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

[chasfh]

Sonic’s Rendezvous played a dance at my high school in, I wanna say, 1977. Pretty unforgettable, in that I still remember it.

[Edman85]

Worst... There was a series of concerts on campus in college one day, and I will never forget how bad I Am Robot was (fronted by Edward Sharpe)

[diaspora04]

I hope this is the right thread.  Rush is worth seeing.

[oblong]

Were you there?  Which might?

[diaspora04]

18 hours ago, oblong said:

Were you there?  Which might?

I attended the first two shows at the LA Forum.

[Biff Mayhem]

20 hours ago, diaspora04 said:

I attended the first two shows at the LA Forum.

I was dead set against seeing them on this tour because of the pricing. The videos that I’ve seen of the first shows has changed my mind. Seeing them in August in Detroit and may hit a Chicago show as well 

Also Anika as the drummer is not only killing it, she has actually doubled the number of females in the building. 

[chasfh]

52 minutes ago, Biff Mayhem said:

I was dead set against seeing them on this tour because of the pricing. The videos that I’ve seen of the first shows has changed my mind. Seeing them in August in Detroit and my hit a Chicago show as well 

Also Anika as the drummer is not only killing it, she has actually doubled the number of females in the building. 

So there are two dozen females in the building now? Impressive!

[Hongbit]

I got free tickets to see two of the bands mentioned in this thread.  I wasn’t a fan of either at the time but was completely blown away by their live performance.  Even decades later, both are still among the best shows that  I’ve ever seen.

Prince - JLA - Late 80’s

Rush - Palace - 1990

 

[Biff Mayhem]

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

So there are two dozen females in the building now? Impressive!

What was that wooshing sound just now?

[oblong]

There's a Funny or Die video with Jason Segal and Paul Rudd sneaking backstage to a Rush show.  As Geddy, Alex, and Neil walk in they're saying something like "I think I saw 3....". 

I saw Prince in 2004 and was also blown away.  I never paid much attention to him other than his stuff that came out when I was in school.  It was fine to me.  But seeing him live blew me away.  I saw the talent.  He would have been great in any genre.

 

[antrat]

AC/DC. 1983 at JLA. I had hair and everything.

[Screwball]

Boxcar Willie at the Hollow Inn, Cornhole, Ohio, circa 1980s. The hobo singer. Little dive bar in the middle of nowhere and a good place to get beat up. Place was packed. Entertaining inside and out. He put on a great show. Had a nice career as it turned out. We survived.

Only one I ever been to. 

[smr-nj]

I just remembered another concert I really loved, just because it was super mellow, and her voice almost made me fall asleep (in a good way… my insomnia was at it’s worst back then).

Anita Baker.  So smooth. 

[LaceyLou]

Bad concert? I remember going to see the Allstonians in the 90s as one of my coworkers was in it at the time. One of the opening bands basically just banged on their instruments for half an hour. It was probably fun for them, but not so fun for those of us in the audience. Unsurprisingly, I don't remember the name of the band. 

In recent years I've seen Bob Seger, the Gipsy Kings, Muse, and Depeche Mode, and all were great. 

But the best, as well as the most surprising was Asia in the early 80s. A couple of friends dragged me to the Centrum to see them and I'm glad they did. They sounded actually nothing like on their records which in this case was a good thing.

[Motor City Sonics]

Worst Concert Experience?   Tonight.  Paul Simon at Meadow Brook  (some of it was Paul's fault). 

 

First of all.  Was stuck not moving on Walton Way for 45 minutes.   We could not figure out why they would let in 3 cars at a time and then stop the traffic.........for 5-6 minutes before letting in another 3.   Then we have to park half a mile away, but as we're walking into the venue  people just coming in were getting to park close, not in a VIP lot.  Just closer lot.   Why ? 

Then my phone will not connect online, so I can't get to my tickets,  it took 20 minutes. 

It was billed as "A Quiet Celebration", but it was ridiculous, you could hardly hear him on the hill. Everyone was annoyed by it too.   You'd think old guy would want it turned up a bit. 

They had no chairs to rent.  

$15 for a cheeseburger that looked like the "smashed thing" in Falling Down. (I did not buy one, I saw someone else looking at theirs..stunned.   $8 for a hot dog, I skipped that too.  Bag of chips, you know the indivdual bags?  $6.    I did buy a soda, it was a medium cup for $6.35 and when I went to pay with my card it asked for a tip.   A tip?   The lady didnt even pour the soda, she put the cup under it and pushed a button.  That's not tipworthy.  

Then it started raining.   I bought two rain ponchos.  They asked for a tip for that too.   Tipping culture is out of hand.  

As far as Paul goes, I knew his voice wouldn't sound good and that didn't bother me, he's 84. .     The first set was Seven Psalms (Seven Yawns).   Then the 2nd set he started with Graceland and then all deep cuts until the very end.    Come on Paul - try sprinkling in a hit or two.     Boring as hell show.  

