No one did live music quite like rock bands and musicians in the 1960s. Let’s take a look at five of the most underrated live rock performances from the 1960s! Just keep in mind when we say “underrated”, we’re referring to the fact that a lot of younger fans may have never heard of these legendary live sets. Most of them were groundbreaking at the time they happened.
1. Muddy Waters at Newport Jazz Festival (July 3, 1960)
Muddy Waters led this set in Newport, Rhode Island with his backing band led by Otis Spann and John Lee Hooker. Waters entered the stage in full black, while his band wore entirely white. The video footage is stunning in black-and-white. Waters kicked everything off with “I Got My Brand On You”. The nine-song set ended with the apt “Goodbye Newport Blues”.
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The blues-rock icon was at his very best, and it’s shocking to learn that a riot between police and fans broke out shortly before he hit the stage. His presence commanded attention in a way that few artists have been able to do since.
2. Jerry Lee Lewis at Star-Club, Germany (April 5, 1964)
Jerry Lee Lewis’ set in Hamburg Germany was recorded for the live album Live At The Star Club, Hamburg. Few words can describe how fluid and perfect the set was. It was pure and hard rock and roll at its very best.
Lewis’ energy was on fire; it wouldn’t have been surprising if he broke the keys of the piano he was playing. It sounds proto-punk in its insanity, and it must have been something incredible to see live.
3. The Jimi Hendrix Experience at Monterey County Fairgrounds (June 18, 1967)
We just couldn’t leave out one of the most underrated and greatest live rock performances of the 1960s! This would be the famed performance in which Hendrix would light his guitar on fire.
The recorded spectacle has since become a staple piece of media in rock and roll history. The footage of the stunt was recorded by a young man in the crowd, who had never heard Hendrix before, and had only one shot left in his roll of film. Hendrix opened with “Killing Floor” and closed after nine songs with “Wild Thing”.
4. The Grateful Dead at Carousel Ballroom (February 14, 1968)
It doesn’t look like any footage of this incredible concert is available online, but the audio recording of the set is (thankfully) still available. This concert spanned two sets, starting with “Morning Dew” and ending with an encore of “In The Midnight Hour”.
It was one of The Grateful Dead’s most joyous, psychedelic, raw, and primal concerts to date. The recorded audio of the two sets was included in the Road Trip Volume 2 Number 2 live album, released decades later in 2009.
5. Big Brother And The Holding Company at Monterey County Fairgrounds (June 17, 1967)
This Janis Joplin set came the day before Jimi Hendrix’s iconic performance in Monterey, California. Big Brother And The Holding Company only played five songs, but they played the hell out of them. The band opened with a cover of “Down On Me” and finished with Big Mama Thornton’s “Ball ‘N’ Chain”.
It was a historic performance, namely for Joplin. No one had seen a young white woman perform the blues with such ferocity before. Many would say that it changed the trajectory of her career, which would sadly come to an end with her death in 1970.
Photo via YouTube screenshot from “Wild Thing (1967) (Monterey Pop Festival)” posted by user DcheJ
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