Best Concert/Worst Concert you've ever been to...........

[Motor City Sonics]

Best - Paul McCartney, Comerica Park, 2011  -    How many times do you get to see any of the Beatles.   But it wasn't just the historic thing, he was absolutely terrific.  Never left a concert in a better mood and I've seen Prince about 20 times and he always blew me away.    69 years old at the time, over 3 hour show and the energy kept building.   

 

Worst - Evan Dando (Lemonheads), Blind Pig Ann Arbor, 1995 or 96 --   Evan was a very very nice guy.  I am sure he still is.  But Evan was deep into drugs and he nodded off in mid song several times.   Its not that I was disappointed, but I was actually worried about him.    Never have seen an artist crash and burn like that live.  I've seen clips of Gene Ween destroying his rep on stage - drugs again.      Supposed to do the drugs AFTER the show.  

Edited October 29, 2024 by Motor City Sonics

[gehringer_2]

22 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Best - Paul McCartney, Comerica Park, 2011  -    How many times do you get to see any of the Beatles.   But it wasn't just the historic thing, he was absolutely terrific.  Never left a concert in a better mood and I've seen Prince about 20 times and he always blew me away.    69 years old at the time, over 3 hour show and the energy kept building.   

 

Worst - Evan Dando (Lemonheads), Blind Pig Ann Arbor, 1995 or 96 --   Evan was a very very nice guy.  I am sure he still is.  But Evan was deep into drugs and he nodded off in mid song several times.   Its not that I was disappointed, but I was actually worried about him.    Never have seen an artist crash and burn like that live.  I've seen clips of Gene Ween destroying his rep on stage - drugs again.      Supposed to do the drugs AFTER the show.  

Pop concert would probably be Joni Mitchell at Hill Auditorium late 70's. Small venue, a good part of the concert was acoustic, we we in the about the 5th row. Absolute worst was Gato Barbieri, at the Michigan Theatre. He brought sound equipment more suitable for Shea Stadium and just shattered everyone's eardrums with boring riffs that were so loud you couldn't make out the notes anyway! 

 

Edited October 29, 2024 by gehringer_2

[romad1]

Best concert:  TV Girl last September.  Saw it with my daughter and her friend and captured a lot of her energy in enjoying it.  The vibe was great, their songs are clever.  Live version of "heaven is a bedroom" was awesome. 

More mainstream band/artist:  Peter Gabriel in the late 80s/Van Halen/ aka Van Hagar during the 5150 tour (saw them three times in one weekend)

Worst:  His Name is Alive in the early 90s when i wasn't really understanding the indy vibe and made some jackassy "play Freebird" like comments during their slow numbers.   So really that was a me thing not a band thing. 

More mainstream bands/artists:  Way too many Rush shows because all my nerdy friends were on must see basis with them.  I love them but i was tired of it by the end of their run.   "Oh they are playing the Spirit of Radio, yay..."

[chasfh]

I saw Rush a few time, maybe three or four, and the bummer part about it was that they were literally all alike, down to the order of songs and the same AV before certain songs like Tom Sawyer. Talk about phoning it in …

[GalagaGuy]

Springsteen at the Silverdome in 1985 was pretty awesome.  Another favorite was seeing the Scorpions in Germany in 1988.  

[IdahoBert]

Best concert was spring of 1973 in San Francisco at Winterland featuring Captain Beefheart during the Clear Spot album era as the opener and John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, which then included Billy Cobham. You would think that these two vastly different groups would be completely incongruent, but they weren’t. It was an ecstatic concert perhaps given an edge by the fact that I was coming down from ingesting a legal hallucinogen purchased at a health food store on Haight-Ashbury, Hawaiian Rosewood seeds, and it’s not something I would ever recommend anyone do. It was just weird, the seeds not the concert. 

