Coolest "Who have you seen live" thread

I remember getting into many festival seating type shows by giving the stage crew a bottle of booze. We'd sneak around back, show them we actually had tickets and get them to let us in the back door at the exact same instant the front doors opened. We didn't ask to be admitted early, just at the same time but with no line. While everyone else was going through the turnstile, we beat everyone to whatever seats we wanted.

 

REM at the Exit/In in 1983 on my 16th birthday
Stray Cats at their height, at the Grand Ole Opry House...I was on the front row, so close to Brian Setzer I could see into his guitar where he had a lucky 7 dice pair glued; they played a solid, rip-roaring set of 60 minutes then left the stage...came back out and announced, "OK that was for the radio broadcast in Germany. This set's for you!" and played for another 2 and a half hours of mostly covers. Absolutely amazing.
Florence and the Machine a couple of times...once on stage built across the pool on the roof of the Cosmopolitan in Vegas, the other just a few months ago under the stars at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Magical.
Worst show: New Order at some random outdoor arena in northern Illinois in the mid 90s.

 

A couple.
Paul MCCartney at MTS Centre in Winnipeg, 2018. Born in Winnie and first saw them on Ed in 1964 along with most of the world. My sister was v into John, still is. I was a Paul guy, so to see him in my old hometown in a hockey rink is a pure wet dream of a Canadian prairie kid.
Neil Young at Spokane Opera House in ‘89. He was just going to release “Rockin’ in the Free World” so toured ahead of it. His next concert was to be in Tokyo so it was the end of the US leg. Flew down Calgary-Spokane on United, met my friend, who has a cabin in Whitefish, and got drunk in a bar with live music. Went to concert next day then got drunk in a bar with live music. Passed up tickets to see Melissa Etheridge the next night because we were afraid of getting drunk in a bar with live music.
Hall and Oates in at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle a few years ago. They were all electric with Shane Theriot on guitar and just fantastic. Their stuff is great acoustic and electric, with some serious rock. They are unique just like the other bands out os Seattle. The Guess Who recorded Live from the Paramount and it’s a great album especially “Glacé Bay Blues” oh, and they are from Winnipeg. Unbelievably, my wife and I went out after the concert and got drunk in a bar with live music.

 

The Spokane Opera House (it's changed names a few times since) is a good venue to see a show. I saw Neil Young and Crazy Horse for the first time on their next tour, after "Ragged Glory" came out (not in Spokane, but in St. Louis). Sonic Youth opened. It's always interesting to see NY live.
The Paramount's another cool venue.

 

Plenty of puffing near me at more than one Rush show. But no passing.

(Wouldn't have done it. But would have appreciated the inclusive tone. Did not really want to be included via contact high ... )

 

