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

Best: (tie): U2 at the US Festival, Glen Helen Regional Park, Devore, CA., Memorial Day, 1983 (David Bowie was the headliner that day/U2 was the third band on)
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, LA Coliseum, September, 1985

Honorable Mention: Jackson Browne and Graham Nash, Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles, April 1987. The place only seats a little more than 3,000, so it was a great place to see a show and they absolutely kicked ass.

Worst: Berlin at Disneyland, June 1983. Teri Nunn was so bombed, she couldn't remember half the words to her songs and nearly plunged face first into the lake surrounding Tom Sawyer's Island

Speaking of Tom Sawyer....

Last: Rush at the Hollywood Bowl, July 23, 2007. Seventh time I've seen them and it was one of the best.

EDIT: Next: Dropkick Murphys, Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas in August. Second time I'll have seen them there and third time in the last three years. They put on a GREAT show, especially poolside.

 

Best Ones:

Dixie Chicks at Halifax Metro Centre August 2006
Amanda Marshall at Rebecca Cohn Auditorium April 2003
Keren Ann at Halifax Commons Room July 2005
Every Coldplay concert in Toronto
JunoFest 2006 in Halifax-Marquee Club with Novaks, Stabilo and Pilate (now called Pilot Speed)
-Ginger's Tavern with Jully Black (acoustic and phenomnal)
Songwriter's Circle at East Coast Music Awards with Bruce Gurthro, Amelia Curran, Stephanie Hardy, Sarash Slean in February 2007
The second one with Ron Hynes, Jully Black, Steven Bowers
Gordie Sampson and Bruce Gurthro Songwriter's Circle at Casino Nova Scotia this past year too.
In Flight Safety at East Coast Music Awards VIP Party

Most Recent:

In July, concert on Citadel Hill with Nickelback, Finger Eleven, Hedley, Default

Worst:
50 Cent at Halifax Forum (retarded)
AXL Rose at Metro Centre (the idiot came three hours late for the concert and only preformed half of his set, waste of god awful money because show was supposed to be starting at 7:30pm and it ended up being over around 1:30am in the night (three hours later) )

 

Best: Guns N Roses opening for the Rolling Stones in Los Angeles. I think it was 1990 or 1991. Both were great, but Guns put on the better show. I also saw Body Count/Metallica/GNR in 1992 in Kansas City also an amazing show. Lollapalooza 2 with Pearl Jam, Ministry, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarded was also amazing.

Worst: It was the Bridge benefit in San Francisco. Pearl Jam was supposed to headline, but Vedder quit after three songs because of voice problems. They sent Neil Young back out and needless to say, the crowd was not happy. It was insanely hot and everyone had waited for hours for Pearl Jam, so that kind of sucked...

Last: It's been awhile. Needless to say concerts are a bit tough to do with two young kids. I've seen Aerosmith, U2 and Springsteen within the last three years...

Next: It will be awhile...

 

Best: Springsteen, Tunnel of Love tour at the Joe in Detroit

Honourable mention: Springsteen, River tour, Maple Leaf Gardens, Born In The USA tour, CNE Grandstand (1984); Metallica, ReLoad tour, Molson Amphitheatre; Police, Amnesty International, Giants Stadium; U2, Massey Hall and MLG, Unforgettable Fire tour; Georgia Satellites, Open All Night tour, Entex (best club show I've ever seen); Harry Connick Jr. and His Orchestra, Blue Light, Red Light tour, CNE Grandstand (there's nothing like a big band at full blast).

Worst: an oldies show at the newly opened Skydome. Headliners were supposed to be Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee, Fats and Little Richard. MC Ronnie Hawkins informs the crowd that somehow Jerry Lee and Fats have both had heart attacks and won't be there (the bill did say - ominously - that acts were subject to change). Little Richard plays and kills and Frankie Valli was suprisingly good too. An either drunk or disinterested Berry comes out and sleeps through the first few songs, one of which was "Sweet Little Sixteen". Two songs later he plays "Sweet Little Sixteen" again prompting a mass exodus for the exits. Remains the only show I've ever walked out of.

Honourable mention: Weezer touring behind their first album at RPM in Toronto. It was an all-ages show and all the oldtimers, like my girlfriend and I, were stuck in the back by the bar. I still love Weezer's debut but all they did were note-perfect versions of every song on the album with "Buddy Holly" as an encore. That's it, no covers, nothing. Oh, for the days when bands learned their chops on the road!

Sinatra at the Gardens, early-90s. Granted, Frank was getting up there and probably well into the Jack that night, but he was light years better when I'd seen him at the Skydome. Steve and Eydie weren't bad that night though. Can't believe I just typed that.