The worst concert was the summer of 1971 on the Boston Common during their summer concert series and it had nothing to do with the group I saw, which was the Allman Brothers when everybody in the band was still alive. I spent a month on Fort Hill in Roxbury and I went with some friends that included some sketchy guys. And the sketchiest guy threw a dozen barrels of Orange Sunshine LSD into a half bottle of Boone’s Farm without telling us and in about 30 minutes in things were really really weird and there was no way I could enjoy the concert. One of the guys with us somehow didn’t make it home and the next day he called from Northern Maine and said he’d hitched a ride with people that took him all the way up to Maine instead of back to where he lived on Fort Hill. 

[IdahoBert]

Other concerts that were really good was seeing big names in bars in Tucson, Arizona in the late 1970s. 

At a bar on 4th Avenue, which was Tucson’s counterculture street of the time, I saw both Tom Waits and the Talking Heads. And at another venue near the University of Arizona in a former church I saw Elvis Costello. 

During the Waits concert a guy who sat next to me started talking and Waits threw a drink at him, but it hit me in the face instead, and I can tell you for sure that there was gin in it. I knew Waits music pretty well because my alcoholic roommate who was getting a masters degree in History at the University of Arizona played his albums continuously. 

I went with another group of friends to see the Talking Heads about whom I knew nothing at all, and who I believe were on the cover of Rolling Stone that week but still not so famous that they were still performing at small venues. Everyone was going wild over them because they were all smart and I wasn’t and the music was completely over my head, which is good because I was introduced to something that I was unfamiliar with and in the end it expanded my horizons. 

The Elvis Costello concert was pretty good. We were sitting at a table right at the very front of the stage and he glared at me and my friends with contempt the whole time because I think that was just his thing, so I didn’t take it personally. 

[Motor City Sonics]

2 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

Best concert was spring of 1973 in San Francisco at Winterland featuring Captain Beefheart during the Clear Spot album era as the opener and John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, which then included Billy Cobham. You would think that these two vastly different groups would be completely incongruent, but they weren’t. It was an ecstatic concert perhaps given an edge by the fact that I was coming down from ingesting a legal hallucinogen purchased at a health food store on Haight-Ashbury, Hawaiian Rosewood seeds, and it’s not something I would ever recommend anyone do. It was just weird, the seeds not the concert. 

The worst concert was the summer of 1971 on the Boston Common during their summer concert series and it had nothing to do with the group I saw, which was the Allman Brothers when everybody in the band was still alive. I spent a month on Fort Hill in Roxbury and I went with some friends that included some sketchy guys. And the sketchiest guy threw a dozen barrels of Orange Sunshine LSD into a half bottle of Boone’s Farm without telling us and in about 30 minutes in things were really really weird and there was no way I could enjoy the concert. One of the guys with us somehow didn’t make it home and the next day he called from Northern Maine and said he’d hitched a ride with people that took him all the way up to Maine instead of back to where he lived on Fort Hill. 

Was the sketchy friend this guy ?

[IdahoBert]

4 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Was the sketchy friend this guy ?

Vastly worse. When you’re young and I was 19 at the time peripheral people will float into your friend circle and you just don’t know any better until you learn better. 

[Motor City Sonics]

2 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

 

The Elvis Costello concert was pretty good. We were sitting at a table right at the very front of the stage and he glared at me and my friends with contempt the whole time because I think that was just his thing, so I didn’t take it personally. 

That's just him in the zone.  Like a starting pitcher on game days.   I've met him 3 times and he actually remembered me once at Bonnaroo (not my name but he said "Hey - Ann Arbor, right?")  He's actually quite friendly -at least he has been since the late 90's - he was a bit of a jackass in his earlier years, I think it was a schtick as much as anything.   A few people set him straight on that.   He was trying to be a "punk".      The stage is his domain.  Plus, he probably couldn't see you very well from the bad eyesight and all the lights pointed at him.  So the glare might have just been him squinting.  

[IdahoBert]

19 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

That's just him in the zone.  Like a starting pitcher on game days.   I've met him 3 times and he actually remembered me once at Bonnaroo (not my name but he said "Hey - Ann Arbor, right?")  He's actually quite friendly -at least he has been since the late 90's - he was a bit of a jackass in his earlier years, I think it was a schtick as much as anything.   A few people set him straight on that.   He was trying to be a "punk".      The stage is his domain.  Plus, he probably couldn't see you very well from the bad eyesight and all the lights pointed at him.  So the glare might have just been him squinting.  

