Mrrzy:

"I guess I should clarify: I don't enjoy live music even when everything goes RIGHT..."

Hmmm... Sounds to me like an expectation problem. My high school math teacher came up with this formula: "Satifaction = Reality / Expectation". If, for example, your expectation was given a value of 10, and the reality only came up to 3, your level of satifaction is going to be 0.3, when "it was okay" = 1.0.

When you listen to recorded music, you have the perfectly balanced music and voices filling your home, without any of the sweaty, breathing, clumsy bodies that go with it (I know you don't believe in angels, so this next bit comes with tongue firmly planted in cheek), almost like the songs of angels -- or at least, perfect human beings. When you come face to face with the reality, you're disapointed.

Or could it be that you feel hemmed in by the audience -- if, for example, you sense that others around you don't have the same reaction to the music that you do, that 'interupts' your pleasure?

If you want to get over this feeling, maybe you could try taking part in a friend's informal song gathering at their home... taking part with 'live' music not as a performance, but as just something nice to do together, as friends.

Maybe that would temper your expections of a 'real' performance.

Just a thought.