Last: My boy Colin James at Massey Hall in Feb. 2007

Next: Crowded House at Massey Hall on Aug. 13.

 

Best:
Mission of Burma, Bradford Hotel, Boston, 1980 (my ears still ring)
Lone Justice, Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, Providence, 1985 & 1986 (I defy anyone at either of these shows not to feel the Maria McKee lurve. The '86 show was the night before their SNL appearance w/William Shatner)
The Cramps, Lupo's, 1992 (gloriously trashy fun)
X, the Strand, Providence, 1993 (they live! - John Doe was in Providence last week, and X is doing some LA shows 'round Labor Day)
Catherine Wheel, Club Baby Head, Providence, 1995 (mind-blowing)

Worst:
Oasis, Lupo's, 1993 (only concert we've ever walked out of - the only thing that could've saved that show would've been those pissy, disinterested Gallagher boys going MMA on stage)

Last:
(been a while) The Cure, Tweeter Center, 2001 (great multigenerational audience, and kind of fun that they closed the show by harkening back to '79 for "10:15 Saturday Night" and "Killing an Arab").

Next:
If either the Pixies or Arcade Fire make it over here in the fall...(did see one of the Pixies' last pre-breakup shows, in 1992 at Johnson & Wales College between opening for U2 in Providence and Boston. We were about 15 feet from the stage, and my now-wife had the piss scared out of her when the erupting crowd knocked me literally on my ass when the came and hit the opening riff of "Where is My Mind?" I'm surprised Kim Deal is still alive the way she chain-smoked - she stopped puffing just long enough to sing "Gigantic".)

 

Best --
Bob Dylan and The Band -- 1974.
The Who -- 1971.
Tom Waits -- 1976.
J Geils -- 1972.

Worst --
Black Oak Arkansas/Grand Funk Railroad 1971.

Recent:
Lucinda Williams/Charlie Louvin, last week.

 

Best
Better than Ezra - 1997
Dave Matthews Band - 1995
Wilco - 2002
Jeff Tweedy - 2007 (also most recent)

Going to see Wilco when they come to town

 

Best: Stones in 2002 in Miami. Got a handslap from Mick while I was on my honeymoon.
Worst: Eddie Money (I won tix on the radio)
Next: There's always hope the Stones will come back to the states
Last: Black Crowes on July 2

 

Best: Rush, mid 1990s, Forum in Los Angeles. Played 2112 in full (very rare) and the show was just them, no opening act (they do the no opening act thing all the time now).

Honorable mention for best: Joe Bonamassa. I saw him for the first time last summer and I knew very little about him going in. I'm now looking forward to the next time he'll be in my area.

Worst: Tie between Rush at Honda Center (formerly Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, Calif.) because of very poor sound stuff and a concert with such bands as Midnight Oil and Hothouse Flowers at Irvine, Calif.. I didn't pay for the ticket so I shouldn't bitch, but if it weren't for the people I was with at the time, I'd have never been there to see such a lame show.

Next: Could be Sonny Landreth this month or Steve Vai in September.

Last: Rush (July 30). I've also seen Cheap Trick, Eric Clapton/Robert Cray, Derek Trucks/Susan Tedeschi, Walter Trout, The Police and Carlos Johnson this year alone.

 

Best: The Tubes, 1982, The Forum, Harrisburg. It. Had. Everything. Runner-up: Hall & Oates, 2004, Star Pavilion, Hershey.

Worst: I really can't come up with one. I knew who I wanted to see; I went to see them; I liked it.

Last: John Mayer and Ben Folds, Hersheypark Stadium, two Saturdays ago.

Next: None on the horizon.

 

any of the 40-plus springsteen shows i've attended.

jackson browne, at saratoga in the summer of '77. he recorded two of the "runnin' on empty" songs at the show, including the then-new title track. also tried out "the load out/stay," but not sire if it was from the same show.
also, jackson at the n.j. performing arts center in the summer of '79 or '80, i forget which. he played a looong show, concluding with each member of the e-street band taking over on their instruments.

the "bruuuuuce" chants were overwhelming, until jackson had to explain that bruce was back in l.a. finishing up "the river," but ordered them all to do a great show,

 

Best - 1. HORDE Tour 1996 (Rusted Root, Lenny Kravitz, Blues Traveler, DMB); 2. BB King playing an unadvertised show at his club on Beale Street in Memphis; 3. Grateful Dead, Red Rocks, 1987

Worst - Night Ranger opening for Starship 1985 in a rodeo arena in my hometown

Last - DMB last summer

Next - none planned