And leaving, one of the exits has a traffic light that's a flashing red.   ON A CONCERT NIGHT?   Couldn't get out of there.  

Just a bad, bad concert experience all around.  

 

I'm done with lawn seats.   

 

I've been going to Meadow Brook for 40 years and never had such an issue getting in there.   It's like it was their first concert and they hadn't figured things out yet.     The parking was total chaos - no communication between the staff.  

 

Going to see Spoon on Friday,  That'll be a better experience.   How could it not be? 

 

Edited June 21 by Motor City Sonics

[oblong]

I’ve been there many times. Never an issue.  Weird.  Last time was in May ‘25. I’m going in august to see Brandi Carlisle then heading down near Indianapolis for a show Saturday. This place has a hotel close enough to walk to. 
 

anybody been to the newish amphitheater in Granc Rapids?  I’ve noticed some acts skipping our area and going there instead. That’s going to be rough. 

[IdahoBert]

My best/worst was the same concert on the Boston Common in July 1971. It was the Allman Brothers when everybody was still alive. Six of us went together to the concert which was only $2.50. We all lived on Fort Hill in Roxbury at the time. 

One of the guys who lived in the neighborhood that we got to know was a little sketchy but we tolerated him. Just before it began this sketchy guy passed around a bottle of Boone’s Farm that was only about 1/3 full, which he had -unfortunately and unethically - spiked with 12-15 barrels of “orange sunshine” LSD.

I was no stranger to LSD at the time, but it’s something you want to do voluntarily and in a mellow situation and not in a chaotic situation with thousands of people and taking three times as much as you’re used to.

About 20 minutes into the concert things were really weird and it was indescribable. Things went from great to frightening then intolerable. It was not enjoyable.

When we got back to Fort Hill, we realized one of the guys we lived with wasn’t with us and he never got back that night. That next morning we got a call from him and he said he was in Maine somewhere and had gotten a ride from some people going the opposite direction of where he wanted to be.

Some adorable rich girl who was temporarily slumming with us “hippies” drove up to Maine and brought him back. Her name was “Chipper“ one of these cute names old money East Coast families give their daughters because it’s something less daunting than their real name which is something like Bernice.

Two days later, she moved out and she left a nice note on our door saying she really enjoyed knowing us and she told us to “have a good life.“ She’s probably 78 years old now if she’s still alive.

[gehringer_2]

Worst ever was Gato Barbieri during the Jazz Fusion days. Wasn't that big a fan to begin with but went along with some jazz fiend friends. He had enough audio equipment for Shea Stadium packed into a theater  that sat a couple of thousand. The music was terrible, he played it terribly and it was so loud we were all concussed. Ever since that one I've tried to always remember a set of 20db foam plugs because if you can't trust that you won't get blasted out of your seat at a jazz concert, you can't trust anywhere. 🙉

I don't know about best, but one that always stands out in memory was Al Jarreau, because of the way the man just radiated joy that filled the whole venue. A unique person..

Edited June 23 by gehringer_2

[IdahoBert]

The best concert for sure was when I took my then 13 year-old daughter to Portland, Oregon 20 years ago to see the White Stripes. Jack and his “sister” Meg‘s music was often blaring out of Mallory‘s room. I didn’t listen to it closely. I considered it something akin to “Led Zeppelin Lite.” Boy was I wrong.

I think it was at the Keller Auditorium in downtown Portland. Jack strung all of his music into one seamless operatic performance where every song blended into the other. You would’ve thought there were six performers on stage when it was just a guy on a guitar and a girl on drums. I still marvel at how two people could create that much music.  It was an absolute epiphany. They played for an hour and a half and came out for two 1/2 hour encores.

 

[oblong]

speaking of.... some guy it seems jumped out of the upper deck at MSG the other night at a Goose concert.  Witnesses suggest he was highly intoxicated and security approached him and he jumped.  Knowing that scene... it's possible.  

[DTroppens]

I'm a huge Alice Cooper fan, so I really enjoy all of his concerts, but the one that sticks out is I went to the 1994 Woodstock and I really enjoyed that concert. It was just a different experience. Having the rain and mud all over the place. Seeing Metallica just feet from the muddy mosh pit and Aerosmith as the day turned from Saturday to Sunday was pretty awesome.

The worst - there's usually something good to all of them. However, I thought seeing Marilyn Manson opening for Alice Cooper may make me appreciate his music more, as is almost always the case when I see an artist. That didn't happen. Another that stuck out was Jani Lane (lead singer of Warrant but not anymore at that time). We went to a concert with him, Dokken and a couple of other artists (I think this is the time we saw Sebastian Bach). Lane complained that his time was cut, and that he had to just end songs in the middle of the song because of it and just griped the entire time. I think he died within a year of that concert, maybe two. 

The worst at Woodstock was Bob Dylan. Again, another guy I thought I may appreciate when I saw him live. You couldn't understand a word he said and he looked disinterested and high during his show. It made me think even less of him.