25 Greatest Live Bands Now!

Sure, you can stay at home and download music to your ears' content. But sometimes it's all about the Show. Whether in a dingy club, on a muddy festival field, or in a shining stadium, these artists are guaranteed to set off rock'n'roll pyrotechnics, literal or otherwise.

WRITTEN BY: Charles Aaron, Andrew Beaujon, Doug Brod, Rob Kemp, Melissa Maerz, and Brian Raftery

25
COMETS ON FIRE
Years back, with Ethan Miller's roaring guitar, Utrillo Kushner's splattering drums, and Noel Harmonson's disorienting Echoplex, Comets on Fire raged like a belligerent action painter hurling glops of blue, black, red, green, purple, and yellow in your face. It was, um, jarring but nothing you really needed to experience again. Now, after injecting some nuance and texture, the band, joined by folk-drone guitarist Ben Chasny, gradually unveil their kaleidoscopic sound rather than just blinding you with it. And you can't stop staring, no matter how loud the colors get.
BEST MOMENT: The next day, when the ringing in your ears stops.

24
THE MARS VOLTA
The Mars Volta barely acknowledge their audience, admittedly a distraction when your songs have roughly two dozen "movements" apiece, but somehow that aloofness is more engaging than any overpaid legend trying to see which side of the arena can clap louder. Chalk that up to singer Cedric Bixler Zavala's mutant dance moves or to a band that always manages to be tighter than guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's trousers.
BEST MOMENT: You know that part in "Drunkship of Lanterns" where everything drops away but weird belching noises, then the drummer slowly brings it back, and then Bixler Zavala wails like Robert Plant, and you suddenly understand what your loser uncle meant when he said you had to see Zeppelin to understand how amazing they were? That.

23
AFI
Davey Havok has conquered the fabric of time and space -- just notice how whenever he jumps into the crowd, he reappears, Captain Kirk–like, back onstage. And he jumps into the audience a lot, a good way to remind you that, while AFI managed to look like one of the biggest bands in the world long before they were one, their connection with their fans is absolute. So when dragged along boyfriends lift their lighters ironically during the "Morningstar" interlude, they're quickly put in their place. Also, you gotta love between-song patter along the lines of "Thank you for being so vivacious tonight."
BEST MOMENT: Havok stands on audience members' hands during the set closer "Totalimmortal," and what starts off resembling a fascist rally (taped Gregorian moans augmented by crowd chanting) begins to look a bit like church.

22
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
Have you ever watched a movie detective chase someone through a crowded nightclub and thought, "C'mon, that's not what rock shows are really like"? Well, LCD Soundsystem shows are exactly like rock shows in the movies -- lights blind the audience, the sound is deafening, the band barely moves, and the singer looks as though he does something else for a living (say, minor-league hockey team equipment manager). And it's really hard to push through the crowd members, their arms outstretched, eyes closed, bodies vibrating more than dancing. For some reason, when frontdude (and DFA label mogul) James Murphy gets wasted and makes fun of them, they like it even more.
BEST MOMENT: Murphy -- and this is not something we say lightly -- is actually pretty good on the cowbell. But don't shout "More cowbell!" He can't hear you, and "Beat Connection" is better for it.

21
AGAINST ME!
Matted hair, inflamed faces, black jeans and T-shirts soaked with sweaty grime. Wry, woozy grins. Spirited banter with the pit jockeys down front. When Against Me! take the stage, they look like they just drove ten desperate hours in a van to rock you arseways, then buy you a pint and crash on your floor after a red-eyed debate about what the hell it means to call yourself an anarchist after opening for Green Day in football stadiums. Then they wake up, start mainlining El Pico, and do it all over again.
BEST MOMENT: When the music drops out on "Sink, Florida, Sink" and the whole place explodes with one voice: "They make all the right reasons to fuck it up / You're gonna fuck it up / Whoa whoa-oh-oh-oh-ohhh!"