A few others but don’t think I can get to 10....
The Mojo Men in Red Deer, Alberta in 1966, parking lot of the Hudson Bay Company (seriously). Pretty sure they were a SF band of some renown. My sister was the ‘Social Convener’ of the biggest High School there and was tapped into music promoters in W Canada of that era. She had seen Ronnie Hawkins and a number of other really good rock bands by travelling especially to Vancouver but also a ton of v good touring acts that came to Alberta as part of pan-Canadian tours. After playing Vancouver they would head south to Seattle, Portland etc. along the W coast.
Anyway, these guys were good and I made my way right to the front of the stage and they played “Sit Down I ThinK I Love You” a cover of the Stills/Buff Spring classic tune. I was blown away. They were all in paisley, pants and shirts! Crazy for a 13 year old kid who has always owned one piece of paisley ever since. I had a paper route so bought a shirt soon after. Mostly ties but have a v cool paisley jacket, black with faint pattern in the background. F**k I’m getting old.
I got into BF and especially Steven Stills. Just finished his bio and he is one of the greatest musicians of the modern rock era. Can sing but especially play and he’s played with the beat because they want to play with him. Starting with Hendrix.
Anyway, great show.
Steely Dan in Las Vegas at Caesar’s Palace a few years ago. One of my all time favourite bands was upstaged by Steve Winwood, opening, who was freaking fantastic just under amplified. The songs were first rate, obviously. Dear Mr Fantasy, also brilliantly covered by Stills, is one of my favourite songs. I think Stevie's version was 11 minutes at the show. Great stuff. SD was good but I’d rather listen to them than see them live.
Tom Petty at the old GM Place in Vancouver on his last tour. Sublime. Everyone walked out of the arena with big stupid grins on their faces. Mike Campbell is one of the greats. Tom Petty’s vocals, through this career, are perfect. I was devastated when he passed within about 6 weeks of the Van show.
Bob Seger at Calgary Saddledome, 2014. Bob got laryngitis so the show was postponed for about 2 weeks so the wife and I scored great tix from some friends who couldn’t make the re sked show. They played almost all of “Live Bullet” then played all the other hits. “Sunspot Baby”, I sure had a real good time.
Eagles at McMahon Stadium in 1978. Steve Miller Band had been opening on the tour but all of a sudden Jesse Winchester was the warm up. Bummer. At least Eagles were great, Hotel tour I’m sure. Within 2 weeks there was a ban on outdoor concerts in Calgary. Everyone was smoking ‘78 pot which was OK but within a year was much much better.

 

Saw Springsteen twice both at the Apollo and at surprise appearances at the Stone Pony.

When I was taking depositionS in a case in Columbia, SC many years ago, we settled on a Thursday and because I couldn’t get a flight home that night, I ended up going out drinking with my local lawyers, the person suing and her lawyer. Late and deep into the evening, Hootie and the Blowfish did a surprise set at a small bar. They were great.

 

I've never smoked pot in my life. I mentioned earlier seeing the Allman Brothers. I saw them at an outside concert. The folks in front of me were smoking all night. It was wafting back to me.
That was the sickest I've ever been. Granted, I was tossing back MGD tallboys all night, but the pot smoke got to me.

 

My parents went to shows they never could have gone to had they stayed in Tennessee. I was exposed to a lot of good music in Shreveport/Bossier City and Lubbock.
Some favorite childhood memories:
Joe Ely at a rodeo (rodeos?)
Richie Havens at a parish fair/fundraiser
Waylon and Willie at a festival in Lukenbach? It was the seventies and I was barely into my double digits.
Lynn Anderson at Arrowhead Stadium - 12-yr-old me idolized her
The Staples Singers - Six Flags Over Texas mid-70s

As a teenager, I sometimes went to shows to see specific musicians play:
Billy Joel 2X to see Liberty DeVito drum
Huey Lewis and the News: The first time, he brought Tower of Power Horns with him to Murfreesboro, I can't remember who was with him the second time.

The Memphis Years:

At Memphis State:
Albert Collins
Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Cheap Trick

Beale Street Blues Festival:
Ray Charles did what he did every year and chased off the rain.
Etta James (is the Goddess.)
Webb Wilder

and... Al Green at church.

At Opryland:
I got serenaded by The Commodores.

The Cranky Old Guy With a Heart of Iron Pyrite who worked the back door of the Acuff used to call me up and let me listen to whatever tickled him, amazed him, and so on.

One evening he dialed in and said, "Listen to this." I did. The woman's voice had that clear, beautiful quality that needed no gimmicky vocal gymnastics. He got back on the phone. "This is crazy. You should see her. She's from Canada and she's dressed like a little girl playing Dale Evans. But she sounds..." He trailed off and let me listen some more.

"She sounds like Patsy," I said.

"She does! Oh, she does! I just can't get over this. You should see her."

 

Al Green at church comes very close to winning this thread for keeps. We have a lot of people with a huge number of different experiences on this board, but that's an all-timer right there.

 

Man, I forgot about that one. We went to Al Green's church on a trip to Memphis, and the service started nearly an hour late and he sang and preached his way through another couple of hours. He read one scripture and then started preaching and singing and it was amazing.