Good question. To be honest, I haven't heard
Live At The Bowl, but I heard a good number of bootlegs from that tour, and they were really "on fire" back then. So if the album is anything like those boots, that would be a definite vote for me.
Live Killers is a definite winner. Most people criticise that it is really just a bunch of songs thrown together from so many concerts that even the producers have forgotten which ones,
and that it was heavily edited. But I think the album carries a lot of the spirit of Queen, and even though it was edited and overdubbed, it does not try to hide anything. Great album, great performances, and I guess it's "that one" album you need from Queen.
Live At Wembley is another one worth listening to/watching, and worth having. In fact, it's the one that got me into Queen in the first place. It is, in every way, huge. A great performance, very over-the-top, and always mindblowing, but for some odd reason, it's not my favourite. Maybe I just heard one
Magic Tour bootleg too many...
...which leads me to
Live Magic, which is just some tracks from said tour tossed together for good measure, and not really representative. Back in the day, it was advertised as a "souvenir" for the fans who saw them live back then, and that's pretty much what it is.
Return Of The Champions is much better than I expected, but I think it doesn't live up to the "original" live albums. It has a lot of "Queen" moments on it (such as the performance of
Hammer To Fall), but somehow the final spark is missing.
So, my vote goes for
Live Killers. It really has the greatest possible amount of Queen crammed into two disks, and for some reason, it always puts me right there when I listen to it. It's edgy, weird, scary, funny and involving.
