Concerts thread: Best/Worst/Next/Last one you attended?

I bet I'm the only person here whose first concert was Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, and Kenny Rogers and the First Edition.

 

That's awesome!!!

 

Saw Big Audio Dynamite last night.

 

Next:

The Big Four. Anthrax/Megadeth/Slayer/Metallica, Indio, CA.

My heavy metal phase will end someday. But not yet.

 

Anthrax is still together?

 

Saw Megadeth twice. Two of the most wooden, boring performances I've encountered. They better be the first on stage in that lineup.

 

Best: Billy Joel/Elton John on their last tour. Very good, very long show. Honorable mention to The Police in about 2008 (give or take), Def Leppard on the Hysteria Tour, B.B. King a couple years ago, and The Beastie Boys in about 1986.

Worst: Melissa Etheridge in about 1994 (wife drug me there)

Next: U2 in St. Louis in July. My first time seeing them, and already incredibly excited about it.

 

Not really. Scott Ian and Charlie Benante are the Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of thrash metal. They cycle bandmates in and out at will, and happen to have allowed Joey Belladonna back for the last few years. Sort of.

Megadeth is by far the worst of the four live. This will be my fourth time seeing them (always on a bill where I paid to see the other bands), but the three dudes I'm attending the show with have never seen them, and are excited. I'll let them find out for themselves.

 

Saw Jackson Browne last night. Amazing show. He was in a great mood and joked a lot with the audience and took a lot of requests. No band or backups, just him, about 20 acoustic guitars, a keyboard and his beautiful clear voice.

 

Will be seeing Arcade Fire in Dallas a week from Saturday with Okkervil River opening. I'd love to see them with Explosions in the Sky opening instead, but that's happening in Austin and Houston instead.

I'll get to see both at Bonnaroo.

 

Best: Either Morrissey in Philly or Aerosmith last summer. Morrissey just has a presence that you can't beat and Aerosmith was phenomenal. Honorable Mention to White Zombie in 95 -- Rob Zombie can bring it. Which brings me to......
Worst: The Ramones in Binghamton. Maybe it was an off night, but they sucked. I saw them again about nine months later and they were great.
Last: Aerosmith. Holy shit Steven Tyler has a set of pipes. I knew every song, was so drunk Dr. J says I spilled half a cup of wine of on the people in front of us and drove him nuts trying to get him to dance. It was amazing.
Next: If we can swing it, U2 in Philly this summer. If not, Taylor Swift in Buffalo or Journey in Syracuse.

 

I always liked Jackson Browne. But my strongest memory of him comes from a midnight acoustic show at a 3,000-seat auditorium in 1979 or so. Mainly a college-age crowd, we were all already drunk when he took the stage. Well, while we hoped to have a rockin' good time, Jackson decided to play his most dirge-like material instead, which led to a great deal of restlessness from the fans. He wanted to be somber and serious. We wanted no part of that.

Finally, he teased us with the opening chords of good friend Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London," which caused raucous cheers and howls to go up. That was the kind of thing we were there to hear. But he quickly switched over to a different tune, which didn't go over well. As he started to play, people were still howling like Zevon, "Ah-wooooooooo!"

That's when he stopped the song and told everyone to "Shut the fuck up!" Needless to say, many of us didn't make it to the end of the show.