Concerts

[MackemX]

what's the best concert you've ever been to? I've never been to one even though I love listening to music! Closest I have to a concert is watching the DVD. I guess it's because I haven't really got a favourite band so didn't find it attracting but some of my mates tell me they have been to some great events over the years 8). I might just get along to one some time in the future

[adam]

My favorite was Aerosmith. They are just so rock solid and what was cool was that they were filming footage for their Blind Man video so they gave us sun glasses and filmed us while they performed it. Collective Soul opened for them and they were much better live than I expected.

Other memorable concert experiences:

Green Day- This was during that time where it was popular to throw shoes at the band for some reason. During the middle of a song a shoe hit Billy Joe. He stopped the song and told the crowd to point out the guy who did it. He said, when I start playing again you all beat the crap out him and don't stop til the song ends. That's exactly what happened and they took the guy out on a stretcher after that. I never heard what happened with that...

Steve Miller Band: About 90% of the people were at least 50 years old and everybody was getting high. It was at an outdoor pavillion where probably 75% of it is just a hill with no seats. Everyone was just passing joints along down the line. So everyone was really mellow and really no one was cheering or making any noise at all. Then they played Take the Money and Run and it got to that part in the song where there's that succession of clapping. (" Go on take the money and run... clap clap clap clap clap.") The entire arena did that clap involuntarily and then everyone started laughing because it just came out of nowhere. Kinda had to be there I guess.

[yoda313]

I saw the final farewell tour of PHIL COLLINS last year. That was unbelievable. The man can really play the drums. I was so glad I was able to see him at least once.

I saw Weird Al Yankovich the year or two before on the POODLE HAT tour. He is incredible also. He sings almost as fast as he does in his albums LIVE on stage - he's that good. Plus his fake interviews and other video montages are a lot of fun while he changes costumes.

[ZAPPER]

Areosmith Back in the saddle about 20 years ago. Pretty good. But there was some feedback during Sweet emotion.


Steve Miller. Damb good! For some reason I think that Steve Miller is under appreciated or at least under marketed.

Pink Floyd, Ted Nugent, the Who, the Stones, Scorpians, Foghat. How can you pick a single best concert? Molly Hatchet fourth row center with the first three rows empty Cooooool. Blue Oyster Cult at Purdue. about 4th or 5th row in a killer show with a loud ass Harley on stage when they covered Steppenwolfs' Born to be wild. (Godzilla didn't work, imagine that at a top dog engineering school)

[yoda313]

How many concerts have you seen zapper????

[ZAPPER]

How many concerts have you seen zapper????

I can't remember for sure, but growing up in the Chicagoland area I think was a great chance to see all kinds of neat stuff. And now that I am in the Atlanta area there are a few good venues too. I am only 41, so I have another whole adult lifetime jump on you. Concerts were cheaper then too, a $35 ticket would have started riots, hell parking can cost that much now!

[Faustus]

Not been to many myself, 4 or 5 ever.

The best beyond a doubt was seeing Pink Floyd on the Division Bell tour. Great show, great weather. Texas statium was packed.

[jimmalenko]

"Known" International Acts:
Metallica in 1998 (best) & 2004
The Offspring in 1997, 2002 and 2004
Velvet Revolver in 2005

Coming Up:
Foo Fighters in December


Also seen a number of Australian Bands that aren't so well-known outside of Oz like Grinspoon and The Living End.

[hech54]

John Farnham, Robben Ford, Larry Carlton, 38 Special(original line up), Paul Carrack, Richard Marx, Phil Collins, Genesis, Rainbow, Pat Travers, Robin Trower, Judas Priest(with Halford), Ozzy(with Randy Rhoads), Mel Torme....my tastes are all over the place........Santana(in the 80's with Ligertwood singing).....the list is endless. I also grew up in a town where most acts made a stop.

[Epicurus8a]

Like hech54, I've seen numerous (and varried) concerts. The one concert that stands above all others was Luther Vandross. Absolute perfection in every way possible! Next would be the true love of my life, Diana Krall.