Mark, did you ever go to record store in Ann Arbor called Make Waves? One of my friends owned it until he moved to Tucson. His wife’s sister was married to Michael Davis of the MC5. 

[oblong]

Best concert, hands down, was Prince in 2004.  And what bugs me about it is I had no expectations.  For me Prince was the guy from the 80s and 90's who had some songs I liked but I didn't appreciate him like I do now.   I wish I could go back and anticipate it and I would also have not had anything to drink.

But yeah... he was ****ing awesome.  

[CMRivdogs]

We don't attend too many concerts. There are a couple that stand out. 1) Springsteen (of course) late 90s at the United Center in Chicago. The electricity from his concerts is amazing.

Worst was probably when I was about 16. For some reason i took the girl i was dating to see Mason Williams and Jennifer Williams. The cncert was OK, rest of the evening MEH...

Non Rock event...

1) 2008 on a trip to Dublin, my wife found a concert led by pianist Barry Douglas who had formed a small orchestra called Camerada Ireland. An All Ireland Chamber Orchestra in response to the Good Friday agreement. This concert was held outside the Historic Castletown Estate near Cellbridge.  Douglas conducted while playing three Beethoven Concertos. It was an unique experience. And turned us into BD followers for several years.

2) Another Barry Douglas performance, this time with the Nashville Symphony. Krzystof Paderecki, probably best know for the soundtrack for The Shining, was conducting. They did Paderecki's Resurrection, in response to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The "Church Bells" at the end of the piece gave me chills.

We also had a chance to attend a weekend of tapings for Bluegrass Underground a few years ago in Eastern Tennessee. Warren Hodges. (Drivin N Cryin, Jason and the Scorchers) was fantastic. I also enjoyed Mac McAnally.

[Biff Mayhem]

Best (don’t laugh): White Trash in the early 90s. A wonderful high energy show with a horn section. It’s the only concert where I wanted more. Usually I will walk away at the end of a concert satiated or bored. Not this one. They were a one-and-done band that got a lot of play on MTV. 
 

Worst: Molly Hatchet. Just awful live. No energy. They looked like they didn’t want to be there. 

[Hongbit]

Not sure of the very best. One that sticks out is April 1991 Grateful Dead and Santana in Vegas at the old Silver Bowl Stadium.  It was on the edge of what was the built out in the city at the time.  Amazing desert mountains in the background.

 

Worst:  Anything at the Silverdome.  Horrible, horrible place for live music.  Lyrics were barely audible. Not even Pink Floyd or the Stones could make a great show out of it.

Edited June 3 by Hongbit

[oblong]

Some of my "worst" would be simply ones my wife dragged me to but I don't count those because I drag her to shows too. But for "normal" shows the worst performance would have been Motley Crue a few years ago at Comerica Park.  They shared billing with Def Leppard and Poison and Joan Jett.  They were all awesome as could be at their age.  But Motley Crue had sound issues beyond just walking and mumbling through.  I could barely tell what song was playing.   Poison was awesome because Bret Michaels knew where he was, he engaged with the audience, talked about playing St. Andrews and Harpo's and filming a video at Joe Louis.

Jesus... Harpo's.  I went once around 1995 and a friend got beat up and was hospitalized.

 

[Motor City Sonics]

1 hour ago, Hongbit said:

Not sure of the very best. One that sticks out is April 1991 Grateful Dead and Santana in Vegas at the old Silver Bowl Stadium.  It was on the edge of what was the built out in the city at the time.  Amazing desert mountains in the background.

 

Worst:  Anything at the Silverdome.  Horrible, horrible place for live music.  Lyrics were barely audible. Not even Pink Floyd or the Stones could make a great show out of it.

Oh my gosh, look at that setting !

[Motor City Sonics]

Look at the setting for this show.  Oh my.   

