Rolling Stone asking for Greatest Live Act

Good stuff on The Clash. Wasn't around during that era, but the observations regarding the '82 Combat Rock tour seem spot on. Mick and Joe weren't on speaking terms then. No Topper Headon either.

The bootlegs (and official live recordings) from that tour are pretty damn shaky with the best stuff coming from an all-reggae set in Kingston. Not sure if they were ever a great live act. The one big knock on them was that they didn't know how to pace themselves. They'd go balls out in the first 15 minutes and would be too pooped to keep up after that.

 

Mr First Person Plural,

The first Clash concert I saw, their first date in Toronto supporting the debut album, the show ended when a well-known bulldog-faced punk wearing a neck-brace-sized dog collar charged the stage, knocked Strummer over (in the middle of "White Riot") and grabbed the mike. This led to a dozen or so others following suit. Afterwards I wondered exactly how spontaneous it was and if the band was in on an act.

YHS, etc

 

With The Clash, remember their first headlining tour in the states and in the UK they had the great Texas artist Joe Ely as the opening act. Joe's disc Live Shots is from one of the opening gigs in the UK.

If you get a chance go see Texas singer-songwriter Terri Hendrix in concert. She's pretty good, outside of Texas her shows are acoustic and pretty mellow, but the guitarist accompanying her is Lloyd Maines who was in Joe Ely's band during those tours with The Clash. I talked to him about what that was like and one of the things that amazed him was the difference in how the British audiences viewed the punk movement and the way the American ones did -- for the Brits it was about the music, for the Americans it was a misinterpretation of what the whole attitude and atmosphere was about.

 

Take Bruce out of the picture and the best live act I've witnessed in-person would likely be Josh Ritter. There's just an exuberance and energy to his shows that's amazing.
Keep in mind I've never seen (in-person) the Stones, Queen, Petty, the Clash, the Ramones, Floyd, or many of the others mentioned so far in this thread.

 

Was the culprit Nazi Dog? That wasn't the show at the O'Keefe Centre, was it? ("There are only, one, two, three, four....probably 12 real rock and roll fans in Toronto.")

Just to touch on a number of items in this thread:

-Weezer is one of the worst bands I have ever seen. They were touring behind their first album - which I still love - and they had no live chops, only played the songs off their debut - "Buddy Holly" twice - and that was it. Used to be bands learned their stuff on the road before they made albums, sadly that's not the case anymore.

-First Springsteen show I saw was in The River tour, January, 1980 (right around the time of Reagan's inauguration, if I recall correctly). That was an unreal night as was the first leg of the BITUSA tour in 1984. Last show I saw was in October, 2007. It was a phenomenal show but not at the level of the other two I mentioned or the Tunnel of Love stop I saw in Detroit. It was early in the tour, there were plenty of Magic songs on the setlist (and the obligatory Patti song which was a cue for a leak and more beer) and none of the audience requests that marked later shows.

- Shows I wished I'd seen: Stones (early 70s, Exile era), Who (circa Live @ Leeds and Who's Next), Allmans (with Duane), Hendrix, CCR, Clash (first album or London Calling tours), Talking Heads, Elvis & The Attractions, Skynyrd (circa One More From The Road). Would love to see Pearl Jam, the Gaslight Anthem (hi, PC!), the Old 97's and Joe Ely.

 

"The Dockers Crowd" That's just awesome, I've never heard it put like that but it's so perfect. I hate those sweater-sleeves-tied-around-your-neck assholes who love Dave Matthews and Hootie and cut loose at the summer sheds alongside everyone else with a portfolio. "There's lots of Benjamins to be made in the biotechs these days. Yeah. See. You know what I'm talking about."

 

Interesting you should mention those two. One of the quirkiest shows I ever saw was one time in college when me, my roommate and a couple of our buds went to see B.B. King at the armory in town. We were just about the only white people in the place, but everyone was cool, getting a kick out of the college hippies that had shown up.

The thing I remember most was all of the couples were absolutely decked out in their Sunday best, complete with pillbox hats on the women and fedoras on the men. Hell of a memory, and Blues Boy put on a great show.

 

I heard Rod Stewart is touring with Stevie Nicks. No truth to the rumor that the tour is sponsored by Hall's lozenges.

 

Opening acts: Kim Carnes and Bonnie Tyler.

 

Maybe Trojan is sponsoring the Sade/John Legend tour?

 

The first time I saw BB was at the World Famous Apollo Theater With both Ruth Brown and Albert Collins opening. One of the best show I ever saw.

It was a Sunday afternoon, and I was one of the few whites in the crowd. And, as you say, most people were dressed up.

I love BB. He's funny. He's always a gentleman and always very gracious to his audience & fellow musicians.

I've probably seen him 20 times since then.

His voice, his storytelling, his guitar playing, and his band all add up to a terrific show.

But, age has obviously taken its toll. The last few times I saw him, he played very short sets and talked more than he played.

He's also become very sentimental. At the last two Clapton Guitar Festivals he spent more time talking about Clapton than he did playing. And, at the Chicago Blues Festival he spent most of the time talking about the old times.

All that said, he's the one who got me into the blues. I've discovered (well, I didn't discover them) so many incredible artists since then -- some because they opened for BB. And, in turn, I was able to turn my younger brothers onto the blues.

I could listen to BB all day. His unique style of playing guitar is one of the best I've ever heard.

 

Besttie)
Fabulous Thunderbirds at Jack Singer Hall (Calgary), a nice intimate setting, in 1987. They were arguably at their peak and blew the crowd away. Everyone stood for almost the entire concert.
Neil Young in Spokane (Spring '89). He was doing a small, low key tour in advance of the release of "Freedom" so he played a few cuts off that album and 3 hours of his other classics. I've seen him a few times but that was his best show. Wierd part was during the accoustic set he kept throwing slices of bread into the crowd.

Worst: Rod Stewart in support of "Hot Legs" or some other crap of his from the late '70s. No warm up band and he played for 40 minutes. Shitfuck.