Some have mentioned Spoon...

I hate to say it, but Calexico. I've only seen them once but it was boring and I love their records. Spoon was good but not great when I saw them.

I'm having a hard time thinking of another.
Usually it's live that bands really shine.

Although, if it weren't for the whirling derevish that goes by the name of John MacIntyre, The Sea and Cake would be deadly boring.

As it is, I just watch Johnny Machine the whole set and am amazed.

phish (insert troll icon here)

This could be more of a reflection on you, not them. (Yes, I am standing up for Phish right now.)

Far too many bands are boring, rigid, unpracticed, or just sound bad live. Broadcast last week was a good example.

I'm going to add Cass McCombs and Rogue Wave to the list.

Really? Broadcast wasn't great live? That's too bad. I was really curious about their live show.

I think that the joke is that no one would ever say Phish's albums are better than their live show.

I have seen spoon many times and never thought they gave a "boring" performance. Just because a band isn't jumping off the kick drum and running around like idiots I wouldn't call them boring.

I would have to say Grandaddy

yeah...

Holy crap, are you kidding?! Calexico smokes live. I saw them open for Wilco last fall and their short set blew Wilco away - and I loved Wilco's set. You must have seen a VERY off night, or I, somehow, saw a very ON night (which I don't think is true based on a number of bootlegs of theirs I have. They certainly sound on most of the time.)

That's funny because I would and do listen to Billy Breathes and Farmhouse more than any of their live stuff, and they're among my favorite albums (of a huge list, so I won't say "very favorite.")

Definitely. While I don't love their album, it's pretty solid, and they bored me to tears live.

Really? I took the "troll' comment as though by admitting you preferred their albums, you were coming out of hiding, not expecting to find much solace here ... anyway ...

I've got to agree with you on that one, sir.

Almost all the staff from the rekkid store I work at went, and almost all of them loved it. Save for "Ominous Clouds" I was totally bored. Trish's presence onstage reminded me of times I've been onstage singing and just haven't been into it because my band was like a soggy cracker or because I couldn't hear myself. It made me happy to no longer be in a band that lacks groove & energy live.

And this is one of my fav bands I'm talking about.

My analysis: the new record is much colder and more robotic than previous material. On the album it works because they play up the robot-dance feel--e.g. Trish singing very rhythmically. The problem live was that they we playing the songs extremely loosely--especially the vocals where she was phrasing behind the beat--this resulted in a languidness that only accentuated the coldness of the songs.

Also it just didn't seem like they were into it. I had thought it was maybe because it was a Sunday night, but obviously the Saturday night Mtl show wasn't much different.

My second nomination for this category: Interpol.
Do they even like their own music?

Whoa... sorry for the long post, I was just happy to see that someone saw the show the same way as I did. They were great the other two times I saw them (!)

Oh yay!!!! "Wedding, parties, anything!" Fiiiiiiiinaaalllly!

Interpol

I was pretty underwhelmed by Steve Earle

and from the "back in the day" category...

R.E.M.; Feelies blew them off the stage.
New Order

Used to feel this way about Weezer, but then they stopped really meaning much to me after Pinkerton. But golly, they couldn't have been more boring when I saw them on the Blue tour.

Pavement around WZ bored me to tears, but this was after seeing a lot Wrens shows.

I second the 'New Order' comment. I saw them around the time when the 'Regret' single had hit. One of the most terrible shows I've ever seen - and I drove from the Philly area to somewhere in MD.

Also, Big Audio Dynamite (II) blew when I saw them live, as did Siouxsie. But both of those were more an issue of the band being WAY past their prime than how much they sucked live vs. album.

To answer the question of the thread, now that I've had a while to think about it, the answer is . . . none. I either tend to listen to bands that do it up right live (King Crimson) or don't play live at all (XTC.) I don't really appreciate bands that gyp their fans by pulling off something amazing in the studio and then slob their way through it in a live setting. If by "pulling it off" they have to rearrange the music to work live, all the better - at least that's a creative solution.

Built to Spill the greatest band to be so sorry live.

oh don't tell me this! i was going to check them out on the 21st.

i pick:
death cab
nada surf
new order (i wasn't that impressed at coachella, unfortunately)

Number 4 vote for New Order here.
Also from back in the day: The Cult. Horrible, just horrible live. Ian couldn't carry a tune if he tried.

I only saw them once, but thought they were incredible – better than the records.

Doug did jam a bit, but not enough to get boring. And the band absoloutely SLAYED. "I Would Hurt a Fly" was particularly impressive. Just awesome.

Of course, the room I saw them in was pretty special, too:
Lounge Ax.

archers of loaf - granted i only saw them once and it was near the end of a long tour but except for matt who was jumping around like a maniac they all just kinda stood there and did a lot of nothing.

enon - thunderbirds are now opened up for them last time i saw them and even though i liked some of the songs enon played i left halfway through their set.

the strokes - i saw them once and it made me never want to see them again.