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[Ovi]

What's your favourite Beatles live performance? It can be a whole concert or just a song from one of the concerts. If you pick a song, you may share a youtube link. 

[Joost]

I don't have a favorite Beatles live performance. Why not? Because I think that their carreer as a live band was, in hindsight, a HUGE dissapointment. They stopped performing live before they reached their peak. Can you imagine how f*cking brilliant it would have been if The Beatles had played Woodstock in 1969 with a few backup musicians and with songs from their then most recent albums? That would've blown 'The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl' and 'Live at the BBC' out of the water so incredibly hard.

[Klang]

Interesting idea. So, what should their Woodstock set list have been? Hmmm...

 

[Joost]

Interesting idea. So, what should their Woodstock set list have been? Hmmm...

 

Aledgedly, The Beatles were invited to play Woodstock. Would've been interesting if they actually had played there.

[Klang]

Wiki:

The Beatles/John Lennon: woodstockstories.com presents two scenarios as to why The Beatles did not perform. The first is that promoters contacted John Lennon to discuss a Beatles performance at Woodstock, and Lennon said that the Beatles would not play unless there was also a spot at the festival for Yoko Ono's Plastic Ono Band, whereupon he was turned down. The website claims the more likely explanation is that Lennon wanted to play but his entry into the United States from Canada was blocked by President Richard Nixon.

Though months apart, wouldn't this have been a tremendous conclusion to the 'Let It Be' project compared to the rooftop concert?

Food for thought.

 

[nyfan(41)]

. . . They stopped performing live before they reached their peak.

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though i think john was quoted as saying they peaked as live performers before their huge fame (hamburg)
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i think any beatles fan would love to have seen them at their manic 'best' in germany. probably made punk rock look like lawrence welk 

[peterbell1]

I still love the Hollywood Bowl album. No other band has ever released a live album with that much energy.
If you isolate the Beatles' performance then, yes, it isn't that great musically, but taken as a whole the album just blows me away every time.

I also love the recording of the Atlanta concert from the 1965 US tour. The venue must have had a decent PA system, so the band can obviously hear themselves playing for what must have been the first time in years, and they really enjoy the whole show. The overall sound isn't as good as Hollywood Bowl, but the performance is much better.

01 - Twist And Shout (Live in Atlanta '65)

[Bobber]

I also love the recording of the Atlanta concert from the 1965 US tour. The venue must have had a decent PA system, so the band can obviously hear themselves playing for what must have been the first time in years, and they really enjoy the whole show.

They're tuning their guitars!

[7 of 13]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m4r17DFQLM" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m4r17DFQLM</a>

[peterbell1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m4r17DFQLM

Nice!!

[peterbell1]

The Star Club album always does it for me as well - you can tell that they really were an exciting live band by that stage. The audience seems fairly apathetic, but the band turn out some great performances.

30 - Long Tall Sally (Live at the Star Club '62)

[Bobber]

The Star Club album always does it for me as well - you can tell that they really were an exciting live band by that stage.

"We were at our best when we were playing in the dance halls of Liverpool and Hamburg. The world never saw that."

[stevie]

Shea

Ok, some of it sounds average but for the sheer historical magnitude of the event, well, it shows the Beatles at the apex of the world IMHO

[Bobber]

Shea

Ok, some of it sounds average but for the sheer historical magnitude of the event, well, it shows the Beatles at the apex of the world IMHO

In a way it was their toppermost of the poppermost.

[peterbell1]

Shea

Ok, some of it sounds average but for the sheer historical magnitude of the event, well, it shows the Beatles at the apex of the world IMHO

I wouldn't really ever listen to Shea just for the audio, especially since much of it was re-recorded or over-dubbed anyway, but I agree that it is a great gig in terms of watching it on video.

Speaking of Shea, I always thought it was weird that the 1966 show at Shea was never recorded in the same way as the 65 one was. I have seen a few photos of the gig and there's audio of five songs available, but it always gets overlooked in favour of the 65 one. I know 65 was a real historic concert - first massive stadium pop concert etc - but the '66 show had 45,000 people there so was still among their biggest ever shows.

[KelMar]

I wouldn't really ever listen to Shea just for the audio, especially since much of it was re-recorded or over-dubbed anyway, but I agree that it is a great gig in terms of watching it on video.

Speaking of Shea, I always thought it was weird that the 1966 show at Shea was never recorded in the same way as the 65 one was. I have seen a few photos of the gig and there's audio of five songs available, but it always gets overlooked in favour of the 65 one. I know 65 was a real historic concert - first massive stadium pop concert etc - but the '66 show had 45,000 people there so was still among their biggest ever shows.

I just finished watching this film for the first time in its entirety and I loved it! Of course I loved seeing the guys but the crowd shots were amazing too. So many different kinds of people; not just screaming teenagers but everyone from a preschooler to middle aged people. There were cool ones who looked like they wanted to be there and the ones who were strictly present as chaperones. And the security guys...I bet they had some really interesting stories to tell. I'm sure there were a lot of sore throats the next day, including the front man for Sounds Incorporated. LOL

[Hombre_de_ningun_lugar]

I like watching their performance in Japan (1966). It wasn't a great performance but it covered a larger part of their catalog than most of their other live shows (because of the year, obviously) and at least there weren't too much female shouts that don't allow you to listen to the music (Japanese girls seemed to be more quiet than American and European girls).

[AppleScruffy96]

Hmm...I'll have to pick Shea. Just because I always get goosebumps when Ed Sullivan presents them xD and then BAM! The crowd goes crazy and everybody's screaming and even the cops cover their ears  my favorite performance from Shea is probably I'm Down...I think you all know why...John going mad playing the keyboard/piano (always mix them up -.-) with his elbows!  Pauls scream is awesome too Okay enough 

The Beatles I'm Down - Live at the Shea Stadium

[Badgirl66]

Yes

[Ovi]

Hmm...I'll have to pick Shea. Just because I always get goosebumps when Ed Sullivan presents them xD and then BAM! The crowd goes crazy and everybody's screaming and even the cops cover their ears  my favorite performance from Shea is probably I'm Down...I think you all know why...John going mad playing the keyboard/piano (always mix them up -.-) with his elbows!  Pauls scream is awesome too Okay enough 

That is my favourite, too. . Funny, I started the topic and I forgot to post my favourite one.
I think I remember Paul saying that he was a bit nervous at Shea, then he saw John  hitting random keyboard notes and he calmed down thinking that there was not need for seriousness.