to go on a Farewell tour in 1968, and

their final show at the Royal Albert Hall, London, was just about as good a swan song as rock music has ever seen.

You said no strings could secure you at the station.

To say that the band was on fire would be a massive understatement.

And for as much as they probably had more great music in them, they certainly ended on a high note.

The Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade hall back in 1976, the Sex Pistol show at the Lesser Free Trade hall was by no means the most popular gig of the year, but

it may well have been the most influential.

The two gigs that the Sex Pistols played in Manchester in 1976 inspired a generation of musicians.

Without them, there'd be no Buzzcocks, no Magazine, no Smiths, no Joy Division, no New Order, no Factory Record, no Hacienda, no Manchester.

It was attended by members of some of the finest bands of the era that would follow.

Iconic groups such as Joy Division, New Order, the Smiths, the Fall, Simply Red Magazine and Buzzcocks were all represented in some way.

Johnny Rotten and company were leading the charge into a new time for music, and

their frenetic energy and abrasive sound were at their absolute peak during this concert.

In fact, they became number one because they were fantastic culturally, musically, even and in every way.

Pearl Jam @ Madison Square Garden Pearl Jam has always been regarded as an explosive live band, a compact unit musically with a frontman, Eddie Vedder, who has been known to climb several dozen feet into the air from time to time.

When it comes to their performance quality, though, it might not have gotten any better than their Madison Square garden gig in 2003.

The band was in rare form and Vedder has hardly sounded better.

Like any true great show, though, the setlist picks make for a large percentage of the final grade, and

boy did they bust out the classics with this one.

Joe Cocker at Woodstock Some of you may have heard Joe Cocker's legendary cover of the Beatles with A Little Help from My Friends from the show, but

the entire gig was so much more than one song over the Hogan.

Woodstock in 1969 was a show that exemplified the peace and love of the decade.

However, it was also a great time for soulful music, whether it was within the rock and roll, folk, funk or blues genres.

In Cocker's performance you can hear a little bit of everything, and

it all came together spectacularly well under those bright lights.

Kate Bush at Hammersmith Odeon Kate Bush is famously one of the most reclusive artists in music, and

to date her only full length shows came during her 1979 and 2014 tours.

The former saw her traverse Europe with her elaborate stage production and the latter was a residency in London's Hammersmith Apollo.

Her 1979 show in the Hammersmith Odeon, as it was then called, was a clear highlight.

Bush was in her absolute prime as a performer, moving through this early career set with several radical costume and stage design changes.

In the end, the critically acclaimed tour was so exhausting for Bush that she retired from the road for 35 years.

Thankfully, in contrast to her secretive 2014 dates, this show was filmed 24 AC DC at Riverplate AC DC could have made this list for any number of Bon Scott led shows from the 1970s, but

for our money, their 2009 gig at River Plate in Argentina was on a whole other level.

There's just something about those South American crowds.

We're sure even the band themselves was shocked by the sheer energy coming back at them for every single song.

ACDC has always been a well oiled machine in the live setting, but

even by their lofty standards they were as tight as can be on this night.

As for the set list, they barely could have done a better job at bringing out the big guns, that's for sure.

Van Halen at Veterans Memorial Coliseum the year was 1986.

It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that Van Halen was in their absolute prime.

Their new Haven show on that tour, later released as the album Live Without a Net, was just about the best example of the band you could show a newcomer to their later career stuff from the now legendary extended version of Eruption to every single one of the deeper cuts, they barely put a foot wrong.

This was also the debut performance of one Sammy Hagar, who who took vocal duties from David Lee Roth following his departure.

A legendary concert and one of the defining moments of 80s rock.

Elton John @ Dodger Stadium Elton John was truly on a different level as a Showman in the mid-70s, achieving the perfect mix of material and spectacle.

There was nothing quite quite as glamorous and extravagant as his iconic show at Dodger Stadium in 1975, though we'd be remiss if we didn't give him props for his costume.

But in the grand scheme of things, that's only the tip of the iceberg.

John and his band stormed their way through his greatest hits at the time, delivering most of them better than they even managed in the studio.

Would it be fair to call this the very best of Elton John recording of the Mall?

Bob Dylan @ the Newport Folk Festival the gig that Bob Dylan played at the Newport folk Festival in 1965 marked a very intentional break from the folk scene of the time.

Once upon a time you dress so fine through the bumps of dime in your prime.

Armed with an electric guitar and a full backing band, this was a far cry from the more reserved scene that was his spot the previous year.

Gone was the shy folk troubadour who sang of peace and positivity.

This Dylan was a far more world weary figure, but boy, could he rock.

After playing a series of rock and roll tracks, the restless gig organizers eventually persuaded him to close with an acoustic track, just for old time's sake.

Dylan agreed, offering up a beautiful version of It's All Over Now Baby Blue and It's all over now Baby Blue, a huge moment in music history.

The Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden the Rolling Stones have performed at Madison Square Garden plenty of times, and

their first performances there ensured they would always rock the house.

Toward the end of their 1969 tour of America, the Stones performed three shows in two days at the famed New York City arena, which had opened the previous year.

Although the band hadn't toured the States in three years, the wait was more than worth it.

I was born in a cross My husband Starting with a Thanksgiving Day concert, the Stones drew thousands eager to hear future classics like Jumpin Jack Flash and Sympathy for the Devil.

I'm Jumpin Jack Flash Jack Scare Reactions were outstanding, and

the band ended the'60s on a high note and only went higher from there.

We're guessing they got plenty of satisfaction from these concerts.

19 the Notorious B.I.G. at Summer Jam the Notorious B.I.GS.

his appearance at the second Summer Jam showed just how much charisma he had.

At the New Jersey Festival, the New York legend performed first with R and B group Total and then delivered his own stunning set dressed in a three piece suit and more.

It's gonna be a lot of slow singing, the flower breaking if my birthday starts ringing.

Biggie was already a star at this point, but

his Summer Jam performance was one that put him on another level.

Attendees speak about his performance like it was yesterday when Biggie performed.

The King of New York claimed his crown once and for all in 1995.

Number 18 Fleetwood Mac at Fleetwood Fleet center after decades of performing, it's hard for most artists to electrify the way they once did.

That is not the case with Fleetwood Mac, who after more than 30 years together, gave two sensational performances in two days.

At Boston's appropriately named Fleet center, now known as TD Garden.

The band went through classics like Landslide and Goyun your own Way with as much passion as when they'd first recorded them.

These concerts were immortalized in the Live in Boston album and dvd.