 

 

[Shades of Deivi Cruz]

I'm so glad I got to see Jimmy Buffett at Red Rocks. My wife and I talked about it for years, finally got tickets, and then it was canceled due to COVID. Fortunately it got rescheduled (two years later, I think), and we got to go. It ended up being the last time he played there before he died.

[ewsieg]

3 hours ago, oblong said:

Jesus... Harpo's.  I went once around 1995 and a friend got beat up and was hospitalized.

My buddy Tony told me a story about parking on a street for a show at Harpo's and he sees an interaction with a guy that got out of a car ahead of him and another guy on the sidewalk and the guy leaving the car tells the guy on the sidewalk to screw off.  Guy on the sidewalk then looks at Tony and says "It costs $5 to park here".  Tony hands him five bucks and another friend of his tries to say they don't have to pay, but Tony just ushers his buddy away.

Fast forward to after the show and they are walking back to the car and see a large group just standing around the street.  Everything that refused to pay the guy $5 came back to find no guy and no car.  Tony jumped in his car and drove off.

[ewsieg]

One of the best - No Doubt while opening for Bush late 90's at the Breslin Center.  35-40 minutes of pure energy.  Probably helped that I was really into Ska at the time too.

One of the worst - No Doubt as a headliner a year or two later, it was basically the same show, but they drug out quite a few of the songs with stupid crowd play to get it to a 80-90 minute show. Boring

Most surprising show - AJR.  Saw them at Pine Knob a few years ago because my daughter liked them.  I knew some of the songs from my kids playing it in the house, but really didn't know them well.  Very visual show and was impressed by the music as well.  Saw them at LCA and honestly expected a let down thinking a lot of it had to be the same, nope, still very visual, but whole new concept. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

Best -The Eagles at Joe Louis Arena right before it closed and right before Glenn Frey passed away. They really put on a great show overall. I was super excited that my favorite Eagle, Bernie Leadon, was back with the band after a long hiatus. The Eagles first few albums, that had more of a country-rock sound thanks to Leadon, were there best work IMO.

Honorable mention - EmmyLou Harris and Rodney Crowell at Royal Oak Music Theater. I know, I know, a concert like this doesn't exactly "ROCK" and make you feel intense. No one is spitting blood or breathing fire. But this was just a night of two incredibly talented musicians and songwriters putting their art on full sonic display. It was deep, emotive, and interment and I really enjoyed the show. I ran into an old friend from high school there, who was with his boyfriend, and the three of us had to be the youngest people on the room by a decade or more.

Worst - I don't know that I have a worst. Maybe Willie Nelson last year but only because he sat there, did much of nothing, and had to have his son cover for him at times. Still, he's Willie, and it was a treat to see him.

[chasfh]

23 hours ago, Biff Mayhem said:

Worst: Molly Hatchet. Just awful live. No energy. They looked like they didn’t want to be there. 

If it was Kalamazoo, then I can see why they didn't. 😉

[chasfh]

I loved seeing Zappa in 1988 at the Royal Oak Theater. That's when he was doing his whole register-to-vote drive. He was super engaged with the audience. They even played a one-shot-deal song called Promiscuous that appeared on the Broadway The Hard Way album. I also saw Dweezil Zappa at the Riviera Theater in Chicago last summer where he and the band played most of Frank's Roxy album, which was beyond fantastic.

Probably the most disappointing was seeing Ben Folds at the Riv maybe five or so years ago. It was standing room only, hot and sweaty, I was stuck in the back where I couldn't see anyone on stage less than 50 yards away, and it was his one of his semi-classical a cappela shows, which, I did not see promoted as such beforehand. I think it's the only concert I ever decided was a sunk cost and I walked out on.

[oblong]

Saw Ben Folds at the Royal Oak Arts Beats and Eats thingy.... I think it was either 2019 or 2021... we got primo seats at the outdoor show b/c of a vendor hookup.  He remembered playing there before b/c of the train tracks nearby.  "The only show I have that can be interupted by a train" which did happen.

Since it's outdoors it's kind of a different feel though.  YOu can tolerate a lot more.