The band Lars Ulrich and Gene Simmons agree are the best live act
A good live band like Metallica isn’t something that occurs naturally. No one wakes up and wants to put on shows like that without input from others; it’s something you inherit from the best possible experiences.
Find me any self-proclaimed lover of music that doesn’t have a memory of a stellar live show that changed everything for them, because listening to music in isolation is great, it can be meditative, intimate and help you establish a unique relationship with a piece of art, but when you then experience that music in a crowded room and are connected to others thanks to the power of sound, there’s nothing quite like it.
You have the strange experience of feeling connected to strangers that can make gigs so great, but there’s more to it than that. You also have bands who bring different elements to their live shows in order to shock, stun and leave crowds in awe. Bands like Kiss and Metallica are able to add fireworks and lighting, so people aren’t just experiencing the music with their ears, but their eyes as well.
“Kiss was the first one to use pyro,” said Geezer Butler, recalling touring with the band. “You’ve never seen that. I mean, the shock of that. And they were supporting us, so they weren’t even headlining. I went out and watched them. There were all these flames coming out of the stage and everything. It was like ‘Oh my God, what’s going on here?’”
So, if you have Kiss and Metallica being praised by others as some of the greatest live acts on the planet, it begs the question, ‘Who inspired them to put on such big shows?’, because as previously mentioned, this passion for the flamboyant isn’t something which just comes naturally, people go to gigs, fall in love with the magic of it, and become obsessed with attempting to replicate as much.
Band members Lars Ulrich and Gene Simmons both attribute their adoration of live music to Deep Purple, a band famous for putting on some of the most incredible rock concerts in the history of sound. There were very few people who went to their gigs, which were a combo of chaos and coolness, and didn’t come away wanting to try and emulate it in some way.
Gene Simmons was particularly drawn to the playing style of Ritchie Blackmore. “To those of us who know, Ritchie Blackmore means the world, he’s got the goods,” said the Kiss bassist. “Ritchie Blackmore on stage sort of had the right thing that attracted our eyes because when people go to your concerts they listen with their eyes first, (not so much) the ears. That’s why visuals are so important, lights and all the rest of that. But Ritchie dressed in black and had the Strat, did all the physicality.”
Meanwhile, Lars Ulrich took a step back and admired the whole band. When he focused on the individual members of Deep Purple, he was blown away by how much personality each member had. All of these efforts came together and made what was, without a doubt, one of the best live bands the Metallica member had ever laid eyes on.
“It was spring 1973, and Purple were promoting Who Do We Think We Are. I remember Ritchie Blackmore throwing his guitar up into the lighting rig, rubbing it against the speaker cabinets and playing it with his ass,” he said.
Concluding, “Jon Lord was waving the beast around, Ian Gillan was hidden behind a curtain of hair playing the bongos, Roger Glover was holding the beat down, while Ian Paice was sitting back there with his specs on doing his thing. I had never seen anything like it before. I was completely and utterly blown away. As you can imagine, it was the loudest, coolest thing I’d ever seen.”
