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

First concert: Peter Gabriel ... Security tour ... San Jose Civic ... Shock the Monkey

Last concert: The Stooges ... Warfield in SF ... Iggy Pop remains God

Best concert: New Year's Eve 1991 ... Cow Palace in SF ... Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam ... No explanation necessary

Worst concert: Van Halen 1984 Tour ... David Lee was too drunk to stand up, much less sing

Haziest concert: Grateful Dead ... 1988 at Stanford's Frost Amphitheater ... Must've taken the brown acid ;D

 

First: Ted Nugent, supported by Blackfoot, Cobo Arena Detroit Labor Day weekend 1977 (or 78..can't recall it was a long time ago)

Last: Not including Loverboy at the Phillips Arena in Hotlanta Valentine's Day 2003 after a Thrashers game...and not including seeing local bad Robb Roy doing a bar show....it would have to be Soul Asylum at the Goose Island Festival in Chicago August 2002. Mrs. Fly was a major SA fan so we made the trek west for the street fest. Good beer, good music, good times. Only unfortunate thing was the mess that is Chicago traffic, made worse by the fact that was the same weekend as the Air Show. We did, however, get outstanding views of the air show from the 10th floor/roof of the Days Inn right across from North Ave. Beach.

Best: Hard to say....Ian Hunter at the Royal Oak (MI) Music Theater (Short Back and Sides tour-late 81 or early 82, can't recall); any of a number of Queen shows (tours supporting The Game and Jazz especially); Cheap Trick/Billy Squier at Cobo (1980ish); Ozzy (Blizzard of Oz tour, 1981) at Masonic Theater, Detroit. A great mishmash show we went to at the last minute (due to ultra-cheap tix) had Molly Hatchet, Michael Schenker Group, Shooting Star (there were a couple other bands, too) at Cobo in the early 80s. Good times had by all.

Worst: Without a doubt, Quiet Riot Cobo Arena Detroit New Year's Eve 1983(?)- truly gawdawful, though Girlschool and Night Ranger kicked ass! In the same vein, early 1984, Masonic Theater (Detroit) Motley Crue sucked big bad dick, while supporting act Saxon absolutely shredded.

 

Great thread

First: Mr. Mister at the Ohio State Fair in about 1988, maybe earlier
Last: Bon Jovi with a local opening act at Polaris Amphitheater in Columbus, was half acoustic and half electric.
Next: Unless Van Hagar comes back, I'm done.
Worst: Bad Company with a lame opening act at Vets Memorial in Columbus in the early 90s. It was Bad Company's third trip through Columbus, and second to the venue, on the tour. Brian Howe said after the third song "There's nothing left to say I haven't already said." Then he did zero crowd raps.
Best: Two choices: Billy Joel and Elton John at Nationwide Arena. Billy closed, which made it great. Best part was going with my wife. Billy Joel is one of the few artists we both like.
Also, Van Hagar with opening act Vince Neil at Cincinnati's Riverbend Amphitheater. Best mix of opening act/headliner I've seen. And VH rocked.

 

First: Blink 182, New Found Glory, Saves The Day, Bodyjar in July 2001.

Last: MxPx, The Fold, The Classic Crime, Sullivan, in June 2007.

Next: Piebald in August 2007. They're a great act. I've seen Piebald three times, and they get better with every show.

Best: Pop Disaster Tour 2002 - Green Day, Blink 182, Saves The Day: Absolutely amazing. Green Day, if you've never seen them, doesn't need any other band to tour with them. Their performance alone was worth the several hours in the car and the admission. Bille Joe Armstrong has the best stage presence -- energy, getting the crowd involved -- of any other musician I've seen, with Something Corporate's Andrew McMahon a close second. Blink was excellent, too. But Green Day was the show, for me.

Worst: Fuel, Saliva, Breaking Point: I don't know if was the music that didn't sit well with me, but this show blew. Hard.

 

Best: Hard to pick just one of the many excellent Pearl Jam shows. Would have to go with either last summer at the Gorge (WA) or an acoustic show at Benaroya Hall in Seattle (I think it was '03). It's a small venue used by the Seattle Symphony with ridiculous acoustics.

Also, a couple of U2 shows. Some Dave Matthews shows in HS more for the memories and girls than for the show itself.

Worst: if we can count opening acts, Smashmouth opening for U2 at the Kingdome.

Last: Rolling Stones with Dave Matthews Band opening last fall

Next: No idea.

 

This is tough...

Best: U2/The Alarm, LA Sports Arena, "War" tour - Bono ran into the balcony, dropped to the arena floor and was handed overhead back to the stage. He said a few years later that it was the last really crazy U2 show, because someone could have been hurt. Count me among those who thought "The Joshua Tree" was a step down for U2, although I regained interest with "Achtung Baby."

Honorable mentions:

Neil Finn at the Sunset Strip House of Blues. Johnny Marr came out and they did "How Soon is Now?" and "There is a Light That Never Goes Out"; then Grant Lee Phillips came out and they did duets of "Four Seasons in One Day" and "Honey Don't Think," one of my absolute favorite songs.