The first concert I attended was Donovan, back in the 60's. Other concerts include: The Stones, The Who, David Bowie, Elton John, Santana, Peter Gabriel, The Tubes, Sade, Four Play, Sting, Norman Brown, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Estefan, Chuck Berry, Don McClean, Dave Koz, Sheryl Crow, The Cars, The Clash, Prince, Eric Clapton, The Doobie Bros., Miles Davis, Todd Rundgren, Joan Jett, and a bunch of others. I've really been lucky!!!!

[Caple]

I'm from Brazil and I live far away from the big cities (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo...) but I went to Sepultura/Metallica show in Porto Alegre back in 98 I think (or earlier). Metallica didn't play The Unforgiven I and II and didn't play Whiskey In The Jar (a big hit at the time). Bastards.
Sepultura (I'm not a fan) was ten times better.
Would love to go to a Green Day concert!

[lordsmurf]

I've been to so many I don't even remember them all. I have to keep ticket stubs to keep track. I quit going to concerts about 5 years ago, no plans to ever see another one.

The ones I can remember:

Freaker's Ball (October 1996): Ozzy, Danzig, Sepultura, others I cannot remember right now

Load Tour (May 1997 ): Metallica, COC

Edgefest (June 1997): Bush, No Doubt, The Wallflowers, Collective Soul, Counting Crows, Jewel, Third Eye Blind, Sponge, Paula Cole, Matchbox 20, Sugar Ray, The Nixons, others I cannot remember right now

Ozzfest (July 1999): Black Sabbath, White Zombie, Primus, Fear Factory, Deftones, Slayer, others I cannot remember right now

Thanks to the info overload of the Internet, fellow fans helped me piece together the band list and dates.

[SquirrelDip]

Best one has to be Pink Floyd's Division Bell tour in Toronto '94 - We were about row 15 center.

[thevoelk]

Definitely Pink Floyd 1994. We were only 15 and none of parents would let us go, so my friends Grandmom (big Floyd fan) took us. She bought us all the bee we could drink, multiple t-shirts of the tour, and several rare CDs you find at the various vendors.

Close seconds had to be Pearl Jam every time I've seen them. Even though Eddie Vedder does way too much political ranting now, they put on a good show.

After that, the HFStivals I've gone to over the years. WHFS was a local modern rock/alternative radio station (99.1) in the Baltimore/DC metro area until about a year ago, when Infinity Broadcasting changed the format to Latino music, every year they had bands such as Green Day, Everclear, Pearl Jam, Offspring, No Doubt, The Cure, Foo Fighters, along with others. The two-day event was usually about $50. Not a bad deal.

[yoda313]

I forgot I did see the Beach Boys at the Michigan State Fair a few years ago (they were free with admission back then ).

Wow you guys have seen a ton of concerts.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

that's a tough one...
I've been to a shitload of concerts, it's hard to pick the best one.

I saw KMFDM a few years ago and the openning band was Rammstein - this was WAY before anybody had even heard of Rammstein in the States. That show kicked some serious ass.

KISS puts on one hell of a show.
Motley Crue are also excellent showmen.
Queensryche was excellent.

then again, the local symphony is always good....
the Clash of the Titans show was great, with Alice In Chains, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax
Def Leppard was good on the Adrenalize tour.
I can't pick just one as the best....

[SquirrelDip]

I forgot I did see the Beach Boys at the Michigan State Fair a few years ago (they were free with admission back then ).

Wow you guys have seen a ton of concerts.

Saw Beach Boys about '90 in Toronto - Friend had tickets and dragged me to the show.

Wasn't bad for about the first 15 minutes...


Another great show was Jethro Tull - saw them in (I think) '89...

Tragically Hip have been great every time I've seen them (about 8 or 9 times ranging from '90 to earlier this year).

Doug and The Slugs (rip Doug Bennett) was a great show every time I saw them through university. IMO because everyone at the show knew all their music.

I thought Def Leppard put on a decent show, saw them twice both abvout 15 years back. Probably for same reasons as Doug.

Saw Paul Simon - good music but shitty sound setup for the venue I saw him at.

Peter Gabriel put on a fantastic show - I believe it was the US tour.

Saw Bruce Springsteen in about '92 - a friend dragged me to it, was far better than I thought it would be (never much of a Springsteen fan).