Fishbone at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, around '83. (The opening act, PsiCom, was hilariously awful; I learned years later that it was Perry Farrell's first band, and they only played like 5 shows before they mercifully broke up and he formed Jane's Addiction.)

The English Beat at the US Festival.

Midnight Oil, Hollywood Palladium, "Red Sails in the Sunset" tour.

Elvis Costello - any show would work, but I'll go with the "Punch The Clock" tour with the horn section and backup singers.

Big Country, Hollywood Palace - I think it was their second show in the US.


Worst: The Clash at the US Festival. They were late going on because they tried to extort more money out of the producers, then proceeded to absolutely suck, while whining and barking at the crowd. They drove at least half the crowd away, and they broke up soon after. I loved the Clash at the time, and it was sad to see them absolutely blown off the stage by Men At Work.

Honorable mention:

Dave Wakeling, Bash on Ash in Tempe, about 3 years ago. The former leader of the English Beat was drunk, had a pathetic band, and didn't remember the words to the old Beat songs. My buddy left before the intermission because he know "Save It For Later" was coming up and he didn't want to hear the song ruined. A few minutes later I wished I had followed him out.

The Kinks, Fabulous Forum, "State of Confusion" tour - the heavy metal/costume change phase. Uggh.

The Police/The Fixx/Thompson Twins/Berlin, Hollywood Park, Synchronicity tour. It was horribly, dangerously disorganized and Berlin put on the best show. I didn't even like Berlin.

Sting, take your pick, Salem Amphitheater or Portland Coliseum, "Nothing Like The Sun" tour. Unbelievably half-assed show both nights, both clocking in at under 90 minutes.

Counting Crows, opening for the Wallflowers, Desert Sky Pavilion in Phoenix, around '97 or so. Adam Duritz is an absolute fraud. He single-handedly fucked up every song they did. He mumbles each song live, totally off the beat.


Last Show: Crowded House a few months ago in Tempe, their first US show in about 12 years. Great show.

Next: Don't know. Fountains of Wayne is touring but so far isn't coming here. Grrr.

 

You have no idea how envious of you I am.

 

Saw the LCJO in 2001 in Toronto and it was incredible. Just masterful playing.

I forgot about another awesome show I saw: Pete Townshend solo on the Psychoderelict tour. Played that album in its entirety and then just killed with a blizzard of solo hits and Who stuff, both famous and obscure.

 

last: the biscuit burners in carbondale, colo., july 25
next: editors, in d.c.
best: grateful dead, solider field 1992 and the dead at buckeye lake in 1992; prince, joe louis arena 1984; neil young, pine knob, 1992; bob dylan, wolf trap, 1997; widespread panic, aspen, colo., 1999; radiohead, merriweather post pavillion, 2005; black crowes and the jayhawks, 1992, east lansing, mich.; farm aid, nissan pavillion, 2000
worst: lemonheads, 1992, detroit

 

Best: Bruce at the Meadowlands (before it was continental, it might have been Brendan Byrne) Arena, the first time I ever saw him. When he climbed on the piano for Jungleland, I had chills.

Worst: George Thorougood at the Meadowlands, not sure why I went to this.

Last: They Might be Giants in Lancaster, Pa. two weeks ago. they were awesome, as usual.

Next: They Might be Giants on Saturday at some outdoor place on Long Island. What can I say, I'm addicted. They always do a great show.

 

I was looking through old threads. This was a good one which should have lasted longer.

So here's my NEW entry for best concert ever.

1982, City Island, Harrisburg. On the site where the baseball stadium is now, but then it was an old ragged ballfield used only for concerts.

First up was Wang Chung. Good for only one song in its life as a band, but they kicked ass on that one song. Everybody Wang Chung tonight, baby.

But then came the headliners -- The Cars. At the height of their glory.

So we're standing up front by the stage, right at a corner where you could see a tiny bit of backstage as the performers climb up the ladder to the stage.

The band comes on and starts leading into "Hello Again." Everybody except for Ric Ocasek, who's down in the backstage area, next to the ladder. Yeah, he was about 6-3, 130 pounds. Just like you'd think.

So anyway, they're getting close to the vocals, and Ocasek is in the middle of one gigantic joint. He keeps puffing. And puffing.

And one line before he has to sing, he hops up the stairs and at the same time, flicks his doobie off to the side. Which happened to be right in the middle of my buddies and me.

"You might have forgot
The journey ends
You tied your knots
And you made your friends..."

And while he's singing this, we're passing around this 1/4-smoked joint that Ric Ocasek had flipped over to us.

Damn good doob, too.

 

Best/last concert: Garth Brooks at the Sprint Center last November. I waited 15 years to go to one of his concerts. He's worth the wait.

Worst concert: The Strokes. I don't mind their music but they were playing in a small venue and had everything cranked up as if they were playing at Madison Square Garden. It's been two years and my ears are still hurting from that experience.

Honorable mention: first "concert" I went to was a show called Country Stampede. The four bands I saw (for $50) were SHEDaisy (who I met backstage and got my picture taken with), Dierks Bentley, Sawyer Brown (who I got seats onstage for) and Big and Rich. B&R were AWESOME and aside from the fact that it was 100 degrees and we were outside for 11 hours, it was a great time.