[smearbrick1]

1. Green Day - American Idiot Tour
2. Bon Jovi - Bounce Tour
3. Aerosmith - Nine Lives Tour
4. Def Leppard - X Tour
5. Def Leppard - Best Of Tour
6. Prince - Best Of Tour
7. Motley Crue - Generation Swine Tour
8. Metallica - Load Tour (would be higher on the list but I was in the nosebleeds.
9. Metallica - Reload Tour - Free show in Philadelphia, PA (45,000 people in a parking lot... need I say more?)
10. Green Day - Insomniac Tour
11. B.B. King
12. Buddy Guy
13. Live - Throwing Copper Tour
14. Brooks & Dunn
15. John Fogerty
16. Warrant
17. Poison
18. Kiss
19. Enuff Znuff
20. John Mellencamp
21. ZZ Top

Damn!! I forgot one!! I saw Godsmack in 2004. They rank somewhere in the top 10. They were great.

[HatchetMan]

Ozzy Osbourne "Retirement Sucks" Tour '95. It was a very small outdoor venue that sold out in a matter of minutes. I had to buy my tix from a scalper but boy was it worth it! Rammstein puts on a pretty fun stage show as well. Pearl Jam was by far the most boring. Danzig and the Insane Clown Posse are also hella entertaining!

[ZAPPER]

When I was young I just never saw the appeal of Kiss, but in hindsight I am kind of suprised at their music. I have heard from more than one person that their shows where the zenith of super stage shows. I guess I will have to find some footage somewhere to see what I missed.

[JSB1]

I saw Peter Gabriel's Growing Up tour a few years ago... It was awsome... sounded BETTER live that on cd/dvd.... Blew me away when he got into this huge plastic bubble (ZORB) and started bouncing arround on the stage.

JSB

[lumis]

i dont listen to green day religiously or anything close to that.. but they know how to put on a good live show..

smashing pumpkins was pretty good too.

[Sifaga]

I saw Bob Marley and the Wailers in Auckland, 1980 I think

[cujo9999]

I saw Deep Purple in Atlanta back in 73 on the Machine Head tour. Opening act was ZZ Top. I had no idea who ZZ Top was at the time!!!!

[SquirrelDip]

Never saw Deep Purple but have seen ZZ a few times - first was pre-Eliminator (about '81) second was just after Eliminator (about '84) in Vancouver and third was in Toronto in about '94.

[VCDHunter]

I saw Greenday in a festival somewhere and they were amazing. They dragged a guy out of the crowd to play guitar on one track and set fire to the drum kit as a finale.

Then there was Motley Crue in Birmingham where they walked off after 10 minutes because someone threw something on stage. Vince Neil called a halt, threw his mike, stand and all, into the crowd and his toys out of the pram. They returned about 15 minutes later.

I've also seen Kiss at Donnington whose stage show was mental.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers were ******* awful at Reading, they did nothing but bloody moan.

Top performers go to Slayer for just being the dogs bollocks wherever I've seen them.

[Mister Flonk-Flonk]

Livestock. Every year, every band. Here's the list...

http://www.flwildstyle.com/lsw/history.htm

Seen some crazy shit out there over the years, lemme tell ya.

[HRMaddie]

Best show probably has to be the last official concert the Violent Femmes did. I have seen Metallica 5/6 times, lost count, I did have 5th row when Cliff was playing bass (still have some pics from that). Best sounding concert has to be Queensryche, those guys sounded amazing. I have seen too many to list, but some memorable ones are driving four hours to Houston to see Pearl Jam with friends. This was before anyone really knew them, there was about 200 people in the crowd. We met them before the show, they thanked us individually for coming, blah blah. Saw Nirvana in front of about 500 people, although I was mostly watching the two hot chicks make out in front of me.

I have seen Yngwie Malmsteen, Iron Maiden (front row), Keel, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Motley Crue, you get the point.

One band that I want to see, but for some reason never had is Slayer, I heard they are freaking amazing.

[Mister Flonk-Flonk]

Saw Slayer at the Clash of the Titans tour in Lakeland, way back in the day. Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer. Special guest cameo was some new band nobody had heard of....Alice In Chains.

[Mister Flonk-Flonk]

Best-ever concert (single act) I went to was probably Pink Floyd - Momentary Lapse of Reason tour...somewhere around 1987 or so. Saw them on the Division Bell tour some years later and while still quite impressive, that show wasn't anywhere near as good as the first one I saw.